Be aware of a scam!


This happened outside of Audiogon, however I thought I'd share so other people won't get scammed.
It looks like a scam plot where bad guys post desirable HiFi gear for sale at various classified sites with cheap prices. Once you contact them they will tell you some BS that they need money and offer you escrow service to deliver the item, in my case some transportation company in Spain. The escrow service require full payment upfront and claim to be an intermediary between seller and buyer. In my case the guy introduced himself as Robert Szekeres (robert.szekeres1986@gmail.com...). He sent me the link to the escrow service company in Spain [url]https://transmachila-sl.com/trade_protection.php[/url]. The site looks legit except when I checked deeper it was created a couple months ago out of Reykjavik.
So needless to say I backed out of the deal.
Be vigilant people!

markd70

Not always, but a good indicator of scam is someone using a gmail account. 

@ozzy62 +1

Bingo! gmail account red flag #2. Price too good to be true red flag #1. Dealing through an "escrow service" red flag #3.

Whenever I’m poking around Craigslist, especially autos, and an obvious scam comes up, every single time it was a gmail account with a fictitious name, like a name adds some kind of legitimacy to it.

Thanks markd70, this is a great heads-up/warning, appreciated.

thecarpathian agree entirely with red flag 1 and 3, not sure why a gmail account is also a red flag, please elaborate (I am probably missing something obvious here).

Bingo! gmail account red flag

 

I would have thought it was a Hotmail account. 

Anyway thanks for the heads up 

Hey, guys.

As to the gmail comment, that is purely from personal observation every single time I saw a scam listing. So whenever I see it, my caution meter goes off.