O.K. Let me lay this out for you guys & tell me what you think! I am looking into buying a quad to take to the dunes. I've been pricing them out & have a pretty good handle on what their market value is. So I find some 2003 atv's on ebay for sale for $1900 each buy it now! Except you have to be approved by the guy before you can bid! Also they were listed as Seattle being where he was from.
So I emailed the guy to said I would take both & could be up there with cash that night (this was yesterday). I didn't hear from him at all yesterday & checked the auctions & they were no longer there. What the hell? I kinda wrote it off today but got an email from him about an hour ago. Here is his response
Hi Jamie,
Thank you for your prompt and sincerly response.
I really understand your worries but please take a good look at the
situation:
My feedback rating speaks for itself. I am a completely trustworthy
person. I take online transactions extremely seriously.I am a man of my
word and I will promise to do this deal safe. I will allow you to send
this to a third party name via WU. I am not trying to be difficult, I am
trying to run this deal legitimately and smoothly.I know that it's a
large sum of money to just be sending blindly.
You do sound and honest and a genuine person and i'm like you in that i want everything to be 100% fine.
Tell you what, you'll put the money in another name(your best friend
name for example), with Italy as location to verify your transfer. This
way I'll be able to track the transaction and check that the amount has
been deposited accordingly.
Upon receiving the package with the products in it, you will check it
the same day and e-mail me back confirming it is all ok and that you
have changed the name on the transaction itself to mine. This will enable
me to pickup the money and I hope we can continue to do business on a regular occurence which is very swift, hassle free and beneficial to the
both of us.
Look forward to hearing from you soon.
Regards
Jeff
PS:Because I want the deal to be as clear as possible and none of us to
be suspicious, I will take all the precautions. So as soon as I will
get the shipping bill from the delivery service -that means immediately
after sending the package- I will forward you a copy of it, by email, so
you'll have nothing to wory about it.

The email above is the second from him.
I email the guy back & say I'm not totaly comfortable with that it being a blind overseas purchase. I tell him I need a few things first. One is his phone # so I can talk to him. Second I want to have a buddy come check them out (I hoped we had a member from Italy that might be close). So his email above doesn't give me his Phone# or mention a friend coming over to check it out! My gut feeling is it's bogus.
Here is the kicker I'm on checking more quads from ebay & run accross something similar. Has the same must quaklify with the seller before you are able to bid. So I email the guy & tell him I'm interested. Turns out he lives in Italy too! He also wants western union. Here is his email

Hi there ,

I am very glad that you have considered my quad a good deal from this large
market.

As i told you i bought the quad from the local dealer and it has a clear
title wich will also be sent to you ,so there will be absolutly no problem
with the registration in there.

In my previous email i told you that i prefer to recive the payment by money
order because this way i can verify the transfer and shipp the quad in the
same day wich i guess will work for you too.

I am very fond of it and i am realy sorry that i have to give up to him.I
have only ride it a few time on perfect weather and i am daing that i did
not get the change to ride it in the mud but i hope that you will.it has
only 500 miles on bord.

I read about money order and i found out that Westernunion provides this
kind of services so i decided to use them in my sale.With a registrated
payment at them i will be able to validate your transfer in less than an
hour so this will be great for the deal.

As soon as the payment will be confirmed and the money properly sent, i will
IMMEDIATELY proceed with shipping.

I will drop the quad at the Collection Point,pay for it to be crated and
ready for departure ASAP.

The payment is fully refundable if for any reason you do not accept the quad
or if the quad has scratches, hidden defects, or it is not as advertised. I
will even pay for the shipping back to my location if you reject the quad
but since it is an almoust new atv and works and looks perfectly I think it
would not get to this.


If you agree with these terms,let me know and i will be more than glad to
start to complete the transaction with you.

Thank you and I hope that you will have the pleasure to ride this quad as i
did.

Kind regards,
Bertoldo

What do you think? Scam

i don't think it much matters; i think the shipping from Italy will far exceed any possible savings. if they're shipped FOB they are YOURS in transit nad YOU get to deal with any issues. they'll have to clear customs, possibly EPA (motor vehicle...), DOT, DOI, and who knows what other inspections, then get shipped cross-country to you. what time in March did you want to be riding them ?

even if it's legit it doesn't sound like it's going to be a very good deal...

but WTFDIK ? ...

Shipping is supposedly included & they are supposed to be at my door within 72 hours. It all seems rediculous but they are cheap enough I need to check them out. I don't see how they could get it here in that time either? I'm suer nothing will come of it anyway. It's just annoying the hell outa me Both these bikes I could take to a Dealer & get $4000 apiece for!

run for the hills ...

A very similar scam is popular with lap-top computers from Poland.
Pre-approved bidders, 3rd party payments, shipping invoices, etc.

"If it sounds to good to be true - it probably is"

Try a reverse sting. Offer to send him a money order for 5 grand over the price of the quads and ask him to send back the extra in cash.

SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM

This is a textbook scam. You will find this a lot on U Bid, not so much on eBay but nonetheless, here we are. It is very easy in Europe to pass fake IDs around because there are so many countries packed together you can't keep track. You send this money to your "friend" in Italy. You have to tell this guy the name of the "friend" and the Western Union location. All they are gonna do is check his fake ID and say sure, here you go, and hand him your money. At that point Western Union assumes NO responsibility and maintain zero liability for you getting scammed. STAY AWAY. Remember the golden rule: If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is!

-Chris

You beat me to it, Vegas!

-Chris

Yah I am kinda figuring that. That is the thing is it is too good to be true. I'm sure it's a scam it's just so damn tempting! I would think ebay would take care of these. I keep checking ebay & finding these similar auctions. Yet they don't seem to stay on for more than a few hours. Then mysteriously they disappear. Is this ebay getting rid of them or the scam artists?

eBay is getting rid of them. If a seller removes an auction it is still there, it just shows that it was ended early for whatever reason the seller gave. When eBay removes an auction, BLAM It is gone!

-Chris

RUN!

Jamie:
Run don't walk away from this. It has SCAM written all over it. Dave

We've emailed back & forth about 10 times now. Total scam man! The loasy bastard . Why are people so ready to take someone else for all they are worth! Thanks for the good advice once again!

This is how I look at it.

"If a deal makes you uncomfortable in any way, don't do it."

The best eBay scam I have seen lately is the Ducati 748 for $1600.

I could tell it was bogus from the listing but I had to look for a laugh. When you cherckout their website it goes something like this.

Pay $1600 to join their "PRIZE MATRIX" and when you get 10 other people to pony up $1600 below you then you receive your Ducati. WHAT A DEAL!

The multi level marketing never ends.

If there asking for money via Western Union, stay away. Not worth it. I have seen and heard of several of these type of scams.

Rod

A lot of the eBay scams of this type use hijacked accounts. I did a quick seach, but I could not find the listing you are talking about. You said this seller has good feedback. Is it for similar items? Or does it look like the account belongs to some one who sells dolls or books or ..... etc.?

I can't find anything on ebay about them either! Bye Bye! That was my first hint! It really was pretty obvious thru the whole ordeal. I guess I was being optimistic until the last though. I will not be again thats for sure. Definately if I have any reservations about a deal in the future. I will just write it off! Unless its for a 914-6 & then I'll track them down to the ends of the earth