I got this letter from someone from eBay...

[Mole 0]

Okay, I got this random e-mail today from somebody on eBay. Here is the first letter:

 

Hello, our company is looking for foreign partner (person or organization) in United States to represent our firm and accept payments on our behalf for a reward of certain percentage of sales amount. Payments will come for our goods from US buyers in form of paypal payment, cashier's check or m/order. No personal funds needed for beginning, all relations will be controlled by the signed contract. Further information is available on request. Get back to me as soon as you can. Cordially, Deondre

 

So I responded back, just to see what the deal was. And this is what they said:

 

Hello again,

 

Thank you for response. Please read below for further details.

 

Index

 

i) Who we are.

ii) What our business is. Our mission.

iii) Why we need partnership and agent.

iv) What we sell. Volume.

v) How we ship the merchandise.

vi) How we transfer the money.

vii) What you do. Clear time. Fees.

viii) Current and future opportunities.

ix) Our contract.

x) How we resolve issues.

xi) Responsibilities.

 

 

i) Who we are.

 

We are company named ETD Inc. We are nationwide in Russia, our headquarters are in Saint-Petersburg.

Our staff includes 135 people, we run 14 offices and 8 demo-rooms.

Currently we experience expansion and plan to enlarge our business.

 

ii) Our business. Mission.

We are a middle-scaled dealership company. Our mission is to sell and deliver at a lower price than competitors can. We strive to make our customer satisfied and happy with his purchase. In near future we plan to run our own producing lines.

ETD is interested in new ideas, business partners, modern business solutions and always does its best to optimize the whole business process. Our agents seek for new opportunities and start great contracts with dealers of leading trademarks.

Talented Russian and Ukrainan engineers work hard day by day to develop new medical tools, devices and instruments. Since the government does not provide them with enough financial possibilites, they are looking for support abroad. We help them with that. Let's benefit together allowing society to use these great inventions.

 

iii) Why we need partnership and agent.

We have checked with Paypal, they do not have Russia in their list of countries. Our customers from neighbour countries state that it takes up to a week to transfer funds from your account to a real bank account. It works much faster in United States as PP was developed mainly for US customers. More, fee it charges is greater for out-of-US countries.

As for checks and money orders, we can cash them here ourselves but banks charge alot of money for such operation and they hold them for up to 1.5 months. All this makes such time range and fee schedule inacceptable for healthy and efficient business, that's why we are ready to pay percentage to agent. Completing financial turnover  and having more transactions is more important for us even if we earn a bit less, than one transaction per month with convenient fee schedule.

This point is very important. Another thing is that having a representative in USA will give us greater opportunities than if we did someting on our own. In fact, if we decide to open our branch location ourselves - it will be very complicated if even possible.

Having a local agent will simplify and make the whole procedure faster. This is also an area of future discussions (topic viii).

 

iv) What we sell. Volume.

Our product range is very different. It varies from general consumer electronics to agricultural machines i.e. tractors, spare parts etc. We do not sell or distribute anything illegal or stolen. We guarantee the quality of our goods. Our merchandise is provided with limited warranty.

Our feature is a 'know-how' product line. Virtually there are no analogues worldwide or the prices are astronomic.

 

Volume. Once our partnership starts, we estimate transactions worth $3,000..$15,000 per week. This number will raise in future. We plan to conduct several deals per week (depending on demand and stock availability).

 

v) How we ship the merchandise.

We have pending contracts with shipping carriers like DHL, UPS, FedEx and others. To ship larger items we use special means of delivery. We ship items fast and fully insured.

 

vi) How the money is transferred.

Our common clearing tools in transactions are cash and domestic wire transfers. Due to current expansion we will start accepting new forms of payment: Paypal, Cashier's checks, Money Orders. It is very possible that in the nearest future we will link our website to payment processor(s) to accept credit cards directly.

To deliver funds to company we plan that you use Western Union and international wire transfers.

 

vii) What you do.  Clear time. Fees.

You will accept funds coming as a payment for our goods as:

- payment to your paypal account

- cashier's check/money order

 

After the funds are accepted and cleared you will then forward it to our payment credentials minus the appropriate fees.

You get your 10

EFORE you forward any money and AFTER it's in your hand (after all withdrawing charges). It means if you withdrew $700 and have it in cash you get $70 and send us $630 minus forwarding fees.

 

When we start our transactions, you will not need to market anything, to list auctions for us, we will do it ourselves.

Also you won't need to handle the shipping process as it might cost additional time and money.

 

We understand that it takes certain time to cash the check and withdraw funds from paypal account.

 

ETD authorizes you to pay the fees at our expense (paypal fees, western union fees, wire fees etc).

