Sales Scam to be aware of....

[barry k]

Hello all, I don't know if this is the appropriate place to put this but want to make the whole Cafe aware of a scam that was attempted on me this week. We received a text message of someone interested in a consignment mandolin I have for sale. He, his name was Leon Todd, said he was hard of hearing so text was his preferred communication. He went on to say he was in Rhode island with his family and was buying the mandolin for his nephew. I checked the area code of the phone number and it was from Minnesota . he claimed he was a district manager for a company called Shepard Exposition Services, which btw is a legitimate company. he said he would send a check to my address. 5 days later he recommunicated that he sent the check with the wrong address, and he would resend it. In the mean time I called this company and behold no one by that name worked there, and people have been calling , 5 in the last 3 weeks asking for this Leon Todd. So, about 14 days later a check came via express mail , mailed from Jacksonville , Florida. The check was issued by said above company in Phoenix,, Arizona . I called the company right away, and talked to the manager. She had told me I was the 5 th inquiry on this guy in 3 weeks, and that the check was forged. The check was $1080.00 more then the agreed upon price. He then emailed us 2 hours later and told me the check was in my mailbox. I returned the email pretending to be shocked and oh my what shall I do? attitude, he responded by saying it was his secretaries mistake, and I should just deposit the check.
And that I should send him the balance and the mandolin to a not yet disclosed location
I am laughing this whole time, playing back and forth with e mails, I told him I wanted to meet him in person. He was getting nervous and told me to rip up the check if I felt uncomfortable with the transaction. The lady in Arizona said a guy from Pennsylvania called her last week and said he was scammed for $4800.00....Please take this as a
warning just to be on your toes. It initially smelled bad to me , so that why I took some extra measures...Hope it was ok to post this here. Barry K

[MikeEdgerton]

That isn't a new scam, it's a very old tried and true scam. Anytime anyone sends an over payment you can just assume it's a scam.

[Denny Gies]

Thanks to both of you guys. Information is so valuable

[Gene Summers]

I had the same scammer text me on my mandolin Ad I have on here, pretty much the same scenario, poor English in his texts. I never received the check though. I answered his texts on my phone, so he has my #, but I blocked him after he quit communicating. I have since changed my Ad to not include my phone number. It's best to read the Ad Posting Guidelines on this site before you post an ad. I'm sorry to hear about the $4,800 loss on one of his scams. There are scammers just about everywhere.

[FrDNicholas]

When this scam was attempted on us, we gave the check to our local sheriff's department.

[Folkmusician.com]

Yeah, this is a pretty standard one. It is not so bad when they have poor english and do this in mass (won't invest too much time and effort). It does get dangerous when it is a native English speaker and they have put some thought into it. At this point, I can almost guarantee they will find some victims.

There have been cases, I have had these people do a really convincing job of acting like a normal customer. Asking tons of questions, being concerned about price and choosing a lower cost instrument. Accepting phone calls at a number that does match the area they are supposed to be from, impersonating people that checkout with research. Having email addresses that have been around for years and there are forum posts, etc... The best are friendly, but not so eager as to set off alarms. These are rare examples and it has been a few years since it came up.

A few years back we were targeted by a nationwide crime ring. This lasted almost a year and we had orders from them from all over the USA. It was't just a group moving, but multiple members. This is nothing like you would envision.. These people lived in upperclass neighborhoods and were obviously well organized. They would actually answer the phone and sign for the packages.

I had months of intel and was in contact with other merchants that were targeted etc... This was repeatedly presented to authorities, and aside from taking the police reports, nothing was ever done. I can understand if this was just one portion of a large organized crime ring, and they were already under investigation for bigger things, but my impressions was a complete lack of interest.

[Willie Poole]

Just tell them when the check clears you will send the mandolin, that usually gets them off of your back....I had it tried on me twice and took the check to the bank that it was drawn on and was told that this fellow had 15 cases against him and that they were still trying pin point his location...The cashiers check did look real.....

Willie

[Northwest Steve]

It truly amazes me that people still fall for these. It is nothing new and as been on the news and BBB over and over. It is frustrating because you know they are getting money or they would not continue doing it. The case Robert mentioned is entirely different and I could see how you could get taken. But if I has an address (they signed for it) I would be tempted to show on their door step sometime.

[barry k]

I wish , they would show up at my door....

[darrylicshon]

I received a check before after alot of emailing back and forth and i tried to deposit it in my atm , the atm quickly said it isn't a real check. I emailed the person told them what happened and never heard back from him i still have the check somewhere

[Bob Clark]

I had three of these scammers contact me within the last week about a non-musical item I have listed on another web site (a racing shell). Their scams were each pretty obvious. I didn't bother emailing them back. Why engage them at all? Due to the good work of Scott and Co. we seem to get very little of that here at the Cafe. Good for us!

[Mandolin Cafe]

None of these people contacted a single person through the Reply To function in the Classifieds. It's that simple. You received a text. Does that give anyone pause? It should. They don't want a record of their contacting you and if they text you we don't. Texting bypasses the entire security system we have in place that includes in part the IP and email address check we have in place, plus a few other things we don't let anyone in on. Viola! You answer the text and it's game on.

If you stop and think about it a second where did part of the problem here originate??? That's why we just removed the phone numbers from ads. People keep trying to insert emails and phone numbers in ads thinking the internet is some kind of newspaper. HINT: It isn't. Not necessary to list those in order for people to contact you. We've now dedicated a bunch of time to a programming solution to keep users from doing those very activities we keep telling them to not engage in, and then we went in and wiped all the phone numbers from 1,050+ ads.

We can protect you from scammers. We can't protect you from yourselves. These folks test the system all the time but they keep making the same mistakes 99.99% of the time. If you allow the Classifieds to be used as intended you won't experience any of this.

[Mandolin Cafe]

This is the revised ad placement screenshot, in part. Read and follow the instructions highlighted in red and you instantly make yourself a lot safer because everyone you're dealing with has been screened at least once. Bypass any of this and you put yourself at risk. It should go without saying that anyone that contacts in a manner outside of the Reply To function where the contact is somehow made outside of the Mandolin Cafe and we're hosting your ad, that you should insist they go through the system to make first contact.


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[Bill Kammerzell]

I have always put phone numbers in my listings. I also put "No texts" will be responded to and I stick to it. I find text customers for the most part never do business. I don't even care for emails. If they wont call, they don't intend to do business anyway.