Scam (Internet and Otherwise) Omnibus Thread

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1041

As a miller, (in a windmill founded 1796) I, too, am in the local grainspotting group. I mean, hard red wheat and especially einkorn are quite rare, we mostly use SST 087 and SST 0127 wheat cultivars - because that is what gets donated to us.

Alas, it is a hobby that does not exactly attract beautiful young lady millers, at 50 years old I bring down the average age to about 60. Also two of the older millers are gay.

But feel free to suggest to young Marina that she contact us. I’m single and ready to … er… grind.

1042

She is but a young and delicate flour.

ETA: check out my latest certificate.
Imgur

1043

More Marina

Hi Marina,

I wanted to let you know that I have a client with an emergency and I will be flying out in the morning to meet with them. Looks like I’ll be gone for three days, maybe four.

I’m taking my laptop so I can still answer your emails but I might not be able to right away.

I hope your weekend went well, I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

Peter Mosse

Hello dear Peter. How are you doing? How are you feeling?" Your letters always bring me pleasure and good mood.

No one has ever treated me with such warmth and care, I am very glad that a man like you appeared in my life.

I also hope that we will be together soon and plan our lives, I would sincerely like that.

It’s not so important for me to have other people’s opinions, it’s more important for me that we respect and understand each other.

The weather is also quite warm +26 degrees.

I hope your meeting and trip will go well. The main thing is to be careful on the road, take care of yourself.

Yesterday I was able to have a good rest and sleep well. I also cleaned the house. In the evening, I went to visit my aunt and uncle. I told you about you and showed you your photos. My aunt and uncle really liked you. They are very happy for us. For finally finding a real man who appreciates me. I also said that I will come to you soon and we will meet. They were very happy about this news. I’m very happy about it too. My aunt and uncle send their regards to you. The day flew by unnoticed. I recovered well before the work week and had a great time.

I’m really very happy because I’ve met you. You’re a ray of light that suddenly appeared in my boring, lonely life! I think there’s something between us that makes me trust you and open my heart to you. I want to give you my full faith, because I see sincerity in your letters, and your serious attitude towards me, I hope I’m not mistaken.

you’re far away from me, I think about you all the time, I think how wonderful it would be to meet, look into each other’s eyes, talk, holding hands. I am overwhelmed with very joyful emotions, everything that I write to you is from the bottom of my heart, that’s how I feel.

your Marina

Hi Marina,

I’m just heading out the door and took a quick look hoping to find a note from you.

I’ll write again when I’m in my hotel room. The black and white photo makes you even more beautiful and yet mysterious.

Peter Mosse

Hi Marina,

I’ve arrived safely and I’m at my lodgings. It’s not an actual hotel or motel, it’s a home converted to a bed and breakfast place.

It’s a much nicer place than any hotel I’ve stayed in.

I’ve attached some photos I took, as you can see, it’s a very nice room. The only thing needed to make it nicer is you here with me.

The first picture is the front with the owners, they live in their own house on the lot behind the B&B.
(I embedded a few photos from the booking.com listing.
It looks like a really nice place)

1044

What can we say, Peter Mosse is just a magnet for attractive international ladies.

:wink:

One of these days, I kind of want to see a response (from you @running_coach) where you mention that you’re considering moving to Utah because you have so many lovely ladies wanting to be in a relationship with you, and ask their opinions on multi-marriages.

Perhaps when one of these scam attempts are petering out anyway…

1045

These don’t usually peter out, they end rather abruptly when it reaches the begging for money stage and the payments fail.

What’s unusual with “Marina” is that the begging for money would have started by now.

1046

One thing to keep in mind is that these scammers probably know a lot of tricks to hack into computers. Any communication with them could potentially infect your system. It doesn’t have to be something obvious like downloading an executable. The emails they send could have hidden links which try to download things to your computer. I understand the desire to waste their time, but there could be risks. Security experts who contact them use locked down virtual machines to lessen the chance that they get hacked. If you’re just a regular person without extensive computer security knowlege, they may be able to get into your system in unexpected ways.

1047

I’m looking for a Samsung S25 Ultra (so top-of-the-line flagship till next year when the EU will force them to make battery replacement more like gall badder surgery than open heart surgery)

There is this one eBay seller who is both asking less than £900 for a phone Amazon would want about £1.100 for, and at the same time warning about fakes, or those from Dubai. His are UK. And he says he’s the cheapest.

