A while back I mentioned some bulk cable being left over from a networking job my office had done. Well, one of the guys from the office came up to me last week and asked how much I would sell it for. I guess he’s doing some work in his home and home office and needed some cable for it. I told him we could work out a trade. Long story short, I’ve got 6 free oil changes whenever I need them.

After my post a while back regarding the Craigslist and eBay car scam, I was browsing through Craigslist looking for more cheap cars and came across several of them. After contacting a few of the sellers, they all replied with the same type of email as the other scammer! They all claimed they lived in another country and that they would use eBay as the middle man. I guess this scam is alot more common than I thought. Everyone should use caution when buying a vehicle online, especially when it’s not in your local area where you can pick it up and pay in person.

Last week I was browsing through craigslist to see if i could find a reasonably priced vehicle in my area. I came across a silver 2001 Honda Civic EX Coupe for right under $3,000. The price seemed very nice so I contacted the owner via the craigslist sale email address.

The person replied a few days later with the following email message:

Hi there and sorry for the late reply.

The car is still available for sale. This is a 2001 Honda Civic Ex Coupe, 1.7L 4-CYL VTEC, 5-SPEED Manual Transmission, Silver, 112000 MILES, VIN 1HGEM21951L088189.

It is in EXCELLENT condition; the body and paint are great, no scratches and no dents; the interior is clean; it has never been involved in an accident.

Here you can find more pictures with the car:
http://picasaweb.google.com/joel8matrix/Civic

I’m an US Air Force Lieutenant currently stationed in UK. And the car is here with me. It was bought in the US and shipped to Europe, but it was never permanently registered here, the car is still registered in the US.

The car is for sale locally as well, but there are slim chances of this to happen. First of all this is a US model car, with the steering wheel on the left side, as opposed to a UK model, that has the steering wheel on the right side. And second, in order to be able to register this car here in UK the buyer would have to pay very high import/custom taxes that will double the price. So I decided to sell the car back in the US.

As I’m unable to travel in the near future and I don’t have anyone back home to help me with the sale I decided to make this transaction through eBay.

So how this actually works? Simple: the buyer sends the payment to eBay and they hold the money until the car is delivered; I ship the car to US; I get my money only after the buyer receives the car and makes sure everything is as agreed. I believe this protects both buyer and seller and it’s the right way to do this.

The final price is $2,999 including shipping from Europe to the US and delivery to your home address.

So if you decide to buy this car or need further information please get back to me as soon as possible.

Thank you and have a great day,
Lt. Joel Miller
joel8matrix@hotmail.com

At first it seemed like a very good deal. A great car for an even greater price. I even got a Carfax check on it and everything looked good.

I then replied to the person and asked for more details regarding exactly how it works, going through eBay and all. They replied with pretty much the same information that was in their first email. It seemed a bit vague, so I started getting a little suspicious.

I told him I would give it a shot and I went ahead and emailed him my address and contact information. Shortly after sending him my information, I received 2 emails, both appearing to be from eBay Motors. The emails looked very legit and included my information, a picture of the car and the sellers information.

The thing I noticed, however, was the email addressed they were sent from. They werent sent from eBay.com or any subdomain of eBay.com. The emails were sent from protection-ebaymotors.net. I forwarded the emails to eBay’s spoof department and just as I suspected, the guy is a scammer. He almost got me for $3,000 dollars.

There is no telling how many people actually fall for scams like this. Posting a car or other item that is worth far more than your asking price, just to get alot of replies, making it easy to scam unsuspecting internet shoppers such as myself.

If you receive any emails from protection-ebaymotors.net or any other email address that you suspect may be fraudulent, forward the emails to spoof@ebay.com. They will review the email and tell you if it’s a legit eBay email or if its fake.

> Email this story to a friend so that they don’t fall victim to this same kind of scam!

The other day, my friends air conditioner in his car decided to stop working. He has an older car so the newer type of freeon doesnt work in his car. He had to pay around $200 just to switch over to the new air conditioner system to be able to use the new kind of freeon. Thats pretty ridiculous, but I guess the newer freeon is safer for the environment.

Today I overheard some guys at work talking about something called a plasma cutter. I wasn’t sure what they were talking about until I came home and looked it up. Apperantly construction companies use plasma cutters to fabricate large beams and auto shops and car factories use them as well, to fabricate and design chasis and other custom parts. I guess you really do learn something new everyday.

