Someone tryed to scam me. Badly...

Blacktie.

So I'm trying to sell my bike and soon after I put it up on gumtree I got a guy very interested. Didn't have the best grammar in the world but if he's interested in my bike he can talk sh!te for all I care. He asked me my minimum selling price and I sent him it. Said he'd give me E50 more to take it off the site. Yeah sure grand job.

All seemed a bit suspicious to me from the start considering he never saw the bike and said he was wanted to buy it for his sons birthday (nice gift :rolleyes:).

He emailed me then later in the week asking me for some details so he could post me a cheque. Yeah ok pretty sure it was a scam at this point but whatever I'll give him what he needs to send the cheque. Said I'd have to wait for the cheque to clear before I sent the bike and he was alright with that. This was the point when I looked into similar scams and found this one to be a very well known one.

So I try and ring him with the number he provided at the end of the email. O big surprise the number isn't actually a number. Also it had an english extension.

Anyway I forget about it for a few days and then a cheque arrives for me in the post. Now I was asking for 2k for the bike and this guy decides to send me 5 :eek:. Apparently the cheque was from O'Connell st. AIB.

So dropped into AIB and told them I'm pretty sure this is a fake cheque and could they confirm it. Yep fake. They asked for his details so it could be given to fraud department. Be doing that tomorrow morning.

The way the scam goes is I'm meant to lodge it into my account and 3 days later it shows up in my account. The seller will ask for the extra money to be sent by Western Union/Moneygram (untraceable) to pay for shipping. You send the money and never hear from the buyer again and 3 weeks later the cheque bounces and you're out of pocket.

KamiKazi

I'd lodge the cheque and let him come chasing me for his 3k

newmug

Bloody hell! Cheers for sharing that! Hope you get to sell your bike

seanybiker

Some woman tried to by me mares bike last year for her son. She was buying it in Waterford from south Africa for her son up the country somewhere. She offered more than he asked for. Some laugh. Me mate thought that maybe she was genuine and didn't know much so was kinda deligtdd but also a bit weary. Called down to me to tell me about this and I told him to string her along for the laugh that its all a scam. Poor chap still wasn't convinced it was a scam. Someone else bought the bike in the end

Paparazzo

If the words "Western Union" are used somewhere in the deal forget about it, it's a scam. The fake number is also very common. I had one ages ago when trying to buy a bike. Won't go into details, but it's a common enough. The phone number wouldn't work though.

Thing is, we cop on that they're scams at some point and wonder who falls for them. But if you ever listen to joe duffy you'll hear loads of people who fall for them.

Interceptor

OP, I'm glad you caught it in time.

On the flip side, I sold a bike in January to a guy with a foreign accent who bought it for his 17yr old son. The guy responded to a Donedeal ad, offered just under my asking price and showed up in a jeep. He paid cash, threw my bike on its side into the back of the jeep and drove off with a piece of string holding the back door closed and a basin under the petrol tank to stop the fuel from spilling everywhere. I'm still shaking my head in wonder at it.



'cptr

seanybiker

Jaysus the nutter

Keith186

Interceptor wrote: »

OP, I'm glad you caught it in time.

On the flip side, I sold a bike in January to a guy with a foreign accent who bought it for his 17yr old son. The guy responded to a Donedeal ad, offered just under my asking price and showed up in a jeep. He paid cash, threw my bike on its side into the back of the jeep and drove off with a piece of string holding the back door closed and a basin under the petrol tank to stop the fuel from spilling everywhere. I'm still shaking my head in wonder at it.

'cptr

I sold a bike like that before to a Ukrainian bloke few years ago. He threw it into back of a jeep as you do. Counted out the money from a huge huge wad of €50's.
Flat tyre and bike wouldn't start and he didn't even care!
All a bit suspicious but I'm not sure why...

Sids Not

Keith186 wrote: »

I sold a bike like that before to a Ukrainian bloke few years ago. He threw it into back of a jeep as you do. Counted out the money from a huge huge wad of €50's.
Flat tyre and bike wouldn't start and he didn't even care!
All a bit suspicious but I'm not sure why...

Must have been a plasterer.....;)

Luckycharm

I sold a car to nice young Pakistani lad - he didn't have all the money up front but really wanted the car. He was so anxious that he gave me his passport, visa card, wage slips and a utility bill - I let him hold onto the car after I had half the money (it was an old enough car) and he had it paid in about 2 weeks and gave him back all his stuff. I could have taken out a mortgage in his name given all I had

goldie fish

KamiKazi wrote: »

I'd lodge the cheque and let him come chasing me for his 3k

If you lodge the cheque, it will clear, and your account will be up a few grand. However then the bank will realise its a fake, take the few grand back and charge you an admin fee.