garnetcox wrote:
I just don;t understand the point behind sending a perfect stranger a bunch of fake money orders.
My first guess is that the scammer was in contact with someone who is a scam baiter . . . scam baiters basically make a hobby out of responding to a scammer and letting them think that they are a person who is willing do go through with the deal. The baiter will then give the scammer an address to send the checks to (sometimes they just make one up, sometimes they use a real one . . . I know some that give the address of the police department, FBI or Secret Service!)
So my guess is that your address got randomly used as the fake address given out by a baiter, and now when that scammer responds to them asking about the checks the baiter will say "I never got them" and maybe even ask them to send more.
My second guess would be that they were actually in contact with someone who lives near you and they just got the address wrong. It might be wise to talk to your neighbors and make sure that they know about this scam and are not about to become a victim.
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why the heck did they spend the extra money to priority overnight fedex the stupid things?
because the scammer thinks they are talking to a potential victim, and the baiter is happy because they know that they are wasting the scammers time and money . . . and if the scammer is busy sending emails and money orders to the baiter, it is a little less time that they could potentially be finding a REAL victim.
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who knows maybe they'll catch him and there'll be a reward or something that would be lucky...lol
That would be nice, but not very likely. Most of the people operating these rings are overseas. If there really was a person in Oakland California connected with these checks my guess is that they are being used by a scammer as a middle-man. Often scammers will meet people on dating sites and then ask them if they would be willing to help them out by distributing money orders for them . . . the scammer sends them to the person they are "dating", that person is given directions on who to forward the money orders on to. Another version of this is a work at home scam . . . the scammer puts out an ad saying that their accounting department needs someone to distribute funds for them . . . again, the scammer sends the money orders to this "employee" and directs them who to forward the checks on to.