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Business Owners, Does This Sound Suspicious?

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Your brother owns a company, right? Hasn't it occurred to him that he is putting his business and its reputation on the line, too? He could well end up in prison and lose his shirt plus his little company will go right down the tubes. Not a happy prospect, is that?
 
Squilly said:
Even if we both personally know them in real life?
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your and your brother know a security guard who claims to be an investor with access to $160,000 in cash? But seriously, how many investors with that kind of money work as security guards?


Squilly said:
....My brother tells me he has the funds but needs to ask the Poles for permission to take money out (which sounds fishy as **** to me).....
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But then he doesn't really "have" the funds if he has to get permission to withdraw the money

Squilly said:
.....although the Poles must ask permission from my brother to take money out as well. Sounds a lot like an escrow to me.
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unfortunately the fake "escrow" account scam, where the victim is lead to believe that his permission is needed to withdraw funds is a common type of internet fraud. Have you seen any paper work from the bank confirming any of this? Keep in mind that it's easy for scammers to forge a document and send it along as "proof".....and that applies to any proof about actual money having been sent, as well as the conditions and terms for withdrawing it......so you need something obtained independently of any involvement by "foreign investors".

Did you ever get your friend at the bank to find the transaction under the name of the "other investor"??
 
Macky-Mac said:
your and your brother know a security guard who claims to be an investor with access to $160,000 in cash? But seriously, how many investors with that kind of money work as security guards?




But then he doesn't really "have" the funds if he has to get permission to withdraw the money



unfortunately the fake "escrow" account scam, where the victim is lead to believe that his permission is needed to withdraw funds is a common type of internet fraud. Have you seen any paper work from the bank confirming any of this? Keep in mind that it's easy for scammers to forge a document and send it along as "proof".....and that applies to any proof about actual money having been sent, as well as the conditions and terms for withdrawing it......so you need something obtained independently of any involvement by "foreign investors".

Did you ever get your friend at the bank to find the transaction under the name of the "other investor"??
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Yeah. For what it's worth, it's at the Philadelphia Federal Credit Union.
 
mobilehaathi said:
So what's the plan for moving the goods out of the US?
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Apple is sending 8 pallets of goods to 4 different addresses here in the US, as only two pallets are allowed per residential address. UPS will come by and pick up the packages and ship internationally to Poland. It'll hopefully clear customs and the money clears fully at that point, I believe.
 
Squilly said:
Apple is sending 8 pallets of goods to 4 different addresses here in the US, as only two pallets are allowed per residential address. UPS will come by and pick up the packages and ship internationally to Poland. It'll hopefully clear customs and the money clears fully at that point, I believe.
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so AFTER the goods are out of the country......only then is the money released to your brother?
 
Macky-Mac said:
so AFTER the goods are out of the country......only then is the money released to your brother?
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Yes. He still has access now (and it's not a phished site since he logs into pfcu.com directly) and sees the funds.
 
No insult intended to anyone...

This thread is sad, funny, scary, amazing, disappointing...and going nowhere as the comments and advice will have absolutely no impact whatsoever.

This scam is completely obvious to everyone but those involved...who will get rich quick, since that is always the bait that gets the gullible to take the hook.
 
Squilly said:
Apple is sending 8 pallets of goods to 4 different addresses here in the US, as only two pallets are allowed per residential address. UPS will come by and pick up the packages and ship internationally to Poland. It'll hopefully clear customs and the money clears fully at that point, I believe.
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Hopefully and I believe. The beginning of a great story ...

Hopefully it clears customs and no one question 8 pallets of goods going to the same address in Poland and I believe there will be some sort of hang up on the funds.

Squilly said:
Even if we both personally know them in real life?
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You've never heard of scams ran by people who have met face to face?

cough-madoff-cough.
Squilly said:
I'm not trying to be stubborn about it,
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Yes you are.
Squilly said:
I'm just getting two stories and combining. My brother tells me he has the funds but needs to ask the Poles for permission to take money out (which sounds fishy as **** to me), although the Poles must ask permission from my brother to take money out as well. Sounds a lot like an escrow to me.
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Because scammers always ask for permission.

Squilly said:
I'm not looking for excuses. I'm listening you and telling my brother. I simply respond with his comments.
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Then have your "brother" register and discuss. Why are you the conduit for this? Is your brother an adult? It seems he is incapable of actually making adult decisions on his own so he has come to little brother to act as a third party messenger. The problem is, no one on this forum should be the reason your brother does or does not do business. However, there has been some very good information given here by others that you, I mean your brother, is completely ignoring.

He has clearly not done his homework and it looks like get rich quick schemes run in the family.

