[veracruz]

A while back I posted a want ad for a small Giulietta part and received an immediate response from an Ian Beecher who lives in the United kingdom. he also asked me if there were any other parts I needed to which I gave him a list of some very obscure items some of which are heavy. He responded that he had them and that they were "genuine" and in perfect condition. He gave me an idiotic low price including shipping. He futher explained:
1) His internet provider could not handle any photos.
2) His Paypal account is dormant.
3) He could only accept payment by Western Union as he has been "burnt" too many times and he would not accept an international bank draft.

Here you see exactly how these people conduct their "Business". Payment by Wertern Union only requires identification by the recipient in the country to which the payment is sent and no record is kept of the recipient's address thereby making the recipient untraceable. I checked the address he gave and it turned out to be a hotel in Blackpool, England. I imagine that he is doing this on many bulletin boards. Has anybody received e-mals from him for their want ads?
David Hunt
Houston, texas

 

[pancho]

Yes, I have also received one from a nigeran scammer offering a NOS bootlid shipped from the UK to Australia for 350p. To which I laughed. He too lived in a hotel....

 

[racerx9146]

me too

I also got one, I even got a photo but was not a Alfa Engine. Beware seems like scams are on the rise in general.

Daron

 

[alfasrule]

People Suck!! I'm sick of hearing these stories. I'd like to drop people like this in the middle of the ocean and let the Sharks eat them.

 

[gprocket]

I must admit that I've been burnt by a BB scammer. It wasn't a lot of money but more than anything I felt stupid for falling for it. I answered a post for a $50 part. I usually use paypal but he said he didn't have an account so I went to the bank and got a cashier's check. Then he emailed me to say he had sent the part and I felt bad that I hadn't gotten the check quickly so I overnighted it! I spent about as much getting him the check as the check's amount. Can you imagine the laugh he had when he got the FedEx letter! Talk about being dumb...

But in all it was cheap tuition. A while back I bought a part that cost about $1,000. They wanted a check but this time I insisted on using paypal. Two months later it was clear I was never going to get the part. I claimed it on paypal and within an hour I had the money back.

 

[HeavyMetalAlfa]

Recently I negotiated with a 'gentleman' in England for one of my Alfas, it didn't sit real well with me, even though he did ask the right questions. I asked for a phone number, he sent one, I called, could not understand a word he said. He sent me a check, saying that when it cleared, he would send someone to inspect the car, and I was to pay them $1000 from the check for the 'inspection' service.
I started thinking, "this sounds like a scam". Well, it turns out the check was bogus, from a Chicago computor firm, I contacted them and talked to the owner several times, gave him the info I had.
I have been baiting the scammer for several weeks, trying to get the "inspecter' to show up. Believe me, I had a good welcome ready for him.
No show, not surprised, but disappointed, I would have loved to meet a scammer face to face. !!

 

[Luscombe1940]

BB Scams

Last year I bought a set of 74frin bumpers from a BB member. He stated they
Were in excellent shape. No cracks in the lenses. Pictures were a bit blurry
needless to say when I got them in GA they were very different. The seller was from CA
and would not return my emails.
Makes it very disconserting to buy again even though most members are honest.

 

[Tony Dellicolli]

1969 Duetto front grill

I must admit that I've been burnt by a BB scammer. It wasn't a lot of money but more than anything I felt stupid for falling for it. I answered a post for a $50 part. I usually use paypal but he said he didn't have an account so I went to the bank and got a cashier's check. Then he emailed me to say he had sent the part and I felt bad that I hadn't gotten the check quickly so I overnighted it! I spent about as much getting him the check as the check's amount. Can you imagine the laugh he had when he got the FedEx letter! Talk about being dumb...

But in all it was cheap tuition. A while back I bought a part that cost about $1,000. They wanted a check but this time I insisted on using paypal. Two months later it was clear I was never going to get the part. I claimed it on paypal and within an hour I had the money back.

Rich D.-A little while back you mentioned that you had a Duetto front grill that I was interested in buying.
Do you still have it? and if so I would like to pay you for it in cash and pick it up in the Detroit Area.
If I remember correctly you lived in had a shop in Warren, MI.
Regards,
tony

 

[Pat Braden]

Warning: Watch Out for Dubious Offers

I guess, I've been luckier than some of you, although, I don't buy a lot of parts; don't really have the need. I've always dealt with people where I wrote them a check and sent it either after I received the merchandise or could verify that it had been shipped. Some of them were small purchases, but others over $1k from a cross-section of the U.S.

I don't use PayPal because of a problem that Pat had with them and after all this time, I still get e-mail from them asking me to resume use of the account. No way in 4377.

There is just too much fraud all the way around with payment methods; but, overall, I've found that bb members that are willing to take a check are honest, and furnish merchandise as described.

 

[gprocket]

Rich D.-A little while back you mentioned that you had a Duetto front grill that I was interested in buying.
Do you still have it? and if so I would like to pay you for it in cash and pick it up in the Detroit Area.
If I remember correctly you lived in had a shop in Warren, MI.
Regards,
tony

Hi Tony:

I'll pm you but for the record, I don't actually live in the shop!

 

[rbsloan11]

Still at it

I just had an identical offer to supply a part I had requested in the Wanted classifieds on the Alfabb website. It must be the same person although he now goes by "Charlie Williams". He again claims that he is in the UK, he had the part at a great price, but couldn't provide a picture of it since his camera was not at the "warehouse". Again he states his Paypal account has been "dormant", and that he would only accept Western Union. Over the years I have always been so happy with my interactions with fellow car enthusiasts thru the internet, and had no problem with trusting people I had never met... nowadays I only will deal with those accepting Paypal.

