Scams

[Eric Merryfield]

Originally Posted by HandOverFist

Funny, something just came up for me this evening concerning a motorcycle I have for sale on RacingJunk for $6500. Guy messages me on the site wanting me to contact him via his email which he provided in the message. I did so and he responded by email with this...

"Thanks you for the response ,am very okay with the price
I really wish to be there to look at it but i don't have a chance because I'm a very busy person.

I want this and am ready to make an instant purchase, I could only pay with a PayPal email address.

Concerning the pick up, i will arrange for a carrier after you receive the payment... Please get back to me with the info below so that i can proceed with the payment immediately if you are selling to me.

Name:
PayPal Email:
Address:
City:
State ::
postal Code:
Price:
Phone Number

As soon as this is provided, I will instruct my payment officer to issue out a PayPal payment...
Thanks and I hope to handle this in good faith,

Best Regards"

I'm a little puzzled as I have never run across this before...not sure if it is legit. The fellow does not seem too concerned about the price and does not provide a contact number for himself...this bike being the first and only item I have ever posted on RacingJunk would give me pause about being so casual as a buyer.

I was not aware one could expend that amount of money thru a Paypal account. I'm not too concerned about my own account as I have an extra layer of security and it would be near impossible for anyone other than myself to access it. It's hard to imagine how I could be hurt as I would not release the bike or the title before I had the funds in my account. Think I should email this guy back and get a phone number to talk to him first? Like to hear some thoughts on this from others.

Edit: Just learned you can make a $10,000. single transaction with a paypal account.

At a minimum yes have him give you his phone #, address, and name. It is a foreign buyer most likely(postal code is not a common term for us here in the states). Land line too. Then you can do the research to see if its a real person or not. A selfie from the cell phone too. If he is legit, just to be fair, have him pay a local mechanic to go over the bike too. A real buyer will chuckle at this but it sounds like a scam to me.......A real buyer will pick up the phone, and ask questions, want to get the bike looked at etc.

At least they will want to talk to you to inquire about all the good the bad and the ugly that you didn't mention in your ad!

Eric

[bigsixman]

I would be careful with that Rich, it does not make much sense. I have sold some old collector bikes on ebay and you can't believe the places that the emails and calls come from, even when you state that you only sell to the USA.

[HandOverFist]

Thanks guys - Here is my ad... http://www.racingjunk.com/Customs/18...ster-1250.html

I don't understand how anyone could scam me...no way would the bike or title leave my hands without the money. What could possibly be the ploy? Debating weather to email him back or not.

[J.R. Haddad]

Rich, I have had this quite a few times on a site I've sold on called KIJIJI. What you got was the first contact. The next one will be a forged PayPal credit "In Trust", until they receive the bike. Any foreign buyer who is legit will phone and have real questions before offering to pay full price, just like you or I would. I've played them out to the end before(it's cold and boring in the winter where I live,LOL) and they will send you an e-mail saying you've broke the trust conditions, but by then I had already confirmed with PayPal that their payment in trust was fake. Good Luck. J.R.

[HandOverFist]

Originally Posted by J.R. Haddad

Rich, I have had this quite a few times on a site I've sold on called KIJIJI. What you got was the first contact. The next one will be a forged PayPal credit "In Trust", until they receive the bike. Any foreign buyer who is legit will phone and have real questions before offering to pay full price, just like you or I would. I've played them out to the end before(it's cold and boring in the winter where I live,LOL) and they will send you an e-mail saying you've broke the trust conditions, but by then I had already confirmed with PayPal that their payment in trust was fake. Good Luck. J.R.

That makes sense...I'll just sit on it and see if he tries to contact me again.

[gbur]

Typical scam. Get messages like that all the time for ads on craigs. As for paypal ,if you were to let the bike leave your custody , in just a short time you will get a not as described dispute from Paypal . Going thru one right now ,Not fun

[Future Super Stocker]

Do not respond. This guy sounds like a scammer. Do not give any info. This guy did not want to give any info about himself and said he would send his agent to pick up the item and refused the shipment.

[Rsmith38]

I get these scams from Craigs List adds for used cars, also for Vacation Rentals (I have a log cabin in Maine) - You can tell immediatly after you receive a few bogus replys- My best one was people coming on vacation to Maine; from the Ukraine in Russia?
Just type delete and send them away. You also get replys from Women wanting to meet you! Never with a phone number, either with e-mail or text from smartphone.

[Ronnie Smith Jr]

It's definitely a scam. Not only by the "I'll pay you your price" but the style of writing that goes into these replies to your for sale items. If he is SO busy, as he claims, how does he have time to banter with you about his interest in the bike? How does he have time to look at Craig's list? How does he have time to converse back and forth on what he needs from you? There will always be a conversation back and forth until the hook is set and he gets the property and you're left hanging with no money plus an overdraft or counterfeit check or disputes. The scammers have moved from the counterfeit checks to fraudulent Western Union wires to eBay fraud to Paypal fraud claiming various allegations and disputes. Once the property is released to a carrier, most likely an agent of the fraudster, you are likely to have lost your property - forever. Scammers used to offer above asking price knowing the greed would overrule common sense. Now that the "word" is out about that, they are using various methods to scam honest hardworking people, such as the above listed and other posts.

Good luck with the sale.

[larrylomascolo]

Whatch for the fake pay-pal site,it happened to my daughter ,it looked all legit,i called pay-pal to verify transaction for my kid,they had no record of purchase ,Dont give out p-pal e-mail,,,,,,it,s a scam