Yet NO BUYER PROTECTION FEE is the reddest of red flags. And he’s touting it as a good thing.

So there are scammers selling Dubai/Asian phones, and UK phones that eBay would normally cover and the “protection fee” is part of the deal. In the USA of old I was a merchant.

I could be wrong, yet is this guy saying, out loud, “I am scamming you. Yet for less than others.”

Shoot, someone tell me to pay extra retail for a UK phone (It’s for my wife and she deserves it for putting up with me)

1048

If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

1049

Yeah, my OP was all about answering my own question.. I didn’t know merchants can now suspend what little eBay protection there is and tout it as a good thing. The warnings to make sure it’s a UK phone are sound, as the last thing I want to see is Arabic (or Asian) stuff pop up and all the apps that say they’re not available.

Yet thanks for re-affirming. This guy is the “Wallet Inspector”

1050

I don’t do eBay because we have other options in Japan, but if I read the web right, the buyer protection fee would be something like £24.60.

There’s no way in hell I’d throw €900 at someone without that.

If it were me, I’d walk away even if the seller were to offer it.

1051

I see now why eBay’s own support (and chatGPT) consider that a red flag.

So I’ll also assume the 1TB version (for like £990) is both from Dubai (that one is non-returnable), will only do Arabic, and they’ve tinkered with the memory to fool you into the amount of memory till you actually need it (I told my wife you can’t have too much memory yet you’ll likely never break 256 yet we want the 512)

Yet yeah, I’m cool with traveling a bit with my wife to an actual store, where she can hold the phone (it is rather large) and like it.

1052

Stu[id question maybe, but how does that work? As I understand, the apps are tied to your location and userid. I presume you would reset phone to factory default regardless, who wouldn’t? It would then be a local phone. You select language, locale is based on GPS and carrier(?)

Are there different phones based on country? I took my iPhone 3 back in the day to Egypt, put in an Egyptian SIM, and it was frequently spouting in Arabic popups from the carrier, but I could use the apps in English.

1053

Not a stupid question. I bought a Samsung M31 for business about 4 years ago. Mid-range, yet I just needed dual SIM and a phone that wouldn’t crack like an egg (my previous “personal” phone practically shattered when it fell out of my pants, sitting in the car. Meanwhile, not long ago I was out running and dropped the phone for a 3 point drop-kick into the curb (or kerb in the UK) and it has a slight crack in it)

Better Gorilla glass for the win!

Oh. you asked about the language. There a many apps I could not install “This app is not available in your country” which I reckon it presumed was Vietnam. I could not install them in the USA either. I figured out a way to start up an emulator - Google Pixel 9 - load the app there then “side-load” it. I’m an IT/tinkerer yet I can tell you for sure, even with a VPN, it certainly matters if the phone was made for Asia, or Dubai. Why they do it, I don’t know. Why did I pay 15x my usual rate in the USA under T-mobile (their SIM) over the rate I pay to O2. I suspect money is involved somewhere.

I cannot say this is an everywhere/everything, yet just like 2015, the phone rates in the USA are incredibly high. And the same phone I could us in Russia, Finland, Estonia, Ireland, thee UK all worked fine. I was not trying to install apps in those countries and being denied by google (I reckon I would now in Russia).

It’s money.

1054

[Moderating]
This question is better suited for IMHO. Moving.

1055

The “buyer protection fee” sounds like a way for eBay to scam extra money out of people. We have no such extra fee in the US, the buyer is already protected and can get their money refunded.

1056

Hey, at least he’s an HONEST thief….

Re a large phone: I’ve got the S22 Ultra (largest one they made, 3 years ago) and love it. If your wife carries a decent sized purse or has decent sized pockets, she’ll like it.

1057

Is it possible that “No buyer protection fee” is the seller promoting something that already exists for such purchases, but pretends they are waiving out of the goodness of their heart?

Recently I ran into a problem with an electronics item for which I paid something like $50 on eBay. I immediately contacted the seller when it arrived and did not work - no response. They had specified no returns, but I didn’t think that covered non-working items. When contacted, eBay informed me the items was covered under their refund policy and I got my money back. The seller acquired a highly negative review.

A satisfactory outcome.

Does eBay really have refund policies that differ from country to country as far as the buyer/seller are concerned?

