Kidimbo Grace, hard drives and a bad cheque

My friend Jonathan at Wrightway Computers recently had an interesting order from Uganda (no stores locally huh?), for 80 hard drives. Needless to say he had a bit of fun with them, especially when it was instantly noticable that it was a scam.

The covering letter they sent with the cheque should make it instantly clear to everyone;



To be honest, this comes as absolutely no surprise, bad cheque and all, as it's rather typical of the 419'ers to try and scam as much as they can, without getting noticed. Alas their Ugandan counterparts are a little less savvy, so are even easier to spot.

He doesn't have the original cheque anymore as the bank obviously wanted to keep that for investigation. They did however, give him a photocopy;



The e-mail addresses they used to contact him are;

payments@fsmail.net
kidimbograce@gmail.com

He did send them the following (amongst others), asking for proof of identity in the form of a video clip, but disappointingly, they never sent one, instead opting to stop dealing with him and "Just faxed the copy to bank not to cash it" (how nice).

Hi Grace
Thanks for the reply, I now have your address.

We do have 2.5” USB Drives in stock both 160GB @ £36.82 and 320GB @ £57.31 This is a special discount price as you are now a returning customer. We have just received a delivery of these items direct from the manufacturer and we are looking to move them quite quickly. If you are interested we have 200 of each item you can order them all or just a few.

Send payment as before if you like.

I still haven’t had a chance to go to the bank with your cheque and I really need that photo to verify your credentials, if you send me a video clip of you with a bowl of fruit on your head while dancing to the Macarena I will know it is from you.

Kind regards

Jonathan Wright

Alas poor Kidimbo didn't know what he meant, and was perplexed to have been asked for a video clip (claimed he/she had tried sending one but it hadn't worked), so my good friend Jonathan, being the helpful fellow he is, sent them the following to clarify;

Hi grace

I hope you enjoyed your time out of the office, it is nice to be able to spend your time out and about. When I get out I like to go diving up around the Scottish isles just off the coast of Muff. I also enjoy Haggis hunting, they are tricky little devils to catch with there odd size legs they can run round the hills quite quickly.

I should be able to bank your kind cheque by the middle of next week.

I realise the video clip is a strange request but my business partner Steven is demanding you send it. (his real name is actually Mr Ivor Biggin but he likes to be called Steven, well apart from Saturday nights of when he likes to be called Shirly) I am sure you understand and you will send the video clip very soon.

We are looking forward to do more business very soon.

Regards
Jonathan Wright

I must admit, I've had my share of fun with scammers, but this particularly ticked me. Excellent work Jonathan, and a good lesson to the rest of you, especially on how to spot them (and of course, which of their e-mail addresses to avoid ;o)).