Bulletin E-Edition:
Ed Harman, 65, on his laptop at home in Bend on Wednesday, fell victim to an e-mail scam through Craigslist that is costing him nearly $4,000, affecting his plans to attend his daughter’s wedding in Florida this spring.
Rob Kerr / The Bulletin
Slick Web scammer leaves Bend man out of $3,600
By Zack Hall / The Bulletin
Published: January 08. 2009 4:00AM PSTEd Harman is a trusting person by nature.
So when a person claiming through e-mail to be a doctor in England said he was moving to the United States and wanted to rent Harman’s southeast Bend townhome that Harman had placed on Craigslist, the 65-year-old longtime Bend resident believed him.
It was a mistake that cost Harman nearly $4,000.
“I thought I had lucked out when a doctor wanted to rent the townhouse,” said Harman. “With 250 to 300 rentals on Craigslist, I thought that I better not let this guy go.”
Harman says that he does not want somebody to fall for the same tricks he did, so he shared his story.
The scammer was slick.
Everything looked legitimate to Harman. To prove his identity, the scammer replied to Harman’s rental advertisement on Craigslist.org, the classified ad Web site, using an e-mail address containing a name that matched the name of a real doctor on a Web page that was linked to the e-mail.
Harman even spoke to the scammer by phone, but much of the conversation was inaudible to Harman.
“It looked pretty legit to me,” Harman said. “He was going to pay me first and last (month’s rent), a big deposit, and the whole nine yards.”
But it was all part of the scam.
The scammer sent a check for $4,000 to Harman, and asked that Harman wire cash to a real Idaho furniture store so the “doctor” could furnish the apartment.
Harman received and deposited the check and swiftly wired $3,600 in cash via Western Union to the Idaho furniture store. The Bend Fred Meyer clerk who handled the wire transaction even warned Harman, but he would not listen.
After Harman wired the money, he even received a phony receipt from what he thought was the furniture store. Of course, the real furniture store never received the money and confirmed there was never any furniture order.
Two or three days after it was deposited, Harman’s bank informed him that the original $4,000 check was counterfeit, he said.
“I fell for it hook, line and sinker,” Harman says. “Being trustful, I didn’t read the warning (on Craigslist). And one of the warnings said that if they ask you to wire money through Western Union or another wire service, it’s a scam. If I would have read that, I would have been a little more aware of what was going on.”
The scammer explained through e-mail to Harman that his bank account had been frozen because somebody had been trying to hack into it.
But the scammer told Harman that he wanted to send another check and also wanted Harman to make another “furniture purchase.” This time Harman knew something was up and said he would only do it once the new check cleared.
The scammer never replied again.
“It’s kind of stupid, you know,” Harman reflects. “I’m old enough to not fall for something like this.”
The scam that Harman fell victim to is a twist on an old scam. The state of Oregon’s Department of Justice warns on its Web page, www.doj .state.or.us/finfraud/nigerian.shtml, of a similar check overpayment scheme.
In that scheme, a scammer offers to buy an item, sends a fraudulent check for more money than was agreed to, and asks the seller to wire the difference.
By the time the seller discovers the original check was counterfeit, the cash is gone.
Tony Green, a spokesman for the Oregon Attorney General’s Office, says scams such as these are all too common.
“There are a lot of scams out there, and the Internet makes it a lot easier to sort of perpetrate those scams,” Green says. “A lot of offers look tempting and easy, and (look like) there is nothing wrong with them. And pretty soon, you find yourself getting scammed. If it looks like you are getting something for nothing, you probably aren’t.”
As a retiree, Harman lives on a fixed income.
And because of the scam, he thinks he will be unable to afford to travel to Florida in April for his daughter’s wedding.
But Harman did not share his story for sympathy.
In fact, he says he’s embarrassed that the scammer got the best of him.
Says Harman: “I thought that if we can keep it from happening to some other unsuspecting landlord, (I would tell my story).”
Zack Hall can be reached at 541-617-7868 or at zhall@bendbulletin.com.
ARTICLE ACCESS: This article is among those available to all readers. Many more articles are available only to E-Edition members. Sign up today!
blog comments powered by Disqus
