WARNING scam targeting bike sellers

[Hawk]

recently happened to me but the too good to true warned me and I was ready for want was about to happen

indicators

offers more than listed price
provides link so that you may setup paypal to enable payment DONT CLICK ON THAT BY THE WAY Its bogus
finally asks for you to pay agent fees which he will refund in purchase price
txt received from off shore in this case England 044 prefix, ( yes I have the number and soon so will NZ police along with the email exchange)

contact through a popular nz bike trader site, They have been informed

Mods I hope this is the right place for this otherwise could you move it

[steve_t]

Yeah, there's already a number of threads discussing the same thing. The same scam goes for cars too

[jamessmith]

was nearly taken in by this and reported it to paypal... for all the good that will do... yea rite

[Hawk]

they dont learn since posting this they have tried three more times same line of bulls#### different person

[mitsievo]

This happened to me yesterday! Got a txt from a 152..... number wanting to buy my bike. Replied via email and she wanted to buy it after sending more pics. She wanted to pay using paypal, which i thought was legit. Until i got the payment received email from "paypal". Sure enough when i went to the actual paypal website the money wasnt there. I aparntly had to send 2k to get the funds released haha. Heres a copy of the email so anyone else out there knows what it looks like.
The whole bunch of writing at the bottom was what sealed it for me, theres no way im going to send money first.

You have an Instant Payment of $5,950.00 NZD from Susan Hawkins



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Payment Details


Purchased From: mitsievo@hotmail.com
Transaction ID: 62S8492898335130L



Item Number Item Title Quantity Price Subtotal
N/A Yamaha FZR 1 $4,000.00 NZD $4,000.00 NZD


Shipping & Handling Handled by PayPal:
(includes any seller packing fees) $1,950.00 NZD
Postal Insurance: $0.00 NZD


Total: $5,950.00 NZD


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Shipping Agent's Information

Agent's Info: Name: Robert Huber,
Changsha
Hunan,
530005
P.R.CHINA.


Address Status: Confirmed
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For security purposes,
This PayPal payment has been deducted from the buyer's account and has been " APPROVED" but will not be credited to your account until we confirm that the shipping fees has been sent to the above address via Western Union Money Transfer. The above amount has been fully deducted from the buyer's account and the money is now in escrow with PayPal but we want you to send out $1,950.00 NZD which will be used by the shipping service agent for the pick-up of the Merchandise.

All you have to do is to reply directly to this mail with the Money Transfer Control Number( MTCN),Secret Questions and Answers used when sending the money. Once it has been verified and the details above sent to us, you will receive a "CONFIRMATION E-mail" from PayPal® Service informing you that your account has been credited with $5,950.00 NZD. Contact us directly at our Customer Department service at:customerdept@consultant.com and our customer service care will attend to you. Please be aware that due to the thousands of transactions processed daily by PayPal, It is strictly requested that you contact us only through the customer care email provided above for faster response from us as we will not respond to phone calls unless otherwise advised by us.

**PLEASE NOTE**
Once the transfer information has been verified and the MTCN 10 Digit Code has been sent to us, You will receive a "CONFIRMATION Email" from PayPal informing you that the Money has been credited to your PayPal account.

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Thank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team


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[JimO]

looks legit to me

[SS90]

Yea, ya sissy, what are you waiting for........ send the money, jeeze louise, it is perfectly normal business practice to pay for items like this in such a way, just send the 2 grand.

[rustyrobot]

Actually, if you are a bit short of the 2 grand, just let me know. I won the european lottery 3 times already this week, and you are welcome to one of my winning 'tickets' (it's funny because I don't even remember buying a ticket). Just let me know and I'll forward on the email. 47 million euros could be yours! :D

[Rob Taylor]

My daughter had her bike forsale on trade & got the same text saying they would buy her bike and for her to reply by email with more photos. She sent the photos then got reply saying they were happy to pay asking price ,but because they are in China,the deal would now be handle by a shipping agent in China....Thats as far as my daughter went as she could smell a rat....If it sounds to good to be true it normally is......

[chrispy121]

if you logged on to pay pal change your pass word ASAP

[KiwiMuzz]

Hi I have been almost scammed by this person and I am very glad I found this post. I have been communicating with this Susan Hawkins via email and requested the money and was awaiting payment when I had noticed a contradiction in paying the shipper as detailed below, then I found this post. I have changed my paypal passowrd and contacted the NZ police.

I have sent the payment through paypal and I hope by now you should have received the confirmation emails from paypal because the funds has been removed from my account immediately I sent it. Get back to me as soon as you could so I can know how everything is going and also I have added $3,550.00 NZD for the shipping as that is the shipper's fee and I have added it while sending the payment. I had to do that because you are the one to pay the shipper since you are the seller and they are going to pick the item up from you.
Thanks for the business.

......Susan


From: Susan Hawkins
Date: 5/04/2010 9:56:42 p.m.

The shipping agent doesnt deal with handling of cash or payment,they only deal with the pick up of a merchandise and the shipment,so i can only conclude this transaction only via paypal,i have been burnt via cheque and bank transfer before,that is why i selected paypal(www.paypal.com) as a mode of payment because paypal is the best online payment,so both of us could be on the safer side,i am a woman of integrity.i am honest and don`t cheat people out of their money,i own my company that have a 25 number of people working for me,awaiting your decision because i really need to pursue this buy sincerely.
Thanks

......Susan

[crazzed]

I have had four differrent people/alias try in the last week now just set to auto delete. sucks when we are all just trying to sell our bike/gears.