If it sounds too good to be true...................

[Bedford]

G'day all, just wondering if anyone knows how this scam works?

I placed an ad in the Trading Post to sell some farm machinery at a price of $1450.00.

I received this response, Hi,mate i will love to make an enquiry about this slasher and grader blade kindly let me know the lowest price you want to sale it..Get back to me asap.

I replied, "Put your best offer in and we'll compare it with the others"

Later I received this from the prospective purchaser,

Thanks for your reply asap over my request,I'm also willing to offer you $1,600 as my offer cos i ve so much interest on it,i will be very glad if it can be sale to me and my offer been considered,any offer comes after just tell/inform them that it has been sold.i promise you will not be disappointed,i will not be able to come for an inspection as I've my private pick-up agent who will be coming for the pick-up and inspection of it cos I'm a very busy type who work long hours everyday,I've gone through the advert,I'm ok and satisfied with it,so i think that shouldn't be a problem so you don't have to be worried about that.Sorry i will be paying you via the fastest,secure and easier way to pay online{paypal}If you don't have a paypal account,you can easily set up one...log on towww.paypal.com.au (http://www.paypal.com.au/) and sign up. its very easy....so after payment have been completed you can release it as my agent will be coming for pickup ..so no shipping included...

An IP search brings him up in Washington USA :rolleyes:

I can't imagine an agent picking it up and transporting it overseas.

Does anyone know just how this scam works?:)

[denaria]

LOL beats me, kinda looks like getting in the way of a real sale. Pity you're so far away, our slasher rusted down to the gearbox, and a centre mount grader blade would push the driveway back up the hill each year after the wet... grins, can I get my agent.... nvm

[Godzilla73]

Err, yeah right...

Seems very similar to the bloke on the container ship in the Pacific somewhere coming to pick up the kitchen i'm ripping out tomorrow morning. Hope he can back it up to the door...

The lady who we're doing the job for is legitimately selling on ebay, but has had 3 fairly nasty demanding calls from him as well as emails. She rang Consumer Affairs, who obviously said give it a miss, but did suggest it was an attempt to get banking details. Ebay also said they are aware of the problem... Haven't heard of any Trading Post related scams.

[joez]

I have heard of something similar to this, where someone buys online and sends an "agent" to pick it up.

They then accidentally sends you the agents fees, ie sends $1800 instead of the $1600 and ask you to forward the extra $200 to the "Agent".

The seller sends the $200 to the "Agent" and then the original payment falls over.


Not sure if this is your case, but probably something similar.

joez

[Danny]

Ask him if he wants a bridge included with the farm machinery.

[GeoffW1]

Hi,

It is a scam. We had several of these bogus offers when we advertised a motorbike for sale. The hallmark of it is that the buyer is always too busy or too distant to be directly involved, and has an agent who will take delivery etc etc.

Our bogus buyers were

- on an oil rig in the Timor Sea
- holidaying in Italy (Russia, Antarctica, South Africa)
- a Christian missionary in the Congo
- in hospital (having a brain transplant)

It works this way: the agent incurs "expenses", which the buyer promises to add to your total payment via Paypal (the Paypal documents are fake), but in the meantime can you please send some money for these "expenses" (usually an amount like $200-$500) so that the agent can pick up your item for sale.

When you think a bit at the time, you realise how utterly silly it really is: the money is supposed to come TO you, why pay the BUYER for anything?

Cheers

[Bedford]

Thanks all for the info and confirmation.

It will be strictly cash if it happens at all. :)

[Gaza]

feel free to waste the guys time sending emails

[PlatypusGardens]

Ha!
Thats's a new one.
Haven't heard that one before.


Bloody scammers.



:~

[smash]

My boyfriend and I are trying to sell a car too.
Literally a day after we posted the car to carsguide.com, we recieved a text message from the same person as you asking for what our lowest price is and to get back to him ASAP.

We sent our lowest price, and he reterned with this email:

Thanks for your reply asap over my request,I'm also willing to offer you $500 as my offer cos i ve so much interest on it,i will be very glad if it can be sale to me and my offer been considered,any offer comes after just tell/inform them that it has been sold.i promise you will not be disappointed,i will not be able to come for an inspection as I've my private pick-up agent who will be coming for the pick-up and inspection of it cos I'm a very busy type who work long hours everyday,I've gone through the advert,I'm ok and satisfied with it,so i think that shouldn't be a problem so you don't have to be worried about that.Sorry i will be paying you via the fastest,secure and easier way to pay online{paypal}If you don't have a paypal account,you can easily set up one...log on to PayPal Australia (http://www.paypal.com.au) and sign up. its very easy....so after payment have been completed you can release it as my agent will be coming for pickup ..so no shipping included...

exactly the same as yours.
glad I thought it was suspicious and google searched the email and found this!!

[PlatypusGardens]

Wow.
You'd think they'd at least reformat the email a bit.




:rolleyes:

[plum]

There is the other scam I've had recently with 'Kevin' from Microsoft tech support calling from India, [ says he was in Sydney, but 1, couldn't give me the correct time and 2, told me it was warm and sunny, when in fact it had been raining all day in Sydney]. As I was on to him from the start I spoke to his supervisor and gave him crap for 20 minutes, culminating in me telling him how bad their cricket side was, if that wasn't enough he told me to go to hell and hung up. Now what did he want in the first place?

[stevoh741]

Email him back and say the bridge to your house was damaged in a big storm and could he send you $1200 to enable repairs to it so that the agent can then safely transport the machinery across it. Tell him that because of his good faith that when the bridge is fixed and the machinery can be safely picked up you will not only refund the $1200 but you will also knock $300 off the sale price.

I love playing games with these idiots. I lived in England for a couple of years and always getting hasseled by phone sales people. As there was nothing else to do I would enthusiastically talk about the product and how much I wanted one, sometimes talking for 1/2 hr. Then when they asked for CC details I'd say "nah, don't want it now!" Then when they abuse me for not buying I kindly reminded them how they called me!

[Godzilla73]

When the dude from Windows calls i always ask to talk to Bill, no point beating around the bush with the minions, go straight to the top i say. Alas, he's always on another call...:roll:

[Bloss]

This is all over various forums and the Fed government has useful website: SCAMwatch home (http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/Scamwatch/) - this one looks like a 'cheque overpayment scam' Cheque overpayment scams (http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/694202)

[PlatypusGardens]

We had a call a while back where they offered a mobile phone of some description.
I asked if it came in blue and that was enough to stump the lady on the other end.
It went quiet for a while and then she said "no..."


Told her I wasn't interested and she hung up.



:roll: