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Individual International Seller Scam

I recently became a victim of a scam. A parasite advertised the sale of  Dali Euphonia MS 5 speakers located in Denmark. I offered him his asking price and in our communications reminded him to formally accept the offer through Audiogon. He committed to the offer in our conversations and we agreed on wire transfer to his HSBC Bank in London. Once the money cleared he sent me an email the speakers were being shipped but that turn out to be a lie. It was the last communication I had with him. he did not respond to several followup email.

The parasite's login is pedersenh62. I have notified Audiogon support and they quickly suspended his account. Audiogon has also been very helpful with what to do. I have filed a report with my Bank, FBI internet Fraud online both locally and the Denmark office based on the address the scam artist provided.

I hope no other members have been duped by the same guy.

My advise is not to deal with INDIVIDUAL international seller unless it is  agreed  that only COD,credit card or some form of escrow is in place and such escrow only released upon confirmation of delivery.

Audiogon may also want to review the policy on individual international sellers. It verifies dealers but maybe it should consider that only sellers who agree to above payments will be allowed to advertise or for that matter demand that such sellers deposit equivalent money for sale with Audiogon.

Thank you for opportunity to share my experience and I hope else gets defrauded.

Taiye
taiye
elberoth2's avatar
elberoth2
1,223 posts
 
IMO, if you are gonna wire someone $5k-$10k-$20k, that 30 min spent researching the seller is time well spent.

ESCROW is not free, and it will cost you some extra time as well.  
sevs
301 posts
 
Sorry, I was not quite clear that I totally agree with your points. With most transactions thats all you need to do. For $10+K I feel safer using Escrow, and paying extra fees, but thats just me.
You make a good point about sellers safety, I never thought of that. Don't know if Escrow makes it safer for the sellers, maybe it does not. 
Why did Poland get singled out is beyond my comprehension skills as well...
sbank's avatar
sbank
3,379 posts
 
@elberoth2 Great advice! Cheers,
Spencer
terry9
2,354 posts
 
Elberoth2, I thought those were such good ideas that I used them this morning. Thank you.
derrickengineer
36 posts
 
Hope you get some recourse on this deal.
I always ask for the Address and phone number, work number of seller, then I google it and see actually what building it is.. if its a drugstore or post office building other than a home it sends red flags to me. I may even call the numbers and verify they are correctly owned by seller. The cost of a call to sellers work place and them never hearing of the guy is cheaper than losing $1000"s of dollars. 
I then ask for a pic of his drivers licence in front of the item for sale  to ensure he actually has that item or not and that his name and previously stated address are on the drivers licence. Refusal sends a red flag and I move on.
I ask for serial number of item for sale and run it by the Manufacturer for any mods, repairs, updates and if any, to whom this item belonged to and push for any info they are willing to share. 
I google sellers name and if he is legit and its the correct name he may come out as an honest guy selling his gear or if he's a scammer, the numerous forums on the net may have his name connected to previous scams.
One can never be too trustworthy of internet deals as total anonymity and great distances make a scammer  brave enough to rip people off.
 I can t afford such a loss and Buyer do your due diligence to make you comfortable completing an internet transaction.

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