What's this all about:

I accidentally heard one of my acquaintances owning a real estate property in Bucharest Romania talking about a deal that sounded fishy. I was sure it was a scam attempt so I asked for the e-mail exchange and the permission to take it over and have a laugh on the scammers.

It gets interesting from STAGE 5, you can start from there and then come back if you feel like it.

PS: I'm an advertising art director, so I'm good with Photoshop and I'm also good in detecting forged jpg 'documents'

PPS: What is written in RED are my adnotations, the rest is the actual text exchange and stuff. Here we go.

STAGE 1

So here comes this client interested about one particular property to rent for one year. He wants to know if it is available, how many rooms, more photos, etc.

--- On Wed, 10/7/09, Prevost Frederic wrote:

From: Prevost Frederic

Subject: www.imobiliare.net

To:

Date: Wednesday, October 7, 2009, 8:22 PM

Hello,

How are you? I am Mr. Frederic Prevost of French nationality and I am the Director of Human Resources in an Insurance Company in Côte d'Ivoire. I am in your country with my family and to this end I read the information on your home and I am interested in renting the house.

Waiting to hear from you.

Contact: Prevost Frederic

Telefon: 0022546403627

Email: prevost.frederic58@yahoo.fr

STAGE 2

After exchanging e-mail for a week regarding all the details he is fine with everything, he decided to rent the house.

One thing is a bit peculiar though: he wants to pay 80% of the whole rent in advance (aprox 20 000 Euros). WITHOUT ACTUALLY VISITING THE HOUSE... The owner does not request this, the agency tells him, but he does not want to carry all this cash he sais, so he wants to pay in advance and he needs a contract.

The agency puts together a contract in English, sends the contract in a Word file to the owner of the building, the owner makes some adnotations written in blue, then they send the Word file contract to the client in black and blue, asking him to make his adnotations in red if any.

De: *** <***@***>

Objet: Re: Re : other photos

À: "Frédéric Prévost"

Date: Dimanche 18 Octobre 2009, 20h58

Hello Mr. Prevost,

attached is the contract. What is written in black is my original contract and what is written in blue are things the owner added. If you have things you want to add or change, please write them in red.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

***

--- On Thu, 10/15/09, Frédéric Prévost wrote:

From: Frédéric Prévost

Subject: Re : other photos

To: "***" <***@***>

Date: Thursday, October 15, 2009, 6:17 PM

Hello,

How are you? I am pleased with our open collaboration, and I come by this mail to inform you of what has been decided with my wife for what is to lease your home so that we can live safely.

We would have:

1 - A pro forma invoice stating the total amount of rental

2 - A contract of lease in Word file to my name so I can sign

3 - We decide to make a bank deposit of 80% by bank transfer upon my arrival and the rest will be given cash.

Since I am in full process of preparing for my trip so I can not get around to see the house and security measures so I can not get around with all this money on me. Why we decided to make a bank deposit of 80% by bank transfer and the rest in cash when I arrive.

Thank you and awaiting a positive response

STAGE 3

So he has no comments on the contract, he sends it back signed by him, signed by the bank, and with the bank stamp on it. He sais the bank is about to contact us soon for the details.

And now they're getting really sloppy all of a sudden:

The contract is in PDF format. It is still written in black and blue. Although the real estate agency bank account number is "*** (will open an euro account tomorrow)" his bank signed and stamped it. The file is a vector file, it was not scaned, but it has a stamp on it.

Now I'm 100% sure we're dealing with scammers and I want to have a laugh.

--- On Mon, 10/19/09, Frédéric Prévost wrote:

From: Frédéric Prévost

Subject: Re: Re : other photos

To: "***" <***@***>

Date: Monday, October 19, 2009, 10:01 PM

Good evening and thank you for the lease. So I read the contract I signed and then my bank also has authenticated the contract without problem.

Tomorrow my bank will contact you to process the financial approach.