Last night I setup a network between my 3 home computers with some leftover network cables from my office. They just redid our whole computer network and then let me take what was left over from the job. The cables came in very handy and saved me a few bucks at the same time! I believe they purchased the cables through CableMegaStore.com.

I still have plenty leftover, though. I bet I ended up with over 500 feet worth of cables. Not bad considering my computers are all within 10 feet of eachother. I guess I’ll keep the extra for a rainy day.

Microsoft released the new XBox 360 “Elite” the other day. People stood in line all night just to get this new special edition version of the popular gaming console. It features a larger 120 gigabyte hard drive and true hdmi cable. Also, the case of the console and controller are black, rather than the regular white/silver color.

Standing in line for something like this seems like a big waste of time and money to me, but I guess some people love it.

A while back I mentioned having to get a new van rack put on my work van. It ended up being pretty handy for hauling ladders and what not, so I ended up getting a truck rack for my personal truck as well. I didn’t think I would like it at first, I guess i just had to get used to it, but im very glad I did it now.

If anyone didnt see Saturday Night Live this past Saturday (April 14, 2007), check out this Digital Short.

Awesome.

Edit: I guess people are upset about this video due to the Virginia Tech killings. I don’t think the killings, although they are terrible, should have anything to do with this video. This video is a parody of an episode of The O.C. and was made before the Virginia Tech incident happened. Some people need to be a little less sensitive. Great video.

Also, for those who have been asking, the song that plays in the video is called “Hide And Seek” by Imogen Heap

You can hear the full song here: Imogen Heap

Song number 5

A few months ago I received a call from Discover, they said there was some suspicious activity on my account. They Proceeded to list the most recent charges so that I could verify whether a charge was fraudulent or legitimate. There was several miscellaneous charges, such as two $30.00 gas charges within a 10 minute time period, and many other fraudulent small charges that added up to alot of money. One of the biggest charges was in Orlando, Florida. I have never in my life been to Orlando, much less used my credit card there. This leads me to beleive that my card was copied or reproduced and sold. I got that card cancelled, got a new account number and a new card.

Shortly after that, I transfered the balance from Discover over to my Visa card and stopped using my Discover card. Well, guess what? It happened again. I got a call today from Visa saying they found what appeared to be abnormal use and they went over the most recent charges with me, much like when it happened with Discover. This time, the biggest charge was $2,350. Yes, I will repeat that. The biggest charge was for two thousand, three hundred and fifty dollars.

When it happened with Discover, I made a point of keeping the list of charges handy, in case it ever happened again, and It’s a good thing I did. After comparing the most recent charges on both cards leading up to the fraudulent use, the common factor between the two seemed to be Wendys fast food drive thru.

A few days before the incident with my Discover card, I had been to Wendys and paid at the drive thru using the card. I noticed the same thing on my Visa, Wendys drive thru, followed by the fraudulent charges within about a week. I try and always make a point of not letting my credit cards leave my sight. But I could not avoid this at the Wendys drive thru.

I beleive someone working at my local Wendys is writing down credit card information or copying the strip, reproducing and selling them. I especially beleive this after speaking with Visa. They informed me that there have been numerous acts of credit card fraud originating from fast food drive thru charges.

Some of you may have noticed that a few fast food places now have a device that allows you to swipe your card right at the window rather than handing them the card. This is due to all of the credit card fraud originating at fast food drive thru’s.

When you hand your credit card to someone at a drive thru window, you are essentially trusting your credit card with a complete stranger. You wouldnt let someone take your credit card and walk away with it for as little as 30 seconds anyplace else, so why should it be tolerated at a drive thru? Do yourself a favor and refrain from using your credit card at fast food drive thru’s that still don’t use the window swiping machine. If you want it bad enough, walk inside to order and swipe your card. It’s worth it, trust me.

I didn’t think this could happen to me, and it has happened twice within a few months, on two different cards. Getting all of this straightened out is becoming a real headache. I have subscriptions and other things that automatically get charged to my credit card every month, such as the hosting for this website. Now I have to contact every place, explain what happened and give them my new updated credit card information.

Credit card fraud is very real and it happens everyday. Learn from my mistake and dont let it happen to you.