TE for sale drew strange request. Scam?

[Avgrin]

B"H I placed ads on www.Recumbent.com and www.bike-route.com to sell my Tour Easy and got offers
from two people that look strange and, most likely, scams.

1) From: [email protected]] HELLO, AM SAW YOUR ADVERT ON THE INTERNET AND AM INTERESTED IN
BUYING IT FROM YOU TO RESELL, SO PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF IT IS STILL AVAILABLE FOR SALE AND THE
LEAST PRICE YOU WILL BE GIVING IT TO ME. THANKS AND AWAIT YOUR REPLY ASAP FOR PAYMENT
CONCLUSION.

MARK.

2) From: nill peter [mailto:[email protected]] dear sir, i am an auto agent in west-africa.i will
like to know how much you are willing to sell this Tour Easy I'm highly intrested in buying it.I
would like to know your last offer on this Tour Easy and what is present condition. Regards.

(asking price in the ad is $1200)

THANKS FOR YOUR MAIL, I WILL BE MAKING AN OFFER OF $1,300 FOR THE TOUR EASY BUT I WILL LIKE YOU TO
DO ME A FAVOUR I WILL BE TELLING MY CLIENT IN THE STATES THAT THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF WHAT I AM BUYING
IS $6,450 AND HE WILL BE ISSUE A CHECK OF $6,450 ON YOUR NAME I JUST WANT YOU TO HELP ME IN SENDING
THE REMAINING BALANCE THROUGH WESTERN MONEY GRAM AFTER IT MIGHT HAVE CLEAR IN YOUR BANK IF YOU HAVE
AGREED TO DO SO YOU CAN SEND ME YOUR NAME ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER IN OTHER FOR A QUICK TRANSACTION.

Has anyone had similar experience? What do you think?

Thanks, Victor

 

[Skip]

The latest deal is for the scammer to "buy" something from you and using some kind of weird logic
send you a certified check for considerably more than the cost of the item. Then they very quickly
ask you to send them the overage in an international money order due to an extreme emergency or for
what ever reason they think you may buy into. Of course the "certified check" you deposited comes
back later as a forgery and the money order you mailed to never never land is gone forever.

These guys cruise the net for boats, cars, horses and other high ticket items. I'm surprised they've
made their way to the bent ads.

None of these scams make sense and you have to wonder how people could possibly fall for them.

Skip

 

[Jbiek]

I had a Vivo on ebay last summer and got a reply like this from someone in Indonesia who didn't bid
on the bike but wanted to buy it without bidding on ebay. I told him that I needed a credit card
number which he promptly supplied me with and I just had a funny feeling that something wasn't right
so called our credit card machine company and they informed me that the card was stolen. They said
that there is a lot of that going on in places like that including Africa. They hack into company
computers and steal numbers and you have absolutely no recourse. There is no way to prosecute them
and you are stuck with the bill because the credit card holder is not responsible for unauthorized
charges. So if in doubt, call the credit card company and verify that it isn't a stolen card. I'm
glad I did. "skip" <[email protected]> wrote in message news[email protected]...
> The latest deal is for the scammer to "buy" something from you and using some kind of weird logic
> send you a certified check for considerably more than the cost of the item. Then they very quickly
> ask you to send them
the
> overage in an international money order due to an extreme emergency or for what ever reason they
> think you may buy into. Of course the "certified check" you deposited comes back later as a
> forgery and the money order
you
> mailed to never never land is gone forever.
>
> These guys cruise the net for boats, cars, horses and other high ticket items. I'm surprised
> they've made their way to the bent ads.
>
> None of these scams make sense and you have to wonder how people could possibly fall for them.
>
> Skip

 

[Denny Morrison]

I sold my TREK R200 and I got email that made sense, like Is it Sold, do u still have it, Where are
u, Do u have a picture of it. Thoase would be the normal responses

