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Scammers using the BMW MOA Flea Market

ted

Dum vivimus vivamus
A while back I caught wind of someone being scammed from an advertisement he placed on the BMW MOA online Flea Market, so I decided to take a closer look.

I placed a "Want to Buy" ad on the MOA online Flea Market (and only on the MOA online Flea Market...) The ad is here.

A few days later I got an e-mail that was eerily similar to the one the fellow who reported being scammed received:

From: Andrew Morgan [prince008@netzero.net]
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2010 6:56 AM
To: ted@
Subject: Hi Folks, Looking for a new/mint condition BMW OEM Bulb kit for a K75/K100/K1100 - please let me know if you have one for sale. Thanks!

Hello,

This is Andrew Morgan from the United Kingdom.You placed a wanted Ad over the internet and i still have for sale in good and perfect condition.

My Mobile Number is +447024074843

Thanks

Andrew Morgan
Barlow Moor Road, Chorlton cum Hardy, Manchester, M21 8AE

The "You placed a wanted Ad over the internet and i still have for sale in good and perfect condition" sounded a bit choppy so I decided to look further.

In the header information of the e-mail I found the originating IP (ie, the location of the Internet provider he was using when he sent the e-mail)

X-Originating-IP: [41.211.234.17]

Resolving this IP I found this: "41.211.234.17 is from Nigeria(NG) in region Southern Africa"

OK, the guy is in Nigeria, but what about the +44 British phone number?

A further look reveals that +44 numbers followed by "70", as in the "+447024074843" given, belong to a British call forwarding service that transparently forwards calls anywhere in the world and is used almost exclusively by scammers.

I replied and am awaiting response - no doubt the following e-mail will direct me to use Western Union or MoneyGram to send money. Why Western Union or MoneyGram? Because regardless of where and to whom the money is intended to be sent, it can be picked up quite anonymously anywhere in the world simply by having the wire confirmation number.

Personally I find the requirement to use Western Union or MoneyGram to be a dead giveaway of a scam - I have been involved in moderating sites with online marketplaces for many years and I have never heard of a legitimate deal using Western Union, and have heard almost exclusively of its use for scams.
 
BEWARE Scammer still active on OUR site.

Thanks for the heads up.... I just got a second email from Andrew Morgan today. If it weren't for a warning from Ted Verrill I would have sent him money later today because he quoted me a good price for the parts I am looking for.

We need a way to flash a warning message to anyone of our members when they go to the Flea Market...
 
Thanks for the heads up.... I just got a second email from Andrew Morgan today. If it weren't for a warning from Ted Verrill I would have sent him money later today because he quoted me a good price for the parts I am looking for.

We need a way to flash a warning message to anyone of our members when they go to the Flea Market...

Tell him to send you the parts plus a $1000 in small U.S. bills, and you'll gladly refund him the difference as payment.

Seriously, this is a good "heads up." As parts for older motorcycles may become more scarce, we as owners may be more susceptible to this type of scam.
 
I too have received 3 messages from this individual. The phone number and city where he supposedly lives is different each time.
 
Curious.

We may have a small breach in vbulletin as the necessary information to be able to spam you is invisible, or supposed to be, to someone not logged in.

:bluduh

This is the first I've heard of any spam related to our flea market in however many years it's been live.
 
Or someone has gotten a valid user ID and password somehow. How could we test this? By putting up another fake AD w/o the sellers e-mail address. Then if the system e-mail response is used to contact the seller, the user ID used to generate that e-mail should be visible in vBulletin files somewhere?
 
Note sent to Scott re: forensics we can use to uncover some of the info requested, as well as suggested Flea Market warning language and location to place.

As for access, there could be a security hole, the scammer could be using a hacked account, or he actually could have joined the MOA just to get access (I wouldn't put it past them...) Proper forensic examination will tell.
 
Yep - I took some initiative and e-mailed every person who placed a "Want to Buy" ad for the last month a warning with a pointer to this thread. Most of the responses indicate they too have been contacted by this scammer (with the same e-mail content too...)

Thanks for the heads up.... I just got a second email from Andrew Morgan today. If it weren't for a warning from Ted Verrill I would have sent him money later today because he quoted me a good price for the parts I am looking for.

