We recently got hit with a scam!
We received a call from a relay service, someone who is deaf or hard of hearing. We have a really nice customer, Pete, that calls through a relay service so I am very familiar with how they work. This person used an Internet service so it is completely untraceable. Our call was from a male wanting to buy a motorcycle. This is how it went.
caller: how much for motorcycle?
Jody: $20-65,000.
Caller: I want a custom chopper.
Sure we have one for $45,000.
ok I want to buy it!
(what!! who buys a $45,000 motorcycle over the phone?!)
Where are you from and do you want to come see it?
Long Beach CA and I will send my son and shipper out to get it. Can I put a $2,000 deposit on my credit card?
(Ok that is 3,000 miles away!)
I'm sorry but we usually take $5,000 deposit on a large sale like that.
OK, Can you do me a favor? Charge my card for the shipping and then you pay the shipper?
So this call went on for over 45 minutes! I didn't come out and say we wouldn't take the credit card but he was ignoring the fact that I didn't want to take credit.
It was extremely tough talking to this person. I figured the call was fishy right from the start. I mean who does business like this?! I figured I would give them the benefit of the doubt and deal with them. I asked him lots of questions that mainly got short answers. He was a disabled veteran that just got a lot of money. Also the address that he sent me was not found on mapquest! He called every hour telling me he wanted to make the "deal real" and charge the card.
These calls and e-mails went on for 2 days until I finally said the key words!!
"No we will not take any credit cards and will not pay your shipper for you!!!"
That was it the call ended and not more contact.
See the scam is that you run a stolen credit card and then pay the "shipper" with your funds and then that credit card company calls you and says the card was no good after you have already paid the "shipper"!
The things people will do now for a $. Please be aware, I am sure this isn't the only one out there, especially in a tough economy!
Showing posts with label scam. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scam. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Motorcycle Scam
This happened a year or two ago.
We got to work one morning and my father got a phone call. It was "Jim" (I forget his real name). He said that he had met my dad a while back, a common saying around here, and he knew he was looking for old bikes. My dad of course is looking for old bike at a good deal, what motorcycle enthusiast would be! So the guy said that he was from our town and was a truck driver and came across an estate sale in Alabama.
Jim said that there was 2 old Indians and 1 1950's era Harley. The estate only wanted $5,000 for all three of these mint bikes. Wow what a deal, I'll take it!! My dad said buy the bikes and I will pay you for them when they get here because the guy said that he could bring them home with him. One problem this guy didn't have enough money on him to buy the bikes so my dad had to Western Union $4,000 to him!
Ok that's when things started to get fishy! Now this is going on for about 2 hours with phone calls back and forth and the estate wants to get rid of these bikes and the guy had to keep moving with the load on his truck. So my dad had to act fast to get these "steal of a deal" bikes.
The more we thought about it the more it became interesting. My dad called the guy back and asked where he met him. He stated here at our shop. I forgot what he said but whatever it was it was totally wrong, like that our shop was in an industrial park. Ok clue number one. Next the phone number on the caller ID said Texas? Why does he have a Texas number if he lives in Bridgewater MA?
The final straw was Dave asked the guy what street he lived on in BridgeWATER and he said Ocean Drive! There is no Ocean Drive in Bridgewater! He must have thought because our town has "water" in it it must be near the water. False! Clue number three!
My father was so disappointed realizing that it must be a scam. He called the guy back and asked a bunch more questions and the guy hung up. We called back several times throughout the day but there was no answer. We never heard from him again!
But what a scam because my dad meets a ton of people everyday! how can he remember everyone. Also what motorcycle guy wouldn't want a wicked good deal on a couple of old motorcycles? I am sure my dad wasn't the first one he called. The guy probably convinced a bunch of people to send him money. Money that you can't trace or ever get back. It's not like you can call Western Union and tell them it was a scam and they credit you back like a credit card!
So watch out if someone that knows you, found a really good deal but needs a little bit of extra cash because they don't have enough!
We got to work one morning and my father got a phone call. It was "Jim" (I forget his real name). He said that he had met my dad a while back, a common saying around here, and he knew he was looking for old bikes. My dad of course is looking for old bike at a good deal, what motorcycle enthusiast would be! So the guy said that he was from our town and was a truck driver and came across an estate sale in Alabama.
Jim said that there was 2 old Indians and 1 1950's era Harley. The estate only wanted $5,000 for all three of these mint bikes. Wow what a deal, I'll take it!! My dad said buy the bikes and I will pay you for them when they get here because the guy said that he could bring them home with him. One problem this guy didn't have enough money on him to buy the bikes so my dad had to Western Union $4,000 to him!
Ok that's when things started to get fishy! Now this is going on for about 2 hours with phone calls back and forth and the estate wants to get rid of these bikes and the guy had to keep moving with the load on his truck. So my dad had to act fast to get these "steal of a deal" bikes.
The more we thought about it the more it became interesting. My dad called the guy back and asked where he met him. He stated here at our shop. I forgot what he said but whatever it was it was totally wrong, like that our shop was in an industrial park. Ok clue number one. Next the phone number on the caller ID said Texas? Why does he have a Texas number if he lives in Bridgewater MA?
The final straw was Dave asked the guy what street he lived on in BridgeWATER and he said Ocean Drive! There is no Ocean Drive in Bridgewater! He must have thought because our town has "water" in it it must be near the water. False! Clue number three!
My father was so disappointed realizing that it must be a scam. He called the guy back and asked a bunch more questions and the guy hung up. We called back several times throughout the day but there was no answer. We never heard from him again!
But what a scam because my dad meets a ton of people everyday! how can he remember everyone. Also what motorcycle guy wouldn't want a wicked good deal on a couple of old motorcycles? I am sure my dad wasn't the first one he called. The guy probably convinced a bunch of people to send him money. Money that you can't trace or ever get back. It's not like you can call Western Union and tell them it was a scam and they credit you back like a credit card!
So watch out if someone that knows you, found a really good deal but needs a little bit of extra cash because they don't have enough!
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