Potential Scam Alert

[ziggy]

I had posted an ad to sell one o my Leica M lenses in Feb. Last week, someone with an Australian tel no WhatsApp'd me sayign that he wants to buy it. Wanted photos etc. On his phone profile, it shows pic of a young person, while it says that he is the CFO of FCA Group. Very impressive as FCA Group is Fiat Chrysler.

Wants it sent to the Philippines to his son. Offered a lower price even though it's stated as fixed. So far, quite normal.

Then asked me to send via FedEx or UPS even though he has no accounts with them. And insisted on paying me through PayPal and he would pay the 5% fee. This got me suspicious. FCA Australia is in Melbourne while he says he is in Sydney. Never heard of a CFO of an MNC with no personal FedEx or UPS account as it takes 5 mins to set one up. Then his willingness to pay 5% PayPal fee. Told him either TT to my bank account first before delivery or no deal. Never heard from him since.

There are plenty of them around. Be alert.

 

[ocean]

Yup. Happened to me before. Sounds like same person as the modus operandi is same. He wanted it to be delivered immediately to his brother in the Philippines, sent you a fake pay pal email saying pay pal is holding the money and you wont see it. When you delay sending, he got upset. When you checked with pay pal, they confirmed nothing has been paid. The address is a recently built terrace house in Philippines. When you call the property development, they refuse to tell you if the house is occupied. Fishy.

 

[nightwolf75]

general rule to remember - do not TT money overseas or sell to overseas people here in CS (unless you know that person IRL... but still, IMO, don't send).

if anyone encounter such people PMing you, kindly flag them out to the mods/Admins. we will de-reg them. of late, we have noticed more new CSers registering using foreign IP addresses.

 

[Gerlim]

Wow...thanks for starting this thread guys. Just had an encounter with someone who sounds suspiciously like what was described above... I stopped my conversation with him after checking the forum for any such encounters. Yes an Aussie number. We need to be vigilant.