As some of you may have noticed, we’re approaching the most wonderful time of the year (not really) – MLB playoffs. The Reds are totally in (woot!) and the Cardinals are maybe possibly going to be in too, so my husband – die-hard fan that he is – wanted to be prepared and to display his support of his favorite player, Alan Craig. So, of course, he turned to the interwebs and upon googling “Alan Craig jerseys” came up with an amazing site – cheapjerseys.us. Not only did they have the jersey – the normally-$100+ item was on sale for $20! And only $20 (?!?) for shipping! A better deal there had never been. I mean, they even offer TWO discounts!
And I quote:
Discount 1: Orders Over 20 Items will have 5% off, Over 60 Items will have 8% off, Over 100 Items will have 10% off. It will be auto discount by website.
Discount 2: Accept Credit Card Payment, If Credit Card Can Not Pay Success, Please Pay Western Union, And Pay western union will be discounted 10% off.
Cheap China Wholesaler!
So what the hell, let’s order four of them for the low low price of $108.36.
Except when he tried to actually make the order, the online checkout didn’t work. Shocker. So he calls in the reserves – me. Clearly this was a scam. So what do I do? Give the people our credit card number! Why, I don’t know. The transaction didn’t go through, thank goodness, but we had gotten far enough for the cheapjersey.us people to see that it was attempted, which kicked in their “customer service.”
First, “Sally” sent a note…
Just checking your email , You should receive an order confirmation email after submit this order. When we received the money, we’ll send your order in same day, and send the tracking number to you by email, if something of your order is out of stock, we will send email to you also, so please check your email before get the tracking number everyday.
No response from the morons in Ohio, so “Sally” tried again.
Dear friend,
WESTERNUNION ENGLISH: http://www.westernunion.com
Sender Name
First name: Qiaofang
Last name: Wu
Address: Putian , Fujian Province , China
Postcode: 351100
Total amount is $71 (this is after 10% discount.)
Please tell me follow informations below when you pay it!
1>.MTCN (Western Union Control Number)
2>.Sender name (First Name, Last Name) .
3>.Money amount
Thank you very much,
Linda
Linda? I thought it was Sally! And who is Qiaofang Wu?
That did work either, so they called in Jane.
Dear,
Thanks for your order
Your payment is check by bank, please do not pay again, several hours we will know the status of this payment. if do not pay sucess we will send you email
Hope longer busienss with you
yours,
jane
Not long after Jane’s email, Andy went to pick up a pizza – only to have his credit card declined. Sure it was a mistake, he tried it again at the Redbox machine. DECLINED. He called the bank and someone – Jane or Sally had charged $20 at a fast food restaurant in Boston and then sent the number over to Qiaofang Wu, who used it to charge $200 worth of groceries in New Mexico. Fortunately our bank caught it, and the jig was up.
However, it just goes to show – if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
First of all, HI-larious, secondly, did you just call your husband a fool on the national INTERWEBZ? Daaaang!
Funny, Emily! BTW, this is Jane.
My husband’s company goes after places like this–copyright infringement! If the website doesn’t have appropriate english on it in the first place, PROBABLY not a good idea to give them your card number. Guess the phrase, “There’s a sucker born every minute” is true.
As I was reading this, I just knew you were going to say her name was “Peggy,” as in TV commercial. Not a funny crime, but made for a funny blog.
This is hilarious and totally sounds like something my husband would do. I have had run-ins with these type of scammers before since I am a buyer at an IT company. I only fell for it once when I first started but I have learned and I do some serious research before I purchase anything now.
I’m so sorry you had to deal with this – but those messages are hilarious! Sounds like when I called Target’s customer service and a man with an extremely thick Indian accent said his name was Billy.
Yeah, right…