i listed my bike on the local craigslist classified and instantly got a bunch of responses... most of them are normal but this particular one kinda sticks out...

initially his bad english tipped me off.. and then he insinuates that he is international (or, atleast, not local).. then there's the surprising generosity in the 2nd email.. and who in the hell has a shipping agent? who would go through such lengths for an old bike anyways (asking price 100$)

it seems like some kind of tangent off of the nigerian money scam... but this time m the seller. perhaps he'll send me a bad check and then pick up my bike? i obviously dont know until the whole thing pans out further but right now it smells oh-so-fishy. this sounds familiar to anybody?



btw, im probably not going to go further with this guy as the first guy to inquire seemed very set on the purchase

Extra money for your trouble, shipping agent, counterfeit cashiers' check are all part of a popular scam. You hand over your bike and a week later receive notice from your bank about the bad cachiers' check. You're screwed....

yeah, figures. well i suppose i'll just fish him along, wait till the usps/fedex/ups man comes, and then have him ship a large rock so the scammer can pay for a heavy package :D

Do yourself a favor, DO NOT RESPOND. This is a classic scam and you may be asking for further aggravation if engage this guy.

Hope this helps,

ehenz

Yes it is a scam. It has been going on for some time now. They wait until you ship the bike and then cancel the check. If you wait until you get the money in hand (not just the check, actual money) before shipping you will be fine but that wont happen.

:beer:

You're correct, it is a scam, but this one is a little different. The way they work it is they tell you they have a cashiers check, from a 'client', drawn on a US bank in US dollars, and the amount is over the selling price of your item. An example would be you are selling your bike for $1000.00, and they want to pay you with a check for $5,500.00. They then tell you that because it is a cashiers check your bank will credit your account with the $5,500.00, and you are to sent the 'excess funds' to their 'shipping agent' via Western Union or MoneyGram. The cashiers check they send you is a counterfeit, you deposit the check, you send the excess funds to the 'shipping agent' via Western Union and when the bad check comes back from the issuing bank as no good, you bank will debit your account the amount of the bad check.

I've underlined some key words that are commonly used in their e-mail scams. These are big red flags words!

They are not interested in your bike, that's small potatoes. They want your money. Their shipping agent is merely the receiver of your money. No one comes to pick up the bike. If these guys ever set foot in the U.S. they would be arrested. The U.S. Secret Service is the agency that handles these and other similar scams, and they are flooded with them

I just received the below e-mail in response to a bike for sale ad I posted. It illustrates exactly what I said in my above post and is very typical of this scam. If you receive a solicitation like this: SCAM! SCAM! SCAM!

"My client has finally accepted your price,he hopes the engine is
serviced and oil changed too .He cant wait to see the bike parked in his
garage.
However,My client made out a certified cashiers check of($12000) before
he travelled to japan on a business trip,for a previous car and its
shipment charges etc,but it was unfortunately sold.The amount on the check
he deposited for the car is bigger than what should be paid to you
now, so the check is now meant for the total expenses which includes the
purchase of your bike,the pick up of the bike from its present location
and the shipping charges/other necessary shipping arrangements.
However he has instructed me to carry on with this transaction. So you're
required to deduct the cost of your bike($2995.00)and send the balance
of($9005) to my client via western union money transfer to enable him
offsett shipping charges/arrangements.once the transaction is concluded,My
agent will be coming for the pick up of the bike from its present
location, on an open vehicle and then drive to a pre paid shipper for
shipment,and also conclude other necessary shipping arrangements.so you
dont have to bother yourself about the pick up and shipping
arrangements,while title papers and other necessary documets will be sent by
you via fedex courier to my customer."

I recently put a keyboard up for sale on a popular musicians website and 90% of the offers I got were scams of this type.. around 6 or 7 different scammers all with the same game.. ! I just tell them to F off it helps relieve tension ! : )

even con men cant invent their own game anymore!!! so they're lets see.. immoral thiefs, who are lazy.. and stupid! lol

guys please go to http://www.p-p-p-powerbook.com/ this is hilarious, I wish we could do this to all of the scammer low lifes!!

