Australian man taken in ticket scam

Shameless scammer gloats about heist to St Kilda victim:

A man from St Kilda in Austarlia was taken for $1000 after falling for a phony airline ticket scam on craigslist. To make matters worse when the scammer received the money he bragged to the victim that he had been scammed.

The scammer, who called himself Ian Mora, used emails including travel advice, scans of a dummy passport and even web links to news about the anticipated flight.

But in his final email after receiving a $999 deposit, Mora revealed the ploy.

“I made sure I used an internet cafe in downtown Wellington so there would be no trace,” Mora wrote.

“Then my computer genius mate downloads … masking software to further distort the trail …

“Tracing the passport will lead to Timbuktu? North Pole? I made sure that I took the $999 from a Western Union branch here with no surveillance camera.”

The victim thought he could sniff out a scam but was taken in by Mora’s showmanship.

“We established an online rapport to the point where I was emailing him to ensure he received the part payment.”

craigslist’s mouthpiece actually had some useful advice for once…

Craigslist.org spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best said site users were warned about scams.

“The number one warning is to only do business with people you can meet in person and whom you can deal with in cash,” she said.

Or as I like to say…local only, cash only. And even then there’s still potential to be ripped off.

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