Scammers Wading Thru Our Classifieds, Don't get swindled! Options

[lepetitmartien]

A few members have given us proofs that some scammers are trying to swindle people here. They usually contact sellers of items to propose them some serious material under false identities/nationalities.

The mechanism is this one: Mr Scam contacts you, want's to buy your stuff. He has some complicate story upon some money a guy must pay him for some time etc. The third guy will pay for your material and you should send the difference to the buyer.

I'm talking about a $700 transaction transforming into a $4000 one!

No need to tell in the end, you are short of $3300…

A news will be on MM very shortly, I have banned already a few avatars of these guys, if you fell something is fishy with a buyer/seller, be very cautious. Don't accept Western Union for exemple. A short list of do/don't will be available too.

In need ask me for counsel here.
These guys don't belong to our musical world

[michaeljt]

I just posted this for people to see as an example. I posted in the Getting Started Forum:

I've listed 2 items for sale on this site in the last month, and both times I've received this scam. Be on the look out for this crap:

"I want you to know that i very much intrested in the (sampler) which is $500 US and Once again mode paymentis going to be a Cashier's Check. You will sent by a Client of mine who has been woing me some amount and has said that he his only going pay me via Cashier's Check, So dedcided to send you the Check since the Check will be drawn from a US bank and i am from Isreal.The Check is in the Amount of $2,700 US. So when you recieve the Check all you have to do is to Cash the Check and forward the remaining funds to Shipping Company and here is there e-mail address which i will email you later..
As per Shipping i will handle the Shipping i have Shipping Company that will take care of that, When the Check has been recieved and cashed, all you need to do is to deduct your selling price and send the remaining excess fund to the Shippingg
Company via account i will provide you late . The Information to send the funds to them via Western Union will be given to you upon recieve of the Check. So for the little stress you will go thorugh sending the funds and Cashing it i will
compesate you with 100 US. MeanWhile, for the Check to get to you i will want you to provide me with the
following information, Which of course i will forward to my Client :
1) THE NAME YOU WANT THE CHECK TO BEAR
2) THE ADDRESS YOU WANT THE CHECK SENT TO AND
3) YOU PHONE NUMBERS(HOME,CELL AND WORK)

With this i will expect to hear from you soonest today with these informations.

Thanks and God Bless Marry Xmas and Happy New......
Mr Franklin.........."

Nothing new in terms of scams, except these guys keep targeting this site it seems. Honest people, be careful out there![I][B]

[lepetitmartien]

I came back of holidays 3 days ago, and right on the spot had to ban 2 more "members", so watch out!

As I said, if you have doubts, PM or email me with the emails you receive, the address they use and their login if you know it, I'd be able to tell you if you have any doubts, and sack the baddies

Be careful elsewhere on the net, the problem is common to other musical related sites unfortunately.

[beyaRecords]

I think the lesson here is there's no such thing as a free lunch! If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.

[lepetitmartien]

Just banned one more…

- No Western Union!
- No "too good to be true" (which is in fact (and if you want another color, i have it
- No convoluted mail exchanges
- No money sent to Nigeria!!!
- Check the location of the guy! Last banned was a supposedly guy from the USA, asking for money transfer to Lagos, Nigeria thru WU, and was in fact physically located in the UK. uh oh…

[The Guitar God]

Just banned one more…

- No Western Union!
- No "too good to be true" (which is in fact (and if you want another color, i have it
- No convoluted mail exchanges
- No money sent to Nigeria!!!
- Check the location of the guy! Last banned was a supposedly guy from the USA, asking for money transfer to Lagos, Nigeria thru WU, and was in fact physically located in the UK. uh oh…

thanks for that

[lepetitmartien]

I copy below an exemple on the last try of one of our Nigerians, he's not in our databases so… but you'll get the idea, watch out!

French version (they shouldn't use automatic translators

Bonjour, je suis M. Nasacrown par citoyen de la France mais actuellement basé au Royaume-Uni avec ma famille. Je suis intéressé à acheter votre article à vendre et je dois savoir que votre dernier prix offert sur l'article et également la condition actuelle et également les pls envoient au PICS de l'article me bien. J'attends votre réponse aussitôt que possible. Et également je puis être atteint sur ce nombre mobile, me laisse sais que quand vous pouvez vente l'article pour moi. Le paiement vous sera effectué dehors par l'intermédiaire du chèque ou la traite bancaire de banque, espèrent que c'est correcte par vous. Nasacrown... Je puis être atteint sur ce nombre mobile...,+447040116548

English version:

Hello,
I am Mr Nasacrown a citizen of France but presently based in U.K with my family. I am interested in buying your item for sale and I need to know your last offering price on the item and also the present condition and also pls do send the pic! s of the item to me ok. I wait for your reply asap. And also i can be reached on this mobile number, let me know how soon you can sale the item for me. Payment will be made out to you via cheque or bank draft, hope this is okay by you. Nasacrown...
I can be reached on this mobile number....+447040116548

his email is: nasacrown_autos@epatra.com

[saskia]

And another attempt. This emailer who claims to be from Lagos wants to buy a 25$ item using a 5000$ cheque issued by someone who owes him money.
The emailer has sob story about a guy owing him lots of money, but who can only issue one cheque. He will instruct the guy to issue a cheque to my name, so can I please cash it, keep 25$, then give the rest of the money to the guy who brought the cheque and will take delivery of the item to send to the emailer from Lagos. How many colours of stupid do these scammers think we are?
The most annoying thing is that the emailer wrote back (quote: "do not think of it as a big cheque") even when I tell him I'm not interested in doing business this way!

[Fields]

Doesn't everyone wait until the cash is in your account/hand before sending your precious gear to a stranger?

Common sense?

Watch out folks!

[lepetitmartien]

Note that I'm receiving signals from members at least once/twice a week. The morons are marauding around…

At least one MM member has been scammed bad. So it's no fun at all.