Steve's Blog

ATX Bench Top Power Supply

I bought a Sparkfun Benchtop Power Board Kit (KIT-09774) to convert an old ATX computer power supply I have into a benchtop power supply.

I could have simply bought the power posts and mounted them directly onto the power supply cover the same as the many examples that can be found with a Google search but I liked the idea of the fuses and the fact it is a plug in job in case the power supply dies and I need to use another one.

I’m happy with the kit, it came with everything needed including a power on LED. A switch to turn the power supply off and on (via the light green wire to ground) would be a nice touch, but it’s not to difficult for me to switch the power supply on and off at the power point as needed.

 

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Monitoring my Washing machine power consumption

I monitored the power consumption of my washing machine and was surprised by the results.

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Tags: Consumption, Drive, Energy, Fisher, monitoring, Paykel, Smart

Supercharging my UPS

I hope the charging circuit doesn’t melt when it has to recharge the higher capacity battery.

I’ve had a 600VA UPS forever. Surge protection for my modem / router (I’ve had to replace one after a lightning storm even though the whole estate is on underground phone and power). Surge protection for whatever I plug into it.

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Tags: Backup, UPS

New Victorian Motorcycle Number Plates

Rant on….

Got my rego bill today, along with a flyer about the new general issue number plates:

From Vicroads: http://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/ 

Important note: With the release of the new format motorcycle general issue plates from 22 October 2010, you have the option of changing your old format motorcycle general issue plate to the new plate at no cost. To do so, you must visit a VicRoads Customer Service Centre and be prepared to surrender your currently registered old format motorcycle plate upon change over. This offer does not apply for lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed motorcycle plates and owners who would already have the new format motorcycle general issue plate.

In the flyer it says:

Currently, motorcycle number plates may have the same character combinations as other vehicle types (such as cars with personalised plates) – this can cause confusion in the community.

General issue motorcycle plates will follow a new format – see the example below. This will avoid duplicating other states motorcycle number plate combinations.

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A scam, but how? Part II

Following on from this post A scam, but how? and all the comments that followed it, I engaged the next scammer to see how it all works. My scammer must have got suspicious or got cold feet and stopped contacting me.

I think the scam works by the scammer paying you the full amount for the order + shipping with a stolen credit card (even though they say at the beginning they will pick the order up), you then forward on payment to the bogus shipping company and that money is gone. You transferred it. The bank does a charge back on the stolen credit cards funds and now you’re out of pocket for the shipping cost that you voluntarily paid.

Here’s a copy and paste of my emails with the scammer…. The first email.

This is an enquiry e-mail via http://keemin.com.au from:
Mr. Bryan Moore

Hello Owner/Sales manager,

My name is Mr. Bryan Moore, and i am inquiring about safety switches. I want to know if you do have switches in stock at the moment? or if you can special order them for me? .Please if you can special order them for me, i will be very glad for you to email me back the prices for each of the switches listed below and i will let you know the quantity needed on each.

63A 2 Pole Hager earth leakage circuit breakers

RCD Neutral Link 5 Pole

12 POLE SWITCHBOARD FOR RCD CIRCUIT BREAKER ENCLOSURE

RCD / MCB Safety Switch 2 Pole 10A 16A 20A Switchboard

24 POLE DISTRIBUTION BOARD SWITCHBOARD CIRCUIT BREAKER

Please email me back the prices including GST only and excluding freight because i will be picking them up from your shop. Please also let me know the type of credit cards you do accept as payment and the % surcharge on them.

Thank you and i look forward to your reply shortly.

Kind regards,
Mr. Bryan Moore.

So I replied with some made up prices. (Please don’t try and buy these products from me for the same price, I can’t do it haha).

Hello Bryan,

We carry Hager earth leakage / RCD / safety switches in stock. They are on the shelf and available for immediate pickup. We accept all major credit cards including Visa, MasterCard, AMEX. We don’t charge a surcharge on credit card payments. We have an EFTPOS machine here and can process the payment when you come to pick the order up.

We will need 1 days notice if there is a large quantity of items required so we have time to pick them off the shelf and package the order up. Smaller quantities we can deal with as you walk in the door.

The actual pricing depends on the quantity required. I can list prices for 1 to 10 units. All ex GST (GST is 10% so please add 10% to the prices quoted) and they are ex freight.

Hagar 63A 2 pole earth leakage only circuit breakers pricing $24.50 ea
Neutral link 5 hole @ $2.50 ea
12 pole switchboard @ $11.00 ea
24 pole switchboard 2 $16.75 ea
RCD/MCB combination circuit breakers / safety switches 10A / 16A / 20A / 25A / 32A / 40Amp all $11.00

Regards,

Steve.

