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Facebook Scams: Cyber
Crime Cases on Swindling > Facebook Scammers
(Scam Artists)
Engr. Antonio E. Jimeno, Jr., ECE
Valenzuela City, Philippines.
COMMON PROFILE OF A
PROFESSIONAL SCAM ARTIST:
(1) Gadgets offered at a
very attractive price.
(2) The Facebook Account of the seller has
so many friends and has been created for
several years
(3) Various Mode of Payments Available;
Bank, Money Remittance, Globe GCash
(4) No Meet-ups
(5) Pictures of different items sold by the
Online Seller posted in his/her Facebook
Albums and Wall
(6) Mastery of the Technical Features of the
Items/Gadgets by the Online Seller
(7) Proof of Shipment posted on the Online
Sellers Album in Facebook giving the
impression that he/she is legitimate
(8) Testimonies of his/her friends/clients
that he/she is a legitimate online seller
(9) Membership in various Online Community
of Sellers (Facebook Groups)
(10) Offer of Discount Coupons when you pay
thru his/her preferred mode of payment.
1: Gadgets Offered at
a very attractive price!
As previously discussed,
Item (1) above is the culprit. It is the
magnet that attracts unsuspecting buyers and
online shoppers of the lethal scheme
perpetrated by the scam artist (commonly
referred to as scammers).
It is the bait. Analogous
to the Civil Code's Principle on Attractive
Nuisance. It entices your urge to buy at an
instant lest you regret losing the
opportunity of a "lifetime."
A Laptop selling at
USD80! A Canon DSLR Camera selling at USD99!
If you buy this now, you will get additional
freebies! If you pay thru the seller's
preferred mode of payment you will get
discount on FREE SHIPPING!
That is how it started!
There was a very attractive offer and you
were enticed to grad the opportunity.
2: The Facebook
Account of the Seller has so many friends
and has been existing for many years!
As discussed earlier,
too, these established Facebook account can
be bought at a price attractive to their
respective owners. The Seller needs to
invest on his/her scheme to give the
impression that he/she is legit. That is why
these Scam Artists are called professionals.
They earn an average of USD200 per
transaction and a rough estimate of USD
1,500 to USD5,000 per month. They can afford
to invest on established Facebook Accounts.
Try to offer your
established Facebook account for a fee and
see for yourself how many of these will
offer to pay your account at very attractive
prices.
3: Various Mode of
Payments Available; Bank, Money Remittance,
Globe GCash, PayPal
Even transaction thru
banks are NOT SAFE anymore, based on the
actual cyber crime cases on swindling
reported to us, which we endorsed in writing
to various banks and the police authorities.
PayPal Transactions are
also utilized by professional scam artists.
We have two of these incidents reported to
us. One case happened in Singapore as
reported to us by a Singaporean businessman.
We have already posted
this warning to our Facebook Account and
various Facebook Groups advocating against
cyber crime.
Here's how the diabolical
scheme of the Professional Scam Artist
works:
Step 1:
PROFESSIONAL SCAM ARTIST (PCA) would act as
a buyer (referred to here as PCA), looking
for ITEMS sold by a particular Legit Online
Seller (referred to here as Legit Online
Seller Victim - LOSV) who owns a bank
account.
As an example, we will
have these details listed:
ITEM: NETBOOK PC
PRICE: USD200
BANK ACCOUNT OWNER: LOSV
BANK NAME: XYZ BANK
BANK ACCOUNT NUMBER: 1234-5678-9876
ACCOUNT TYPE: SAVINGS
Step 2:
PROFESSIONAL SCAM ARTIST (PCA) would act now
act as a SELLER, offering the following
gadget:
ITEM: CANON DSLR CAMERA
LATEST MODEL
PRICE: USD200
STATUS: SLIGHTLY USED. Owner has 3 more
spare cameras, thus trying to sell the one
he does not use.
Step 3: BUYER
VICTIM (BV) would not want to miss the
opportunity of a lifetime but would only
negotiate for a bank deposit as the only
mode of payment.
Step 4:
PROFESSIONAL SCAM ARTIST (PCA) acting as a
SELLER would provide BUYER VICTIM (BV) the
bank account details of Legit Online Seller
Victim LOSV and passed the same bank account
as his [PROFESSIONAL SCAM ARTIST (PCA)] own.
Step 5: BUYER
VICTIM (BV) will now deposit the amount of
USD200 to PCA's alleged bank account in XYZ
BANK, under the name of LOSV. BUYER VICTIM
(BV) will now inform seller PROFESSIONAL
SCAM ARTIST (PCA) of the deposit, with the
scanned deposit slip as proof of payment.
Step 6:
PROFESSIONAL SCAM ARTIST (PCA) acting as a
buyer will now inform Legit Online Seller
Victim LOSV of such deposit, with the
scanned deposit slip as proof of his
[PROFESSIONAL SCAM ARTIST (PCA)] payment and
gets the NETBOOK PC from Legit Online Seller
Victim LOSV. BUYER VICTIMS (LV) ends up
suing Legit Online Seller Victim LOSV in
court.
Note: During LIVE CHAT
interviews, Facebook users who fell victims
to this scheme were asked why did they not
ask the seller why the seller's name is
different from the name of that in the bank
account. They seemed to be blinded by the
price offered by the seller as to ignore
exercising due diligence in parting away
with their hard-earned money. They were
simply attracted to the price tag and would
not miss the opportunity of a lifetime -
buying their dream gadget at a very low
price. Anyway, payment thru bank is SAFE.
Too late to realize it is not.
We have already assisted
the various victims in drafting their
respective Affidavit of Complaint and
instructed them to have it printed in at
least 8 copies and notarized. After which,
we write a letter to the bank, endorsing
their case, and another letter to the police
authorities.
Engr.
Antonio E. Jimeno, Jr., ECE is a Cyber Crime
Consultant. He created various groups in
Facebook to collate cases of swindling and
fraud perpetrated in Facebook. He founded
the IS THIS LEGIT? Group in Facebook to help
buyers inquire whether a particular seller
is Legit or not. Engr. Antonio E. Jimeno,
Jr., ECE also offers his portal,
http://www.LegitOnlineSellers.com where
sellers are posted either as (1)
Provisionally Approved, (2) Verified, or (3)
Certified Legit Online Seller FREE-OF-CHARGE
to help reduce if not totally eliminate
incidences of swindling and fraud not only
in Facebook but also in the Internet. He is
a resource speaker in various training and
seminars to the government agencies, Armed
Forces of the Philippines, Philippine
National Police, Private Corporations and
Business Entities as well as Schools and
Universities since 1989. He also conducts
training and seminars on Ethical Hacking,
Cyber Crime Forensics and Techniques, Data
Communication, Web Page Design, Website
Development, Website Administration and
E-Commerce among others. Engr. Antonio E.
Jimeno, Jr., ECE is also a SEO Practitioner,
specializing in removing bad, malicious and
libelous articles not only from the search engines' page
results but from the Internet as well. Engr.
Antonio E. Jimeno, Jr., ECE founded the
International Portal Cyber Crime Complaint
Center as well as Online Reputation
Management Philippines.
Internet Reputation Protection Services in the Philippines.
by: SparkNet
Internet Protection
Services: Removing Malicious Blog Sites and
Libelous Social Networking Sites not only
from the Search Engines' Page Results but
from the Internet as well. We can also help
you coordinate with the authorities to track
and trace the identity of the "author" and
perform cyber crime forensics to help you
lawyers gather electronic evidence for a
successful conviction in the courts of law.
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