buyer beware of late

I got burned a few years ago using Fedex COD to sell a laptop.

The crook gave fedex an obviously fake money order which they sent to me. I didn't look closely and deposited the MO. A few weeks later my bank called me and told me the money order was fake.

Fedex was useless. They say that they aren't responsible for verifying the authenticity of the money order (despite the spelling errors and runny ink).

Ultimately my homeowners insurance came through for me after a long investigation. It turned out that the receiving address was a crack house in detroit. They refunded my money, minus a deductible, as a theft.

I don't know what I would do differently in the future. Maybe I'd have a phone conversation with the person and see if I could confirm home or work phone numbers. It wouldn't hurt to ask for a fax of the money order as well.

Distortion - you caught that too? All of those speakers sold within a day of being listed, and ain't it amazin' that the deals apparently were closed w/ overnight shipping 'cause all of the feedback was also posted within a day. And I thought there was an almost uncanny similarity to the style of all of the feedback (you can only use just so many "+++" before even my old eyes notice a pattern). Simply amazing!

You would think that it shouldn't be too hard to implement a system that IDs those offerings and transactions. Even slEazeBay has those silly icons that warn you about a 30-day new user, and even they have caught "likely" fraud rings like this (although with some help). Yup, it's unfortunate but you do have to take a regular dose of paranoia pills and do your homework - and still get lucky.

It's sad that these jerks are trying to sabotage this site. I have had many transactions with Audiogon members without a single problem.

"unbelievable" low price can simply be the result of ignorance on the part of the seller. When a nearby high end store went under the bank held an auction. After selling off all the speakers and amps, and after the auction was officially over the bank officer (nice guy friend of mine but not an audiophile) opened a drawer and found a bunch of little things in boxes. So small... they can't be worth much. A bunch of guys walked out with MC pickups for $10 each.

I'm with Jmslaw. I tried to start a similiar post a while back and it was blocked also. I'll usually email the seller and ask if local pick-up is available and if so, what part of town are they in. If they get back to me telling me no problem and give me an answer, I'm more apt to think it might be a real deal. Most of the scam ones will not respond. I've noticed what seems to me to be a marked increase in scam ads both here and on ebay. It pays to be super careful.

Mike.