Denny Paw Paw Mi "avgrin" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> B"H I placed ads on www.Recumbent.com and www.bike-route.com to sell my Tour Easy and got offers
> from two people that look strange and, most likely, scams.
>
> 1) From: [email protected]] HELLO, AM SAW YOUR ADVERT ON THE INTERNET AND AM INTERESTED IN
> BUYING IT FROM YOU TO RESELL, SO PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF IT IS STILL AVAILABLE FOR SALE AND THE
> LEAST PRICE YOU WILL BE GIVING IT TO ME. THANKS AND AWAIT YOUR REPLY ASAP FOR PAYMENT
> CONCLUSION.
>
> MARK.
>
> 2) From: nill peter [mailto:[email protected]] dear sir, i am an auto agent in west-africa.i will
> like to know how much you are willing to sell this Tour Easy I'm highly intrested in buying
> it.I would like to know your last offer on this Tour Easy and what is present condition.
> Regards.
>
> (asking price in the ad is $1200)
>
> THANKS FOR YOUR MAIL, I WILL BE MAKING AN OFFER OF $1,300 FOR THE TOUR EASY BUT I WILL LIKE YOU TO
> DO ME A FAVOUR I WILL BE TELLING MY CLIENT IN THE STATES THAT THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF WHAT I AM BUYING
> IS $6,450 AND HE WILL BE ISSUE A CHECK OF $6,450 ON YOUR NAME I JUST WANT YOU TO HELP ME IN
> SENDING THE REMAINING BALANCE THROUGH WESTERN MONEY GRAM AFTER IT MIGHT HAVE CLEAR IN YOUR BANK IF
> YOU HAVE AGREED TO DO SO YOU CAN SEND ME YOUR NAME ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER IN OTHER FOR A QUICK
> TRANSACTION.
>
> Has anyone had similar experience? What do you think?
>
> Thanks, Victor

 

[Joao De Souza]

avgrin wrote:
>
> I placed ads

(clip)

> AM SAW YOUR ADVERT ON THE INTERNET AND AM INTERESTED IN BUYING IT

Spam. I get a few of those per day, even though I've never put anything for sale online.

> i am an auto agent in west-africa.i will like to know how much you are willing to sell this Tour
> Easy I'm highly intrested in buying it.I would like to know your last offer on this Tour Easy and
> what is present condition. Regards.

Spam/scam script. Auto agent? And how come there is a double-space before every single occurrence of
the words "tour easy"? Africa is a big continent. West africa accounts for at some 20 countries.
Couldn't they be a bit more specific?

> THANKS FOR YOUR MAIL, I WILL BE MAKING AN OFFER OF $1,300 FOR THE TOUR EASY BUT I WILL LIKE YOU TO
> DO ME A FAVOUR I WILL BE TELLING MY CLIENT IN THE STATES THAT THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF WHAT I AM BUYING
> IS $6,450 AND HE WILL BE ISSUE A CHECK OF $6,450 ON YOUR NAME I JUST WANT YOU TO HELP ME IN
> SENDING THE REMAINING BALANCE THROUGH WESTERN MONEY GRAM AFTER IT MIGHT HAVE CLEAR IN YOUR BANK IF
> YOU HAVE AGREED TO DO SO YOU CAN SEND ME YOUR NAME ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER IN OTHER FOR A QUICK
> TRANSACTION.

This is how this scam works: They send you a check; you deposit the check; the check clears; you
send them the bike and the extra money; a few weeks later, the owner of that checking account, who
possibly had nothing to do with it, sees his statement, and complaints to his bank; his bank gets
the money wired back from your account; you now have no bike, no money, and are being investigated
for bank fraud; by the time you get your situation cleared, you've lost a lot of money on legal
fees, not to mention the headaches; the crook keeps the bike and your $5,150 dollars balance.

Its a beautiful world, ain't it?