We need a way to flash a warning message to anyone of our members when they go to the Flea Market...
 
This is not an unusual situation. Just about anyone in world can legitimately become a member of any forum. They never participate but just lurk and phish for your information.
 
It is a bit unusual for the BMW MOA Flea Market because it is designed so that to gain full access you must be a paid member of the BMW MOA - generally these guys troll free sites like Craig's List and such - here is a thread on our local message boards with a Nigerian scammer who kept posting the same fake ad in different localities:
http://www.bmwbmw.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=15260
He still posts the same ad with the same pictures every now and then, I just stopped updating the thread.
 
IBMWR is infested with Nigerian responses. It is an automatic there.Actually was quite entertaining in the beginning.Most of the problems I see on Craigslist are USA based, as are the ebay scammers.A lady wanted to get my credit card over the phone on Craigs the other day for a tool to a residence or whatever. Actually most ebay problems are just people that don't know how to properly conduct business & thankd goodness it's a minority. The UK seems to be a problem too. If you post on a website based there get ready for junk emails adinfintum! Somehow the Asians seem to do the same,but MOA has never been a problem for me selling.
 
as a side note, why did they quit making the bulb kit?

Andrew Morgan wants to know.
 
He contacted me.

I was asking for a R1200RT rear seat. He responded.
I figured it was a scam. I never responded.
Thanks!!!!




Andrew Morgan to me
show details Nov 6 (3 days ago)

--
Hi,


This is Andrew Morgan from England.Am contacting you in regards to
your wanted Ad placed over the internet.

I have the requested item(s) in very good and excellent condition.

My Mobile Number is +447024057129.

Thanks
Andrew Morgan
Fulham Road London SW3 6HR
 
Had one of those dudes try to steal my Rally Pro 2 suit I had on Craig's List but realized it in time. All adds should say Pay - Pal only and that will keep them all away. Pay Pal is the only way I do anything now and it's easy
 
Ted - I just advertised my 89 325IX on the local Craigslist yesterday. Got an email that APPEARED to be from someone as though they'd clicked the "reply to" link in the actual email. The sender excoriated me for advertising his car for sale and threatened to bring the authorities in if I didn't take the ad (AND PICTURES of which, my ad has none!) of his car off CL. He helpfully provided a link:

Here is whereI found listted under your account: http://portland.craigslist.org/cos/ctd/xxxxxxxxx.xxxxx

And he even tells me he sent it from his iPhone!

Interesting because Maine isn't big enough to have cities listed within CL. The link was actually obscured by a URL shortener too.

Idiots.
 
That is a weird one, wonder what the angle is?

As for the 325ix, man those 4wd e30's are some of the greatest cars BMW ever made! Great for Maine too! You in Portland now?
 
Last edited:
Ted, If you think the E30- X cars (I had 4 of them)were great, then drive the newer version! I have a 2008 for sale now and this is not a sales plug either, just the truth.The issue with the newer cars is they are , like most these days ,sorta impossible to work on as just too techy. No dipsticks, no spares,no jacks and so on is just the start, but they drive like a dream come true!:heart
As to bad stuff online, I sent some pics of a riding jacket to a flea mkt response yesterday and the pics were stored in a file on my computer that had some ebay sales item pics in it(that riding jacket had never been on ebay new or used) and labeled as such, so the guy says he got burned on ebay and so on. Well, getting burned on ebay and passing that on to the rest of us that are honest is a flying leap.Ebay & craigslist are obviously not the problem. All this gettin ripped is another level of what has always been around: some people are bad!Computers just make for a layer of obliviousness that can be hard to see through and the Paypal comment above is absolute fact. Had someone last week that wanted me to sell?(read mail them) them some pricey FB tics without paypal cause I might get a flat tire and not get there to hand deliver them. Isn't it fortunate that most of us are honest? What still seems to work is a phone call and finding out what breed you are dealing with if in doubt-sometimes...:D
 
Nope! Still in Augusta. And you're right. They are TANKS in the winter. I have a set of snows mounted and that car is unstoppable in the winter time. My problem is, I just don't drive it anymore. I just had it inspected last weekend. The sticker they scraped off had 154006 written in for the mileage last October 2009. Mileage on the new one? 156300. Just not worth keeping.....
 
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