does this sound like a scam?

[chauvinist_youth]

I listed my fork an frame on the los angeles craigslist and got a reply from a guy called Billy. He says he does not have time to come down and look at the frame and wants to pay with a check. I responded I will accept cash and paypal only as I dont want to cash a stolen check. The area code on his phone number is in the middle of texas. Also one message he sent was in all caps and the other was in a smaller front and italisized (I know I suck as spelling).

Does it look legit or not?

emails:

Billy Gilbert shadyguy@yahoo.com wrote:

Nice to hear from you....i would have preferred coming to your place to see it but i am so much busy and so i cant afford to come there...there's nothing much to talk about really, since i have seen some pics of it already. I want you to delete this item off craigslist cos I'm buying it. Please provide me with the following information to mail your payment:-

Full Name: ?
Address:?
City:?
Zip-code:?
Phone:?
State:?
When you receive payment and it clears your bank, i will then arrange for the pick up.
Please get back to me ASAP with the necessary info needed to send the check . if you need to ask any more thing, please reply back or call me. Phone:- 512 590-****
Thanks,
Best Regards...
Billy...

Ryan Bignell <chauvinist_youth@yahoo.com> wrote:

If you would like to come and check it out I am available tomorrow evening I am located in Arcadia.

And just to make sure you know it's just the frame and the fork, not a complete bike, I could include some truvative cranks and bb if you want too.

My phone number is 626 533 **** and you can call that number anytime tomorrow from 6am to 9pm.

Thanks,
Ryan

Billy Gilbert shadyguy@yahoo.com wrote:

AM INTESESTED IN THE BIKE...

[2wheel_lee]

uh...take his yahoo name as a hint.
I think it's a scam. Ignore this guy.

[chauvinist_youth]

haha I changed it to that so no one would try to email him

[jamesdc]

I think it sounds like a scam and if you believe it is then just mess with the guy.

[Abui]

I'm surprised he didn't ask for your evening phone. Then if you don't answer it ...

[chauvinist_youth]

I've heard stories of people cashing checks then giving the person the goods later to be in trouble with the law for "stealing".

[roadkillross]

he souldnt be mailing you money. let it go.

any one who says "regards" is a scammer

[BrewMaster]

Just tell him no checks. If he insists, drop him. If he can't use paypal it's not worth the hassle.

[Wicked Smot]

That is 100% a scam. Here is how it works:

He'll tell you he is sending a cashier's check. He just needs your name and address. He can't get there to pick it up right away so once he sends the money, he will arrange for "someone" to pick it up for him. Sounds easy. Just for your trouble, he will send you more money than you are even asking for (because he loves your item so much and he's just such a nice guy)...here's the catch...he'll try to send extra money to cover his "person's" shipping costs or ask you to pass on the extra money to his shipping person to cover other expenses. He'll ask you to deposit the check, take out your share, and then send a money order to his pick up person for the shipping/other costs. The check will look real when you get it and the bank will take it (it will take a couple weeks for the back to process it and figure out there is no money there). In the meantime, you will think everything is cool and send a money order or wire transfer for the shipping amount or other costs...and there goes your cash. The check he sent you bounces 2 weeks later and you are too late to stop the money transfer.

Craigslist actually has a nice write-up on this scam. I had someone try it on me so I researched it. Email him back and tell him to try working for a living. The guy needs to be punched in the neck.

[.8down]

I always take only cash and paypal, Id rather not sell it than get worked...

[soul rider]

is it just me or does Craig's list seems really creepy?

[Pain Freak]

Tell him you thank him for his interest and you want to send him some money for being such a nice guy. Then tell him that there's another nice guy you need to send money to, but you only have one check left so you're going to send him *** dollars and would he please cash this and foward the money to the other nice guy....you get the idea and he'll figure he's been had.

[capnsavem]

"i would have preferred coming to your place to see it but i am so much busy and so i cant afford to come there..."

english much?

[Pugz]

I sold my old Trek on craigslist and I got a ton of these emails, just ignore them. Hopefully you will eventually get a genuine contact.

[xhuskr]

put the address and phone # to your local Police Department

[Do Work]

Originally Posted by xhuskr

put the address and phone # to your local Police Department

Sounds like a scam to me and I think the above sounds like a great idea...i also agree this guy defnitely needs to get punched right in the adams apple!!!

[guero]

i agree, sounds scam'alicsous

[uzziboy]

Total Scam!!!

[singletrakk]

SCAMMER!!!Same incident happened to me a couple weeks back.Some guy that claimed he was from Nigeria sent me a check.I knew it was a scammer to start with but was just playin along.Dead giveaway was when he sent me a check $2,000 over what I was asking.Haha funny!!!I just ignored him after I got the check.

[JoeTruth]

Originally Posted by chauvinist_youth

Does it look legit or not?

emails:

Billy Gilbert shadyguy@yahoo.com wrote:

Nice to hear from you....i would have preferred coming to your place to see it but i am so much busy and so i cant afford to come there...there's nothing much to talk about really, since i have seen some pics of it already. I want you to delete this item off craigslist cos I'm buying it. Please provide me with the following information to mail your payment:-

Full Name: ?
Address:?
City:?
Zip-code:?
Phone:?
State:?
When you receive payment and it clears your bank, i will then arrange for the pick up.
Please get back to me ASAP with the necessary info needed to send the check . if you need to ask any more thing, please reply back or call me. Phone:- 512 590-****
Thanks,
Best Regards...
Billy...

AM INTESESTED IN THE BIKE...

Needless to say, it's a common scam. All you have to do is read his grammar (or lack there of) and you'll know he's not from these parts. Most likely, operating out of NY and comes from Nigeria or neighboring countries.

A while back, I got a similar email. I knew right away it was a scammer but I wanted to see how far he'd take it. He gave me some b.s. about his company re-locating him and they're paying for all the expenses. Then I got another email from him stating that his company made an error and accidentally sent me $3400.00 rather then $400.00 but to go ahead and cash it, then give him back the balance minus $100.00 for my troubles. I agreed (again, wanted to see where it would go). 2 weeks later, I got in the mail (po box. never give out your real address) 4 US Postal Service Money Orders. They were damn good! So good that when I took them to the post office to authenticate, 2 employees said they were genuine. After asking to speak to a supervisor, they huddled in the back and found a small discrepancy in the money orders which flagged it (finally!) as fake. Then they told me not bother with the police and to contact the US Postmaster. I did and nothing has happened.
If I was gullible and deposited the money orders, they would've been deposited with no problems but 3-6 months down the road, they would surface and guess who's account they would've taken the money out of. You guessed it; yours and mine. I still have the money orders to show people. Pretty good stuff.

Best practice is to ignore them. Don't respond and don't call them. They want your phone number.
I was told by doing what I did was not a smart move (duh) as some of these scammers have mob ties and could wreck havoc on your life and credit.

There's a site dedicated to outing scammers called http://www.419Eater.com There's guys/gals on there where they bait some of these a$$-holes as a hobby and post correspondents on the site. Warning: they know what they're doing, we don't!