Internet sites, and spam sites

This past weekend I discovered for the first time, a spam site. This is a typical copy cat site, which looks like the original thing, but I suppose that if you try to buy anything off of it, you will get raped (financially that is).
Anyway, the Princess really needs a new hair straightener, and everyone has said she should get a GHD.
So I searched for GHD Hair Straighteners online. I found their "Official" site, registered and looked for the product she is wanting. But before entering my credit card details, the Princess said that it didn't sound right. How can a product that sells for ZAR 1800 - ZAR 3500 in the store, sell for ZAR850 online?

Damn right I said, lets have another look. I searched for GHD internationally, and in this page for their South African site, and found to my surprise a similar looking page, but without the discounted prices!!!!
So I registered on their site, searched for local stores, and found a list of dealers who sell this thing locally. So the Princess will get one from a store.

However, I have since got two emails, one from each of the sites that I registered on.
I am posting them here.
This one from the spam site:-

Welcome to our website:http://www.ghdsouthafrica.com/
From: Bugang Trade
To: XXXX@yahoo.com

Dear Mr/Miss ,
Thanks for you visiting our site http://www.ghdsouthafrica.com/.
We have found that you have created an account,but you have not purchased any item.
We want to know if you have any questions on our products or service.
1.Are you not satisfied with our products or have a doubt on price?
2.Or you are worried about the privacy,shipping or our service.
We want to tell you that do not worry about these problems.
we will ship the item asap after we have received your order and the payment.
Besides,we provide free shipping and fast delivery.
and we can give you more discount if you purchase more products.
hope you can seize such good opportunity without hesitation.
any questions you can feel free to contact us,we will reply you asap.
Thanks.

Now, I don't know if it's just me being suspicious, but don't you think that a representative of this company would have a relevant email address? Whats with this email address then?:- bugang.ghd@gmail.com

And this from what I assume must be the official site:-
Welcome to GHD South Africa
From: GHD South Africa

To: XXXX@yahoo.com
Dear XXX

We wish to welcome you to GHD South Africa.

With your account, you can now take part in the various services we have to
offer you. Some of these services include:

Permanent Cart - Any products added to your online cart remain there until
you remove them, or check them out.

Address Book - We can now deliver your products to another address other
than yours! This is perfect to send birthday gifts direct to the
birthday-person themselves.

Order History - View your history of purchases that you have made with us.

Products Reviews - Share your opinions on products with our other customers.

For help with any of our online services, please email the store-owner:
sales@ghdsouthafrica.com

Sincerely,

GHD South Africa
Store Owner

http://www.ghdsouthafrica.com/

Something tells me the second email is legitimate. What do you guys think?
herewith my email to the legitimate site:-
Thanx for this.
Whilst searching for your site I found what is obviously a spam site for your products. i went through the whole registration process, and nearly bought the product, at which point something told me to recheck. Luckily I had not yet loaded my credit card details.
Not sure if you are aware of them, but I also got an email from them following my registration.
Do you want the details of their site? I'm sure they are taking a lot of your business, and probably causing your brand a lot of harm?
if interested, please respond to this email, and I will send you the details.
Thanx

So, I await their response and see if I have have a hand in nailing some cheating mother fucker!!

Salagatle!

And in closing

Dear Mr

SUSPICIOUS e-MAIL

Thank you for your e-mail of 25 November 2008 regarding the captioned matter.

Please be advised that the Identity Card which you forwarded to us is dubious. The matter has been reported to the Hong Kong Police for investigation and is being followed up by our Security Department.

We greatly appreciate your forwarding the e-mail to us for action.

Quality Assurance Department
HANG SENG BANK

Our reference: R1108133a

Salagatle!

Response from the bank

hey readers, I haven't been caught out - just playing along to see where this goes. I am well aware that this is a scam.....
As per my two readers comments, you need to be aware of these situations. Playing along is great - gets the scammer all excited, and wastes his time.... Unless he's a local Nigerian, in which case he may come and look for me. In fact, I kind of hope it is - haven't had an opp. to "off" someone for the longest time!!!!!

I found the bank, referred to in the scam, (see previous post) online. I contacted them via email, and got this response....

Dear Mr Wreckless Euroafrican (This is the name and surname I used)

SUSPICIOUS e-MAIL

Thank you for your e-mail of 24 November 2008 regarding the captioned matter.

Please be informed that we do not have any staff named Li Le Song at the Bank. Should you have received any e-mail of a suspicious nature regarding the Bank, please forward it to us via qad@hangseng.com for our action.