Now we have quantities to work with.

Hello Steve,
Thank you for the email. I will like you to get back to me with the total price for the quantity of the switches below.

63A 2pole Hager ELCB………….QTY :10

5pole Neutral Link …………..QTY :10

12pole Switchboard…………..QTY :10

MCB/RCD’s…………..QTY :10

24pole Switchboard…………..QTY :10

Please let me know the total cost for them and also let me know how soon you can get them ready for me if i make the full payment for you to place this order in.

Kind regards.
Mr Bryan Moore.

It must have been too hard for him to do the math so, I totalled the cost up for him using the made up prices already quoted (I nearly made a deliberate mistake to over quote and see if it was picked up, but decided against it).

Hi Bryan,

Hagar 63A 2 pole earth leakage only circuit breakers pricing $24.50 ea X 10 = $245.00

Neutral link 5 hole @ $2.50 ea X 10 = $25.00

12 pole switchboard @ $11.00 ea X 10 = $110.00

24 pole switchboard 2 $16.75 ea X 10 = $167.50

RCD/MCB combination circuit breakers / safety switches 10A / 16A / 20A / 25A / 32A / 40Amp all $11.00 X 10 = $110.00

Subtotal is $657.50 ex GST

GST is $65.75

——————–

Total is $723.25

——————–

If you send me an address I can mail a tax invoice out to you immediately.

These items are on the shelf and I can have them ready within the hour. If you wish to purchase them let me know when you’ll be in to pick them up and I’ll have them ready for you.

Regards,

Steve

Oh no, it’s being shipped overseas. A shipping company will quote on shipping to Africa, and pick the order up. I Googled the email addresses supplied and got a few hits with some anti scamming sites. Here we go. Notice his name mysteriously changed from Mr Bryan Moore to Mr Roland Woods.

Hi  Steve ,

Thank you very much for the quote  i will like to proceed with the order. At the moment, I will be shipping this order to a friend in Togo, The address is as below and i will like to use Long Way Shippers Ltd for this pick up. Their email address to contact them on my behalf is (longwayshippers@gmail.com OR longwayshippers@cooltoad.com) I want you to send them an email with the weight of this order, shipping and pick up address so they will provide you with a quote. As soon as you get the quote kindly let me know by emailing me with the cost so i will do the total payment for this order.  So please send them an email now and obtain a quote from them for me.

Please i want you to send an email to the shippers with the details below.

1. Your company location address.
2. My friends delivery address.
3. The Weight of the item.

SHIPPING DESTINATION
2985 Avenue de la Chance,
face rond-point GTA, BP 14327
Country Togo-City  Lomé

I will be looking forward to your reply.

Best Regards…..
Mr Roland Woods.

So I sent an email to his shipping company.

Hello,

I am contacting you on behalf of Mr Bryan Moore.

The order packaged weight is 68kg

Pickup address is:

167 Made Up Street

Another Suburb, Victoria

Postcode Australia.

Delivery address is attached below.

From: Bryan Moore [mailto:mrbryan200@gmail.com]

Sent: Friday, 15 October 2010 11:59 AM
To: sales
Subject: Re: Keemin website: Switches order.

Hi  Steve ,

Thank you very much for the quote  i will like to proceed with the order. At the moment, I will be shipping this order to a friend in Togo, The address is as below and i will like to use Long Way Shippers Ltd for this pick up.Their email address to contact them on my behalf is (longwayshippers@gmail.com OR longwayshippers@cooltoad.com) I want you to send them an email with the weight of this order,shipping and pick up address so they will provide you with a quote.As soon as you get the quote kindly let me know by emailing me with the cost so i will do the total payment for this order. So please send them an email now and obtain a quote from them for me.

Please i want you to send an email to the shippers with the details below.

1. Your company location address.
2. My friends delivery address.
3. The Weight of the item.

SHIPPING DESTINATION
2985 Avenue de la Chance,
face rond-point GTA, BP 14327
Country Togo-City  Lomé

I will be looking forward to your reply.

Best Regards…..
Mr Roland Woods.

I got a prompt reply from the Shipping Company. The shipping address has changed, actually the destination country has changed if I read it right but I ignored this like I ignored the name change.

