Merchants Credit Guide Company - SCAM

[hammersley]

Check out this reference... .



http://www.chipford.com/ripoff/merchants.htm



I just received a notice that we "apparently owe some small amount to a company which we do not... . Sent the Governor an email - anybody here experience anything from them?????

 

[Royk]

Awesome, but I'm really waiting to see something substantial from the various agencies you've contacted. So far you've only won in the fact that you are no longer accountable for that "debt", but we want more!



You and I are much alike in this regard. I take a certain joy in fighting back against rip-off artists myself. It's kind of in the same vein as haggling a fantastic price on a big ticket item or catching a saleman in his lies/lack of knowledge about what he is trying to sell.



Since this scam was initiated through the US mail, you really need to contact the Postal Inspection Service and tell them you have a juicy mail fraud case for them to attack. They can be like pit bulls in many cases and have nationwide jurisdiction. When I joined the Postal Service in 1987, they were boasting a 98% conviction rate. I don't know what it is today though.



An excerpt from their "Who we are" page:



"As fact-finding and investigative agents, Postal Inspectors are federal law enforcement officers who carry firearms, make arrests and serve federal search warrants and subpoenas. Inspectors work closely with U. S. Attorneys, other law enforcement agencies, and local prosecutors to investigate postal cases and prepare them for court. There are approximately 1,970 Postal Inspectors stationed throughout the United States who enforce more than 200 federal laws covering investigations of crimes that adversely affect or fraudulently use the U. S. Mail and postal system. "



Their website is http://www.usps.com/websites/depart/inspect/



Their mail fraud page is here with a link to the Mail Fraud Complaint Form page: http://www.usps.com/websites/depart/inspect/fraud/welcome.htm



I've bookmarked your page but would appreciate if you would update this thread or PM me when you update it, because I bookmark a lot of things and they kind of get "out of sight, out of mind" since there are so many.



On a lighter note...



If you haven't already seen them, you may enjoy the p-p-p-powerbook pages ( http://www.p-p-p-powerbook.com/files/thepowerbook.pdf for the 28 page overview, or http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1016390 for the original 82! page thread) or the Nigerian 419 Scam revenge page ( http://www.ebolamonkeyman.com/ ). While they don't end in any convictions they are hilarious accounts of getting back at scammers. Once you start reading you won't to stop. I couldn't stop laughing! Just be aware that the humor and language can be quite crude, particularly in the Nigerian one.



Keep us up to date.



Roy

 

[JApol]

sending unsolicited email is a violation of most ISPs (internet Service Provider) Terms of Service (TOS). I don't know about outlook or other email programs but with YAHOO! go to options then general preferences and select full headers on all emails. As an example here is a copy of a TDR email





X-Apparently-To: ***@***.com via 206. 190. 49. 111; Tue, 12 Sep 2006 17:11:05 -0700

X-Originating-IP: [69. 61. 23. 10]

Return-Path: <webmaster@turbodieselregister.com>

Authentication-Results: mta320. mail. re4. ***.com from=turbodieselregister.com; domainkeys=neutral (no sig)

Received: from 69. 61. 23. 10 (EHLO turbodieselregister.com) (69. 61. 23. 10) by mta320. mail. re4. ***.com with SMTP; Tue, 12 Sep 2006 17:11:05 -0700

Received: from turbodieselregister.com (localhost [127. 0. 0. 1]) by turbodieselregister.com (8. 12. 9p2/8. 11. 0) with ESMTP id k8D02J03052636 for <***@***.com>; Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:02:19 GMT (envelope-from webmaster@turbodieselregister.com)

Received: (from webmaster@localhost) by turbodieselregister.com (8. 12. 9p2/8. 12. 3/Submit) id k8D02J4O052635; Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:02:19 GMT

Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:02:19 GMT

To: ***@***.com

Subject: "Great Smoke Stories!" update

From: "TDR Roundtable Forums" <rpatton@turbodieselregister.com> Add to Address BookAdd to Address Book Add Mobile Alert

Message-ID: <200609130003. dc3f46776783@www.turbodieselregister.com>

X-Priority: 3

X-Mailer: vBulletin Mail via PHP

MIME-Version: 1. 0

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Content-Length: 1542



Most of the information in the headers is not worth looking at but 2 lines.

One is the "Originating IP" and the other is the "To:" line.

If your email is not in the "To" line then the email is spam.

As I said before, SPAM is against most ISP TOS. The only line in the header that tells the absolute t ruth as all other info can be fakes is the Originating IP. Copy this and go to Broad Band Reports and paste the IP. You may need to go to another page to get actual results but it is well worth the time spent. When you get the information look for the -- email address removed -- or .com and forward the email to that address with the full header. If you don't send the full header there is nothing the ISP can do.

EDIT:

In the return path if there is a web based email provider there send it to -- email address removed -- also.

Also send all spam/scams to -- email address removed --