Saturday, May 3, 2014

Mr Duckworth of Fiji

Like everyone else we get get scam artist e-mails, but this one we thought was quite funny and worth sharing.  Several obvious giveaways, but most of all, what on earth would someone in Fiji want with these quantities of our books?

************************************

Hi Eva,

Thanks for your prompt!

Below are the books needed:

Wellington - A Capital Century
by David McGill
ISBN 0-908876-19-X
325 pages in A4 format, hardcover with jacket.
Weight: 1634 grams
Qty - 25

The New Zealand Morris Minor Story
by Reiner Schoenbrunn
160 pages in 286 x 210 mm format, hardcover with jacket.
ISBN 0-908876-11-4
Weight: 951 grams
Qty - 10

Australian Railway Disasters
by Kenn Pearce
ISBN 0-908876-09-2
Pages: 240
Format: 260 x 177 mm
Hardcovered
Qty - 25

Meanwhile, I want you to calculate the total cost of my order only and
don't worry about the shipping because I just got a response from my
personal logistic agent that they will come for the pick up of the goods at
your address and it will only take 1-2 days express shipping to my shipping
address and I have inform them about these but they told me the best way to
come for the pick up at your store is for you to email me with your store
address and the time the order will be ready for pick up with your
convenience time and date.

Please kindly get back to me if these books are in stock.

Shipping Address:
5 Nadi Back Road,
Main Town, Nadi.
P.O. Box: 1070, Nadi, Fiji.

Waiting to read from you soon.

Warmly Regards

Wesley


On Fri, May 2, 2014 at 12:36 AM, transpress nz
wrote:

> hi there Mr Duckworth:
>
>
> Thank you for the inquiry. Yes we can send parcels to Fiji and we can
> take Visa and Mastercard.
>
>
> regards
> Eva 
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Wesley Duckworth" <
> wesleyd2003@gmail.com>
> To: 
> Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2014 9:52 PM
> Subject: ORDERING...
>
>
> Dear Sales,
>>
>> I write to inform you that we are interested in your books, and we would
>> like to inquire about the following:
>>
>> Do you ship to Fiji Island?
>> Do you do Mail Order?
>> Do you accept credit card as for Payment (My US Master and Visa card to
>> be precise)? NOT PAYPAL
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Wesley
>>

4 comments:

  1. That's intriguing! I got the same initial email and was searching on the text out of curiosity. I have three books out -- all ebooks. ;)

    I wonder what the point is.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It's a variation on the standard mechanism: they overpay for the merchandise, saying you should deposit it and then forward the extra money to the shipper who also needs to be paid. They often say the shipping company is coming just a day or two away from when their payment would be received, to rush the victim through the scam before they realize what has happened.

    The payment will turn out to be fake (counterfeit money order or certified check, or the credit card will turn out to be stolen), the shipping company will either not exist or be a real shipping company that has no relationship with the scammer, and finally they always (the defining red flag) ask this overpayment be sent via wire transfer - typically Western Union or MoneyGram. Once the scammer picks up that money at the other end it is completely untraceable and gone, as is the scammer.

    The difference here is that the address given is real, but probably has no relationship with the scammer. The entertainment is often the choices of names: we have had Charles Carruthers, Basil Fulton, Etherington Parton, and now Wesley Duckworth! They wanted books but their skill in English is clearly severely deficient, and in our case they asked for books on subjects that no-one in Fiji would have any interest in, let alone the quantities stated...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ah hah! That makes sense. Super interesting if a bit sad.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's 2016 and the scammer has changed his name to Matt Horst--still in Fiji. Just an update for anyone who runs into him again. Thank goodness I googled his ass before I shipped out the order. Lesson learned.

    ReplyDelete