Scam artist thwarted by Caledonia man
By David Heiller
Argus News Editor

It didn’t take Mike Colleran of Caledonia long to figure out the scam, and to turn it on its head.

His story is funny in a way, yet it carries a serious message to be very wary of offers that look legitimate.

Here’s what happened. On February 18, Colleran, 36, received an e-mail reply about a vehicle he had listed for sale for $6,995 on a car web site in Rochester, Minnesota.

The person sending the e-mail, identified himself as Gray Pitt of Montreal, Canada. Pitt said he owned a company that bought cars for clients. He asked if the car was still available, and to send photos of the interior. Colleran thought “Great,” and e-mailed him back with the photos.

Pitt next sent an e-mail saying that his client was on a two week vacation in Saudi Arabia. Pitt said he had a cashier’s check of $14,000 because the client had wanted to buy a tractor. The client had changed his mind and wanted to buy the car, Pitt wrote. Pitt wanted Colleran to cash the check and mail the difference, or $7,005. Pitt signed this e-mail, “Thanks and God Bless.”

Pitt said one of the client’s agents would be picking up the car later.

The certified check for $14,000 was delivered to Colleran by UPS on February 28. In another e-mail that day, Pitt asked to send the $7,005 by a Western Union Wire/Money Transfer to the client’s agent, Deborah Martins in Miami, Florida.

“At that point basically in my mind I was getting a cashier’s check, so I would have cared less about anything else, and I was getting the price for the car,” Colleran said.

That’s was the key to the scam: take the check to the bank, cash it, keep the $6,995, and send the rest to the agent.

Colleran didn’t do that. Warning bells started sounding. He does a lot of business with Western Union, because his wife is from Brazil. He knows there are strict regulations with wire transfers. He called Quillins IGA and talked to Lori Thillen, who told him that there is a $2,000 cap on what could be sent via Western Union.

Thillen also had heard of a similar scam from a guy who had been selling a motorcycle. She told Colleran to be careful.

Colleran next went to Bank of the West branch in Caledonia and showed the cashier’s check to Dianne Schuldt. She said it it looked OK, but she went ahead and called the bank that it was issued from. They checked the account and asked how many signatures were on the check. Just one, Dianne said. Anything over $2,500 was supposed to have two signatures, she was told. Colleran then got in touch to the bank’s fraud department, who told him that it was a counterfeit check. The bank official also said he sees a lot of scams like this.

Colleran sent the bank a copy of the check. Then he filed a complaint with Caledonia Police Chief Randy Shefelbine, who got him in touch with the FBI office in Rochester. Colleran went to Rochester and met with them. He set up a three-way call with Pitt and an FBI agent, who posed as Colleran’s accountant in order to glean more information. That didn’t yield any results.

Colleran then wrote to Pitt suggesting that the agent come pick up the car, then go to the bank with him to receive the $7,005. That didn’t work. Colleran suggested he drive to Florida and deliver the car and the money to Debora Martins.

“They didn’t go for that,” Colleran said. “They don’t want the car, they just want the extra money. They know they can be caught that way.”

Colleran said at this point he started going back and forth with Pitt. “I just wanted him to waste his time.”

Pitt’s e-mails had change their tone by this time. There were no more closings with “God Bless.” Pitt had his attorney “Williams Bob Taylor, Esq.,” send an e-mail on March 4 saying that Colleran was in breach of contract and might be charged for negligence.

“Let me just inform you,” the lawyer added, “that at this point that my client’s wife, due to her hypertensive illness, because of all this stress has broke down.”

On March 8, Pitt wrote an e-mail saying that the attorney had reported this issue to the FBI. “And they will be contacting you soon.”

Colleran replied that he didn’t want trouble with the FBI, so he would send the money. He did so, but with wrong numbers on the transfer. More e-mails from Pitt followed trying to clear this up. Colleran said he wasted another week of the guy’s time, then finally told him that he knew all about the scam. That ended their correspondence. “He was p----- off because I basically wasted his time,” Colleran said.

Gray Pitt, undoubtedly a false name, had a bit of an accent, Colleran said. The FBI told him that Pitt could have been part of a Nigerian group which is known to run this scam.

It is a good con game, Colleran said, because you as a seller are worried about your asset, and trying to get paid in a secure manner. A cashiers check is normally secure because they have to have money in the bank to get the check issued.

The FBI told Colleran that it does work. It’s a numbers game, Colleran added. For example, if 10 percent of 10,000 people answer the first e-mail, that’s 1,000 people. And if 10 percent of those people receive the cashiers check, that’s 100 people. If 10 percent of those people actually send the money, that’s 10 people sending an average check of $5,000. That makes a profit of $50,000.

“Cashier’s checks aren’t as secure as you think they are,” Colleran cautioned. Even with a local one, it’s good idea to call on it, he said. If it’s over $2,500, it should have two different signatures.

Beware of scams

Caledonia Police Chief Randy Shefelbine has heard other recent reports of scams besides the one described here.

He gave The Argus an alert on one of them in which a person receives notice of winning a lottery. The person is sent a check, which he is to cash and wire the money to an address. The check is bogus, but the bank where you cash the check won’t know it’s no good for about 14 days. By then it’s too late, because you’ve sent the money to the fake lottery, and the bank where you cashed the check will come after you for their money.

Con games like this seems to pick up in the spring, Shefelbine said. He urged people to be on the lookout for them.

Caledonia Argus
121 West Main
P.O. Box 227
Caledonia, MN 55921-0227
507/724-3475

E-Mail: editor.argus@ecm-inc.com

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