Dear Valued Customer,

Thanks a lot for contacting  Long Way Shipping Company for all your shipping needs.We wish to inform you that our company is capable of coming to your location to pick up the merchandise up and ship it to the destination.Please below will be the break down for the freight cost which include custom duties at the receiver port,These means the receiver won’t pay for receiving the merchandise.

Shipping cost: $2100.26
Tax: $250.15
Administration: $310.89
Customer Duties: $590.00
Grand total: $3251.3 AUD.

Payment Option: Please our company accept payment via bank transfer only and payment has to be made to our main head office in Ghana where all invoice are made,And payment has to be sent to the accountant department to the accountant bank details below.

Bank Details for the wire transfer.

Bank Name: Ecobank Ghana Ltd.
Beneficiary Name: Nicholas Kwabena
Beneficiary Bank: Ring Road Central
Bank Address : 2121 Ring Road Street.
Beneficiary Account: 2122284301019
Beneficiary Swift #: Ecocghac
Beneficiary City : Accra
Beneficiary Country :  Ghana
Beneficiary Zip-Code: 00233
Telephone number: +233245611005

Beneficiary Address:

Beneficiary Name: Nicholas Kwabena
Beneficiary Address: 204 Farm lane Ave.
Beneficiary Zip-Code: 00233
Beneficiary Country :  Ghana
Beneficiary City : Accra
Telephone number: 233242302925

Please as soon as the wire transfer is completed kindly  scan and email us back a copy of the wire transfer receipt which will serve as a way of retrieving or clearing funds. Our shipping cost are valid for only 10 days and after 10 days it is expected to be a rise to the shipping cost, So please kindly make the payment to us as your earliest convenient to avoid any increase in the shipping cost. Thanks again for choosing us and please don’t hesitate to get back us if you have any pick up or shipment.

Faithful  Yours,
Nicholas Kwabena
Accountant department.

So I tell Mr Roland Woods (< I used the new name instead of Mr Bryan Moore) what the quoted amount is. I offer to get a 2nd price as I know our shipping company can do better 🙂 I also tell him to let me know when “he” has paid the shipping company.

Hi Roland,

I contacted the shipping company as per your request: I’ve copied and pasted their email here:

(Do you want me to get a quote from our shipping company? I think we could do better than $3152.30AUD)

Let me know when you have paid them and when pickup will be so I have the order ready to go.

Thanks,

Steve.

Oh no, his Father is sick, there will be no personal paying as he’s not only out of town, he’s out of the country. Of course he’s happy with the shipping quote. We’re back to being Bryan Moore.

Hello Steve,
Thank you for the email. I will like you to know that at the moment am not in town my father is very sick in Canada so i have with him for 5 days now so at the moment am in Canada. So what i want you to do is that i will like you to add the shipping cost to the cost of the switches and email me back with the grand total cost including gst and credit cards % charge and i will provide my credit card details fro you to charge the full amount before you to go ahead to place the order and also pay the shipping company on my behalf.So
Email me back with the grand total cost so we can proceed as soon as possible and also am OK with the shipping cost.

Mr Bryan Moore.

Again I have to do the math. So I add the two prices together.

Hello Bryan,

The cost of the circuit breakers and switchboards was $723.25

The cost of shipping is $3251.30

We don’t charge a credit card surcharge.

For a grand total of $3974.55

Regards,

Steve.

That was the last email.

My boss said I had a call and I was surprised when I answered and heard a deep dark voice saying “Hello Steve, this is Bryan Moore”. He asked me to go to our EFTPOS machine to punch in some credit card numbers. I wasn’t quick enough, I should have pretended to enter them and said the machine said card declined. What I did say was that the machine was in our other office (the truth) and I’ll be going up there within two hours so can enter them in then. So he gave me the numbers, the name off the card (Not his name), expiry date and the 3 digit code off the back. He said he would call me back in a couple of hours to check that I’d done it and that the transaction went through OK.  When he made that call our caller ID showed the number and it was a Sydney area code. He would have got our number off the company website. The website ‘contact us’ form was used to initially contact us.

A little while later the phone rang again, this time from a blocked number, it was Mr Bryan Moore asking me not to process those credit card numbers but to wait for him to call me with another card. I guess the one he initially gave me was reported stolen / missing or had been frozen and he found out after giving me the numbers.

He hasn’t called back or emailed me since.

I rang the police and gave them a brief of what had gone down and the credit card details and left it with them. They asked me to forward on any more card details he might give me.

Tags: Bryan, Long, Longway, longwayshippers@cooltoad.com, longwayshippers@gmail.com, Moore, mrbryan200@gmail.com, Roland, Scam, Shippers, Way, Woods