I have a power bench seat that I am selling on a couple of different sites and I just got an e-mail from a scammer who goes by the name JOE ROLAND. Everything was fine until he decided he wanted to buy it at which point he asked for name, full address an phone number, but declared he was a marine engineer out of the country and had to pay by money order only. He would pay me the full amount plus the money for the shipper. I only need cash the check and pay the shipper with the extra money when they arrive to pick it up. HUGE RED FLAG. Strike that. That is scammer 101 speak and you should run away. Watch out for idiots like this!
Maybe you could suggest that he send the check to the shipper to cash and then the shipper could give you the cash for your part when they pick it up. I'm guessing they won't like that arrangement at all.
Seems like someone is always coming up with a new way to rip people off, you'd think they would put all that energy into getting a job...?
This scam dates back at least two years. A simple Google search reveals that this same scam using the same info has been running that long. The best thing you can do is forward the e-mail to: spam@uce.gov reportphishing@antiphishing.org ... and then delete the any e-mails from the sender and have no more contact. Bear in mind, that much effort has been put into running these scams for years and pays way to well or them to bother getting a real job. I highly suggest getting the full name of someone who is buying or selling from/to you and then do a Google search plus the word "scam", "crook", "cheat", and "jail" before releasing any of your own personal information. The two minutes you spend up front could save you months of heartache and loss.
I've been looking at an item on eBay that is near the Grand Teton National Park, and can't decide if it is a scam or not. The seller is saying local pick up, but I want to get it shipped. I am afraid to send him money for fear that the money will disappear and the item will never arrive. He has suggested that I have someone ride with him to the trucking terminal to verify that it is shipped. Problem is that I don't know anyone in that area of the country to do this. It is a great deal, if it is real. Today, you have no idea who is or isn't a scammer. Sometimes, like the above post, it is clearly a scam, but the scammers are getting a lot more sophisticated.
Be sure to communicate through eBay and include all details there. If you have already communicated by phone, confirm all information via eBay messaging. Get the shippers name and contact info and get tracking information. Pay with PayPal. At that point, you should be covered. I just got back payment on a 428 SCJ crankshaft I purchased where the seller claimed it to be good having been machined then left to sit and had picked up some surface rust. In reality, it was a worn piece of junk. The journals were way out of spec and tapered, and the crank was cracked in 4 places. It took several weeks, but I got my money back including the original shipping, and eBay paid the return shipping. Hope this can help.
This is an $8500 whole house generator.. I doubt that PayPal is going to be covering that amount of money if the deal goes bad. I haven't checked lately, but the last time that I checked, it was something like $2500, if I remember correctly. thanks Junk..
I play them out, and then turn them in! Had one send me money orders over 90 days old - told them my bank said 'too old'!Replacements were POSTAL MONEY ORDERS, but Ben Franklin was smiling in the watermark! Postal Inspecters came and got them - bet someone's in deep $hit about now!
Contacted PayPal today, and got someone in some far off land that spoke broken English, and gave me a vague answer. Asked for a supervisor, and got a similar vague answer. The say that the money would be "recovered" from the seller, but couldn't say for certain what would happen if they run off with the money. They are well versed in double speak. After speaking to PayPal, they transfered me to a eBay specialist, who said that it is fully covered by the eBay / PayPal buyer protection plan. I made an offer to buy the unit using PayPal and the free shipping, and will see what the buyer has to say. Will let you know. Just hope that this auction isn't a scam...
The nice thing about postal money orders is that you can cash them at the post office, and they verify the serial number on the money order while you are there.
BEWARE... I thought I knew ALL the scammer signs...until one almost got by me. I was selling my motorcycle couple of years ago and pretty much ran into the same scammer story. This one, however seemed up front until he was ready to come and look/buy my bike. He didn't show that day, claims he had to take a "out of town" trip but would have a friend of his come and look at the bike to see if it was what he wanted, but he had a very small window to see it. I got home late that day, but not real late. Had a note.. "Couldn't wait" Red flag was not having a phone number for this guy. Anyway, a couple days later I had a letter stating he was sorry and he felt obligated to buy my bike. Said he was going to send my "wanted" price plus extra to ship it. A money order from HSBC came FedEx the following day. Just didn't seem right to me. I took the Money order to my bank and they told me that it looked good, but I was still not sure about things. So, I took the M/O to HSBC to check it it out. I knew something was wrong when the bank manager wanted to talk to me. She couldn't believe how real the M/O looked compared to a REAL HSBC M/O. The only difference was the size of the HSBC logo in the corner. It was even attached to a "live" account, and thats why my bank would have accepted it. I spent about a half hour there listening to how it all works, going against this account to this account and then not only are you STUCK paying for the money you withdrew from it, but you also GAVE something away... for FREE. Damn scammers. If it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't.
Forgot to add; Playing with a 'missionary in Africa' right now, on a 'too good to be true' house rental!
The bad thing is there is a $500 limit. Good luck if you make your purchase with eBay. I have been using eBay for more than 6 years now and to date have lost a total $20 that I couldn't recover from a purchase and probably another $50 or so in shipping costs. All before the more recent buyer-friendly rules that were implemented. I have probably a dozen or so cases where the item wasn't shipped or wasn't as described. In each case I have recovered the full amount and most cases shipping both ways. Just make sure you communicate through eBay so there is a record that they can look back at and it will go a long way to keeping you safe on your purchase. Take care and good luck!
