top506

Response to a recent CL posting:

Hello,
Thanks for the details. I'm buying this for my son. Your asking price
is quite reasonable and affordable considering others I've seen
lately,I'll take it. I'll proceed with the payment and I believe it is
in good condition as stated. I really want this as a surprise gift
for my son so I won't let him know anything about this until it get
delivered to him. I'll be paying you by Certified Bank Check which is
attached to my bank and its safe and very secure way to make payment.
If my mode of payment is accepted just send me the following details
for the payment:

Name to be on the Check_____________
Home or office address(No P.O.BOX)___
City__State__Zip Code_______________
Phone Numbers_____________________
Final Price___________________

The payment will be delivered to you by USPS and I will send my
shipper to pick it up from you once the check has been cashed. I will
add extra $50 to your asking price as I want you to delete the ad
immediately and hold it for me.

Hope to hear from you with the details to speed up this process.

All the best to you,



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photogravity

Nice! Which bicycle was this for? The extra $50 will be nice to have.

David Newton

So what was the final price?
Please don't tell his son, the Nigerian prince, about this, I would hate to spoil his royal birthday.

rhm

There must be a way to outscam these scammers. I mean, if he sends you a check that can be turned into cash... not that I'm the guy to try it.

SJX426 

Wow, this is still running around?! I got one of these maybe 10 years ago when I was selling my CB100F.

David Newton

We have a little local buy-n-sell website that I keep an ad running for my repair business, a great resource locally.
The scammers have finally found it and regularly I get email asking if my repairs are still available and what is the final price. An agent is coming by soon to pick up my "item". I think they mean my repairs.
I finally told one that I was turning this info over the the FBI, I bet they are shaking in their boots, or bare feet, what-ever.

Wanderer

Cash it at his bank!

The Golden Boy 

A few years ago my brother in law was selling a drum on CL. It was a huge (18"?) Rodgers floor tom.

He got an email from some guy who wanted to pay some money down and hold the drum until his band came through in a month or so and he'd get tickets and stuff. I thought it was lame (who wants to waste a Monday night going to a dive bar to see a ****ty band) and told him not to do it- he had no other bites on it- so he said OK.

Turns out the dude was Marco, the drummer from Robert Plant's Band Of Joy- scored 13th row tickets free and the after bar party. My sister in law couldn't come, so he invited me.

holden west

I replied to one of those fake ads promising free purebred puppies. Using an alternate email account I strung them along for a few days with a series of increasingly implausible emails in dubious taste until they gave up on me. I highly recommend this hilarious time-wasting approach.

MikesChevelle

theScamBaiter - Embrace the Bucket

Browse this forum, these guys a masters at screwwing with scammers.

oldbikenewbike

Tell him that you've forwarded this info to the local Police Dept. which includes his return email address. They'll have no problem learning his address and phone number.

top506

Funny thing; the other bike I posted (a 50cm Miyata 1000) was responded to by a party in Chicago. After a few e-mails the transaction went by the numbers (including a $100 pack and ship fee) and the buyer was very happy with a stablemate to their 610. Went so smoothly in fact that as soon as I get my FedEx statement I'm going to refund all but the actual shipping charges to the customer.

Top

eschlwc

what's the scam in the op? just to learn your name and phone number? there are lots of those printed in those huge, old, yellowish books.

Thumpic

I got one yesterday.....A TEXT!?!....I expect emails; but on my phone? I asked him a bunch of questions about how, when, explain again, yadayada....he finally quit and I blocked him.

RobbieTunes

Well, you did re-up a bunch of times....

I always wondered what would happen if you answered them, and then delivered some box o' parts.

One of my friends asked one of those guys, "do you get away with this?" He answered "sometimes."

RobbieTunes

The scam eventually is to get an account number. They can already get your SSN and other stuff, cross-reference it, and start using your ID.

RobbieTunes

Magic things happen in the land of Les Paul.

I'm selling my Y-Foil, and a guy wants it, without wheels, in two weeks when he gets paid, because he just got a job. Another guy wanted the wheels, and had no PayPal account, lives in another state. I told him postal M/O only; he sent Western Union. It took 4 days to clear, but I shipped the wheels, tossed another set on the Y-Foil, and rode it 30 miles today. If the "can you wait 2 weeks" guy comes through, fine, but even CL is getting shaky. Then again, I want some stuff with that Y-Foil coinage....I have to be flexible.

pcb 

I think the primary fraud is the certified check will be bogus. So you as seller lose both the payment and your merchandise. Any additional personal info they can get from you to aid in potential future scams is icing on their cake.

OldsCOOL

That's pretty cool!

eschlwc

the message reads that product will be received after check is "cashed." i read "cashed" the same as "clears." that's why i asked.

if it didn't read as scam, i would ask the party to use paypal, or no sale.

CroMo Mike 

It can actually take weeks for a check to "clear". If it bounces back to your bank 3 weeks later, the bank charges it back to your account and you lose. It's doubtful that the guy will send you a check drawn on a local bank where you can walk in and cash it directly over the counter. So, likely he will send a counterfeit check, you deposit it to your account, he waits a couple days, a guy comes to your house and collects the bike, weeks later you get a call from your bank. We had a few people around here get screwed on this kind of scam selling $15K used cars.

pcb 

This is all IIRC, I haven't looked into the details of certified check scams for a while. The way it works, again IIRC, is it can take your bank 2-3 wks to discover the check is bogus. They will allow you to deposit the check, and access the funds almost immediately. When the bank discovers the check is fraudulent, weeks later, you have to pay them back the full amount. One variant on the scheme has the seller accepting a check for significantly more than the selling price, because the buyer owes the fellow picking up the item some money. "I'll send a check for $2,000 for your $1,000 item. Please give my friend $500 cash when he picks up the item, and keep the additional $500 for your trouble." In this scenario you're out an extra $500.

Might be worth mentioning here I recently spoke with someone who sold $2k+ of non-bike gear on CL and got paid in counterfeit bills. She didn't get to the bank till the day after payment/exchange, so the sham buyers were long gone. I've seen some CL ads for high-ticket items state that the transaction would only happen in a bank, with bills checked for authenticity before handing over the item. Not necessarily a worry for cheaper items, but maybe worth considering if you list that Confente or whatever.

eschlwc

can't you just ask your bank to inform you when the check clears?

i may be the dumb guy in the thread title.

i did receive as payment a check for a univega i sold a college student. both were very pretty. she didn't look like the type that would commit a federal crime, so i accepted without worry.

Fred Smedley

I just tell those guys to have their shipper bring cash and they always go away.

753proguy

In Nigeria? And then what? They spoof e-mail addresses and use stolen cell 'phones that are not traceable.....