Once again, thank you for writing to us.

Quality Assurance Department
HANG SENG BANK

Our reference: R1108133

-----------------------------------------
*** Hang Seng Bank - 75 Years of Excellence ***
*******************************************************************

This e-mail is confidential. It may also be legally privileged. If
you are not the addressee you may not copy, forward, disclose or
use any part of it. If you have received this message in error,
please delete it and all copies from your system and notify the
sender immediately by return e-mail. Internet communications cannot
be guaranteed to be timely, secure, error or virus-free. The
sender, Hang Seng Bank Limited and its subsidiaries do not accept
liability for any errors or omissions.
*******************************************************************

"SAVE PAPER - THINK BEFORE YOU PRINT!"

So, I've sent them a response, and attached the fake ID that the scammer had sent me.
Let's see if they can track him down. Would love to be involved in crashing his game. DOOS!!

Salagatle!

On Line scam - II

Another typical email scam, which I know will catch someone out there. i can't believe these guys keep going, but then again, if they catch 1 out of every 100 or 1000 then there is money to be had, I suppose.....

From: Mr Song lile
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2008 3:10:17 PM
Subject: Please Get Back To Me Asap

Complement of the day,

Although you might be apprehensive about my email as we have not met before,My name is Mr Song Lile I work with the Hang Seng Bank.I have a business proposal in the tune of $19.5m to be transferred to an offshore account with your assistance. Once the funds have been transferred to
your nominated bank account we shall then share in the ratio of 70% for me, 30% for you.Should you be interested Please treat this business with utmost Confidentiality and send me the following:

Full names,
private phone number,
current residential address,

Finally after that I shall provide you with more details, my email address is songlept124@yahoo.com.hk. You can reach me on my mobile
+85295348675. I will await your telephone call.

Kind Regards,

Mr. Song Lile.

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Mr.Lile,
I cannnot believe there are people out there, like you, who actually still try and pull this con on others. And, thet there might actually be people out there who believe this crap. If you really had that money available, I bet you would export a family member to a foreighn country, and pull the transfer off like that, meaning you don't have to share it with any stranger. You, Sir, are a fool, and I hope everyone you contact sees through your stupid offer. I come from a world where I know that you have to work for your money. If an offer looks too good to be true, it usually is.

If you are for real, why do you need to know my private residential address?? Why not a PO Box number? And phone number? Lets keep to the emails. So, lets do this. You send me a statement from a reputable institution showing the funds are available. I have the means to check if it's a) a real statement, b) the company actually exists, and c) if the funds are really there.
Then we can go to step 2. Have a fantastic day!

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Dear Sir

Thank you for your response and your inetrest to assist me in this transaction.Like I said before,due to this issue on my hands now,it became necessary for me to seek your assistance, I appreciate the fact that you are ready to assist me in executing this project,and also you will help me in investing my money in your country, I am quite certain about that. You should not have anything to worry about, I will do everything legally required to ensure that the project goes smoothly,it shall pass through all Laws of International Banking, you have my word.Having resolved to entrust this transaction into your hands, I want to remind you that, it needs your commitment and diligent follow up.If you work seriously,the entire transaction should be over in a couple of days.

READ THE FOLLOWING AND GET BACK TO ME:

Firstly, I will want to know precisely the type of occupation that you do and how old you are, you should note that this project is highly capital intensive, this is why I have to be very careful, I need your total devotion and trust to see this through. I know we have not met before,but I am very confident that we will be able to establish the necessary trust that we need to execute this project.I am now in contact with a foreign online bank, I now intend that you open an account in your name in this foreign bank.The money would be transfered to your account which you will open in the bank for both of us, this is the best way,I have found,it will protect us from my bank. I want us to enjoy this money in peace when we conclude. So you should listen to my instructions and follow them religiously.

Also You have to know that I cannot transfer this money in my name as my bank will be aware that it is from me, this is where I need you.As result of this,you will have to open an account in the corresponding bank. I will obtain a certificate of deposit from this my bank,it will be issued in your name, this will make you the bonafide owner of the funds. After this,the money will be banked online for both of us. We can then instruct the bank to transfer our various shares into our respective home bank accounts.

I will also perfect the documentations with the assistance of my attorney to give the transaction the legal right.Before I commence,I will need you to send me a copy of any form your identification (Driver's licence Work ID or International passport) and your current address. I want to be sure that I am transacting with the correct person.. As soon as I get these from you,I will commence the paper work. I hope you will understand why I need all these, the money in question is big and I want to ensure that I know you well before I proceed to give you all the details to commence the project, I will also send you my Work Identification and my family picture upon receipt of your identification.I will send the name and contact details of the bank so that you can commence communication with them.Ensure that you keep this project confidential, do not discuss it with anybody, because of the confidential nature of this transaction and my work.

