Physics 3333 / Business Opportunity


An Easy Business

Dateline NBC ran a story beginning on 27 March 2007 investigating another very interesting and complex scam. The investigation was deep and thorough. They even set up an on-line store and a delivery company in the process of the investigation. These businesses allowed NBC people to get right into the middle of the scam and follow it. NBC deserves credit for doing this story. They reran it in July of 2007.

The mark (scam victim) is approached via e-mail by someone (in this case a lovely woman) who "gets to know" the victim. An e-mail friendship develops. The "friend" asks the mark if he is interested in a business venture. It's really easy to do. The mark is to help with shipping merchandise from the U.S. to overseas addresses. This is supposedly because people purchase things on-line in the U.S. but the on-line stores will not ship overseas. The person is to receive the purchased items and then forward them on to the "relatives" who live out of the U.S. Simple.

Dateline NBC found that all is not what it seems. Here's what was really happening.


  1. A ring of identity thieves steals credit card numbers.
  2. These thieves order expensive electronic gadgets from on-line stores using the stolen credit card numbers.
  3. The purchased items are shipped to the "drop," which is the address of the mark set up by the scammers.
  4. The mark dutifully receives the items, repackages them and ships them to the overseas destination, paying for the shipping himself. Reimbursement for shippng charges is promised.
  5. You guessed it. The reimbursement never comes.
  6. The thieves get the merchandise, which they will resell for cash.

The scam victim has participated in laundering stolen merchandise by reshipping it. He is also going to be out the shipping cost. It is not clear whether the mark could be prosecuted for handling stolen goods.

Local Follow-up

A little looking in Google News located a folllow-up story done by 10NBC (WHEC-TV) in Rochester, NY. The mark's home town, Penn Yan, is southeast of Rochester. Anyway, the poor guy targeted by the scam appears to have lost everything. He sent $20,000 to "Wendy" to help get their "business" started. He, of course, sent the money via Western Union. It was his entire savings. In addition, he is out the thousands that he paid for shipping the "merchandise" to the "retail store" that "Wendy" was running. He has also lost his job and his home is going into foreclosure proceedings the week of April 7. All in all, he lost about $40,000.

Also - NBC later reported that an alert viewer had located the sexy photos of "Wendy" on a European web site. The scammer had simply downloaded the pictures and sent them to the mark as part of the story. The poor sucker fell for them.

Another Neat Deal

This one has been showing up in Prof. Cotton's inbox in large numbers.

Sydney Car Centre???

Not bad. Carry out financial transactions for a small fee. Easy.

Except.... The money orders you will get and "process" will be in one of two categories:

  1. Conterfeits that will bounce, leaving you stuck.
  2. Real money that you are laundering in the transfer. Maybe drug money??
In either case, you are the "money mule" that has been suckered into the deal.

Conclusion

It is EXTREMELY unlikely that any "business opportunity" that comes to you via e-mail will be genuine. Also - if you think you can "get to know" someone through e-mail exchanges you are badly mistaken. The mark in the NBC story never saw or met the woman who said she would marry him. The fact that the guy was already married didn't seem to be a complication. He did appear to be a few jacks short of a full deck.