western union puppy email scam
 

I have received these before with the last litter - even the exact wording --- and of course I got another one...it's the one that basically says: I'll take the puppy for your price (& another 50 bonus), send me your name and address and I'll send you a money order and then you send my agent (via western union) the shipping costs" Sooo knowing it's a scam I of course simply replied and told them that the amount of our puppies makes their fraud attempt a felony in my state and I would be contacting the authorities...blah, blah, blah
BUT...I got to thinking why couldn't a person turn this around on them...like take their money (the money order would have to be good, because when you went to cash it the bank would not cash it if it wasn't good), then when their agent showed up give them a stuffed Yorkie puppy and then comment, "oh you were expecting a "live" puppy??? I don't believe we discussed that." lol
Anyway, anyone know how their scam works? How do they benefit from it?
If anyone knows let me know. I have to leave the computer for awhile, but if anyone responds and wants to see the email I will try to copy and paste it into the reply. But I'm sure many here have received the same thing.
Thanks!

You deposit the money order into your account and all is well. You send them the Western Union then the bank comes back at you 10 days later for depositing a fraudulent money order. They are long gone with your money by then.

You meant they're long gone with the puppy. That makes sense. So banks don't know if a money order is good on the spot?

Nope- same as checks. People are making them better and better nowadays.

I want to see it! Lol!

They never actually come for the puppy (or whatever the item is. My FIL had the same scam attempted on him when he was trying to sell a car). THey send you payment for over the amount. Then they want you to western union the difference to them. They never send an agent to come in person. Do a search for it, and you will see a lot of people have really lost some money. Thankfully my FIL did not.

I've heard of other scams like this before. Just not with dogs. I have sold a few things on Craigslist before that had to be sent to another island. I will only accept a Postal Money Order and will cash it at the postoffice. I believe that is one of the safest methods to accept payment.

Those can be faked too just FYI

Really? Didn't know that. I'm glad all mine were ok. I figured the postal worker would know right away because they check it and cash you out. :)

Interesting. No I didn't ever figure they'd come for the puppy...it's the money they want. I got two more contacts tonight...and the "deaf" person calling...that's the one I got with the first litter. I really, really want to figure a way to turn this around on them. I may call the police/fraud unit tomorrow and they may be interested enough to take it over and trick 'em into it. Will let everyone know if they do. I'll repost here in a bit a copy of the email.
Thanks for everyone's responses.

here's a copy of one of them: from "Kathy Elliott" and another one I got was from a "Carol James" real names most likely haha --- I posted their emails at the bottom of this: ---------I also got to thinking...they want an address, not a PO box thus maybe they also will try to send one of their cohorts (if located in the area) to rob the house??? Double scam.

Western Union Scams
 

Do NOT use Western Union for a transaction, other than to someone
that you know personally. A Family Member or Friend.

NEVER purchase anything, where they require a WU transaction !

Trust me, I've been taken.

I would also add never sell anything requiring western union. In the case with my FIL they said they were going to pay him by cashiers check. He was to send the overpayment back to them via Western Union. So these total strangers are trusting my FIL to send them thousands of dollars of their hard earned money. They obviously did not have the funds to begin with. But people do get taken. Our banks tell us it take 3-5 business days for an out of town check to clear. But that is how long before they post it to our account. In reality it can take a couple of weeks. You think the payment has completely cleared becasue the bank says it has. But then it comes back to bite you in the backside. Please be careful. There are so many scams out there.

Yes, I just had this happen to me as well. I posted an ad on craigslist for a watch I am selling and got an email back saying this guy was gonna pay me the $350 i was asking for plus $100 for shipping. He didnt say he was gonna pay by money order/cashiers check. He said he would pay me through paypal. I figured it was okay because it was paypal. So I sent him an invoice through paypal and he emailed me back saying he just made the payment. I received two emails saying they were from paypal that the payment was received and that the funds won't be deposited into my account until i ship the item and email paypal the tracking number. I never used paypal before so I wasn't sure about the policies. The thing this guy I guess forgot that I mentioned was that I have the watch in pawn and that I would need his money to go get it out of pawn. So naturally I called paypal and they said they didnt send me those emails and they will NEVER ask for a tracking number before you get your payment in your account. I emailed the guy back and told him I caught him in his little scheme. Needless to say, I havent heard back from him since.....

Scary! I'm glad he didn't get away with it.

I got the same from from kathycares08@gmail.com for my Doberman puppies. I tracked the email address and it came back to the same area Sunnyvale, CA area) as the last guy (ap002@yahoo.com) who tried to scam me. The wierd thing was that the initial text message was from Harry Moore with the kathy... email address. The ap002... email address was supposedly one Arthur Powell. Powell told me he lives in Florida. His email was very similar, and identical in the information he requested. He wrote that he was "hear Weiring impaired". I think they want the information so that they can steal for ID as well! So, the money scam and ID theft! There never will be a delivery person who will arrive, and the check will bounce up to two weeks later. BEWARE!