Please reply soonest.
Regards,
Li Song

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Dear Sir

I want to let you know of myself so that you will be rest assured of whom you are transacting with. I am married with two children Liu my daughter and Lee my son, I have sent you my family picture now for you to see. My address is #1, Fortune Garden, 20 Wing Ting Road, Ngan Chi Wan, Kln, Hong Kong. i have lived here for the last 13years; It is not ideal to have your documents send via mailing you can scan and attached or still send via email.

I have really invested much in this transaction so I will please tell you to accept the 30% of the total funds that I have intend to give to you. For your information I will be coming over to your country for my share of the funds, once the funds credits your account at the bank that we will be using for this transaction.

Please endevour to keep this transaction confidential, Please do not discuss it with anybody, I have a 22year career with my bank (Hang Seng) and I don? intend to ruin all that. I really cant wait till the funds leave my bank because I have not been able to sleep nor eat properly for the past days. Attach to this email is my work ID and my family pictures for your reference.

Well if I may remind you again, you are required to send at least a copy of your Driver's License "or" a copy of your International Passport. Besides, it is this copy of your Driver's Licence or International Passport that will be be used by the Attorney have all the necesary documentations perfected.

The most important issue is that I want to be sure I am transacting with the correct person, I believe these information would be enough to confirm you interest.

Best Regards,

Song Li
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And the slant eyed doos even attached photo's!!

Wonder if he's going to come back to me again. In the mean time I'm going to look up the bank he's supposed to work for, and if it exists, see if i can get them to confirm his existence....


Salagatle!

On line scams

I recently posted an online ad for the sale of GMan's Aprilia 125, and my RS250 basket case rebuild project. I want to sell the two and get GMan a bike more his size.
Had two hits todate. First one I responded to, but heard nothing else. No problem.
The second I responded to.
Herewith the correspondence that followed:-

First email is from the website:-

A visitor would like more information on your classifieds ad. Details below.
Email: ballack_stephen@yahoo.com
Message:
Goodday, How was the day?Am Ballack.Interested in purchasing your advertised ad.I will really appreciate your it if you can get back to me withthe present condition,pics and least price .Regards...Ballack

Ad: http://bikemart.thesaweb.co.za/Categories/All/32-Bikes-For-Sale/.html

Please report any errors or abuse to Bike Mart

My response:-
On Sat, 11/22/08, ma8xz wrote:

From: ma8xz
Subject:
To: ballack_stephen@yahoo.com
Date: Saturday, November 22, 2008, 11:02 AM

Hi there,
sorry haven't responded sooner - been busy...
Both Aprilia's for ZAR15,000.
125 Europa (naked Aprilia) in good running condition. Rebuilt 2 yrs ago, sprayed, etc. ZAR10,000
RS250 - completely stripped down, for rebuild. ZAR6,000

Or make an offer.........

I also attached a picture of the 125

Then his response.....:-
Hello
Thanks for the email response.

I have a Client who is so much interested in the item with the purpose of making immediate payment by a Certified Bank cheque That will be cleared into your bank account within 2 to 3 days.

He has responded very positively and i have given him my own price for selling to Him whereby added my own profit and commissions to your own asking price and he is ready to make payment.payment by a Certified Bank cheque.

Any amount that is more than your asking price that is going to be on the cheque will be sent back to me . The remaining balance you will be sending to me will be as my Profit,Commission and for the shipping.

I hope you are clear with my Email so you should Complete and send back the details below so that the Certified Bank cheque can be issued and mailed out to you:

NAME..................

ADDRESS...................

CITY........................

STATE.....................

POSTAL CODE.....................

COUNTRY......................

TEL NUMBER......................

Cheers - ballack stephen

I immediately smelled a rat. I am convinced this is one of those scams where a "deposit" is made into your account, and then you are expected to make a "refund" of the excess amount, and then a few days later the bank informs you that the deposit transaction was a) reversed, b) fraudulent, or c) never happened in the first place.

Alternatively, they use your details for their own foul purpose. Needless to say I'm terminating this correspondence, and have reported him to the website administrator as requested.
How many people around the globe fall for this crap on a daily basis? Must be big money to be made in this manner.
maybe an opportunity for 'self' employment. After all, if the Nigerians can do it, why not me?

Salagatle!