Beware, scammers everywhere

A phone call goes a long way with me when closing the deal. Not fool proof, but you’ll usually know.

I recently sold a $3K used streamer to a fellow audiophile. It started out on the forum but then I got an email from him because he was out of the US and couldn’t get the forum to load. At first I didn’t realize it was the same guy so I was treating this communication as a possilble scammer.

He made an offer, I countered, he countered, and we settled on a price. His sensitivity to price made me think it was not a scammer. He sent me his shipping info to his work address, in Florida, I asked why he didn’t contact me on the forum and that is when he explained he did and was having trouble outside the country.

Making sense but still not fully making me comfortable. Then he called me and we talked a while about our systems and details about various streamers and I realized he was indeed an audiophile.

Then he tried to send zelle and it didn’t go through. We waited a day. I was wondering if now that he had my confidence, he was going to try to get me to honor some sketchy payment method. Then we had a day of silence as he traveled back to the US.

The next day we started texting. BofA was saying that I needed to enroll my number. I sent him a screenshot of part of my Zelle page showing that my number was indeed enrolled (making sure not to have any confidential info on it) and he immediately realized he had made a typo sending the zelle payment on his phone. He fixed it and I had the payment, in irreversible funds, in minutes.

I tell this story to show some of the perhaps-not-red-but-yellow flags that can pop up, how you need to be aware of them but be aware of things that are inconsistent with a scam as well. In the end, I met a good guy and fellow member of our audiophile group.

Jerry

New scam you need to share with all family members.   A small token gift or envelope arrives.   You open it to see a QR code.    It tells you to scan code.  Upon doing that you just dumped the entire contents of your phone into the scammers computer.   

@misc-audio I hear you. I can’t stand scammers (I toned down the language). If anything even remotely feels like a scam don’t go near it. Maybe a new term? "A soft buy?"

I think I’ve been done with 3 "hard sells" - me buying stuff. A kitchen reno (which is actually ok/good), a car (no surprise there), and acoustic treatment (not what I have now).

Each time the hard sell was different - hopefully I recognise it next time?

It seems the hard sell play is mostly buy it now to get a discount - there is usually a need, or urgency to to pay sooner.

A soft buy - pretty much what you described.