Hopatcong Resident Scammed Out Of MacBook: Police

HOPATCONG, NJ — A Hopatcong resident lost their MacBook after falling for a Craigslist scam, police said.

Police said the resident, who they did not name, was trying to sell a MacBook computer on Craigslist when a man claiming to be a Marine messaged her, saying he wanted to buy it for his daughter for Christmas.

The man told the woman to send the computer to 473 Mundet Place in Hillside, and said he would pay for it using PayPal after it shipped. The victim was not familiar with PayPal, police said, and believed emails that said she needed to ship it before receiving payment (Paypal says they did not send those emails).

After the man told the victim he owned her $500, and the woman could refund him, did she realized it was a scam, police said.

Hopatcong Police contacted officers in Hillside, who said 437 Mundet Place is a mail forwarding company.

Hopatcong Lt. Tom Kmetz shared all of the red flags he saw in the transaction:

• Almost immediately she received a response for the MacBook. That is weird. My red flag just went up.
• The criminal said he was US Marine. Who cares who you are? The criminal put that in there to put a false sense of security into the victims head. The red flag is flying higher.
• This "Marine" needed to buy the item for his daughter for Christmas. Again, who cares? This is a business deal. He is playing on the victims heartstrings. The flag is flying higher.
• He asked to go through PayPal. Why? Why not just meet and exchange? Now the red flag is blowing in the wind.
• The victim received multiple "verification emails" that the item must be shipped first, before money will be available. HUGE RED FLAG. (Watch the Christmas Carol where Scrooge tells the businessmen, "I do not ship my corn until I have cash in hand". Scrooge may have been a mean old man, but he was good at business. Now we learn two important lessons from that movie)
• The victim had the address but did not use google to look it up. This was an $1100.00 sale. You need to do some research when you are selling on a website. Looking up the address would have raised a red flag. "Why am I sending a MacBook to Imperial foods? US Marines do not work at Imperial Foods. I am taking my red flag home and cancelling this deal. I will wait until someone local can meet me "cash in hand" (And I get their license plate number just in case).
• By the time the criminal said he needed to pay the victim $500.00 only to be refunded, the MacBook was shipped and the crime was complete.- Scammers make mistakes. They are greedy. Here we see a ton of red flags. None were looked into. Time is on your side. SELLER BEWARE. Ba humbug.

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