I'd like to wish you, I mean your brother, the best of luck, but it is hard not to see right through this.

Have you ever got an e-mail about how you won the lottery but to access the funds you need to wire a certain amount of money and then you get 100 times that amount back? I'd go through your spam folder and I bet you find a similar scam to what you're talking about here being advertised.
 
Squilly said:
Yes. He still has access now (and it's not a phished site since he logs into pfcu.com directly) and sees the funds.
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well access "now" isn't the issue, it's being able to withdraw funds after the goods have been shipped........from your description he doesn't get permission to withdraw the cash until after the goods have left the country.....so there's the danger. He ships off the goods and then they don't give him permission to withdraw any cash, or they simply withdraw it themselves leaving nothing in the account.

From what you've said, it isn't clear whether he really can prevent the Poles from withdrawing the funds on their own....have you verified that with the bank? Have you checked to verify that this bank actually offers escrow accounts?
 
ROTFL .. 8 pallets, 4 addresses. Because it's residential.

DING DING DING DING DING We got us a live one here!

Here's the deal.. -SOMEONE- has paid for that stuff now, you think Apple is going to ship $160K worth of stuff without them being paid?

Anyone who has that kind of credit line.. and UPS is going to come pick them up individually?

No, for me to ship something, I want to get paid. Not have to ask permission to get paid.

No, this is not going to end well.
 
Macky-Mac said:
so AFTER the goods are out of the country......only then is the money released to your brother?
Click to expand...

Squilly said:
Yes. He still has access now (and it's not a phished site since he logs into pfcu.com directly) and sees the funds.
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Seriously, are you for ********* real?

I'm genuinely lost for words. I can't believe any human being can be as willingly, stubbornly, ignorantly naive as you are right now. I'm both furious and disbelieving right now. :mad:

Please, keep this thread updated with how the deal goes. :rolleyes:

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Shrink said:
No insult intended to anyone...

This thread is sad, funny, scary, amazing, disappointing...and going nowhere as the comments and advice will have absolutely no impact whatsoever.

This scam is completely obvious to everyone but those involved...who will get rich quick, since that is always the bait that gets the gullible to take the hook.
Click to expand...

Shrink, may I add that your signature of "Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe. -- Albert Einstein" has never been more relevant than it has right now. :D
 
Full $160,000 in a local bank, whom my friend works for and couldn't find the transaction. Now, there are twelve partners for the Apple stores in Poland so it could be a simple name mistake. I just don't want my brother to get scammed for something in the six-figures (he's also very nieve). He'd turn a profit of about $20,000 on this order IF it works.
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If you actually do the math, you would know its a scam.

Take the US iPad price + sales tax + vat tax + your profit the Europeans give you + shipping to your place and to Europe is almost or equal to the Poland iPad price.
 
Clix Pix said:
Don't people have to be "members" at a Credit Union? Usually there is some specific affiliation such as an employer. How would someone in Poland be able to establish an account there? Or have access to an account there?
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If I had to guess, Squilly (err.....Squilly's "brother" :rolleyes:) is the patsy in all this and opened up the account there and gave the Poles all the info they needed to access it. All paper trails lead to him and he'll be the one spending time in a federal PMITA prison when this deal goes south.
 
yg17 said:
If I had to guess, Squilly (err.....Squilly's "brother" :rolleyes:) is the patsy in all this and opened up the account there and gave the Poles all the info they needed to access it. All paper trails lead to him and he'll be the one spending time in a federal PMITA prison when this deal goes south.
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I don't know why everyone thinks I'm making up my brother. He started the deal, I'm simply tempted to join him. After receiving feedback from this thread, I'm contemplating that decision. He isn't convinced.
 
Squilly said:
I don't know why everyone thinks I'm making up my brother. He started the deal, I'm simply tempted to join him. After receiving feedback from this thread, I'm contemplating that decision. He isn't convinced.
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Why contemplate the decision...leap right in! Everybody here fully supports the scheme, and no one has said anything to discourage you. Having read the thread...why would you even hesitate?
 
Squilly said:
I don't know why everyone thinks I'm making up my brother. He started the deal, I'm simply tempted to join him. After receiving feedback from this thread, I'm contemplating that decision. He isn't convinced.
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You shouldn't even be contemplating this. You should be running as far away as you can so you have a good alibi when the feds come after your brother.
 
Shrink said:
Why contemplate the decision...leap right in! Everybody here fully supports the scheme, and no one has said anything to discourage you. Having read the thread...why would you even hesitate?
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Now that's sound advice right there!
 
First we have Squilly's "friend" caught stealing from a K-Mart and now his "brother" caught up in some scam. Your life is like a reality show.
 
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