Scam from Japan - offer to order your books

Business
1

I saw a thread on here about a scam operating in Taiwan and Japan a year or more ago. Well it appears they’re still at it.

I received an email from a Tom Douglas wanting to buy 300 of my books How to Grow Juicy Tasty Tomatoes to sell in his new shop. The english was dodgy, with no contact details and his email address is tomdouglasproduction@live.com. He offered to pay by credit card and insisted I get a quote for shipping from his airfreight company - easywayaircargo@yahoo.com.

He would not provide details of his shop, answer my question about the books being in English - not Japanese, or respond to my requirements to pay by international money transfer or Paypal. I became suspicous and entered his address
8-10 Palazio Himonya Bldg. 1F, 2-chome Minami, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-0013into Google search which bought up a bunch of comments from people who’ve had similar emails. So - it’s obviously a big hoax. Here’s the gist of the emails:

1st Email:my name is douglas i will like to purchase some of your product to one my new store in japan i will like to inform you that the method of my payment is credit card if this is accepted by you please kindly get back to me with your website address so as for me to choose the item needed
by me.sipping address8-10 Palazio Himonya Bldg. 1F, 2-chome Minami,
Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-0013, Japan

2nd Email: [I]Thanks for the mail this are the item needed below

Tomato Growing Diary…QTY300

MY DELIVERY ADDRESS
8-10 Palazio Himonya Bldg. 1F,
2-chome
Minami, Meguro-ku,
Tokyo 152-0013, Japan

Also, I experience difficulties when it comes to getting orders to my
address here in japan i would be best if you contact the shipper which i used in the past (EASYWAYAIRcargo@yahoo.com you can also notify them with my customer id# TW36HFJ76T.
I will need you to obtain a quote and get back to me
with:COST OF THE ORDER
COST OF THE SHIPPING VIA EASYWAYAIR CARGO
TOTAL COST (ORDER + SHIPPING)
Once i have these details, i will get back to you with my credit card
details immediately. so you can charge and make the necessary shipping
arrangements.
Kind Regards
Tom Douglas[/I]

3rd Email - received within 10 minutes of me requesting airfreight quote from easywayaircargo[I]Dear Client,
Thank you for contacting EasyWAYAir Shipping for your service.We ran into our data base on the location you provided and also rectified the customer id number (TW36HFJ76T) and later got to discover that we have shipped some herbs to Tom douglas in the past.We located in United Kingdom but help private customers in pick up like this. so getting your shipment to your client won’t be problem.For a shipment moving from Australia to JAPAN with the total Total weight and dimension you provide, below is the Standard and Express Shipment Air Freight quote

customer id number (TW36HFJ76T)
Express Shipment (2 to 3 days) $2, 689.22 AUD
Standard Shipment (3 to 7 days) $2, 399.10 AUD

The freight costs includes:
Collection from your Yard
Customs clearance
Duties & taxesInland transit to JAPAN
InsuranceDoor To Door Delivery

Pick Up Address
Brisbane suburb of Cornubia Australia

Recipient:
8-10 Palazio Himonya Bldg. 1F,
2-chome Minami, Meguro-ku,
Tokyo 152-0013,
Japan

Pick up will be made by our agent in the states after payment is confirmed.We will need you to provide us with an estimate pick up date and time so that we can schedule a date and time for you before the the goods are ready for picked up as we normally have a lot of shipment request.As soon as we receive all necessary information from you we will proceed on the pick up at your location,Also i will like to inform you that we only accept Western Union Money Transfer/Money Gram for now prior to pick up and collection of package which will be paid as soon as the order is ready for pick up… so you would have to send us the amount to which the weight of the goods weight via western union/wire transfer so that we can do the pick up and settle the necessary tax and custom duties,this price includes insurance and all there duties,then we will get back to you with the necessary details.We have greatly reduce the price of your shipment… For further information don’t hesitate to contact us. Looking forward to be of more service to you

Customer Service
(E.M.S Services and Logistic)[/I]

I’m sharing all this so that if you receive anything like this, be aware it’s a total scam. They will not pay you though Paypal or Bank transer, as they want no record of payment or trace of IP. They are probably using a fake or stolen credit card. My guess is that I’ll shortly get an email asking me to pay the courier company direct.

I will be reporting this scam to ISPs live and yahoo - and the government watchdog here in Australia.

Annette Welsford

2

I’m guessing they make payment with fake credit card, then we transfer payment for shipping costs, and they get the goods delivered as well. Apparently this scam has been going on from addresses in Taiwan also

3

yep, that’s a weird one :scratch:

surely this Tom Douglas would realise that you would expect full payment before shipping off any goods to him, so what’s in it for him?

4

but I would wait until the payment is actually transferred to my bank account and cleared before shipping off any goods.

Normally, scammers ask for money :scratch:

But yes it does sound dodgy.

5

It seems I am being set up here too, thanks I will proceed with caution. I have received exactly the same except emails, although their order is urgent WUN CHAO keeps increasing it and is now it up to $57.000. He uses multiple American Credit Cards I have received $27,000NZD and paid easymailaircargo@yahoo.com $4890.20 NZ Via Western Union James Mark of 21b Beryl Ave Beckton, London collected money. Freight Forwarder operates out of UK Ph: +447024045996 They operate 24hrs and the customer is not interested in getting cheaper freight (warning Bells here).
Wun Chao at 8-10 Palazio Himonya Bdg 1F does not want me to send his urgent shipment of Aloe Vera Drinking Gel yet but has increased his order for John Carew in Korea. Wun Chao telephones about 8 times a day to get things moving. My warehouse still has the product and we have the money but not sure if these cards are stolen or what?
Yes I have been getting the exact same email replies as others on this site.
I need to get these guys checked out before we double his order and I am to pay for the freight in advance.
Garry

6

The fraud is just the western union payment. They don’t care about the goods and they will just be lost somewhere (I’d be surprised if they are ever picked up). You have just enabled them to scam $xxxx off someone elses credit card which in my book is being implicated in fraud.