57_300SLR

This Forum member, sallyssally17 - David Blau, just joined the forum and immediately listed several items for sale at attractive prices. I contacted him about one of them and attempted to make a deal. From the first contact things seemed sketchy and just got worse:

• Although he obviously had access to the item, as he did provide additional requested photos, he was not clear as to how he acquired it or how long he had it.
• The location of the item was listed as being within driving distance of my home (NJ). This was the same location as his cell phone's area code. When I told him I would be picking it up and would not need it shipped, somehow its location changed to California
• The items was listed for $10,000 OBO. Without me discussing price or making an offer, he sent me a text giving bank wiring instructions that stated the item's price at $4,000 plus $350 in shipping.
• The wiring instructions provided his banking information along with what he indicated to be his address. The address did not exist according to numerous online searches. The closest I could find was the address of condo that was very close (street address of 370 vs "his address" of 390). That address was for a Beverly Hills penthouse that had been on the market for a number of months according to Zillow.
• When discussing payment and shipping, he insisted on using his shipping company (more on that in a moment) and did not want to use an escrow or third-party payment service to protect both parties.
• When asked to provide information on his shipping service, it took a number of requests for him to provide it to me. When he finally did, it was for a Spanish company who's only other office is in France and had no apparent US operations. The contact's number he provided was a cell number with a western MA area code.
• When I finally spoke with the "shipper", he was even more sketchy than the seller. Besides having the same hard to understand foreign accent as the seller, he could provide no specific information on how the item would be shipped, what carrier would be used, or a copy of the shipping estimate or Bill of Lading. The only thing that he said was that he would pick it up Monday. BTW, the seller insisted on using this shipper and wanted me to wire the money after the "shipper" picked up the crate and before he shipped it. As I wanted to use a reputable shipper, I contacted a well known company for a quote. Their quote was three times what the seller had quoted and was inline with market rates based on shipping a large 150# crate across country.

As I had long suspected a scam, I wanted to remove any doubt in my mind and decided to make one last attempt to make an "honest" deal. I contacted the seller via text stating that I wanted to finalize the deal and asked that he call me. When he returned my text, I immediately called him back on the number we had been using to speak and text and got a recording that the number was no longer in service. I sent him a text and email stating that I was unable to get through to his number and asking him to call me. When he did call me, I recorded the call (as I had done with the "shipper"). Single party consent is all that is required in my state to record conversations. When we spoke, I assured him that I was sure everything was on the up and up, but wanted to make sure both parties were protected. I would purchase the item, however, I wanted to use an escrow payment service and I would handle the shipping at my expense; having my shipper pick up the crate at his location. The shipping company would photograph and inspect the crate and, once I was assured that everything was ok, I would release the funds. Of course he didn't want to handle it this way. I explained that, once again I knew he was legit, however, as a result of my job I am very sensitive to internet scams and wanted to be overly cautious. I then told him that my job happened to be in the Anti Money Laundering department of his bank, which is a 100% true statement. Not surprisingly, he immediately hung up.

Please be aware that these scammers are everywhere and we all are susceptible.