Fake escrow site and dodgy deal? What's your opinion?

[Mikey555]

Recently i came across a deal that was to say the least quite outstanding. The ad was for a Nikon D300s, a newer model of my current camera listed for $1200, about half of its retail price. The seller was listed as being from Sydney which is in Australia, where i am.
The item was listed at http://www.tradingpost.com.au and was an active auction. I put in a bid for $1250 with 2 days to go and also asked the seller a question regarding warranty. I received no response on the site however they had left an email address in the description so i used that instead. Time passed by and i was outbid, so i didnt really worry about it. Later that night i received an email from the seller saying the camera was still available and i could have it for $1200. I agreed but said i would not post cash nor would i pay before i saw the camera. The seller was obliging and said they were currently on holiday in Spain where they would remain for at least another 3 weeks but would organise for the camera to be shipped to me using a courier / escrow company called "International Courier" at http://www.courierintern.com/index.html . At first i agreed and strangely enough within about an hour i had received an email from the courier which read ;
Dear Valued Customer,
The transaction #3***9 has been processed. The shipping contracts are
signed by sender and the merchandise ready for shipment to your parcel.
For checking status of delivery please enter on our web site:
http://www.courierintern.com/track.php
and just enter the tracking number: ***TX1071AU***09**
Before delivery be made to your parcel we require payment send to our
agent locator via Western Union wire transfer :
Here are details of our agent locator where the payment must be made :
Amount: 1200,00 AUD
Sh&Ass : 00,00 AUD (Paid by Sender)
Total Amount: 1200,00 AUD
First Name : Liviu Ionut
Last Name : Petrescu
Address : Carrer De Ferran 40-42
City : Barcelona
Zip Code: 08002
Country : SPAIN
Mr. Petrescu Liviu Ionut is our official receiver for outside US
transactions and he has been assigned for this trade due to the fact that
he will be impartial. If you are not familiarized with the Western Union
money transfer services please visit: http://www.westernunion.com
If you want to locate the nearest Western Union Office in your area please
enter here:
http://www.westernunion.com/info/agentL ... try=global ;
You have to pay with cash at any Western Union Office.
How to make the deposit payment?
1. Locate the nearest Western Union Office
2. Make the payment with cash using the above representative details
3. E-mail us at cs@courierintern.com the following details from
the payment receipt:
- MTCN - 10 digits number from the payment receipt
- Sender Name and Address
- Receiver Name
- Amount
4. Scan Western Union papers and E-mail us at cs@courierintern.com
(if you have a scanner)
After payment is received and verified the delivery will be made to your
parcel. The money will be in our custody until you receive and inspect the
merchandise. We will not send money to sender until we receive your
approval. After you receive the merchandise you have 3 days of inspection
period.
After this time you must contact us as following :
a) In case of rejecting the merchandise, you must email to inform us about
this problem, and we will send our couriers to pick up the merchandise and
return it to sender. The funds will be send back to you in maximum 24
hours.
b) In case of accepting the merchandise, your duty is to email us that the
merchandise is as expected, so we are able to redirect the funds to
senders personal information. Any additional charges will be paid by
sender.
If you have further question don`t hesitate to contact us.
International Courier Ltd.
Martha Lorant Customers-Assistant
+1 (231) 577-1941


As you can see above the Western Union money tranfer request immediately gets alarm bells ringing, as does the dodgy pictures on the website and the fact that for an international courier and escrow company the have no pictures of their trucks or planes with the company logo on them. I searched every address on the contact page using google maps and street view and found none of the addresses to even resemble a courier company. I then googled some of the addresses to see if the text appeared on any other sites when i stumbled across this http://fedexglobal.fe.funpic.de/index.php . Well that kind of blew me away so now i am convinced its a fraud. I let the seller know we should use http://www.escrow.com for the transaction but apparently its too late now because they have already wasted 70 euro's on shipping and insurance which will now have to be cancelled. I told the seller we can still do the deal through escrow.com but i have had no correspondence since, even after i offered to pay $1500 for the item. I thought i would go back to check the trading post website and found this http://www.tradingpost.com.au/Entertain ... e&AdOnTop= which is exactly the same camera for exactly the same price from exactly the same seller.
The sellers email address is lia_bigmore@hotmail.com

Would love to hear your comments. I was lucky i am fairly savvy when it comes to identifying dodgy deals, however i believe some less savvy will definitely fall for this one if they haven't already.

I feel this is a fraud. Do you agree?

[lightfair]

Yes, it's a fraud. Thanks for posting all the relevant details as well. The perpetrators most likely are from Romania.

While most of the site doesn't load for me (I'm getting only HTML gibberish) it is clear that this belongs to this variant:

http://escrow-fraud.com/index.php?page= ... layout=56a

And yes, the "seller" is part of this.

[Cornelia]

Dear Sir, Madam, l am sending you this message because someone in Sydney stole money out of my credit card and put adds in the trading post to sell things, the trading post phoned me and l was told to report it to the police which l did and l also closed my credit card off so it could not be used again, my computer was also hacked into and my identification has been stolen as well, l can't open my msn as the person has changed every thing so that even my pass word has been changed and l can't fix it, my email address is lia_bigmore@hotmail.com and l now have another email address that l am using, l was in the Footscray hospital with my mother as she had a massive stroke in March and she now is in palatal care at home with me, l have not been selling thing on the trading post for quit sometime know and l am totally innocent of the crime that l am said to have done, and l would appreciate it very much if my name can be cleared of this horrible lie, l am not a thief and l have never stolen a cent from anyone in my life, PLEASE can you help me find out who has done this wicked thing and help me somehow open up my account with lia_bigmore@hotmail.com, l would appreciate it very much if you could reply to this letter l am sending you, thank you very much, sincerely Cornelia.

[cydiamante]

Same thing happened to me today. The address of the agent to whom the payment was to be made is a Hotel in Barcelona

[lightfair]

Same thing happened to me today. The address of the agent to whom the payment was to be made is a Hotel in Barcelona

Could you please post a few more details, like the email address used by the scammer?