Darren Wainwright - [email protected]

My brother nearly fell for this scam. Fortunately my brother asked if he could use my Paypal account when selling my late father's car, and I smelled a rat.

So, some chap claiming to be 'Darren Wainwright' replies by email to an Autotrader ad, bargains a little on price, claims he is at sea as a Marine Engineer, with restricted phone or internet access and wants to buy the car (unseen!) as a surprise gift for his brother-in-law. He insists on using Paypal as he doesn't have internet banking. My brother duly provided my Paypal ID and next thing, an email arrives asking me to check my email account (not my Paypal!) for instructions. Sure enough, not a penny has landed in my Paypal account but there are some convoluted instructions regarding paying 850 quid via Western Union to 'James Enoma, 20 Via Foggia, Castelvolturno, Caserta, Italy' for shipping. The email, though displaying [email protected] , is actually from [email protected]. I found this forum by searching for that email address, so thanks to the person who posted that.

I have not replied to [email protected] . Any suggestions as to what I should do, if anything? I forwarded the phishing emails to [email protected] . Perhaps I should just leave it there but I'd like to get the scammer back somehow, if only I could......

Welcome to Scamwarners Anglichanin,

The best thing to do is stop communicating with the scammer. Just leave him guessing to why you have not replied. The scammer may send you future email pretending to be from the FBI, Lawyer or etc threatening you to send the money to the third party (Scammer). This to will be lies and fake emails. Just continue to ignore them to.

If you have further questions just post them here.

So I recieved a text from this "Darren" asking me to contact him via email.

So I did, thinking maybe he was at work and couldnt talk.

He emailed me back with the following:

"Hi,

Thanks for the prompt response. I am ready to buy it now as a birthday gift for my brother-in-law. I am at the sea at the moment as I am a marine engineer, due to the nature of my work, phone calls and use of the internet is restricted but I have managed to squeeze out time to check your advert and send you an email regarding it. I really want the car to be a surprise package for my brother-in-law so I won't let him know anything about the car until it gets delivered to him, I am sure he will be more than happy with the car. I insist on PayPal as my mode of payment because I don't have access to my bank account online and also, I don't have internet banking, but I can pay from my PayPal account. I have my bank account attached to my PayPal account, so I will need you to get back to me with your PayPal email address and your final price as I am not good at offering so I can make the payment for the car asap. Please if you don't have a PayPal account yet, it is very easy to set up, log on to www.paypal.com and get it set up. After you have set it up, I will only need the e-mail address you used for the registration with PayPal so as to put the money through. I have a shipper that will come and pick up the car after I must have made the payment for the car and funds available in your account.

My Regards."

A swift reply followed "Nice try dude"

Stay away from this guy!!

Umierq

Let's just look at his claim.

He's at sea, with no phone access, no internet banking and with internet access restricted, but he has been able to check the internet to find your advert and he claims to be able to get online to use Paypal, presumably not doing it by pigeon or sea gull.

Magicians work the same way. You can only watch their trick from one position with the lights down low, and it's the same principle. The fact is that people don't wait until they're out to sea to do their shopping, and they don't buy cars without seeing them, and never as presents for family members. If you don't know how the scam works you should be aware that is what's coming at you.

The Paypal message will be spoofed because they do allow time on his imaginary ship for this purpose, and he'll want you to pay his equally imaginary shipping agent who he claims will call to collect your vehicle. In anywhere but the good ship 'SCAM' he'd pay the agent using his own 'spoofed' Paypal messages, but he's cleverer than that, and he knows his Paypal payments are worthless. He wants your cash.

The idea that he can get you to pay him cash simply by sending you a few emails excites him. Tell him you'll never ever make a payment to anyone to sell your car.

Hi

So I received the exact same text yesterday from this 'Darren'. Stupidly I emailed him and he obtained my email address for paypal purposes. I smelt a fish straight away and said I would not proceed until I have collated an invoice. Now I am worried and don't know what to do next. Shall I just ignore all messages now?

Claire

Yep, just ignore and you'll be fine.

My husband received an email from this guy about a car, also posted on autotrade. He replyed once, but "luckily" I had a very scary experience last year. And I recognized the style of scamming. My husband doesn't have a PayPal account. He also erased the mails from this guy, even from the trash bin, to make sure...
So no harm done with my husband.
But with me was a bit scary, as we got to the point when he actually sent me a false invoice, claiming that he sent the money for the purchase plus £400 for delivery to USA!!!
And his stupid mistake was that the invoice was made to look like he entered my PayPal account, not his!
These guys have no limits, but can be stupid sometimes... Of course, I was so angry and wrote him that I'll have to call paypal to confirm. He replyed that paypal might not see the transaction, as he also has diplomatic account on paypal )) After I wrote him that this doesn't exist and that I will PayPal anyway.. No mails anymore from him.
Another scary thing was that after he sent that false invoice, he was writing with Capital Letters just to seem more powerful!
So be careful everyone.