If you are selling a bike beware of this scam

Slowman

Slowman

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I have advertised a bike for sale on BA classifieds (here too)and I received a strange enquiry. For a start it is an Australian website so I was not expecting to get anyone from the US wanting to buy my bike and especially since it not a brand that sells over there. I was suspicious from the start so I did some searching around and found this thread on another forum http://www.perthstreetbikes.com/forum/f15/...les-scam-88991/ . In my case the guy is posing as an aeronautical engineer in the other thread they use a marine engineer and a similar story about how it is for a relative and they'll send a pickup agent. See the post by Perdition - I think that's how the scam is probably worked, unless they are after some kind of identity details. I think I have identified the guy from another website, he is actually in North Carolina not California.

Here is my email exchange so far... calling Dr Dre :D

I work as an aeronautical engineer for America airline and i will be here for weeks but i base in CA with my family and the bike is going to my boy as a gift so i wont let him know about it but am sure he will love the bike.i would have loved to make the pickup but due to the fact that i have a project at hand but i will contact my pickup agent to make the pickup on my behave
Cheers
Dre

On Sun, Jun 6, 2010 at 7:04 PM, <slowman@> wrote:

Mate,

forgive me, but I'd like to know some more about you. It seems odd that someone wants to buy my bike from the US given that Wheeler is a European brand and I don't think even sells in the US, where did you hear about Wheeler? Please tell me a little about yourself, where you live and the kind of riding you do. What kind of cleats do you use?

Do you need the bike packaged for transport? I'd also want to know the name, address and telephone number of the pick up agent. I will contact them after I receive payment to arrange pickup. I work from home a bit but there are times when I need to be at the office and other places but I could bring the bike to work with me depending on everyone's availability. You can use this email address for Paypal.

Sorry for sounding overly cautious but there have been a spate of scams recently from overseas, you can't be too careful, I hope you understand.

Regards
Date: Sun, 6 Jun 2010 18:06:57 -0700
Subject: Re: FW: Bicycling Australia Classifieds - Contact Seller
From: dreston@
To: slowman@

mate you can provide me with your paypal email address and your address for the pickup,i have a ppickup agent that will pick the bike up
so get back to me as fast as you can...
Cheers

On Sun, Jun 6, 2010 at 4:25 PM, <slowman@> wrote:

Dre,

from your telephone number it looks like you are in the US, is that correct? I have PayPal but I think shipping will be expensive. I'll need your address to calculate shipping costs. You're free to come and pick it up and pay cash if you happen to be in Sydney.

Regards, Craig
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I'm thinking I might have to tell him the price has doubled because I have a received a better offer :lol:
 
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wheel2wheel

wheel2wheel

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Dont do it huge scam!!!!!!!!! be AFRAID VERY AFRAID
they send you an offical looking paypal deposit receipt for more that the item is, then ask you to give the extra money to the agent, you loose the bike and the money.
 
Slowman

Slowman

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Breaka said:
An Aeronautical Engineer named 'Dre'?

Fair chop.
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Yep what sort of name is that? :D

Best yet I think I have found the little mofo at http://www.blackplanet.com/drestone112/
and here is what he looks like...

I think I might have some fun. I've already opened an incident with the FBI since it involves a US citizen. Next I have to switch to a different email address where I can get the full header and get his IP address, then I'll know whether he is in the US or not. It wouldn't surprise me if he is a bloody Nigerian pretending to be American.
 
todd28

todd28

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Don't do it. I had heaps of these people trying to buy my bike, but the main thing to remember if it's too good to be true, then it probably is.
 
Slowman

Slowman

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wheel2wheel said:
Dont do it huge scam!!!!!!!!! be AFRAID VERY AFRAID
they send you an offical looking paypal deposit receipt for more that the item is, then ask you to give the extra money to the agent, you loose the bike and the money.
Click to expand...
todd28 said:
Don't do it. I had heaps of these people trying to buy my bike, but the main thing to remember if it's too good to be true, then it probably is.
Click to expand...
Thanks guys, but given the title of this thread, do you not think these dire warnings are a little redundant? I'm fully aware it's a scam and how it works. I'm going to have a shot at getting the little SOB locked up, they'll soon learn not to f**k with Oz.
 
Slowman

Slowman

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Jay_Patriot said:
*Pulls on Bounty Hunter Gloves and reaches for .303 *
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Yep got him in my sights. He has sent me a forged instrument - an email from PayPal purporting to be a payment, it's not even a good forgery, but I set him up from the beginning with an email address that is not registered with PayPal.

I have traced his IP address back to Google and he is somewhere in LA. The fake PayPal emails have come from San Francisco, so looks like he's got a mate helping him...all of these details have been sent to the FBI and a case formally opened.
 
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