Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Cops close in on Kijiji scammers in Hamilton, Edmonton, Halton, Ottawa, Peel, Sudbury, Toronto, Waterloo and Winnipeg
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Kijiji scams are often blamed on foreigners - Nigerians have a bad reputation - but a lot of the crooks who troll for stupid people in the online classifieds are home-grown criminals.
Any regular reader of YouSuckatKijiji.com would have to be an idiot or very greedy to get taken by the weak, simple, and easy-to-avoid Western Union and PayPal scams perpetrated by these swindlers. In fact, anyone who sees the bold and obvious "LOCAL, CASH and IN PERSON" warnings all over the Kijiji site should know better. But, some people think they're smart and end up paying thousands in Stupid Tax.
Let's look at some of the latest police work to pursue and prosecute these Kijiji crooks.
A 20-year-old from Hamilton managed to bilk more than $35-thousand dollars from 23 victims across Canada. Those are just the ones being prosecuted. Imagine how many more came forward but without evidence, and how many more were just so ashamed of their own stupidity that they said nothing. Police in Hamilton teamed up with officers in Toronto and surrounding regions, Ottawa, Subdury and Waterloo, and as far away as Edmonton and Winnipeg.
He was selling electronics and tickets to sports and concerts. Remember that -- Kijiji concert tickets and sports tickets are among the easiest things by which you can be ripped off.
The man, whose name has not been released, is accused of Fraud Over $5000 (x3) and Fraud Under $5000 (x21!). It's not his first brush with the law, as he's also charged with 19 counts of breaching his probation and six breaches of recognizance. What a dick.
Meantime, police in Winnipeg were working their own case while helping Hamilton police with theirs.
This guy used other peoples' pics and details to hustle cars that he didn't have. One case involved a 2005 BMW, the other a 2005 BMW M3. Same car? How the hell would I know?
Anyway, the rubes in this case sent the guy electronic money transfers for thousands of dollars without ever having seen the vehicles in person. Are people that dumb? Yes, actually, they are. People do this ever day. It doesn't matter what name is on the email or how badly you want the thing, DO NOT SEND MONEY BY WESTERN UNION TO PEOPLE ON KIJIJI. Same for PayPal -- unless you seriously know what you're doing, DO NOT SEND PAYPAL FOR KIJIJI PURCHASES.
It's easy for these Kijiji crooks to do business all over the place. This guy scammed people in Ontario and Saskatchewan.
The money has not been recovered. A 28-year-old Winnipeg man is charged with two counts of Fraud Over $5000.
Sorry, I don't have his name either. The name doesn't matter so much -- the lesson for Kijiji users should be clear. Don't send people money for stuff you can't see in person.
This post was written by: Gord McCord
Gord McCord, webmaster at You Suck at Kijiji, makes fun of funny things on Kijiji. Do not take him too seriously. Also do not take yourself too seriously. Follow him on Twitter
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9 Responses to “Cops close in on Kijiji scammers in Hamilton, Edmonton, Halton, Ottawa, Peel, Sudbury, Toronto, Waterloo and Winnipeg”
August 17, 2012 at 7:22 AM
Since I moved to viewing on to SwopN I haven,t experienced any of this ad mistrust. I only know this site yo be clean simple and full of content that appeals to me...Oh and easy for me to travel through as well..
August 17, 2012 at 11:02 AM
Hi, Swopn.
I see you run a site called Swopn.
Swopn is an imitation Kijiji site that currently has ELEVEN ads across Canada. Eleven ads total. Kijiji has, what, about five million ads. Your site has 11.
Also, whoever's been giving you SEO advice is an idiot. The techniques you are using to promote Swopn are exactly what Google is punishing these days.
That's exactly why I'm leaving your junk comment up here.
August 28, 2012 at 5:03 AM
wow gord, i wonder if you will leave 'this' comment up? lets see how much of a man and honest you are.. this is my opinion.
i am kijiji, swopn, craigslist, ebay, etc nut and i love all the websites. why bash on a website that has just started? its guys like you and your website that casue all the other guys who want to run their own classifieds/auction website to shy down.. letting the others rule the market.
apple & samsung, bill gates and others have all done this, and now just because EBAY buys out kijiji and throws and ad promoting them on every second page of ebay doesnt mean others cant enter the field.
i personally wish there were TONS more classifieds and auction websites. i understand there are the loyal 'followers' that will always promote and stand tall to their masters but honestly, www.swopn.com is brand new, they just started.. i remember when kijiji only had less than 30 ads when they started. look where they are today, it took YEARS.. they didnt have alot of users at first, read your history. if you think www.swopn.com is gonna grow in 4 weeks, i dont think so, they may never compete with kijiji since ebay took it over.. BUT, its always nice to hae other websites around.
i bought my first car on craigslist, when they just started and had less than a handful of ads! that was my best deap ever, it doesnt matter if they have 4 or 4 millon ads, who cares? deals are deals and i would be happy if more of these websites appeared up daily.. this is what we need so that ebay doesnt start owning everything around.
i visited swopn.com and i think its a very nice website. you need to grow up and open your eyes and stop bashing other websites just becasue they are new and you support kijiji. you need to sit back and relax.
but then again, go ahead and delete this, at least you read it and you know you have no right saying what you did, you have a right t your opinion, but who cares about what website has more ads, or who is the ruler of the ad world.. this is my opinion. leave it up.
steve
February 9, 2015 at 11:06 PM
Found a nigeria scammer in Edmonton using Kijiji. his email addresses are joshua.arm128 at gmail.com and his PayPal email address is joshua.armstrong1 at hotmail.com. I was selling my camcorder and he offered me to receive my payment on PayPal and to ship to Nigeria. Knew there was something fishy. We got to stop the guy
February 10, 2015 at 8:01 AM
Same here...
His email : Joshua Armstrong
here goes his mail:
"Am okay with the price of the item.I will like the shipping to be handle by Post Office so i will add up the shipping cost also I will be doing the payment via Paypal money transfer. do send me your PayPal Email ID with Name or send me paypal money request.
To proceed with the payment for the item.
So i wait to read from you soon.
Thanks"
I didn't even answer
February 10, 2015 at 3:23 PM
I realized this was a scam from the get go, but I told him I "required" more personal info.
I was provided with this:
(maybe this info will help someone catch the bugger, who knows)
On Tue, Feb 10, 2015 at 3:04 PM, Joshua Armstrong wrote:
I live and work in Edmonton so i don't have time to meet up or do the shipping my self due to my work engagement so i will be paying for the shipping cost but i'm buying the item for my son in west Africa so here is the address item:
Name: Tunde Blessing.
Address:# 38 Lafenwa Street
City: Abeokuta
State: Ogun State
Country: Nigeria
Zip Code: 23403
I just check the shipping cost on online and it will cost 90 international air parcel post so you can add 90 and send me your paypal money request to this email joshua.armstrong1@hotmail.com
February 10, 2015 at 3:39 PM
I also opened the raw email and found the real being used to send to me was:
joshua.arm128@gmail.com
other info from the raw email:
I believe this is the IP address it was sent from
10.32.151.30
as from the header:
Received: from rts003.ix5.ops.prod.ca.ecg.so (vlan1511.private-lb.ix5.snip.prod.ca.ecg.so [10.32.151.30])
by ops002.ix5.ops.prod.ca.ecg.so (Postfix) with ESMTP id B1713BC5DC
February 12, 2015 at 1:41 PM
I just got one from Joshua Armstrong as well, with the exact warning sending his stuff to Tunde Blessing in Nigeria
February 19, 2015 at 7:35 PM
I just received the same exact email!
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