Does this scam sound familiar? Please Read. . .

[honkyjonk]

I have a Harmony Sovereign Acoustic up on Craigslist.com right now, on the Bay Area craigslist and this guy from Canada emails me, and this is the following email conversation we've been having. He starts it off:


Greetings,My name is ALLEN,I hail from {canada} and i
am highly interested in buying your { Harmony Sovereign Acoustic guitar H1260]
ASKING price and also scan the pics for me for proper verifycation As forthe
shipping,I have aliable shipper that takes goods care of all my shipping Cashiers
cheque is the payment method.So pls
email me back so that we can conclude about it. and i
will like you to feed me outof this info...
Name...
Address...
City. ..
State...
Country...
Phone#
I await ur this info so that i can fax it down to my
client that willsend u the cashiers check.hope this is
acceptable email me ASAP....... pls.
>allen

-------------

Hey Allen, Thanks for the email,
As for pictures, it will take me a day or two to take them, and send them to you, as it involves borrowing a camera. But that's no problem, I do it all the time.
Can you clarify about where you are, and payment etc?
You're in Canada right now, and you have an associate around my area and you want them to buy the guitar from me? That's fine, of course. Or if you wanted me to ship it somewhere, that would be fine too. Shipping to Canada might be a bit pricey, but probably not too bad. Cashier's check would be fine too. I'm just not exactly clear on who is buying it and how it's getting to you.
Anyway, I'll get to work at getting you some pictures, Thanks,

Jon

------------------


Hello, Jon Williams, thank for your reply am still
intrested in buying,( Harmony Sovereign Acoustic guitar H1260)i hope is
in good condition,and i will also like this transaction to
base on trust .so can i trust you ,i will handle the
shipment once payment has been made.ok?My shipping
company will assign someone to do the shipment down to
CANADA.What is your final asking price.Email asap
.ok?
have a nice day

ALEEN

--------------------

Okay, No problem,

If you send me a cashier's check for $375, and send someone from your shipping company to pick it up that will be fine.

Do you want me to pack it, or should I leave that up to your shipping company?

As for the condition, this Harmony is ready to play. The action is good, the frets are new and neck is just right. It has some scratches and dings like most guitars it's age. Most notably, a chip in the laquer on the top, which is clearly visible, but the few scratches don't affect the playability at all. Over all, it looks and is very nice.

I'll send you some pictures in the next day or two.
Jon

-------------------
Hello Jon , i have seen the price
and its ok by me then i have instructed my client in{usa} to issue the cashiers
cheque to you.meanwhlie i also instructed him to include $2625 on the payment so
you should expect a cashiers cheque of $3000 the excess is for my shipper that
will be coming for pick up.the funds will be used for the shipping of the {Harmony}
along side 2 other bikes i placed order for in care of my shipper.i'll imploy you to
wire the balance via western union moneytransfer to my shipper as soon as you
RECEIVE the cheque.My SHIPPER will come for pick up on a specicified date that
will be convenient for you.i hope i can count on you for my balance I ALSO WANT
THIS TO BASE ON TRUST CAN I TRUST YOU?...P.S i will like you to give me ur
contact info..also as soon as u get the cheque,cashing store will given to you by
me for the fast cashing of the cheque.Hope
this is understandable by you.

best regard
ALLEN





It seems pretty obvious to me that this is a total scam. I mean it's like a fill in the blanks scam form (see his first email) and he doesn't even spell his own name right at the end of the second email he sent. Total sleezeball
I wonder if I should alert craigslist to this, or what if anything they would do.
Any recommendations here?

[dokushoka]

I had a similar run in on craiglist. Very sketch...

[ludwigpatricia]

This is a scam. Don't do it. I can't remember the details of how it works, but I'm sure someone will fill in the details for you soon. I hear about it happening on ebay a lot.

[ludwigpatricia]

This is a scam. Don't do it. I can't remember the details of how it works, but I'm sure someone will fill in the details for you soon. I hear about it happening on ebay a lot.

[supafuzz]

how it works is that the check is no good but you send the balance from your bank account while it's clearing..
so you're
responsible for the whole amount and you loose your guitar and I hope you didn't give them your address because they may send some thug over there..no kidding
If they contact you for pickup..have the local police there to meet then.
the FBI is also interested in this scam..

pLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL fbi AND SEND THEM ALL THE INFO

GOOD LUCK!!
don't get suckered...
Harley

[swingdoc]

awesome.
screw with him a little.

Thanks for the note! My brother is an FBI agent in training. I have forwarded your emails to him. In order to graduate, he has to bag himself an international mail fraud scam. Please be very helpful to him when he or his partners try to reach you. I'd like him to graduate so he can get one of those cool jackets.

[honkyjonk]

yeah,
with that last email he sent, I pretty much figured there's no way I'm not going to get screwed.

Shoit. I did send him my phone number and adress though.
I actually deleted that part from my post here, just 'cause I wasn't feeling too good about broadcasting info after that.


Great. This sounds like an orange alert. I'll take your guys advice and contact the FBI.
Now I'm looking around outside, peering through the blinds, scared to go outside.
That's only half kidding.

Well the guy knows I have a $375 harmony sovereign at this adress. I wonder if that's worth coming over and roughing me up for.

Does anybody know where I would go to get in touch with the Feds concerning this matter?
Swingdoc, I'm goin to PM you. . .

[vvv]

That or he's laundering money: is $2625 enough to do that?

I'd notify your local officers that you think you may be a target of a scam, break-in, etc.

(Also, are there really Harmonys worth $375? Who is scamming who? )

Good luck.

[No Wave Casio Kitsch]

(Also, are there really Harmonys worth $375? Who is scamming who? )

Good luck.

[wayne kerr]

Buy me a plane ticket and I'll come up to SC to protect you. I can belch REAL loud!

Sis

[honkyjonk]

Oh totally.

This 60's model sovereign (H1260) is the most desirable sovereign. It's a big jumbo body, all solid woods etc in really good shape. They'll go on ebay for $300 in questionable condition.
It's often called the poor man's D 18, not by me.
It's the Jimmy Page model dude!!! Led Zep I and II and possibly III era, before he switched to the Martin.

[wayne kerr]

hey seriously tho... keep us posted.

Sis

[drewbass]

it's bullshit. he's not from canada, keep him busy, ask many questions, make him repeat himself 40 different ways. this prevents him from having time to scam other people. (you'd help the less savvy) he might get frustrated and get an honest paying job.
drew

[theistheman]

Dude, this is such a nigerian scam.

Check out this page. It's funny as hell:
http://www.quatloos.com/brad-c/rosemary.htm

[UXB]

Not to reiterate, but one aspect not covered is that, in addition to the obvious "scamosity" of this, cashiers checks are anything but safe. I got bit hard on one, which my bank said was kosher, only to have them reverse their stance and hit me for close to 10g. Postal money order has been very safe for me, and you can walk with cash from the post office.

Glad you didn't get bit by these guys.

-H