We found a vehicle for sale on Autotrader.com and emailed the seller. The seller (Jonathan D. Morris, 129 Bath Street, Glasgow Scotland, UK, City Code: G2 2SZ), told us he had moved out of the U.S. And was selling his car which was still here. He suggested we use moneybookers to complete the transaction for "both our protection".
We then received an email from what we thought was Moneybookers, instructing us to send 50% payment ($2450.00) via Western Union to their representative: (Andrew J. Ritter, 365 Milton Road, Cambridge, Zip Code: CB4 1SR, England UK), which would be held in escrow until we were satisfied with the car. We made this transfer and emailed the confirmation back to them.
We received another email with a day and date when the car would be delivered. (Friday May 2nd at 6 PM CST). It also asked us to send the remainder of the total, again to Mr. Ritter via Western Union. At this point, I decided to place a call to Moneybookers. I created an account with them and spoke to a CSR who informed me that they did not ever receive payments in this manner and that our transaction number was bogus and we had been scammed.
We contacted Western Union, but the money had already been picked up. Today (May 1st) we received another email asking us to please send the transaction info from the second wire transfer. I replied that it would have to be tomorrow (in hopes that we can get the culprit red-handed), but have had no luck getting the authorities involved.
0 comments