 

[Lorenzo L. Love]

avgrin wrote:
>
> B"H I placed ads on www.Recumbent.com and www.bike-route.com to sell my Tour Easy and got offers
> from two people that look strange and, most likely, scams.
>
> 1) From: [email protected]] HELLO, AM SAW YOUR ADVERT ON THE INTERNET AND AM INTERESTED IN
> BUYING IT FROM YOU TO RESELL, SO PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF IT IS STILL AVAILABLE FOR SALE AND THE
> LEAST PRICE YOU WILL BE GIVING IT TO ME. THANKS AND AWAIT YOUR REPLY ASAP FOR PAYMENT
> CONCLUSION.
>
> MARK.
>
> 2) From: nill peter [mailto:[email protected]] dear sir, i am an auto agent in west-africa.i will
> like to know how much you are willing to sell this Tour Easy I'm highly intrested in buying
> it.I would like to know your last offer on this Tour Easy and what is present condition.
> Regards.
>
> (asking price in the ad is $1200)
>
> THANKS FOR YOUR MAIL, I WILL BE MAKING AN OFFER OF $1,300 FOR THE TOUR EASY BUT I WILL LIKE YOU TO
> DO ME A FAVOUR I WILL BE TELLING MY CLIENT IN THE STATES THAT THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF WHAT I AM BUYING
> IS $6,450 AND HE WILL BE ISSUE A CHECK OF $6,450 ON YOUR NAME I JUST WANT YOU TO HELP ME IN
> SENDING THE REMAINING BALANCE THROUGH WESTERN MONEY GRAM AFTER IT MIGHT HAVE CLEAR IN YOUR BANK IF
> YOU HAVE AGREED TO DO SO YOU CAN SEND ME YOUR NAME ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER IN OTHER FOR A QUICK
> TRANSACTION.
>
> Has anyone had similar experience? What do you think?
>
> Thanks, Victor

A variation of the Nigerian money laundering scam. My father/uncle/cousin was the Minister of
Defense/Finance/Customs and has one/five/twenty millions dollars in a hidden account in
Zürich/Rome/Paris and we need your help to get it out and for your trouble you will get a
percentage. Your help, of course, involves sending me a substantial amount of money. This has been
around long before the Internet and has spread all over the world, although Nigeria is still the
most active because the authorities there turn a blind eye to it. Surprisingly it does work. Some
authorities have said that money scams are the leading source of foreign currency for Nigeria. If it
sounds too good to be true...well, you know.

Lorenzo L. Love http://home.thegrid.net/~lllove

"Let us be thankful for the fools; but for them the rest of us could not succeed." Mark Twain

 

[Paul Bruneau]

They are the same kind of scam as the infamous "419" nigeria scam. They use people's greed to
ensnare them. It is a very old con.

The scariest part is that some of the stupidest greedy people have actually traveled internationally
to meet with these type of people and have been kidnapped, held for ransom, and/or killed. There are
scary people in this world, that's for sure. Some of them are scary evil, and some are scary stupid.
When they meet, bad things happen.

avgrin wrote:
> B"H I placed ads on www.Recumbent.com and www.bike-route.com to sell my Tour Easy and got offers
> from two people that look strange and, most likely, scams.
>
> 1) From: [email protected]] HELLO, AM SAW YOUR ADVERT ON THE INTERNET AND AM INTERESTED IN
> BUYING IT FROM YOU TO RESELL, SO PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF IT IS STILL AVAILABLE FOR SALE AND THE
> LEAST PRICE YOU WILL BE GIVING IT TO ME. THANKS AND AWAIT YOUR REPLY ASAP FOR PAYMENT
> CONCLUSION.
>
> MARK.
>
> 2) From: nill peter [mailto:[email protected]] dear sir, i am an auto agent in west-africa.i will
> like to know how much you are willing to sell this Tour Easy I'm highly intrested in buying
> it.I would like to know your last offer on this Tour Easy and what is present condition.
> Regards.
>
> (asking price in the ad is $1200)
>
> THANKS FOR YOUR MAIL, I WILL BE MAKING AN OFFER OF $1,300 FOR THE TOUR EASY BUT I WILL LIKE YOU TO
> DO ME A FAVOUR I WILL BE TELLING MY CLIENT IN THE STATES THAT THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF WHAT I AM BUYING
> IS $6,450 AND HE WILL BE ISSUE A CHECK OF $6,450 ON YOUR NAME I JUST WANT YOU TO HELP ME IN
> SENDING THE REMAINING BALANCE THROUGH WESTERN MONEY GRAM AFTER IT MIGHT HAVE CLEAR IN YOUR BANK IF
> YOU HAVE AGREED TO DO SO YOU CAN SEND ME YOUR NAME ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER IN OTHER FOR A QUICK
> TRANSACTION.
>
> Has anyone had similar experience? What do you think?
>
> Thanks, Victor