 

viii) Current and future opportunities.

When both parties (you and us) experience that we can do more, we will open an establishment in your area (distributor office with hired staff), you will be the candidate to manage the financial flows and control subordinates. This will be reviewed further and the appropriate decision will be taken (of course if you are interested to grow with us).

 

ix) Our contract.

We will provide you with our contract in Adobe PDF format or in Microsoft Word DOC format to print out, sign and fax back to us.

 

x) How we resolve issues.

If something that was not mutually planned occurs we take all the appropriate measures to eliminate the problem. This means that both parties act in an issue resolution.

 

xi) Responsibilities.

We are responsible:

- sell the items and ship them in time. We will do our best to make it as good as possible cutting off all possible delays.

- notify you of upcoming deals including amounts and payment method.

- cover additional charges and your service fee

 

You are responsible:

- forward the money in time.

- keep in touch and answer emails and phone calls.

- pay attention and expect the incoming sales.

 

Both parties are responsible:

- solve the problems that may arise.

- strive to increase efficiency of mutual transactions.

 

P.S. Please reply back to -e-mail-, we are moving to new hosting provider soon so fxplosion.com may not be available.

 

Sincerely,

Deondre

 

Should I do this? Or does this sound too sketchy?

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Dear god, no.

[Golgo 13 0]

On the other hand, I think this is a great opportunity. I suggest you take part. Post updates, also.

[Guest Temet]

It's legit. However, I think to be safe you should scope out their headquarters in St Petersburg to be sure, maybe get acquainted with Russia while you're at it so you can be certain that they're a reputable company.

[Dr. Tom 0]

SCAM SCAM SCAM.

 

It's strikingly similar to the Nigerian scam. I've gotten a fake email or two from eBay, but they were about account stuff, and rather obvious fakes once I read them.

[Highland 0]

I'd avoid doing business in Russia if I were you, because....

[Mole 0]

Yeah, I have a feeling I could die if I do this.

 

Something to do with the Mob with my luck.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Yup, scam.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

It's strikingly similar to the Nigerian scam.

Is that the one with the lawyer saying there's hundreds of millions of dollars of his that he's not allowed to get and needs you to give him some cash and he'll give you double of what you gave him?

 

(or something similar -- it's been a while since he's contacted me...)

[Dr. Tom 0]

It's not always a lawyer, but it's some supposed VIP from Nigeria, or some other bumfuck country. The gist is that they need to transfer large sums of money and need a willing, genial American to help them. You get a cut of the millions you're allegedly transferring, and golly, all they need is your bank account information. Once you give them that, of course, some money transferring does occur, but not the kind you'd like to see.

 

Many stupid people have fallen for this, making "a fool and his money are soon parted" a truism for all times.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I just got another letter in the mail today offering me a credit card. Haha..those dumb bastards. Don't they know how irresponsible I am?

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

It's not always a lawyer, but it's some supposed VIP from Nigeria, or some other bumfuck country.

One time I did a Google image search for the name of the town the guy e-mailed me from. Funny stuff -- I doubt they had running water, let alone an Internet connection...

[DerangedHermit 0]

You fucking dumbass Mole.

 

What the fuck did they teach you at Southampton?

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Perhaps there's some connection to the fact his college is shutting down...

[Mole 0]

You fucking dumbass Mole.

 

What the fuck did they teach you at Southampton?

Nothing.

[Guest BDC]

I'm royalty from Nigeria. Please disregard the fact that I can't spell royalty. Or Nigeria...

 

Hey, on the other hand, I'm sure someone wants to make your penis bigger and then refinance it for you.

[Youth N Asia 0]

I've gotten crap like this before, I just mark it as spam

[Dr. Tyler; Captain America 0]

Do it.

[Mole 0]

This is their website.

[Hank Kingsley 0]

Come on you guys, just because he's Mole doesn't mean you can play this cruel joke on him.

 

It's legit, Mole. Only a few people have been telling the truth, but you really should do this. My uncle told me about it, and he's swimming in money these days.

[Mole 0]

Yeah then I'll be dead because I'll fuck up with the money and the mob will be after me.

 

Your sarcasm isn't needed Superstar. Ass.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

Yeah then I'll be dead because I'll fuck up with the money and the mob will be after me.

 

Your sarcasm isn't needed Superstar. Ass.

So, the pot who assumes all Russians are evil mobsters is calling Super-kettle-star Nigerian because of unfound sarcasm?

 

Dude, they're sending you a contract, a legally binding document. If you don't like it, don't sign it. The only way you could fuck it up is if you were lazy/looking to cheat them or if you mess up your taxes.