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Need advice fast...Am I getting scammed??


thom

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This guy mailed me about the Les Paul Jr I'm selling, in English, which isn't our native language. No big deal, but for some reason his next mail made all my alarms go off:

 

Hello Thom,

Thanks for the mail, i am buying this for my Brother. I am a petroleum

engineer currently on a rig offshore i really want this to be a

surprise gift for my Brother so i wont let him know

anything about this until it gets delivered to him , i am sure he will

be more than happy with it.I can only pay with PayPal here, i will

need you to give me your PayPal email address so i can make the

payments asap and please if you don't have PayPal account yet, it is

very easy to setup,go to www.paypal.com and get it set up ,after you

have set it up i will only need the e-mail address you use for

registration with PayPal so as to put the money

through.The advert price is okay with me:Pick up agent will come for

the pick up as soon as i have made the payments, i would have loved to

talk to you on phone but i am a petroleum engineer I work mainly

onshore, our phone is down on the rig right now due to bad weather, we

can only communicate with our base for now.

Thanks.

xxxxxxx.

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I censored his real name for obvious reasons. Can't figure out what can go wrong if I just give him my paypall address, besides the usual junk/spam mail attacks, which are fairly harmless anyway...

 

It's just that the whole story seems a bit far fetched, makes me suspecious as hell.

Could be legit I suppose, nothing wrong with working on an oil rig and wanting to surprise your brother with a guitar:)

 

I guess the "pick up agent" is what bothers me the most though:freak:

What the hell's wrong with f*cking UPS all of a sudden??

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Thom-- RED FLAG!- I think its a scam. I've been selling on CL and I get these same farfetched half baked replies. Be careful, especially about the pick up agent. If he wants it, tell him to call( I know he said he can't, but thats part of the scam. Good luck - john

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I guess the "pick up agent" is what bothers me the most though:freak:

What the hell's wrong with f*cking UPS all of a sudden??

 

 

I'd explain that "I would be more comfortable" with taking care of delivery as paypal can take time to clear and when it does, I can send it. See what he says to that.

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Total scam... here are two HUUUUGE RED FLAGS:

 

'Advert'

'Pickup Agent'

 

He'll over-pay and then ask you to forward the extra on to his 'shipping agent'. Of course, his original payment will come back as fraudulent, but only AFTER you've paid his 'agent'.

 

[edit] more info here:

 

 

-they use stolen credit card which is why they don't want the item sent to them, but their friend in West Africa or whatever. PayPal will take this money off your account when the fraud comes up - and yes their TOS allows it.


-they send a fake paypal 'confirmed payment' mail to you, but these come from weird
addresses etc so they are pretty obvious...

 

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Total scam... here are two HUUUUGE RED FLAGS:


'Advert'

'Pickup Agent'


He'll over-pay and then ask you to forward the extra on to his 'shipping agent'. Of course, his original payment will come back as fraudulent, but only AFTER you've paid his 'agent'.

 

 

Makes a lot of sense, should've already known that. Thanks a lot.

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It smells fishy.

 

The whole "I'm offshore on a rig, so I'll send a pickup agent," doesn't feel right. Why not just ship it to his brother?

 

And the excuses for being out of contact. Keeping out of reach. Ask him for an online chat. Chances are, he'll claim his time online is limited to e-mail a few minutes per day.

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Guys on rigs have cellphones. Who would buy a guitar from CL without seeing it?

Its a scam most likely. His next step will be a a bogus credit card payment

to the account and he'll try to collect the guitar before it bounces.

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Right before my previous post I told him I'd be happy to just send the guitar to his brother, at my own expense. Total lie, just to be even more sure it's a scam.

 

Sure enough, he replies immediately. "My brother's currently studying in the US, the agent will inspect the instrument and hold it for him untill blablablabla".

 

Must...resist...urge...to...scam bait his sorry ass:mad:

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"Pick up agent" is the give away.

 

You will get the PayPal funds, pickup agent takes the guitar, all seems cool..... but then seller disputes the sale and claims a refund from PayPal, and you have zero grounds for evidence of a completed sale because you have no tracking information. You lose guitar and money.

 

Never sell through PayPal w/o shipping documentation.

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"Pick up agent" is the give away.


You will get the PayPal funds, pickup agent takes the guitar, all seems cool..... but then seller disputes the sale and claims a refund from PayPal, and you have zero grounds for evidence of a completed sale because you have no tracking information. You lose guitar and money.


Never sell through PayPal w/o shipping documentation.

 

 

Exactly. Never do a pickup with PayPal because you have no evidence that you delivered to the buyer.

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"Pick up agent" is the give away.


You will get the PayPal funds, pickup agent takes the guitar, all seems cool..... but then seller disputes the sale and claims a refund from PayPal, and you have zero grounds for evidence of a completed sale because you have no tracking information. You lose guitar and money.


Never sell through PayPal w/o shipping documentation.

 

 

The buyer is the pickup agent. He's not splitting his take with anyone.

He gets away with the guitar before the payment bounces.

 

Best rule of thumb: If you think it may be a scam, it definitely is. Walk away.

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