Bike sale - Scammer?

Nico in Germany??

100% Scam. Just delete the mail.

I’ve had similar emails when selling stuff. I consider them all to be scammers. Not worth the risk for me, but everyone’s different.

One of the oldest tricks in the book. Same stuff was happening back in the early 2000's when I was on 85s.

Yeah its a scam.

I usually mess with these guys for hours. Lots of emails, get them all excited, then ghost them. My favorite thing to do is type as if I'm Yoda speaking...reference the force, Ob1...you know...all the good stuff. One time I typed the entire song from the intro to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air making references to my life...dude was like "I am so sorry to hear of your mother sending you away."

But yeah, its a scam. Don't do it.

TJMX947 wrote:

I usually mess with these guys for hours. Lots of emails, get them all excited, then ghost them. My favorite thing to do is type as if I'm Yoda speaking...reference the force, Ob1...you know...all the good stuff. One time I typed the entire song from the intro to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air making references to my life...dude was like "I am so sorry to hear of your mother sending you away."

But yeah, its a scam. Don't do it.

I decided to jack with a guy one time and they never actually reference whatever they're buying. He kept calling it "the item". I was selling a fridge and he kept coming back asking for information. At one point I said "I just sold the front door off of it last week but I still have the rest of it." He said "that is fine as long as it works. Please send paypal info as soon as you can". Then I started changing it up to a part of a guitar, and several other things. They don't even keep track of what they're trying to scam someone out of. I guess they're just looking for some REALLY low hanging fruit.

TJMX947 wrote:

I usually mess with these guys for hours. Lots of emails, get them all excited, then ghost them. My favorite thing to do is type as if I'm Yoda speaking...reference the force, Ob1...you know...all the good stuff. One time I typed the entire song from the intro to the Fresh Prince of Bel Air making references to my life...dude was like "I am so sorry to hear of your mother sending you away."

But yeah, its a scam. Don't do it.

IWreckALot wrote:

I decided to jack with a guy one time and they never actually reference whatever they're buying. He kept calling it "the item". I was selling a fridge and he kept coming back asking for information. At one point I said "I just sold the front door off of it last week but I still have the rest of it." He said "that is fine as long as it works. Please send paypal info as soon as you can". Then I started changing it up to a part of a guitar, and several other things. They don't even keep track of what they're trying to scam someone out of. I guess they're just looking for some REALLY low hanging fruit.

That’s priceless...?

Maybe should scam the scammer. Accept his payment and ship him an old bicycle or something. And give the money to sharety. Dunno if the money is frozen at the PayPal account til he has received the money though? Haven't done any PayPal deals before.

There must be some way to turn the tables in a big way on these guys.

Like getting their money and them not being able to get it back without at least giving up their anonymity or something like that.

After playing them along of course...

I say go ahead and proceed with the transfer...

mx4all wrote:

Maybe should scam the scammer. Accept his payment and ship him an old bicycle or something. And give the money to sharety. Dunno if the money is frozen at the PayPal account til he has received the money though? Haven't done any PayPal deals before.

They don't actually want your item, they will send you an email to sign up for PayPal...or send you an email with a PayPal link. They will overpay you and then want you to send them the difference back, which you're responsible for since the funds are erroneous to begin with.

About 15 years ago my stepdad was halfway finished with a restoration on a 1970s Ford Bronco. He got tired of messing with it so he decided to sell it. A guy calls him from the UK, wants to arrange shipping, is going to send a certified check, etc. My Stepdad starts getting it ready to ship, check comes in the mail, with extra money to pay for the shipping and he wants my stepdad to wire it back to him. Within an hour of depositing the check my Stepdad gets a call from the bank saying the check wasn't legit, and he needed to bring the money back. Luckily he hasn't wried anything yet. He calls the guy and tells him the check was bad, dude hangs up never to answer again. This happened way before I ever heard of the common place scenarios.

paypal are a scam, they offer full protection for the buyer, next to zero protection for the seller.

theyll lock your money up or return it to the buyer even if the buyer is blantantly a scammer..

never use paypal to sell anything, they are theives of the highest order....
(please no "ive done lots of scampay without a problem" you'll realize what im saying when you do, its well documented on the net)

TJMX947 wrote:

They don't actually want your item, they will send you an email to sign up for PayPal...or send you an email with a PayPal link. They will overpay you and then want you to send them the difference back, which you're responsible for since the funds are erroneous to begin with.