~Steve

just go for a strict "cash only, and payment due when the bike leaves my hands". That weeds out 99.9% of the scammers, leaving only money forgers....and has anyone ever actually seen a money forger?

or you take the fake cashier's check, frame it witha brass tag "Someone tryed to scam me and all I got was the fake f**king check", and just sit on it. Get a PO Box for one month for this....it's not like they are going to take criminal action over it...plus if it's a PO Box, your not giving away your home addy...safer that way. Oh, and don't let em get the bike till teh check clears, k? ;)

I bought a bike from a craiglist add. The lady told me she was so glad and relieved to have a genuine person buy her bike. She had almost sold her bike to a person using a similar international scam. The person used the same form letter with fill-in-the-blank names and prices, and poor spelling. He was very generous and was willing to pay extra for her trouble to ship the bike. Luckily she got suspicious and backed out.

These scammers seem to hunt on craigslist. Do not reply to those emails.

-Shimpie

i live in a housing co-op so ill give him the main house address but not my specific room/suite. he has my email and name.. but, especially being foreign and all, there wont be much that he can or will pull. i have this OLD motobecane frame that my friend broke last week (headtube lug cluster broke off and fork bended)... we were going to throw it in the dumpster but i guess ill give it to the scammer as a gift :D

I dunno when the powerbook counter scam went down but its great...
especially because the guy had to pay overseas customs taxes on the fake ppowerbooks value !
:)

~Steve

Reply idea for such scams:

"Glad to hear you're interested. Here's an idea: why don't you buy something else with that excess value cashier's check? Then, when you get the remainder in cash, you can use some of that cash to pay me for the item I'm selling.

Looking forward to hearing from you."

http://www.419eater.com/html/419faq.htm

This should answer all your questions and provide an avenue for revenge and fun.
Note hilarious picture ;) (demand from a scamee)

I loath scammers of all types, I wish these people horrible deaths.

redfooj,
do not sell to him. they are scammers. you should report them directly to FBI. They are a group of scammers that lurks around craigslist. U should forward that e-mail to FBI so they can contact the buyer. do not reply back to them. I got the same letter but from a guy named WAYNE. my friend got scammed out of $5000 for selling his RX7 on the craigslist. be careful. that is not real!

in the real world there are two sets of people, the good and the bad people, the bad people will try to eat the good people alive, if you let them, or give them a hint that you will let them eat you

These scammers are overseas and the FBI is not the agency that handles these scams. The U.S.Secret Service is the correct agency. Their phone number can be found in the blue pages of your phone book under U.S. Government

actually in this case.. it's handled by the FBI, at least for my friend's case, because this is a nigerian group that is being operated from the UK. the cashier's check was made out from a bank in east coast, but when u get the fedex envelope, it's actually written in handwriting by someone whom mailed it from the UK. the cashiers check is totally legit. another friend whom is a bank auditor, brought the check in and found out it's actually an bank issued check, but the bank never claimed those checks to be stolen. when my auditor friend question the bank's manager, they were aware of it until it was brought up. then they reported to the police that certain numbers of their cashiers check was stolen. as to whom is right or wrong.. don't know. but when they ask you to wire the money to a western union place.. the address is actually an address of a western union in the east coast as well. as soon as the wire is done, the money is gone and the account is closed. as to why they haven't been caught... dont' know.

regardless... bottom line is... if u think it's too good of a deal to be true... then it probably is.

yup.... this guy is purportedly alfred wayne and he addressses himself with his last name 'wayne'. im looking forward to either shipping a box of rocks, or an old, broken, and dangerous frame. if only he'd respond to me, though....

don't worry.. he will.. just give him about 2 days. then after that.. he'll either send u another e-mail in regarding to ur sale or will contact u again to ask u if it's still available for sale. when i was selling my rockhopper, he contacted me as well, offering to pay higher than i asked for for my trouble. i just ignored him.

I do not understand what you are saying. Are you using improper English?

Spelling is soooo passé.

so is typing in BLUE!!!!!!!

Oh, I see. He is, as the English say, "getting his knickers in a twist" about bad spelling? I was not sure. His syntax was quite bad and it was difficult to understand what he was saying.