Thank you

STAGE 4

OK, so here comes the moment when they are finally asking for money. I'm supposed to send them 995 Euros ;-)

Their bank contacted us with the following message and attached file.

INFO BICICI BANK

Tuesday, October 20, 2009 7:37 PM

From: "opfinancier-bicici@financier.com"

To: ***@***

Cc: prevost.frederic58@yahoo.fr

Message contains attachments1 File (95KB) Ask And Agreement of Banking Information.pdf

ATTN: BANK BICICI

Hello

Please note that we do have this morning approved your contract. Please read carefully the conditions and thermal transfer, for confirmation, you must sign where it is read and written approval.

For expenses of the Department we have been obliged to add the amount of 80% + 995 € and Mr. Prevost will pay him 1015 € when you pay individual costs of the Ministry of Justice in advance, you n 'have nothing to lose because it is automatically added to the amount of 80% in turn.

Pending your response.

STAGE 5

OK... at this point I created a gmail address as Mr Flinstone Fred and I started coresponding with the scammers as The Jedi Lawyer of The Romanian Owner ;-))))))))

STAGE 6

And this is the moment I'm starting to ask them for money too ;-) I tell them that my bank's Jedi Council decided they should pay 30% of the 995 Euros first, but we will give the money back afterwards.

So I sent them the following message and the attached document - note my details, the signature and the stamp I put - found them on the Internet ;-)

from Flinstone Fred

to opfinancier-bicici@financier.com

cc prevost.frederic58@yahoo.fr

date Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 1:05 PM

subject Re: INFO BICICI BANK / Romanian property

Hello

I'm the lawyer that will put everything in order for you to safely rent the house in Bucharest. Attached is the agreement signed by us, there is no problem with the payment, we'll make the transfer tomorrow. However, my bank jedi council requests a 30% extra deposit for international transaction, but this deposit is added to the amount trasfered. So we're waiting for you to transfer the 30% of 995 € (331 €) by Western Union to the name and address I completed in the attached agreement. I repeat, we will send this amount back to you plus the rest of 995 € so you don't have anything to worry about.

Looking forward for your reply,

Best regards,

Flinstone Fred

My info highlights:

My stamp and signature in zoom:

STAGE 7

This can't be real! Their bank sends me the following message and attached document, informing me that they trasfered ofer 20 000 Euros to me which is Mr Fred Flinstone at the Central Bank Of Jupiter, SWIFT code UBUCUCU. Check out the highlits I made on their document!

Their Ministry Of Finace will contact me within hours they say.

from: opfinancier-bicici@financier.com

to prevost.frederic58@yahoo.fr

cc flinstonefred09@gmail.com

date Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 6:46 PM

subject INFO BICICI BANK

ATTN: BICICI BANK

We send you a receipt for transfer of our financial institution. Note that the transfer was made this morning and the Ministry of Justice will contact you within hours.

STAGE 8

Indeed, The Ministry Of Finance contacted me soon afterwards with the following message and document.

Alex Tiacoh

to www_office_control@ymail.com

cc flinstonefred09@gmail.com,

prevost.frederic58@yahoo.fr

date Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 7:33 PM

subject BANK TAXATION

Hello,

I am Mr. Alex Tiacoh Commissioner Control of the Ministry of Justice of Cote d'Ivoire.

To this end we received a telex from the bank BICICI on international financial transactions to your respective accounts. After inspection we find that the transfer does not allow file transfer to leave the Ivorian economic space. The files are:

Anti Drug Certificate

Certificate anti money laundering

Anti Terrorist Certificate

Therefore you must send the tax funds by Western Union by following the following:

The shipment must be made on behalf of the Office of Accounting Control Department of Justice:

Name: Kanga

Name: Franck

Address: Cote d'Ivoire, Abidjan

Then please send us the receipt from Western Union to our email address so you can withdraw the funds and authorize the transfer to leave the Ivorian economic space.

NB: Please note that the Control Office Department of Justice does not put his account number available to an individual.