1058

Or to the “Is this a scam thread”

I did chat with the guy this morning, yet otherwise occupied in the A&E/ER with my wife.

Exactly. It’s like in Fargo, “Yah, but that true-coat!”. It will not affect the price, and indeed it is an incentive unless you have been sold on “true-coat”. If you call eBay and say

“My MacBook Pro” arrived today, yet it was just a paving stone”

eBay I understand, sir? I suggest you contact the seller, and call us back in four days when I assure you we will be involved.

1059

I did ask the seller if he was a “wallet inspector” and he was like WTF?

Classic Simpsons ref. Should be in the under the bridge Oxford.

When did “I did not just fall off a carrot/vegetable truck” enter the vernacular? Hemingway? I cannot see any author writing, “I am calling you on your bullshit”

ETA: I did request Chronos to merge this thread with the scam thread, close it, or cash my certified check for £25,000 and transfer just $20,000 of that to my offshore bank to assist my ailing [insert relative here] and he can keep the rest.

1060

To catch up on the Marina saga.

Marina, my dear

Just got back from a late dinner and about to go to bed.

Went to this place https://fiddlershearth.com/ for some Irish food

Had the fish and chips and a Belhaven Scottish Ale to drink.

The white chocolate bread pudding for dessert.

I’m meeting the client at 10am, I’ll let you know if I’m staying the extra day or not.

Have a pleasant night. I so wish that you were here so I could have you in my arms as I go to sleep.

Peter Mosse

Peter, dear, I’m glad to hear from you. Good morning! Thank you so much for your letter.

I am very pleased with your kind words. You always make me happy!

I’m glad your trip went well. It’s a very beautiful house in the photo. It looks very cozy and comfortable. I would like to see it with my own eyes. I agree with you, I think it will be very pleasant for us to be in this house together.

I’m glad you had a good time and visited a wonderful cafe. I’ve never tried Irish cuisine before, but I’d like to try it.

I would also like to be with you now and have a great time together.

I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I also want to see you, get to know each other better, see how you live, see your sights. I hope we will come to this soon and be able to meet.

I feel how sincere and serious you are to me, and I understand how important our relationship is to you.

I want to tell you that I am very happy that you have appeared in my life. Other men don’t interest me anymore, I only need you. I think and hope that you are the one I have been looking for all my life! It’s very difficult for me to explain everything that I feel for you, I just want to tell you that you are the dearest man to my heart. And that’s right. I say this from my heart. I am in a very good mood!

I imagine how good it could be if I were next to you, and we could walk and hold each other’s hands as we talk and look into each other’s eyes. I think we could have been very happy together. I know that these are just my sweet dreams so far, but I really want it to come true one day.

I feel like I really need you, I’m always thinking about you. I hug you and wish you a good day. Your Marina

(she attached two photos)


(the second one looks to be the same lady in this photo from early on.)

{Note that both full body shots are of a lady with darker eyes, thinner and wider mouth and a wider nose.
All the others are very modeling portfolio looking head shots of another woman.)

Good morning, lovely lady

Every morning now, I give thanks that such a good woman has entered my life.

Beautiful, smart and caring.

The client is picking me up at 10. I haven’t seen how much room the shop offers but if it’s not enough, he’s in for some bad news as he’s already bought materials that can’t be returned.

I hope you had a good sleep, I was a bit stiff this morning. The mattress here is much softer than what I sleep on at home. Nothing wrong, my mattress is much more solid than average.

What kind of mattress do you prefer?

You have a marvelous physique, whats your exercise routine?

The pink really highlights your skintone.

With love,

Peter Mosse

–

Marina, my love

I will be home by tomorrow in the afternoon.

Bad news for the client, he bought a new type of automotive paint that is very expensive. He did not know that the chemistries of this paint and current paints are completely incompatible and will quickly and permanently clog the extraction and recycling equipment. His shop doesn’t have the space to install the entirely separate system.

At least he saved the cost of me designing and spec’ing out a new system.

All my love,

Peter Mosse

Note: I’ve noticed that all her emails are sent between 4-7 in the morning Pacific. The timestamps in the email headers show the local time as UTC +0300 which would be 2-5 pm. Makes me think the scammer is using an internet cafe, library, whatever. Maybe works a legit job and stops on the way home to scam.

Interesting that’s it’s gone this far with no request for money or hints at naked pictures to come.