 

[Derek Swift]

It sounds like the Nigerian scam.

It also sounds like the e-mails you get saying: I am from South Africa and have an inherited
fourtune with no bank account. Please send me yours and I will split half the money (usually in the
millions).

Plays on greed...plain and simple.

Derek

 

[Skip]

The Nigerian scam predates the mass use of computers and the internet. I first "Nigerian" I received
was years ago was a very official appearing hand typed letter on the letterhead of the Nigerian
Director of the Treasury. I knew I wasn't getting involved, but it was so official looking I had to
show it around. No one had ever seen any thing like it.

The scam emails like the ones in this thread indicate the scam has gotten down to a low level with
guys who aren't too smart, who put out little effort, and are just going for volume. It's hard to
imagine anyone using the internet who wouldn't be aware of this.

"Derek Swift" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> It sounds like the Nigerian scam.
>
> It also sounds like the e-mails you get saying: I am from South Africa and have an inherited
> fourtune with no bank account. Please send me yours and I will split half the money (usually in
> the millions).
>
> Plays on greed...plain and simple.
>
> Derek

 

[John]

Oh, great: does this mean I'm likely to lose my deposit on that anti-gravity machine?

 

[Steve In Sc]

> THANKS FOR YOUR MAIL, I WILL BE MAKING AN OFFER OF $1,300 FOR THE TOUR EASY BUT I WILL LIKE YOU TO
> DO ME A FAVOUR I WILL BE TELLING MY CLIENT IN THE STATES THAT THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF WHAT I AM BUYING
> IS $6,450 AND HE WILL BE ISSUE A CHECK OF $6,450 ON YOUR NAME I JUST WANT YOU TO HELP ME IN
> SENDING THE REMAINING BALANCE THROUGH WESTERN MONEY GRAM AFTER IT MIGHT HAVE CLEAR IN YOUR BANK IF
> YOU HAVE AGREED TO DO SO YOU CAN SEND ME YOUR NAME ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER IN OTHER FOR A QUICK
> TRANSACTION.
>
> Has anyone had similar experience? What do you think?
>
> Thanks, Victor

This scam is so common, that is actually known as the "Nigerian Scam". No matter what "bait" is
offered, they usually want one thing, your bank account information. With the proper info, they can
transfer all the money out of your account.

 

[Joao De Souza]

Steve in SC wrote:
>
> This scam is so common, that is actually known as the "Nigerian Scam". No matter what "bait" is
> offered, they usually want one thing, your bank account information. With the proper info, they
> can transfer all the money out of your account.

Not quite. The way the Nigerian 419 scam works is that they promise they will deposit a huge amount
of money in your bank, and you will be allowed to keep most of it. But then they say you have to pay
a transfer fee but you will be reimbursed once the money clears (yeah, right). Then the money is
being held because of some unpaid loan and they ask you to pay the balance of the loan for it to be
released, then there will be some official that needs to be bribed, and so on, and so on. In the
end, you have sent them all your savings, and never see a penny of the so called millions.