Thank you

STAGE 9

OK... so I thought... how about pushing it even more ;-)

I sent them the following message. Note the highlits and the adnotatios I made for the reader of this blog.

Flinstone Fred

to Alex Tiacoh

cc prevost.frederic58@yahoo.fr

date Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 11:45 PM

subject Re: BANK TAXATION

Hello Mr. Tiacock,

To this end we are really near to closing the deal on the benefit of both parties. My client shall make the Western Union transfer the day after tomorrow (which is Wednesday). (tomorrow was Friday, actually)

Before proceding, though, we must receive 45% of the amount of 995 Euros from your client, which is 487.2 Euros (45% of 995 is actually 447,7). I know it might seem suspicious but I'm asuring you about our good will and this money will be sent back to you along with the 995. This procedure is due to the decision number 6648 leteer Q of The Stelar Jedi Council of the Secret Services of Romania regarding financing of clandestine gipsy structures via Western Union - therefore, any money transfer outside Romania through Western Union must be preceded by a tranfer of 45% of the amount from the other party.

Please make the transfer of the 487.2 Euros to the following:

Title: Sir

Name: Johny

Name: Walker

Addres: Romania, Bucharest

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Fred Flinstone

STAGE 10

As they did not reply to this, I was afraid I pushed it too far and I lost them. So I came up with the solution: how about telling them that I have a partner in Bulgaria that can send them the money on my behalf. But I need their Bank Taxation document written in cyrillic alphabet. I sent them the following message

Flinstone Fred

to Alex Tiacoh

cc prevost.frederic58@yahoo.fr

date Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 7:29 PM

subject Re: BANK TAXATION

Hello,

Please tell me if you agree on paying the 45% (487.2 Euros) in advnce to close this deal. In case you don't agree we came up to a solution: our client has a partner in Bulgaria and his partner can make the Western Union transfer on our behalf first thing tomorrow morning. Bulgaria has more relaxed regulation for money transfer so there is no problem about the 45% in advance.

In this case we will need the document attached (Bank Taxation.PDF) writen in cyrillic alphabet for the Bulgarian authorities - please note that it can still remain in English, only we need the letters to be replaced and the document signed by you again.

This will also presume a 12% trasfer tax of 103 Euros (12% of 995 is 119.4 actually) but I hope it shouldn't be a problem, and Mr. Prevost Frederic can return the amount of 103 Euros in cash at his arrival.

Looking forward for your answer,

Fred Flinstone

PS: Please tell us if you need us to send someone to the airport to pick up Mr. Prevost.

STAGE 11

I guess they got a little bit puzzled at this point because they replyed:

from Frédéric Prévost

to Flinstone Fred

date Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 9:37 PM

subject Re: BANK TAXATION

Good evening,

How are you trying to do according to your message

STAGE 12

I thought... ok, I can make it easier for them, why not. I will put the document in cyrillic myself and I'll send it to be signed. See my message bellow and the attached document - of curse it is not really cyrillic, just a text font that resemles cyrillic that I found on www.dafont.com ;-)

from Flinstone Fred

to Frédéric Prévost

cc www_office_control@ymail.com,

opfinancier-bicici@financier.com

date Sat, Oct 24, 2009 at 11:13 PM

subject Re: BANK TAXATION

Good evening,

what I was informing you is that my client has a partner in Bulgaria and our partner will pay the 995 Euro to Mr. Kanga Franck through Western Union from Bulgaria in order to avoid the Romanian anti gipsy structures advanced payment of 45%.

In order to proceed so first thing tomorrow, we need the document attached signed and stamped again by your authorities (I put it myself in cyrillic alphabet).

This is because the official alphabet of Bulgaria is cyrillic and they cannot authorise any payment that a Western Union officer cannot understand - note that I kept it in English though, so you can read it before signing.

Like I was saying this comes with a tax of 103 Euros, but you can pay this tax in cash at your arrival in Bucharest because it is not a big amount.

