I can haz ur money?

By Michael Dorausch, D.C.

3 different sellers of items posted to the classified ads e-mailed me all within a few hours of each other with an e-mail from a suspected scammer. I appreciate them all forwarding the e-mail and I found it to be a perfect example of something that should be obvious, but sometimes isn’t to either new sellers or buyers.

In my experience, scammers are targeting sellers of products, hoping to separate them from their items.

I’ve made numerous posts regarding spotting fraud on items such as Nervo-Scopes, surface EMG, x-ray equipment, chiropractic tables, and other items.

This particular scammer contacted sellers of Selectorized Spinal Rehab Machines, Practice Management Software w/ Computer, and someone selling a subluxation station. A copy of one of the e-mails appears here…

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Ad Headline: Subluxation Station – Excellent Condition
Posted To: Chiropractic Classifieds

Hello seller am intersted in your item and am willing to buy it now price and am paying with CASHIER CHECK OR MONEY ORDER as mode of payment if you are ok please get back to me

The only question i will like to ask u is;

1. can i trust u with the money?
2. will u be able to wire transfer the excess fund to the shipping company for the pick up of the item.
3. will u be available when the shipping company will be coming for the pickup?
4. is the working condition of the ITEM okay?
5. can we take u for ur words?

with ur reply to this questions,it will give me the power to issue out your payment as soon as possible.and again which name is to be written on the check that will be sent,is it going to be on the address u gave me or what? get back to me ASAP to futher show ur interest in selling the item for me.

Regards….

julet

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Anything tip you off that this is a potential scammer? First of all the writing is atrocious. Almost looks like it was written for a LOLcat photo. I can haz ur monies? Also, the sender uses the classic scam request of offering to pay with cashier’s check or money order and is expecting payment back for “excess funds.”

There are numerous examples regarding these kinds of scams all over the Internet. For those posting classifieds to our system, it is strongly advised you read the potential scam information first. Here is an e-mail attempt which featured much better writing skills.

I really have to hand it to the chiropractic community, for being so quick and diligent in sending forwarding notices to our spam team when e-mails like this arrive in their inbox. It helps us greatly in targeting where these e-mails are originating from and allows us to ban e-mail addresses and IP addresses from the network.