Scam?


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Ok, i have this 17" LCD for sale here on Neowin and a couple other places. Today this guy emails me telling me that he is interested. I'm not sure which forum he saw it for sale on or how trustworthy he is. It sounds fishy with me, especially since he wants to send me $3000 for a $350 monitor. Plus, why go through all this trouble? Is some hit man gonna come and knock me off? Do you think he stole money and needs a way to cover it up?

So, tell me what you guys think i should do...

His first email:

Hello

I am Mr philip from united kindom but i base here in newzealland. I am interested in your(BenQ FP731 17" LCD ) can i haveapic of it.If avalable pls give me yourlast offer for the (BenQ FP731 17" LCD ) so that my shipper will take care of the shippment of the(BenQ FP731 17" LCD)which will be shipped to newzealland.Hope to here from u. have a nice day.

My reply:

I'm not sure i completely understand your email. You want to buy the

LCD i have for sale, that much i understand. What is this about a

shipper shipping the LCD to you? Current price is $350 shipped to USA

only. I dont know how you want to work this out.

Then he comes at me with this:

Hello,

    Thanks for your mail, well i am okay with the

price, and also waiting to see some pics too,i will

want payment to be asap, i will go about payment by

instructing my client in the states to issue you a

certified bank check of $3000 and this should take

care of all expences in this transaction, what you

will do once you have recieved it is to cash it,

deduct your own money($350) and the wiring charges

and wire the balance to my international shipping

agent through Western Union Transfer, once he recieves

the balance will come over to your location the very

next day for pick up, now the money wired to the

shipper is his fees for his services, transportation

to your location and back to me, also for all charges

that may arise along this transaction cos i will want

it to be delivered to me safe and sound without

problems, i shall send you my shipper address as soon

as i contact him, al l i need of you now is to mail me

your full name and contact a ddress as well as phone

number so that i can forward it to my client who will

issue you the check, let me know asap if you are still

intrested so that we could seal this on time.

Best Regards,

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I dont want the cops to come banging down my door trying to recover stolen money. Then I would be SOL because i wouldnt have the LCD either.

I would sell to someone else, but no one is interested. I have had this thing for a week trying to sell it for dirt cheap... I dont get it.

More opinions?

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SCAM

It sounds like he wants you to use an escrow service (you send the item to the service, he sends the money to them, he recieves the item and if he says it's ok, the service sends you the money, if he is unsatisfied he returns the item to the escrow service, they give him the money back and give you the item back).

It's a great way to do transactions invovling alot of money or important items, but only if you use a reputable escrow service. If i understand correctly, he wants you to use one of his choice. I wouldn't its probably a fake one he setup and it will disappear after they get the item, youll never get the money.

Secondly the fact that he's offering $3000, that almost screams scam, no one wants to pay more then they have to.

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If I remember correctly, someone else was being scammed by someone on ebay with a fake Escrow account.

They scoped out his house in London and sent him the Ibook as agreed, (well the cardboard equivelent anyway) :p

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what you

will do once you have recieved it is to cash it,

deduct your own money($350) and the wiring charges

and wire the balance to my international shipping

agent through Western Union Transfer, once he recieves

the balance will come over to your location the very

next day for pick up, now the money wired to the

shipper is his fees for his services, transportation

to your location and back to me, also for all charges

that may arise along this transaction cos i will want

it to be delivered to me safe and sound without

problems,

what i *think* he's trying to say is that he'll send you $3000, you cash it and take 350 for the lcd, then the rest is sent to a courier or something who will come and get it and bring it to him. i guess the rest of the $3000 is for the courier's fees or something.. i'm sure it wouldn't be cheap to send someone from new zealand here to the us and back, especially with an lcd screen.

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There's a general rule for selling things online:

Only 2 people should be involved. He sends you the money, you send him the monitor.

If he wants to use an escrow service, a "friend in shipping" or anything else, forget it. Tell him to send the cash directly to you and you will ship the monitor directly to him. That's it. That's about the only real way to avoid scams.

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Sounds like a bot to me :|

Look at the way he typed : newzealland and haveapic

That kinda looks like a non human typed letter, if he is from New Zealand... you would at least spell the name of your country right!!!

sounds real fishy... or as Gnubie said... Dumbass!

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My email to him...

I'm sorry, I am not interested in your proposition. This sounds like a scam to me. If you want to give me your address so I can check shipping costs and then send me the money with paypal, we can work out a deal. If not, then no deal. No third parties need to be involved. Paypal will protect us both.

Cheers,

-Tim

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Scam - another give away is that in New Zealand (& the UK) the word "cheque" is used, in the US its "check".

So obviously not a New Zealander + you can buy the monitor in NZ quite easily for around NZ$700

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Scam - another give away is that in New Zealand (& the UK) the word "cheque" is used, in the US its "check".

So obviously not a New Zealander + you can buy the monitor in NZ quite easily for around NZ$700

Excellent observation. :yes: (Y)

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He said he will have someone send you a check/cheque for $3000, you take $350, and send him the monitor AND the extra $2650... Money's being delivered for something, and you're the mailman... I'd say forget this guy (Y)

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