Scam Number: N/A
Scammer’s Website or Email: See photos - two email addresses provided by the scammer.
Additional information about this scam:
My friend who is an artist advertises her work on Facebook Marketplace in an effort to garner some extra cash. Someone approached her to commission some work. She has more than enough foresight to determine what a scam looks like so she passed her conversation between her and the scammer.
We determined it’s your run-of-the-mill “My bank account only allows me to make this cheque for this amount, so can you refund me the difference via another payment service” in this case, Zelle. As far as I know, Canada does not have access to services like Zelle and Venmo. What’s dumbfounded is that this person never heard of Paypal… in hindsight, I suppose next time we come across a scammer who uses these services we’ll do our best to get the information needed to pass up the chain.
As for the info we tried to get, we attempted to spoof a bank account app to show that it was under maintenance and that we couldn’t deposit this imaginary cheque right away, but wanted his details so we could “forward him the difference in cost”. He ended up getting spooked and ghosted.
Submitted for your awareness are the screenshots of the dialogue between my friend and the scammer.
Also, anyone who can educate me on what to ask for in terms of Zelle and Venmo, that’d be greatly appreciated. Like I said, we don’t have those services in Canada.
