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Another Motorcycle Scam
I got an email September 2004 from someone interested in buying my motorcyle. How strange, my motorcycle wasn't for sale. The
email was so poorly written that I knew it was a scam from the beginning. My co-workers forwarded me the email because it didn't make any sense to them at all.
But I wanted to see how far this guy would go, so I responded. The short version of the story is that after many emails back and forth for 4 months,
I went to the mailbox one day and found the cashiers check you see below. This is how he tried to scam me. We agreed on a nice GSX-R750 for $10,225.00 including shipping. If for some strange reason this wasn't a scam and he came through with the money, I would just buy a GSX-R750 and ship it to him. He said he would send me a cashiers check. He sent me the check for $14,000.00 you see above. Notice that the MoverQuest name is not spelled correctly and two of the zero's in the price are really the letter "O". This check looks real enough fool the bank teller. She took it no problem and told me that $5K will be available the next day. Sure enough it was.
His "client" sent me the check, not him. The envelope was postmarked from New York. He didn't tell me until the very end that he's in Africa, and I should Western Union his refund to him in Nigeria. Yep, the famous Nigerian 409 Scam is alive and well.
(The Nigerian 409 Scam is when they have a client send extra money, and they want you to send them a refund before the check comes back counterfeit). This is the email he sent before I got the check: DEAR RUSS, After I get the check, I got the email below telling me about the terrible problem with the check. He thought the deal was for $12,000, so I should refund $2K. He has his numbers wrong, it was for $10,225.00, and
he should be asking for a refund of $3775.00. This scammer was really dumb. This is the first email that he didn't write
IN ALL CAPS.
TERRIBLE MISTAKE NEED URGENT INDULGENCEI emailed him and told him that as soon as the check clears that I would in fact send him his $2,000.00. I knew there was not a chance in Hell it would ever clear. He started emailing me once or twice a day, telling me to send the $2K immediately. He never asked me when I would ship him the GSX-R750. All he cared about was his $2K refund. Remember, for 7 days my bank account showed a balance that was $14,000.00 too high, and $5,000.00 of it was available for withdrawal. This scam could have worked if I believed him and withdrew the money immediately and sent it to him within the first 7 days. But it's so obvious that this is a scam that I don't think anyone would fall for it. The solution is so easy, just wait about 2 weeks to be sure the check doesn't come back. Then it got really rediculous. He said his mother was sick in the hospital and he needed the money to save her life! He wrote "PLEASE, I DONT WANT MY MOTHER TO DIE! SEND THE MONEY TODAY!" Every day in my inbox I would read "SEND THE MONEY TODAY. I DONT WANT MY MOTHER TO DIE!" Simply amazing stuff. I waited until I got the check back from the bank, and then I emailed him about the terrible problem with his check. I never heard from him again. He goes by the name of FRED JOHN. His email address that he was using at the time was company_client@yahoo.com. I was supposed to Western Union the money to YEKINI ABIODUN MUYIDEEN in Nigeria. I don't know if that's his real name or not. 
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