Im 15, have been scammed out of

How

With me he wanted to pay by pal, and then he said about how he worked on an oil rig so he wanted me to pay for a pickup agent. So hed over pay me and id forward money to his agent. But the PayPal confirmation that hed payed me was a fake.

The moral of this story...... CASH ON DELIVERY or CASH ON COLLECTION every time! By all means take a "small" PayPal deposit but if someone wants to buy something fom you it's up to THEM to pick it up or arrange collection/delivery (when it comes to something big and expensive like a bike or car for eg that is)

Edited September 15, 201213 yr by tazz229

How did you pay the agent?

£150 is an expensive way to learn a lesson mate.

be more careful next time. trust no one.

The front page of Trialsads was updated on Friday to carry a warning following several reports of this individual trying to scam users, but these attempts are a common occurrence and there is little I can do to stop them.

This is one of the contact emails:

Full Name: Marvin John

Email Address: johnmarvin53@yahoo.com

Message: Hello Seller, I want to buy this 2005 Sherco 290,and need to know how much are you asking for it? and please i can only pay using paypal,and after payments has been made i will arrange for pick up of the 2005 Sherco 290,Email - johnmarvin53@yahoo.com

Have a nice day,

Marvin John

There are several things in this contact that should immediately make anyone suspicious.

1) Name listed as Marvin John yet email address says John Marvin

2) If in doubt about a potential buyer, Google the contact email address. Scammers don't use a new email address for every attempt so it's highly likely they've been flagged attempting to scam someone, somewhere else. Searching for johnmarvin53@yahoo.com shows many results relating to attempted scams.

3) Whenever the item is mentioned in the contact the description is always precisely what you put as item title - in both cases here "2005 Sherco 290". This is down to the scam emails being automatically generated.

4) No questions around the condition of the item. you'd expect any potential buyer to want to know what kind of condition the item is in.

5) If your Ad lists a price then you'd have to ask yourself why the person contacting needs "to know how much are you asking for it?" Again, down to these emails being automatically generated.

6) Only pay by PayPal. Why?

7) If you are in the UK, as most of our sellers are, the use of "Have a nice day" should raise a red flag. Whilst common in the US, it is not a phrase used here (thank God!)

Finally, though not related to the contact email, the "You pay a courier and I'll over-pay you" thing is the most common version of these scams. Why would anyone fork out money on behalf of a complete stranger without first having received CLEARED payment themselves? Also, in the case of the above where it is a bike for sale, would any genuine buyer really want to fork out the kinds of money involved without having even seen the bike?

Wise words Andy

Old adage.....................

Buyer - see the bike, kick the tyres and once you're happy pay the cash

Seller - meet the person, see the colour of his eyes and money, do the deal

Best way to buy and sell, anything else is maybe a scam

Andy,

Thank you for taking the time to put that info up there. Good info for those new to all this interwebs buying and selling and a good reminder for those who have been doing it for a while.

Have a nice day.

Just to note if there occur a "long distance" trade there is in my personal view a good procedure

where the seller will get the money cash by collection and the buyer don't have to make a long

distance trip twice or to another country.

The buyer can instruct a shipping company to pick up the bike and pay the seller! Some shipping

companys offer this trust service.

This does cost the buyer some extra €€ / GBP but is often much more economically and expecially

needs less paperwork at the custom border in my experience.

Ive just given £360 of my hard earned cash to a gentleman by the name of Tommy Baxter aka Robin Butler see this link to karting forum.

http://www.karting.c...sgID=0000491553

Fingers crossed

Edited September 23, 201213 yr by spinningplates

I try to just speak to a real live person on the phone before getting very far into a transaction,I do the proper precautions too,it seems to filter out the shady types.

Just had a text from him offering me a full refund I will post when updated I might have nothing to worry about,

http://www.karting.co.uk/Notice/Message.asp?FID=5&MsgID=0000492004

b40rt your a star.

He was offering me a part refund some persistence on my part and a discussion about the police and a full refund was given to me.

Edited September 23, 201213 yr by spinningplates