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kenneth266

WARNING, Scam alert! Please read.......

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If you have a merchant account for selling lures over the internet, please use caution, especially for requests coming from overseas. I don't mean to offend any non-U.S. members here but, most of these scams are coming from eastern Europe. I've spoken to another well known lure manufacturer and he too received an e-mail from this same guy. I hope this post isn't too long but, I won't to show how convincing these scam artists can be and hopefully prevent anyone from being taken and have the security of their banking info compromised. The history:

I was recently contacted by a "Kirill Demurenko " claiming that he ran 3 fishing tackle stores in St. Petersburg Russia. He mentioned that they carry lures from Bomber, Heddon, etc but due to the international nature of these lures, they were looking for some truly handmade American lures. I responded, cautiously and this was his next reply:.."Dear Ken,

Thank you for your answer. I think that the initial wholesale purchase from you and further distribution of your baits in Russia will show what kind of demand we are dealing with here. I will place an order as soon as you send me an electronic catalog of the production you have with wholesale rates given there. Further on, we can increase our cooperation according to sale tempo!

Best regards,

Kirill"

I create the catalog, send it to him, ask about any other colors that he may be interested in, then the next reply:.."Dear Ken,

I will purchase the baits of the custom colors, for there are no particular colors that work always extremely well and no colors, that do not do at all. All of them go relatively good.

Kirill"

Next, we agree on a wholesale price, and he responds: "Dear Ken,

Please, handle my very first wholesale order to you. To see how it goes, I will not order a lot right now. I would like 3 pieces of each color you gave in the catalog. That will make 48 crankbaits in total, right?

Please, qoute for that in USD. I have CitiBank Visa, so will you accept paypal payment?

I plan to trace the sale rate and then to order more in the beginning of the summer or even in May.

Best regards,

Kirill"

I feel a little cautious at this point but, the guy seems legit so, what the heck? The next e-mail should have alerted me but..... "Dear Ken,

First of all I have to confess this is going to be my first payment via Paypal. Please, drop me some kind of a short instruction. For payments I will use a different box: alpred.russia@yahoo.com.

My address is 199034, 8th line of V.O., 1/9, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Please, send the package by inexpensive company (like USPS maybe?)

I will make a list of the Russian angling web sites dubbed in English shortly for you.

And of course we will be glad to have you here for a fishing adventure! We can discuss all that, when you make a decision to come over. With our business partnership growing, that will not be in an indefinite future I hope.

Regards,

Kirill"

I send him a paypal invoice, to the original mailbox, not the yahoo box, something didn't seem right about that, and he responds...."Hi Ken!

With your discription it all is going to be easier for me to handle, thanks!

The time difference is 8 hours.

I will check my box on Monday and contact you immediately to confirm.

Regards,

Kirill"

...and finally the kicker..."Dear Kenneth,

Unfortunately, I was not able to log on to Paypal. There is no Russia in the

list of countries, when I tried to register.

Can we try wire transfer? I will send you the money from my account in Citibank.

For that I need all your bank details.

Regards,

Kirill"

Be careful people! I hope this guy doesn't have enough info on me to go any further. Also, forgive for the long winded post but, I would hate to see someone have their bank account wiped out.

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I also received an e-mail from the same company. I didn't respond yet.

Maybe a good thing, but on the other hand you could be missing a sale. Most of the overseas orders I do are by wire transfer. You need to open a separate account that is just for receiving the wire, the money is then rolled into your main account. This way you never have money in the second account. Or just have him send a money order. I hope this helps. You need to be careful but at the same time don't limit yourself to only the US market.

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Just to let you guys know :wink: The "people" from Nigeria placed an initial order with me exceeding $500.00. Yeah, was I excited..... :lol:

After several more emails of trying to get the them to transfer the money into my PayPal account, the truth came out.....they didn't want fishing lures, what they wanted was a shipment of illegal cell phones :censored:

Oh yeah........and I was to front the whole thing through my company.... 8O

You can guess what I said to that, and I can't wait for another offer like that this year because I'll be calling the authorities.

PLEASE be sure to check out everything and don't but your ass on the line for anybody!!!!!!!!!

Oldthunder

www.eaglelures.com

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I just sold over 5000 baits to a guy in Italy. Paypal was sent within 5 minutes of talking with me. He had no problem paying in whatever form I chose.

Some are legit but I think the majority are just searching for your info to scam you!!!

Hate to miss a sale though...

Jim

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I think I have to slightly dissappoint you gentlemen. Although there are thousands of scammers, I do not belong to the tribe. Being a notoriety is a tails side of the popularity coin (and vice versa) in some cases. Ken, the member who started this topic, will be my partner very soon with my first order to him underway right now.

Being careful in business is vital. His and some other guy's first reaction on my inquiry is explainable. He behaved like a wise mature man who is not too easy to be ripped by overseas strangers. But we talked a little and worked it out. Now he trusts me and I trust him.

Take care and have faith!

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And yes, maybe Ken sounded a bit too hardline and tough on me when replying to me that day. And know what? I respect him for that. Because no mama's kids do the business, but the men who are capable of being straight and decisive. It only took friendly and positive attitude to keep negotiating and finally we found the way.

I also respect him for starting this topic, however paradoxical it sounds. The man devoted his time and effort to inform you of possible traps. He showed that he cares. He expressed his will to protect other folks from on-line frauds.

Indifference is far worse than initial negative attitude. Because the latter is easily converted into trust if there is a good will, meanwhile the former takes you from nowhere to nowhere.

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I am more than just a little embarrased by this whole ordeal :oops:

I didn't mean this post as a gossip session or to slander Kirill. It was only to warn others that work as hard as I do to prevent them from being taken in.

I have already apologized to Kirill and offer another public apology here. I can take my medicine like a man.

Anyways, it's worked out now and am looking forward to a great business relationship.

Take care

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