What started out with an SD Reader ad for my former Pink Panther CB77 Honda (now restored to Silver and Scarlet Red) culminated in an attempt to scam me out of at least $980. The SD Reader ad had my phone number, so when I got a text message from someone wanting to buy the bike, I was not too concerned. In fact, I texted him a photo of the “Hot Rod CB77” bike that is also for sale and he said he would buy it for $300 less than my asking price. It appeared that I was going to cash in on a double sale and put some cash in the bank, but in the end, it was just a scam.
Initially, the man messaged me that his “PA” had made a mistake and added an additional $1500 to the amount, which was supposed to go to the shipper. He asked me to give those funds to the shipper when they arrived to pick up the bike. I agreed, as long as funds were secured in the bank.
A couple of days later, a check arrived with the name of a construction company. To that point, this man had never introduced himself, so I had to ask his name. Finally, I did a search on the business name on the envelope and found just one name in Virginia where the envelope was sent from. The man said he was working in Georgia, which is why his phone number had an Atlanta area code.
I took the business check to the bank and asked if they could verify the funds. Apparently that is not easily done, so I was told that if it was deposited into the system, there would be some indicators as to whether the check would go through or not. The check was deposited and initially there was just a couple hundred dollar release from the $11,800 business check I received.
I became suspicious looking at the check, which had a different business name from a corporation in NY. The bank it was drawn on was in Illinois. So, I was looking at a guy who was currently in GA, but living in VA, with a bank account in IL and a master account in NY. It didn’t really sit right with me, but I was willing to let it play out until the check cleared.
After 2 days, there was a partial release of $5k. I asked the bank if this was a good sign or not, but was advised to let the check go all the way through to verify the funds.
The next day, I started getting text messages asking if I had various ways of transferring funds, like Venmo or PayPal. I only use PayPal but the current balance was zero. Then, he said that he had promised his shipping partner friend a $980 amount for some kind of services and could I send that “right away.” This was beginning to sound like a classic Nigerian 419 scam. Finally, I was asked if I could send a postal money order to his friend that day. I was on the road to my chiropractor appointment which is an 80-mile round trip. I turned off my phone and went to my appointment and headed back home again.
When I turned the phone back on, there was another message asking if I was going to make this payment to his friend. He had never offered the name of his friend or how to contact him with funds, but I sensed that the game was up after that message. I told him that I was waiting for the check to clear completely and then the messages went quiet.
The next morning, I was greeted by multiple messages from my bank saying that I was overdrawn in my account with a negative $2k balance. The “item had been returned” so the $11,800 amount was not valid, plus the hold on my account was reversing my balance from plus $4k to a minus $2k. I was advised to “fix the problem” ASAP or an overdraft charge of $36 was to be charged and it would certainly affect my credit score.
That morning, my friend Bill had driven down from Orange County to help me finish putting his SL100 project back together. I figured that I had plenty of time to finish the bike and then get to the bank to sort things out. Well, of course, the bike took 7 hours (including lunch) and the time was getting short to get to the bank.
In the interim I received another flurry of emails from the bank, stating that the overdraft charge was reversed and my account was back to $4k again. I don’t know if this was an automatic system re-balancing or if someone got directly involved at my branch. Anyway, everything was restored and no further action was required.
When I texted back to the man, telling him that it was a scam, as I was beginning to suspect, he denied it and said I was lying. I copied the bank statement section of my account and texted the line that said “$11.800 item returned.” Then I told him that I was filing a scam report to the BBB, which I did and sent him a copy from the BBB system recognizing the report. Then, I blocked his phone number.
I’m sharing this with you all, as there is a proliferation of scam attempts in the Facebook forums and with increasing spam messages to my email addresses. Do NOT send funds or accept fake checks, no matter how good they look unless they clear the bank completely. Do NOT advance any of your funds to the buyer before the check clears.
The internet is turning into a Wild West show where anything goes now, in the name of financial gain at the expense of the unsuspecting public. With huge data breaches revealing email addresses, phone numbers, account numbers and social security numbers, everyone needs to be on high alert for those people who want to make a buck or a thousand at your expense.
I am musing whether to add this man’s name to the story at the moment. If you want to know who it is, contact me directly.
Be careful out there, folks….
BTW: the bikes are still for sale...
Bill Silver
aka MrHonda
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