Beware Marg & Barend Kian

[DR ◣◢]

Good morning all. 

 

I'm selling a camera on Facebook and I was contacted with the following scam. 

 

Marg messaged me asking to Whatsapp her husband Barend. He is interested in the camera. 

 

Clicked through to her profile which has the following issues. 

 

1. The URL is https://www.facebook.com/siphokuhle.mananga.359. Definitely not Marg. 

2. The profile pic is a dude. Definitely not Marg. Nothing shows up in Google image search for him.

3. Marg has no friends.

4. Marg joined Facebook in October from the looks of it. 

5. The DM went straight to SPAM on market place. 

 

Then... the number for Barend immediately pops up as a scammer in Trucaller. Another red flag. 

 

The number is 0788150559. Nothing pops up in a Google search for it. 

 

Now I've seen the "please contact my husband via Whatsapp" MO. You can't phone the husband. He kills the call. Clearly Barend has a bit of an accent that makes you wonder about the origins of said Barend. Which is why he isn't taking calls. 

 

I will play along for a little bit and expose the finer details of the scam. 

 

While this isn't related to the hub it might help someone else in future.

Edited November 10, 2020 by DR ◣◢

[JBK]

Have fun... Keep increasing your price...

[DR ◣◢]

Whatsapp has no profile picture and no custom status message. Granted not everyone sets these up but it makes me doubt that this is a permanent number.  

 

First up the standard questions to show interest. 

 

- What is the present condition.

- Can you send photos. 

 

Both could easily be answered by looking at the Facebook marketplace advert. In this case I'll write this one off due to the wife responding to the advert. 

[JBK]

I always ask them to confirm the item they enquired about as I have many adverts. They can't answer this as they've responded to hundreds.

[DR ◣◢]

I always ask them to confirm the item they enquired about as I have many adverts. They can't answer this as they've responded to hundreds.

 

I'm selling a Canon 7D. I will ask him to confirm his interest in the Nikon D850.

[DR ◣◢]

The conversation has now turned to asking how much it is. 
Clearly didn't read the advert.

 

I advertised it for R9500 and gave the price over Whatsapp as R11500. 

 

He accepted it without negotiating. Another indicator of a scam. A real interested party will almost always ask if the price is negotiable. 

[DR ◣◢]

Here we go! 

 

"After careful considerations. I had suggest we make use of PayPal for both our sake, it's secure and protects every transactions done through them. Do you have an account with PayPal? So I can make payment."

[splat]

What would annoy me right from the start is why Barend doesn't message you directly?
I don't get why Marg must message you to message him.

 

People who get their secretary to phone me on their behalf and then put me on hold 

[JBK]

Here we go!

 

"After careful considerations. I had suggest we make use of PayPal for both our sake, it's secure and protects every transactions done through them. Do you have an account with PayPal? So I can make payment."

You can use my paypal account "ekisniefokkendomnie"

[DR ◣◢]

Exactly. 

 

I've seen this "please phone my husband, he is interested" a few times. 99% of the time it is a scam. 

 

I doubt anyone really looking for a camera is going to say "bokkie, gooi open that facebroeks and find me a lekka kamera. I want to make kiekies of the kinners" 

[JBK]

Here we go!

 

"After careful considerations. I had suggest we make use of PayPal for both our sake, it's secure and protects every transactions done through them. Do you have an account with PayPal? So I can make payment."

Also DOUBLE your price quickly... it confirm that it USD$ 11,500 not ZAR...

[DR ◣◢]

You can use my paypal account "ekisniefokkendomnie"

 

Sounds like a plan     

[DR ◣◢]

Next response: 

 

"PayPal is a secure way of making online payment PayPal is easier, faster and secure just visit www.paypal.co.za and register add your bank account details once am done with the payment PayPal will transfer the money into your bank account immediately, PayPal is the third party that will monitor the transaction between the buyer and seller for safer transactions so both of us won't get ripped off."

[DR ◣◢]

Email sent with my "PayPal" email. Now we wait for the fake POP.

[DR ◣◢]

I stopped the baiting at this point. Going to ignore him from here on as he is now requesting that I send a payment request etc. I really don't feel like opening a fake PayPal account. Time is against me. 

Be careful out there.

Don't ever release anything until you've can confirm that the money is yours. 

If it seems too good to be true then it normally is. 

[mon-goose]

what is a payment request. Can't he just pay it to you?