EBAY Scam in Cycle Trader (Possibly)

[Southside Playa]

I was in the process of helping a buddy get in contact with a guy by email who had listed a 2003 GSXR 1000, and the local number he listed was no good. So I hit him on the email to see what is up with a spotless 03 1000 listed for $3500. Here was his reply, preceeded by my second reply.

"Hey not to be mean, but this sounds a little shady, as far as the UK part. So I guess you think we should send you the money and wait for a bike that we will never get? $3500 for that bike sounds like crack-head pricing. Do you have someone here in the US you could ship it to in Texas and let them handle the transaction, if not there is not much more to say. This smells like the age-old scam for getting people to send money, and someone like you screws them on the backend.  So if that is your game then you can politely #### off, if not lets talk business.


M.T. Kelley

-----Original Message-----
From: Nuheee@aol.com [mailto:Nuheee@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 06, 2005 3:26 AM
To: Kelley, Marcus
Subject: Re: 2003 GSXR 1000


The bike is still for sale and is in perfect conditions with no damages and i am the only owner of this.the bike has a clear title.The bike has a US title and i am the only owner of this bike.The price is like this because i need the money urgently to make a surgery and this is the only reason i sell the bike at this price.
I will pay all the shipping taxes and you will receive the bike in max 7 days .
just tell me when you will be able to make the payment?
For the moment I am in UK at my family and I have the bike with me ....but there is no problem because I will pay all the shipping taxes.
Thank you and I will wait for your email."

It sounds like the same BS scam from ebay with busas. Why is the price always $3500?

Anyway watch out, looks like even Cycle Trader is not safe.

Here is a pic of said bike.

 

[adrenaline junkey]

just tell them to ship c.o.d. that always takes care of it

 

[wickedsprint]

That is definitely a scam, they have the same broken english as the rest of the nigerian scams based in UK

 

[Gerald]

Cycle trader has quite a few bike scammers.I just look at the ads and shake my head because they have to be smoking crack to even think I'd fall for it.My rule of buying bikes and cars has always been to not pay a dime until the bike/car is in my face and title in hand.My only exception to this rule is for certain small purchases from reputable Ebay sellers or other sellers/vendors over the internet and there are very few.

 

[bacharles]

I need to pull up the one I found on Cycle Trader last week. This guy from Alabama was selling a 2004 Busa with 4600 miles on it for $3900. Funny thing was when I asked all the pertinent info, he replied with answers. I asked him to take current pictures from a digital camera that was 'date-stamped' (HE DID). I asked for a VIN # (HE DID). I finally left it alone when he started talking about if I was afraid to get ripped off that he knew of this escrow agency that would handle the transaction. Yeah RIGHT!!! As if I'm gonna send my money to some guy named "Bubbalicious..."

 

[Wag]

"i need the money urgently to make a surgery"

Yah, right.

--Wag--

 

[eynlai]

100% scam. Similar to what I encountered almost 1.5 year ago before I got my busa. Except the scammer I contacted was in France, recently married to a French girl there, and more convincing by offering to go through a escrow service for the transaction.

Just in case, some are not familar with what escrows do: It's a third party "middleman" so to speak. For a fee either the buyer or seller pays, or splits, the buyer sends the money to the escrow to hold. The escrow then informs the seller of the receipt of the money and at that point, seller should ship the item (whether bike, car, boat, etc...) to the buyer. Buyer receives, inspects, give the okay to escrow, and escrow is suppose to then transfer the money to the seller. Everyone happy!

Except the "French" scammer suggested a escrow service of his picking and gave me a website of the escrow. Nice, professionally done website. I looked for it in our BBB listing and it's not listed. I looked up the website info, and guess what I found... The Escrow is in the UK, website established like 2 months ago. The tech contact's listed for that website had the same domain in the email address as Frenchy Boy.

I already knew it was a scam. The Escrow operation was part of the scam. I emailed Frenchy to play along with him by suggesting a US escrow company here in So. Cal. and has also been rate good by BBB, and his response was that he's contractually obligated to use that specific escrow service that he mentioned, and he's already had a contract with them for about 1 year.

So I emailed him back how can he have been under contract to use them at all, escrow services are like fast food places, you pick and choose if you're a private seller. Also, how can he have been under contract with them for 1 year already when this escrow service he suggest, by website info have only existed for about 2 months. And I asked if they also offer email service because I noticed the domain of his email address is the same as that listed for the tech contact for the website. I also threw in if he can have some fish n' chips for me when he's in the UK to meet with the good people of this escrow company.

Guess what... No reply. Talk about being caught red-handed with his d*ck in the cookie jar.

 

[MN72Busa]

Last week I sold a Victory Vegas motorcycle for my father - 7 day auction, and it did sell----within 10 minutes after the sale 2 of the bidders that were out-bid got an email from someone saying they were me and offered them a 2nd chance to purchase the bike for a reduced price. I notified both non-winning bidders that I did not contact them and to report as a scam. Never had this issue before, but sorta freaked me out. I did have enough common sense not to list the Vehicle VIN for safety reasons and now Im really glad that I did.

 

[zx10r240rwhp]

your stupid if you think your going get a 1000rr for $3500. you should know better its a scam. let me guess mint with 2000 miles.

come on all you have to do is say you want and you want to look at it before you buy it or you want it cod.dont fall for that crap.

 

[Aceshigh]

your stupid if you think your going get a 1000rr for $3500. you should know better its a scam. let me guess mint with 2000 miles.

come on all you have to do is say you want and you want to look at it before you buy it or you want it cod.dont fall for that crap.

I agree.

I emailed a few of those guys with new bikes for $3500 just to see if I could find a common factor in the sales. The common factor was they were either leaving the states, or already overseas. One guy was talking to me seriously until I told him I was local to his location and wanted the address and time I could meet him.........i never heard from them again.

It's so easy to bust them out. Just tell him you have a military friend in that area who is going to check on the bike for you. Ask him for the location and address and a legitimate name and number, and 99% of them will never email you back. It's an easy bust out.

Oh yeah.....and they ALL want to use an escrow service....just FYI.



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[greeneinc]

Sad thing is that some poor sap will fall for it