Am I being scammed?

[netmaestro]

I have this listing: http://barrie.en.craigslist.ca/mcy/2498522513.html

To which I received this reply:

Can you give more details about this or does the ad say it all?

I replied:

Hi Terry,

What to add. Well, I made the sissy bar myself, if you don't like it you can take it off. I put it on there because my wife was scared of falling off the back. The bike runs excellent, four cylinders and a carb for each one. It's very powerful, you can go from 80km/h up to 130 in about two seconds. For this reason, and also because it's not a low-riding design at all, I wouldn't recommend it for anyone but a seasoned rider. I won't sell this to any beginners period.

Thanks for your inquiry,

Lloyd

He then replied:

Ok just wanted to make sure nothing is been left out. I will be buying this for the price you have listed it for.Payment will be sent using PayPal and i will handle the PayPal surcharge as well.I will arrange with someone to have this picked up for your location once i have paid as i am out of town at the moment.In the meantime,can you send me more pictures (if available)?

Regards

I then replied with: You don't know me, why would you trust me to that extent? and I've gotten no further reply. What can he do, pay via paypal, pick the bike up and then dispute it? What's his angle here? It has to be a scam, right?

[rsts]

It may not be a scam, but I would be very wary of it. He could well claim his guy never picked it up or whatever.

Not sure I'd trust paypal for this type of transaction. They tend to give money back for almost no reason. Unless you know paypal has some way for you to ensure a payment, I'd tell him it was cash or certified check only.

Best luck,

[netmaestro]

Avoid scams and fraud by dealing locally! Beware any deal involving Western Union, Moneygram, wire transfer, cashier check, money order, shipping, escrow, or any promise of transaction protection/certification/guarantee.

I've pretty much decided that if this fellow actually does pay for the bike via PayPal I'm going to tell him that nobody picks it up until I've downloaded the funds and they're actually in my bank account. I mean really, who just looks at a picture and agrees to fork over a couple of thousand dollars? No questions about regular maintenance, has it been in any accidents, does it burn oil, will it pass a safety certification, there are fifty questions a genuine buyer would be asking.

[Tenaja]

One problem with paypal is that they can pull the funds straight out of your acct, if you've given the number to them.

Aside from that, I'm 98% confident it's a scam. People interested in buying a bike ask questions about the bike--not the posting.

[netmaestro]

MrMat just PM'd me some sample scams and a couple of them have the identical wording to this fellow's response. This is definitely an attempt to raid my coinpurse!

[idle]

Pity you don't have a miniature toy version of the bike, since photos don't always show size correctly. scam the scammers
Something like that line happened in the UK, people thought they where getting house furniture but they failed to realize that the photos
where of dolls house furniture, you can imagine their surprise when a little box turned up instead of a truck!

[Tenaja]

I loved the story about the guy who was selling his Mac laptop, and discovered there was an attempt to scam him. He caught on, and sent heavy books instead of the laptop to the scammer in Europe...made him pay hundreds in import fees.

[moogle]

It has to be a scam, right?

It probably is. Out of town? It's the usual story of a scammer. Also I guarantee you'll receive a phished paypal email. Note the spelling mistakes and where the url redirects to.

Also never rely on the email as confirmation. Type paypal in your browser manually and login there to check if there was a transaction etc.

But if he ever does reply and you agree to sell it to him all you'll get is a fake email and it'll be a waste of your time.

[MachineCode]

One problem with paypal is that they can pull the funds straight out of your acct, if you've given the number to them.

I don't think that's true anymore. I recently signed up with PayPal and their wording for debiting my account stated: "We will never debit your account without your permission." (Emphasis mine). I even took a screenshot of it as backup, should I ever legally need it for contesting a debit.

[c4s]

One problem with paypal is that they can pull the funds straight out of your acct, if you've given the number to them.

I don't think that's true anymore. I recently signed up with PayPal and their wording for debiting my account stated: "We will never debit your account without your permission." (Emphasis mine). I even took a screenshot of it as backup, should I ever legally need it for contesting a debit.

You probably already gave them permission somewhere hidden in their TOS!

[Nituvious]

PayPal should have been a dead giveaway. PayPal ALWAYS favors the buyer and never the seller. Or at least in my experience.
I think if they were to send the money as a gift then they can't do a chargeback to f you up.

Also, if you were in Vermont I would buy that bike in a heartbeat.. Or try and trade you for it! That price is incredible for that bike, man.

[J. Baker]

The proof would be in signing the title over to him. Your name and his name would be on it. I would copy it once signed. Then of course he would have to register it. I think you would be safe.

[Ramihyn_]

I don't know if it is a scam or not, but isnt that how some phishing groups do their money laundering lately?

- Using phishing to pay for a physical item
- Paying somebody either for "banking services" (money laundering) to pick up part of the money or paying somebody to pick up a physical item and deliver it somewhere else (the person transporting it, is payed with phished or laundered money too).
- transporting the physical items elsewhere to sell them, or sell them via a seperate method online, generating "clean money".

The physical item will be gone and may not be recoverable, but the money transaction will be revoked as that is the easy part to do. That leaves the middle-men and the seller as the ones with the loss.

Better find a different way of money transfer which covers you against such schemes.

[Rook Zimbabwe]

I sold 10 IBM POS Units to a guy in Oregon and I got notified by paypal that somone had access his account "illegally" according to him and purchased them "without his knowledge" so they took the money from me.

ALSO found this:
http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/RIPPED-OFF-BY ... 0001232128

I say BANK CHECK ONLY!!! and ONLY AFTER IT CLEARS!!! Lloyd you KNOW I am paranoid but paranoia isn't true IF THEY ARE OUT TO GET YOU!

His english is bad too... It isn't Canada different or American bad... it is foriegn... Maybe he wants you to ship it to Kenya? Help him get his millions out of the country?

I sold my volvo Bertone to a guy who wanted me to give him the "change" from a wire transfer... I said we had to go to the bank and the dude took off running as soon as I entered the bank... the alleged transfer was FAKE! I would have bene out my car and money... I didn't believe the "change game" bit though!

[ferty]

Hi,I just wanted to say it does sound like a scam,I have had almost the say emails to me when I have advertised thing for collection.

Recently selling a sofa and chair within 1 hour of being listed on gumtree I had 2 email both very similar,both unable to collect(both out of the country),both wanting to send someone to collect,and pay using paypal .

The item was only £60 so I told them to send it along with the person collecting,then 101 reason why they could not do this ??.

Take a quick look here

http://blog.gumtree.com/paypal-scam-alert/

http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1721074

http://www.webscamwatch.com/email-scams ... ail-search

Face to face is really the only way.