We found an ad on Craigslist for a Dell XPS M1710 for sale for $350. We sent an email indicating interest in purchase of the laptop. We did not get a reply to our email until the next day. We received an email from a "Jennifer Miller" using the email address [email protected].
The email was worded exactly as such:
Sorry for my late reply but I'm currently in England, London. Because of the financial crisis, I lost my job in United States (i was an IT Operations Manager) and I had to move at my sister in United Kingdom (here I found a good job). The laptop is still available, in perfect condition, and I will sell it only in US because here the warranty and the DellCare are US registered. I can't use the laptop here in UK because it works on 110 V. I didn't know about this problem when I moved here and another reason why I am selling the laptop because I really need money urgently to pay my rent for next 3 months. I have attached some pics with the laptop to this e-mail so you can see the condition of the laptop. I bought the laptop 20 months ago and it still has 4 months of Dell transferable warranty remaining (you can extend the warranty for one year on your name. I hope you are still interested and we can make the deal happen right away. Since I can't meet you and make the exchange, I would like to use a service that will help us with that:
TNT is a worldwide delivery company (like Fedex, DHL or UPS). You can see from their procedure that you will be able to check the laptop before I receive the payment. If you are in a hurry, I will use 2 day delivery (on my expense). Let me know what you think. Best Wishes, Jennifer Miller
We responded and made a payment arrangement of $300 which was to include shipping costs. Of course "Jennifer Miller" agreed to this. We "Googled" and checked out the link to TNT and from what we could see, it appeared to be a legitimate shipping outfit. We then made a Western Union payment of $300 to a "Dylan Gregory", exchanged a couple more emails with "Jennifer Miller and at that point all communications came to a halt and the tracking number provided by "TNT" did not actually work on their site. We then "Googled" Wolverhampton Depot and found info on the complaint about this scam. We have forward all of our email interactions to and called the local newspaper to do a story to alert any other unspecting individuals.
Ron & Paula
Charlottesville, Virginia
U.S.A.
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