Apple iPhone 3G Scams - Raymond Hassan, Rahman Ahmed

Classified Ad Seller Scams: Apple iPhone 3G

Scams and scammers using these names: Raymond Hassan, Rahman Ahmed, Chiswick, London
 

Are you looking to buy an Apple iPhone 3G? Did your respond to an ad from "Raymond Hassan", who claims to be from Chiswick, London? Note that he says:

"we have the apple iphone 3g in stock, for sale. is are brand new,unlocked and sealed with complete accessories include 8 months international warranty and 2months return policy. And it can be use in Us Okay?". 

That's a clue to a scam right there!

Here are the clues that this is a scam:

1. First, you will notice the syntax and grammar.  Often, is it not pathetically bad, it's just plain strange. It looks like it was written by someone who is not a native English-speaker, and writes very rarely in English. This is very typical of scammers, who largely are in Nigeria and have little formal education and probably none in English.
2. Next, he wants to write a check in excess of the required amount. Why? That makes no sense at all. If he hasn't got a bank account, he could always pay in cash or get a money order.
3. Then, he wants the "excess" from the check sent BACK to him or to other individuals, often in many different locations, and always by Western Union or Money Gram! Alarm bells should be going off by now.  Western Union wires and Moneygrams are not only untraceable, they're irretrievable.  Once the recipient picks them up (which can be done at ANY Western Union office in the world), the money is gone, gone, gone!
4. And then there are the little clues; signs like the strange name and location changes.  Maybe, first he's "David Rapheal", then he's suddenly Shawn Nickolas, supposedly in England, yet the first name has an American spelling and the last name is spelled more like an Eastern European or Germanic origin.
5. The scammers NEVER can meet in person.  They may have a $50,000 boat to sell to you or want to buy a $45,000 car from you, but somehow they are always "out of the country" on business, in in the army, whatever.  In the real world, anyone buying or selling something for more than a few hundred dollars, wants to see it first.  And especially when renting a house or apartment!
6. The scammers typically ramble on about issues ("we have the apple iphone 3g in stock, for sale. is are brand new,unlocked and sealed with complete accessories include 8 months international warranty and 2months return policy. And it can be use in Us Okay?") that are irrelevant to such a sale or rental; such as, how they are doing this for charity, or recently moved to the UK, or are traveling in Africa right now.  You as a seller / landlord, don't and shouldn't care about these issues: you are trying to find a legitimate buyer or renter for your item at a fair market price.  The scammer knows this and is merely trying to cloud the issue and provide excuses for not complying with the basic requirements of a sale. He's also trying to engender trust; one of the key elements of any con game.
7. Scammers frequently refer to "trust", "faith" and God; in ways that no rational person in western Society would ever do in a business transaction, as in, "I know I can trust you", or "my faith in God tells me to enter this agreement with you".
8. Look at the huge number of misspellings, weird use of capital letters, poor punctuation and made-up words.  Again, this is typical of the scammer filth who live and operate in Nigeria.

An actual email that illustrate this type of CraigsList scam:

Any highlighted passages below are to draw your attention to typical scam clues:

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Email - from the scammer:

Hello ,

Thanks for the mail and your call. we have the apple iphone 3g in stock, for sale. is are brand new,unlocked and sealed with complete accessories include 8 months international warranty and 2months return policy. And it can be use in Us Okay?

ORDER SUMMARY

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Brand new Apple iphone 3gb...$400 per Unit Shipping cost to Thailand : $30 per unit Total Cost: $430 per Unit

Payment Terms

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The methods of payment that we accept are : Money Gram and Western union money transfer,with immediate tracking number for shipment confirmation.

Shipping Terms

===================

Orders are shipped via either FedEx Express, DHL Express or UPS express.Tracking Number will be provided vian email once the Order has been shipped out Shipping delivery of your order will take approximately 2-3 Business Days Most orders are shipped within 2-3 Business Days after payment has been received We ship Worldwide.

To place an order, simply get back to us with your full shipping information such as,

 

You Actual Order........

Name:.........

Delivery Address:........

Telephone number:........

 

We shall commence on your order immediately have all this.

Thanks for your patronage

 

Best Regards

Raymond Hassan.

 

They will ask you to send the payment to:

 

Receiver's Name:Rahman Ahmed

 

Address:10 Barley Mow Passage

City:  Chiswick

State:London

Zip code:W4 4PH

Country:United Kingdom