Wynging It

For those who care:

I've officially moved. http://wyngit.typepad.com

The other 2 blogs are in-the-making, and yeah. Yeapos.




wyng

Weather Forecast: Thunderstorms, 18 degrees C

So this blog has been pretty dead. And I'd like to update people who'd care to visit (thanks! btw) about the status.

1. The soundtracking project was kinda a flop; because of lack of contributor interest :( It's a pity actually...

2. The soundtracking project would be re-invented on a personal level; I'd soundtrack my background of my life and yeah. So it'd be reinvented. End of story.

3. I am relocating in cyberspace; blogspot has been amazing to me, but I'm going to move to typepad. There, I'm going to link up both the soundtracking project (now that this is going to be a personal thing) and also start up a more 'issues based' blogging project, together with a 'whine blog' which I'm sure we've come to know and love. (This is my whine blog by the way)

So yeah. I apologise for the stagnancy of things; but great things are afoot. Wooo.



wyng

Weather Forecast: 23 degrees C

So.. after much harassing and redirection, I finally managed to retrieve my USD 871. What a relief. You know it's bad when you've been asked on the phone for your mum's maiden name and debit card number so many times that you can recite the latter. But it's resolved. So that's good.

Meanwhile it's exam period. In about 36 hours from now is my Electromagnetism final. And then in about 40 hours from now my final paper for my Science, Culture and Society module is due.

For the latter, I'm writing a paper on the romantic nature of the Manhattan Project, and it's something that rings quite closely to the heart. It's affecting me somewhat and well, I'm getting kinda fascinated and distressed about the whole thing. Walked past the monument commemorating Enrico Fermi's successful nuclear chain reaction in the 1940s today and stopped to consider my carreer in Physics for a short while.

I'm getting quite affected; do want to visit Ground Zero in Hiroshima and the museums that documented the destruction.

Oh well... back to work.



wyng

Weather Forecast: 23 degrees C

This eBay noob would like to thank all for your advice. I have come to realise stuff, and for the education and entertainment of my readers, am going to post this scam here.

So here's the first email I've received:
______________________________________________________
Message from eBay Member samibagpwla

Hello ,
I saw you bid of Acer Ferrari 4005 WLMi 4005WLMIi AMD Turion ML37 Laptop Item number: 6885670708. I have contact you because i have 3 brands for sell the same as the one that you bid.The price for one is US $800.00. If you are interested please contact me and tell me how many products do you want to buy.i want you to know that i do affairs only trough eBay perfectly legal.I'll wait for your response. and i'm sorry if i disturbed you.
Thank you very much !
______________________________________________________

Notice the really bad English. I did an username search on samibagwla and found that this user resides in Singapore. Ok fine. So maybe not all Singaporeans have fantastic English.

I liased with him and all and eventually got an email, supposedly from Ebay. This is the gist of the email:
______________________________________________________
Transaction Details:

Within 2 business days, the seller must ship the units to your address. Then you will receive all shipping details and you must proceed with the payment. This seller prefers WesternUnion. Pay for the transfer with cash at a local Western Union agent. Click here to locate the agents in your area.

• Payment must be sent by Western Union Wire Transfer to:

Name : David Loger
Address : 67 Vyner Street
City : London
Zip/code : EC3R 4NE
Country : United Kingdom

• Once the payment was sent, contact the seller with the following informations:

1. 10 digit Money Transfer Control Number (MTCN#);
2. Exact sender's name on file with WesternUnion;
3. Your street address on file with WesternUnion;
4. City and country where you sent the money from;
5. Amount sent
____________________________________________________

OK... Western Union. Hmmmm. I contacted friend Z (who resides in England) to help me check for the validity of the address, as my initial attempts at verifying the postal code online failed. And yes! Royal Mail doesn't recognize the code. It's bunk. The Vyner Street address is in the EC2 region; which is also weird which means this seller resides in Central London. (Near the Tower of London). And also, for someone who lives in central London, this guy has mighty bad English.

I emailed him to enquire about this. This is the reply.

_____________________________________________________
My address is perfect valid...Now please send me the money to Western Union and send me the all information of the transfer...After that in maximum 12-24 hours you will recive the unit at your door...I wait your e-mail as soon.