 

[Christopher Jor]

[email protected] (avgrin) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> B"H I placed ads on www.Recumbent.com and www.bike-route.com to sell my Tour Easy and got offers
> from two people that look strange and, most likely, scams.0)
>
> THANKS FOR YOUR MAIL, I WILL BE MAKING AN OFFER OF $1,300 FOR THE TOUR EASY BUT I WILL LIKE YOU TO
> DO ME A FAVOUR I WILL BE TELLING MY CLIENT IN THE STATES THAT THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF WHAT I AM BUYING
> IS $6,450 AND HE WILL BE ISSUE A CHECK OF $6,450 ON YOUR NAME I JUST WANT YOU TO HELP ME IN
> SENDING THE REMAINING BALANCE THROUGH WESTERN MONEY GRAM AFTER IT MIGHT HAVE CLEAR IN YOUR BANK IF
> YOU HAVE AGREED TO DO SO YOU CAN SEND ME YOUR NAME ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER IN OTHER FOR A QUICK
> TRANSACTION.
>
> Has anyone had similar experience? What do you think?
>
> Thanks, Victor

Almoat the same thing happened to me selling a trike Recumbents.com has no photos, but NGB does- and
I got 3 e-mails asking about size and shipping, which would have been evident in the photo at NBG.
That led me to figure out where that response began: R-com, East Coast!!

Shipping to Africa was questionable (cost-wise) so I decided not to answer the third e-mail. Glad I
avoided an Africa scam!

Chris Jordan Santa Cruz. Ca.

 

[William Meacham]

[email protected] (avgrin) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> B"H I placed ads on www.Recumbent.com and www.bike-route.com to sell my Tour Easy and got offers
> from two people that look strange and, most likely, scams.

Here's some resources

http://www.scambusters.org/ http://www.fraud.org/news/subject/subset.htm

 

[Zach Kaplan Cyc]

In the mid-1990's I received some letters from various "doctors" and "government officials" in
Nigeria that were hand written. They were always addressed to "Zach Kaplan Recumbents" and the only
place I was using that name instead of "Zach Kaplan Cycles" was in the telephone directory so they
must have been searching through phone directories. The long, complex stories about relatives with
money and wanting my bank account information so they could put millions of dollars into it and give
me several million for the hassle were much like the Nigerian e-mail spam people have been
receiving.

Once I took one of these letters to the post office just to show them an example of what appeared to
be mail fraud and see if they could look into it. They said there was nothing they could do about
going after these people.

I have been noticing an increasing amount of e-mail spam Nigeria lately, sometimes several in one
day. I have forwarded some of these to the abuse departments of the free e-mail services they were
using and have had their accounts disabled as a result.

Zach Kaplan

"skip" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> The Nigerian scam predates the mass use of computers and the internet. I first "Nigerian" I
> received was years ago was a very official appearing hand typed letter on the letterhead of the
> Nigerian Director of the Treasury. I knew I wasn't getting involved, but it was so official
> looking I had to show it around. No one had ever seen any thing like it.
>
> The scam emails like the ones in this thread indicate the scam has gotten down to a low level with
> guys who aren't too smart, who put out little effort, and are just going for volume. It's hard to
> imagine anyone using the internet who wouldn't be aware of this.
>
> "Derek Swift" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > It sounds like the Nigerian scam.
> >
> > It also sounds like the e-mails you get saying: I am from South Africa and have an inherited
> > fourtune with no bank account. Please send me yours and I will split half the money (usually in
> > the millions).
> >
> > Plays on greed...plain and simple.
> >
> > Derek

 

[Bill Wiley]

I just got contacted by the same people, biz links [[email protected]] (David something), Nills
Peter, Mark Charles and Don Harry. Don looked legit for awhile and we corresponded until he
mentioned wanting to send me extra money. The biz links guy was the first to contact me. I told him
to call me and he used a calling service for the hearing impaired where he types the message and the
operator relays and types back what I want to say. Anyway, I eventually smelled something fishy and
to them all to go screw themselves. Is it worth reporting these scam attempts to anyone?

