Beware the faceless Internet bidder -- Buyers may not be what they appear ROD ALLEE Date: 08-18-2002, Sunday Section: LOCAL NEWS Edtion: All Editions.=.Sunday
They call the intended victim the pigeon. That would be me.
That is what today's column is about, a high-tech fraud to be carried out with nary a meeting between the pigeon - me - and the "perp." Over the Internet, in other words.
It started a couple of weeks ago when I decided to sell an extra computer.
It's work: cleaning out the hard drive, making sure it functions properly, preparing the packaging, and deciding what to write for the sale announcement on an Internet auction site.
A few days ago I posted the auction. I was a so-called five-day auction, not the usual seven days. The reason for this was, I was planning to go on vacation and wanted the business done by then.
I quickly received a couple of bids, neither matching the reserve price. A reserve price, by the way, is a figure known to the seller as the lowest price acceptable. As I checked in to follow the bidding on the Internet, I received an e-mail asking what price would I accept on the spot, to end the auction right then, and also, would I ship the computer to England.
The e-mail was signed with the name of a veteran user of the auction site.
(I don't know if the potential buyer was a she or he; I'll use the feminine hereafter.) I immediately checked the woman's auction record. Of the 130 deals to which she had been a party, only two people had complained about the results. That was comforting, and I was sucked in.
I made a quick call to UPS to find the cost of shipping, then quoted my top price to the potential buyer. After a few back-and-forth e-mails, she agreed. The next step was for me to wait for notification from my Internet bank that the money had been paid into my account. The confirmation arrived, but the California address of the person from whose account the money was withdrawn in order to pay me was not the same as the address in England where I was supposed to ship the computer.
This discrepancy should have been a red flag, but I didn't stop the sale right then, as events proved that I should have.
Instead I merely questioned this in an e-mail to the buyer and was told that the payment account was one she used while in the United States, but that she wanted the computer delivered to her home in England. Furthermore she demanded quick shipment.
Well, I had checked her auction record (very good) and I had the money tucked in my Internet bank account. Satisfied, I boxed the computer and took it to the UPS office in Saddle Brook the next morning before going to work.
When I arrived home after 7 that evening, two frantic e-mails were waiting for me from my Internet bank, saying a fraud had been committed and that it was freezing the money that had been deposited into my account.
There are some really devious crooks out there; this one probably had hacked either into the big computer of the Internet bank or into the private computer of the California person, using his account passwords to pay me.
There are some helpful good guys out there too, if you can just find them.
Frantically I called UPS to stop shipment. A nighttime supervisor told me nothing could be done until the next business day, by which time the package would already be in England. I called the Saddle Brook police.
Lt. Vincent Laurentino was cheerfully helpful and sent an officer to the UPS depot in his town. At first there was a mix-up with the UPS tracking number, but the number registered later and the package was discovered to be in transit to the Philadelphia airport. I called the airport and was put through to UPS security agent Kevin Stephens.
I believe Lt. Laurentino and Stephens were in contact. As a result, Stephens was on the tarmac to greet the UPS truck from Saddle Brook. He pawed through the cargo and rescued my package.
Thus fraud was averted in the proverbial nick of time. The computer was rerouted to my home, where it sits this very moment, still in its travel box.
There are three lessons I've learned from this and hope that by sharing them, you might avoid the same hassles I've endured.
The first is, be extra cautious because things may not be what they appear on the Internet. The money in your bank account, for instance, may have been deposited illegally by a computer hacker. Second, do not ignore any red flags, as I did: If something is not quite right, such as a conflict between buyer and shipping addresses, take a time out to get the delivery information confirmed absolutely.
And third, be stubborn. The good guys are out there, and you can find them.
Had I not made that call to the Philadelphia airport and found Kevin Stephens, it is likely that a devious crook somewhere in Lancashire, England, would be typing on my computer today.
Keywords: INTERNET, SALE, FRAUD
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