Sincerely,

Flinstone Fred

STAGE 13 - they signed the "Bulgarian" document

As they haven't replyed for a couple of days after I sent them the "Bulgarian" document to be signed, I thought they finally realised I was fooling around, so I haven't checked my Fred Flinstone address for a while... but as I accidentaly did today as I was logging into the blog to simplify the text a little bit, SURPRISE, I had 2 messages from Bicici Bank and their Prime Minister or whatever. So we had the following e-mail exchange AND... YES... THEY SENT ME THE DOCUMENT SIGNED AND STAMPED (their Photoshop garbled it a little bit but it's fine)

:-)))))

I'll try to find a Western Union receipt on the Internet tomorrow and fake it a little in Photoshop to prove them our partner in Bulgaria just sent them the money - that is if I don't come up with some new silly idea

from Flinstone Fred

to Frédéric Prévost

date Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 9:51 PM

subject Re: BANK TAXATION

Hello,

this is great news.

Please inform the Minister of Finance that our partner in Bulgaria will make the transfer of the 995Euro tomorrow to Mr Franck Kanga in Abidjan. We will send you a scaned receipt soon afterwards.

Keep in touch,

Flinstone Fred

from Frédéric Prévost

to Flinstone Fred

date Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 8:12 PM

subject Re: BANK TAXATION

Good evening,

I am forwarding the letter signed by the Minister of Justice of Côte d'Ivoire. I would hope that tomorrow the settlement of your share of costs will be made immediately.

Awaiting your response.

--- En date de : Mar 3.11.09, Flinstone Fred a écrit :

De: Flinstone Fred

Objet: Re: BANK TAXATION

À: "Frédéric Prévost"

Date: Mardi 3 Novembre 2009, 16h55

Yes, we need the document in Bulgarian alphabet that I sent you twice to be signed by the Ministry of Justice, just like the original one that they sent us. I attach the document again. Our partner will make the payment from Bulgaria to avoid the 45% Romanian tax I was telling you about.

It is the third time I explain this to you, I wonder if you are really interested in closing this deal or not.

Looking forward for your answer

2009/11/3 Frédéric Prévost

Good evening and thank you for your reply.

You want the Ministry of Justice signed the document so that your partner can settle your share of expenses.

--- En date de : Mar 3.11.09, Flinstone Fred a écrit :

De: Flinstone Fred

Objet: Re: BANK TAXATION

À: opfinancier-bicici@financier.com, "Alex Tiacoh" ,

"Frédéric Prévost"

Date: Mardi 3 Novembre 2009, 10h33

Hello,

what I was informing you is that we need the attached document signed and stamped by your parties, in order for our partner in Bulgaria to be able to make the payment to you.

On Mon, Oct 26, 2009 at 4:06 PM, wrote:

Hi Sir,

We hope that all has been settled with the Ministry of Justice of Cote d'Ivoire on the settlement costs of the transfer release

STAGE 14 - our parner in Bulgaria just made the transfer... not

So when he's not busy writing "The Master And Margarita", our partner Mikhail Bulgakov is also helping me dealing with scammers.

See the signature I used in the Western Union fake receipt: IT IS ACTUALLY MR PREVOST'S SIGNATURE I took from the contract that he "signed", only I flipped it in Photoshop

from flinstonefred09@gmail.com>

to Frédéric Prévost

cc Alex Tiacoh,opfinancier-bicici@financier.com

date Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 4:09 PM

subject Re: BANK TAXATION

Hello Sir,

Our partner in Bulgaria just made the payment of the 995 Euro to Mr Franck Kanga of you Ministry of Justice.

The payment was done by Mr. Mickhail Bulgakov, at the Western Union office in Sofia, Stamboliyski blvd nr 42.

I attach a scaned copy of the receipt.

Please let me know after the amount was cashed by the Ministry so we can get our bank transfer for the rent.

Regards,

Flinstone Fred