Bill Wiley

btw, my Vision R54 is still for sale. http://www.efn.org/~wkw/visionsite/r54.html

 

[Scott]

I was hit on, too, by an African scammer. This fellow, in somewhat broken English, claimed to be
from S. Africa. Same deal: wanted to send a check for more than the amount than work through some
local shipping guy. Very strange. I was thinking about selling it to him, but I sure wasn't going to
ship ANYTHING until the check cleared. We found a local buyer.

Scott

[email protected] (William Meacham) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> [email protected] (avgrin) wrote in message
> news:<[email protected]>...
> > B"H I placed ads on www.Recumbent.com and www.bike-route.com to sell my Tour Easy and got offers
> > from two people that look strange and, most likely, scams.
>
> Here's some resources
>
> http://www.scambusters.org/ http://www.fraud.org/news/subject/subset.htm

 

[Joshua Goldberg]

I get 2-3 of these Nigerian/Congolese emails a day and I have been tempted to send them a Personal
Check for $10K from the "United States of Canada Bank" just to shut them up. The Bank of course does
NOT exist, but they won't know that till their own bank posts it and (they) pay the Service Charges
for the Rubber Check. Get enough people sending them "Bad" checks each day and the service charges
will bankrupt them. Only downside is (then) they will be "poor" and Canada's Federal Government will
divert Billions of dollars in Tax $ earmarked for African Foreign Aide and pay it to these
Nigerian/Congolese fraud rackets.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------
"skip" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> The Nigerian scam predates the mass use of computers and the internet. I first "Nigerian" I
> received was years ago was a very official appearing
hand
> typed letter on the letterhead of the Nigerian Director of the Treasury.
I
> knew I wasn't getting involved, but it was so official looking I had to
show
> it around. No one had ever seen any thing like it.
>
> The scam emails like the ones in this thread indicate the scam has gotten down to a low level with
> guys who aren't too smart, who put out little effort, and are just going for volume. It's hard to
> imagine anyone using the internet who wouldn't be aware of this.
>
> "Derek Swift" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > It sounds like the Nigerian scam.
> >
> > It also sounds like the e-mails you get saying: I am from South Africa and have an inherited
> > fourtune with no bank account. Please send me yours and I will split half the money (usually in
> > the millions).
> >
> > Plays on greed...plain and simple.
> >
> > Derek

 

[M..Leuck]

"Joshua Goldberg" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I get 2-3 of these Nigerian/Congolese emails a day and I have been tempted to send them a Personal
> Check for $10K from the "United States of Canada Bank" just to shut them up. The Bank of course
> does NOT exist, but they won't know that till their own bank posts it and (they) pay the Service
> Charges for the Rubber Check. Get enough people sending them "Bad" checks each day and the service
> charges will bankrupt them. Only downside is (then) they will be "poor" and Canada's Federal
Government
> will divert Billions of dollars in Tax $ earmarked for African Foreign
Aide
> and pay it to these Nigerian/Congolese fraud rackets.

If I recall tho most if not all of these scammers aren't anywhere close to Nigeria (Europe, Asia
instead) so you won't bankrupt any countries

 

[Pieter Litchfie]

I get a bunch per day too. Here in NY state, the State Attny Generals office has a specifc form on
the web site just for this one scam. Got to be the most popular in the world. How many suckers can
there be that haven't heard of this one?

"m..leuck" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Joshua Goldberg" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > I get 2-3 of these Nigerian/Congolese emails a day and I have been
tempted
> > to send them a Personal Check for $10K from the "United States of Canada Bank" just to shut them
> > up. The Bank of course does NOT exist, but they won't know that till their own bank posts it and
> > (they) pay the Service Charges for the Rubber Check. Get enough people sending them "Bad"
checks
> > each day and the service charges will bankrupt them. Only downside is (then) they will be "poor"
> > and Canada's Federal
> Government
> > will divert Billions of dollars in Tax $ earmarked for African Foreign
> Aide
> > and pay it to these Nigerian/Congolese fraud rackets.
>
> If I recall tho most if not all of these scammers aren't anywhere close to Nigeria (Europe, Asia
> instead) so you won't bankrupt any countries