Thnaks and God Bless you !

David
______________________________________________________

Again, bad English. But I went ahead and made the transfer anyway, thinking I could withhold the information from him, and decide later. This is how Western Union works:

One side makes a cash transfer, either from debit or cash. He gets the 10 digit transfer code. He gives it to the other side.
The other side matches the code, name of person transferring the cash, mutual addresses. Other side gets the money.

So there's pretty much NO WAY you can track this guy down. A bogus address works (as can be seen) and Western Union takes no responsibility in securing this transfer (as opposed to Paypal). Sketchy stuff.

I made the transfer online BUT the website had issues. So it didn't go though. BUT Citibank authorized a debit for USD 871 dollars. So I have 871 USD dollars floating in limbo. Called WU to issue a statement of reversal, and it's being processed; I pray to whatever forces might be that WU values their customer support and I'll get my money back ASAP.

Anyhow, back to 'David Loger'. I emailed him my concerns and my want to terminate this transaction. Here's his reply:
____________________________________________________

Dear Sir ,

I contact UPS and your unit is in your City...Please understand me ... This is my REAL post code... PLEASE UNDERSTAND.....send the money to WU on my name and send me the all information of the transfer and in maximum 12-24 hours you will recive the package at your door.

Thanks and God Bless you!
David
____________________________________________________

Advice to would be Ebay sellers/buyers/scammers: bad english doesn't work for you. It seriously takes away credibility, especially if you claim to live in London.

So this guy apparently shipped the unit immediately even before I paid(not exactly standard eBay protocol); and the unit apparently arrived in Chicago in less than 24 hours (good job UPS!) and now is trying to appeal to my sense of human empathy. I have to admit, it almost worked; which is why I posted a query to your readers below.

I demanded the UPS tracking number from him: my email:

____________________________________________________

David; we're at an impasse here.
I'm not going to send you the money; as WU charges a hefty sum of money *USD 71* to wire it to London. And why can't you give me the tracking number if the unit is theoretically *in* Chicago??

Your address is bogus and this is not a comfortable transaction for me. So unless you give me the tracking number to confirm the delivery, I'm not going to wire the money, no.

So here's the deal again: I need the tracking number. No tracking number = no money.
Again, I apologise for all this, but I'm taking steps to ensure my own protection in this transaction.
Wei
____________________________________________________

His reply:
____________________________________________________
You understand me...I don't have the tracking number..This is at eBay...After you send the all information of the transfer to ebay they reply you with the tracking number...This is the rule from ebay...The shipping taxes (71$) from Western Union are included in the price...Please let me know..

Thanks and God Bless you !

David
____________________________________________________

This is it. Tooooo sketchy for my liking. Checked eBay safe buying policies and I found this quote:

Not permitted on eBay.com: Sellers may not solicit buyers to mail cash. Sellers may not ask buyers to send cash through instant cash transfer services (non-bank, point-to-point cash transfers) such as Western Union or Moneygram. Sellers may not ask buyers to pay with Stormpay. Finally, sellers may not request payment through online payment methods not specifically permitted in this policy

So yes. I've been scammed. And damn that. Reported this user to eBay and emailed him about it.

That's the end of the fiasco; moral of the story: DON'T DO TRANSACTIONS INVOLVING POINT TO POINT CASH TRANSFERS!! Also, what all the commentors posted below (and a few friends whom I've liased with online) said is EXTREMELY true: if it's too good to be true, it IS.

Now just pray that Western Union gives me back my USD 871.

wyng

Weather forecast: 30 degrees C (!!!!)

Ok so... I'm purchasing this new laptop on ebay; place a bid and lost.

BUT...

I've been contacted by new sellers, each with an initial quote lower than the one before! This amazes me, and I'm not sure how much I want to trust these people:

Seller 1: No ratings in his account. Offered 800USD for a unit retail priced at 1988 USD; claimed that unit is still wrapped and untouched. Set up the transaction and all; when he emailed me his address info, the address seemed to be mismatched. Also corresponded with VERY bad english.

Seller 2: Contacted me on e-bay; and claimed that he/she is willing to sell his unit for 600USD (!!). Emailed him asking why that low price.

Any advice/suggestions?

wyng