 

[stefmiesterb]

Same thing happened to me but through Paypal, I was new to the whole scene. I ordered a Milano Euro grill from a guy in GB, forgot his name, and he never sent the item. Gave me a tracking number and everything, I thought it was taking long to clear customs or something because it was "in transit" all the way though the final day to file a claim on paypal. Much smarter now!!

 

[italcarnut]

I am so sorry to hear of all the scams. I have to tell you, I have been in the Alfa community for 33 years and I can say that the brotherhood of Alfisti has been very good regarding interchanging parts. In this BB, I have never been scamed. People just want the hard to get parts that some people have saved though the years to finish a project. If they need the money bad enough to scam someone out of a few bucks, they will fall by the wayside as no one will want to deal with them. The rest of us shall continue this brotherhood. I still have faith in my fellow alfista!

 

[rbsloan11]

I don't think these scams are coming from others in the hobby. I just had another offer (almost exactly the same wording but a different email name, so I would guess it is probably the same person), and they seem to know very little about cars. I suspect these people search the internet for all types of want ads, act as legit sellers, and doing it often enough they snare the occasional sucker who wires money. It may be that they realize the people on this website are passionate about their cars and that on occasion may ignore their better judgement when it comes to buying that needed part!

 

[brookstroutr]

It's bad enough that we have to deal with the domestic scammers but cross-border scammers have been around for quite some time. With the sad state of economic affairs, it's greatly increased.

Be advised that they surf our vehicle arenas, Roadfly, CL (a lot), eBay for staging these scams. I received a US Bank Cashier's check for $11K for a rebuilt BMW 'M' motor. Check was real but was an old used one - Harris Bank in Chicago. A couple others later for other cars. Even a PayPal account payment that was fraud after reporting to Paypal. Several were on a car I listed on Craig's List.

"I send you money for item + shipping and you send item and wire the balance to this overseas account". I rec'd the Harris Bank check via Fed-Ex from NJ. I checked this out and it was fraud.

Here's what I do in these cases. I keep reeling them in with emails and save them for reporting to help any agency that will deal with them. I even had the guy from UK for the 'M' motor ring me a couple times with threatening messages. Unfortunately, only organizations like PayPal have specific departments to resolve any fraudulant activities. The police don't give a shat for this and ID theft.

Best policy is to wait for the funds to clear for selling. BTW, if you sign a funding deposit item, you are liable for these funds. Do not sign and wait for the bank to get it cleared. My bank said to sign it or they could not deposit it until I stated the legal issues and that he was knowingly providing false statements to customers. Another problem is banks, at least here in Florida, are not even recognizing bank checks until funds are fully credited because there's so much fraud out there.

Here's one of the biggest BS I recently experienced. I hadn't bought or sold a vehicle for a couple years on evilbay and this past spring I listed one and was supposedly sold. The winning bidder changed his mind for some unknown reason, left negative feedback and bailed. I contacted evilbay and here's their response. New policy is they won't do a frikkin thing!! Thereby, the winning bid is NOT A BINDING CONTRACT!! The negative feedback issue - Buyer stated he tried to pay and then get this - I would not accept his money. I had to re-list at a lower fee and sold it to a paying bidder. evilbay's rules for dismissing negative feedback is only if you just cuss them out! Period. evilbay even billed me for re-listing the same item and it was a 3 week hassle to get them to drop the $125 USD charges!!

Buyer/Sellers beware today.

 

[planetmojo]

I just received an e-mail from Ian Beecher (the 'suspect' that started this post), on some perts I was looking for. He gave me an address in Blackpool, England... and the same excuses: dormant PayPal, Western Union, etc.

Address: Flat, 239 Promenade, Blackpool FY1 6AH, United Kingdom.

Does that sound familiar, as the address turned out to be a hotel?

He sent pix of a mirror and wheel rim. So, I didn't get the story on there being no camera in the warehouse. As I was mildly suspicious, I asked if he had a website that I could view his selection of ALFA parts. No response on that yet. The pic he sent of a side mirror showed the wrong side, so I asked that he send one of the correct side. He maybe borrowing pix of ALFA parts from this site, or eBay? I may also ask if he has a friend who has an active PayPal account. That may help answer the question?

Has anyone actually done a deal with this gentleman... happy ending, or not?? I'd like to do a deal with him, but am not anxious to get boned. That's how I ended up back here... I Googled his name and address, and found this ALFAbb posting.

Thanks in advance for any clues here,
Peter

 

[veracruz]

Scammer

That is the same guy. Claims he lives at the hotel and his garage is just around the corner. I sent a letter to him that did not come back as not being deliverable. He may have some connectionto the hotel. He would only accept wire transfer not any other form of payment. Wire transfers can be picked up anywhere in the UK with ID so your chances of running him down are remote. I sent him a nice certificate/diploma I made up honoring him as being the Alfa Scammer of the year. Very nice certificate if I do say so. I wonder if he ever been succesful?

 

[planetmojo]

Thanks Veracruz!

Based on both our our suspicions, I may make the foolish offer that he send me the parts... and I will immediately send him the Western Union payment. I think we know how that chat might end. Hope you didn't lose any $$$ in that deal.

Per your input, I used Google map to see what I could find at that address... came up: Wallace Hotel.

We'd love to see that certificate, if you still have a pic of it. Nice touch !!