About 15 years ago my stepdad was halfway finished with a restoration on a 1970s Ford Bronco. He got tired of messing with it so he decided to sell it. A guy calls him from the UK, wants to arrange shipping, is going to send a certified check, etc. My Stepdad starts getting it ready to ship, check comes in the mail, with extra money to pay for the shipping and he wants my stepdad to wire it back to him. Within an hour of depositing the check my Stepdad gets a call from the bank saying the check wasn't legit, and he needed to bring the money back. Luckily he hasn't wried anything yet. He calls the guy and tells him the check was bad, dude hangs up never to answer again. This happened way before I ever heard of the common place scenarios.

hmm unless the check was an obvious forgery the bank wouldnt know in 1 hour that an os check was drawn against insuffient funds, thats why they take days/weeks to clear..

Here’s one of my Craigslist corespondent for a bike I was selling.
Buyer
I moved here a year ago and sold my kx right before leaving and am regretting it so much with all the amazing trails out here. It's torturous having friend who own and ride bikes here and I am on their loaner or even worse, a rental....
So I have come to the conclusion that it's worth it to clear the checking account buy a bike, but I don't have much, so would you accept $3200 cash? I can come up and grab it today or tomorrow or whenever.
Me
$3200 is a little short what else you got offer? Wife? daughter? Send pictures.
Buyer
Done, you can have my wife! She doesn't cook or clean and hell, she not that good looking, but she sure does have a mouth on her. Can call the hens home to roost from 5 miles away!
Me
When you say "she not that good looking" how does she compare to my ex Who dumped my ass!!!

.

She was a bitch. She like cowboys and would only let you ride for seven seconds.
Buyer
Well sir, one would say you are better off to of loved and lost, but shit a 300+lbs cowboys fan just doesn't fall on your lap every day.....and you survive I mean.

Last guy that tried to get me did even know what he was asking about it was a Toyota landcruiser he called a boat so it was on

I always thought about opening a bank account just for something like this, then once the PayPal amount was sent, cash out, close the account and boom, no place for PayPal to drawl the funds back out from.

p3fab - that was the best thing I have read all day. Well done my friend.

Donovan759 wrote:

p3fab - that was the best thing I have read all day. Well done my friend.

I couldn’t believe he kept going I figured I had more time to waste them him somehow

mx4all wrote:

Maybe should scam the scammer. Accept his payment and ship him an old bicycle or something. And give the money to sharety. Dunno if the money is frozen at the PayPal account til he has received the money though? Haven't done any PayPal deals before.

TJMX947 wrote:

They don't actually want your item, they will send you an email to sign up for PayPal...or send you an email with a PayPal link. They will overpay you and then want you to send them the difference back, which you're responsible for since the funds are erroneous to begin with.

About 15 years ago my stepdad was halfway finished with a restoration on a 1970s Ford Bronco. He got tired of messing with it so he decided to sell it. A guy calls him from the UK, wants to arrange shipping, is going to send a certified check, etc. My Stepdad starts getting it ready to ship, check comes in the mail, with extra money to pay for the shipping and he wants my stepdad to wire it back to him. Within an hour of depositing the check my Stepdad gets a call from the bank saying the check wasn't legit, and he needed to bring the money back. Luckily he hasn't wried anything yet. He calls the guy and tells him the check was bad, dude hangs up never to answer again. This happened way before I ever heard of the common place scenarios.

back in the early 2000's, when I was in high school, my buddy posted his yz 80 online for sale. Im gonna say it was probably Ebay/bargain news etc... (selling stuff online wasn't quite as popular just yet). He got an email from some guy in "Africa" who wanted to buy the bike, and pay for the shipping overseas. He sent the checks in the mail and my buddy got them. He didn't have a bank account (we were only like 15-16) so he had our other buddy deposit the checks into his account. Same thing, he gets a call about an hour later from the bank to come back. They go back and the fucking FBI and Secret Service are both there. That was when I learned that the secret service is in charge of counterfeit money issues. So yeah, the threat of prison time was presented until it was cleared up what happened and my friend was just a young victim of money laundering.

HenryA wrote:

100% Scam. Just delete the mail.

^^^^^ It's a scam....you get these constantly on Craigslist.

make1go wrote:

hmm unless the check was an obvious forgery the bank wouldnt know in 1 hour that an os check was drawn against insuffient funds, thats why they take days/weeks to clear..

Hmmm...I was there, it was a cashier's check from Hawaii...and it happened 100% the way I'm explaining it to you. No embellishment.

Edit - Actually its more like 99% certainty...I'm not sure if my stepdad had the money in hand to wire back to the guy. However I was literally sitting at my parents house when the bank called.

If you think it's a scam...its a scam.

Donovan759 wrote:

p3fab - that was the best thing I have read all day. Well done my friend.

p3fab wrote:

I couldn’t believe he kept going I figured I had more time to waste them him somehow

So awkward when you laugh out loud from behind your computer at work! LOL, that's good shit right there!