Little warning for fake Escrows.

[wout]

Hello! When I have nothing to do I often scroll second hand websites for accordions (just to look at or a potential buy, you never know). On German second hand sites that are not ebay I have found very often beautiful instruments for quite cheap prices. Ofcourse that rings the alarmbells but sometimes I decide to email them just in case, like that is how I got the scandalli polifonico x for 750. Most of this people reply with a story that they used to live in Germany and now moved to Italy or whatever country fits their story. They offer to send the instrument via an escrow service. quick explenation:Escrow is a third party service for deliveries. They recieve a package from the person who you bought it from, and after the buyer sends them the money they ship the package to the buyer and the money to the seller. Now there are ALOT ALOT ALOT of accordions for sale on german websites who try to convince you to do this kind of deal. They are all fake and use a fake service to let the money disappear. Here is on of the fake adds:
http://www.quoka.de/musik-equipment...nt=Detailansicht&utm_source=mail_inbox_answer

the original is an expired add on ebay:
http://www.befr.ebay.be/itm/Vermona...-class-as-Morino-don-039-t-miss-/111571304525

After I emailed this person the person replying says she has moved to italy and used to live in germany, but as you can see the original seller is neither a woman nor living in italy or germany.
There are about 50 of these adds on german second hand sites. I don;t know how it is in the rest of the world but just thought I should warn those who dont have the possibility to check out an accordion themselves and are forced to online buys! And for people who liek good deals ofcourse

Wout

 

[Corsaire]

This sort of scam has been going on for years ! They look for people selling something then email them saying they are going to be out of the country for a while but propose sending a cheque over and above the amount asked (and of course the cheque is a dud). You only have to look at the clumsy way the emails are written to smell a rat ! It's really annoying when you're trying to sell something but fortunately as easy to spot as the ones from Africa asking you to lend them money .... :?

 

[wout]

Yes, but this is the other way around. They pretend selling it But I personally never heard of an escrow service before and they speak german and english decent enough. They also will point you to the service they want to use with a website and information and all. I mean I wouldn't fall for it but I can imagine there are alot of especially older people who would

 

[Corsaire]

Some of us "older" folk are pretty street-wise :lol:

Caveat emptor - let the buyer beware !
Unfortunately it's not always easy to be sure that a sale is a genuine one and some people seem very plausible. I suppose you just have to look at it that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is

 

[Soulsaver]

It's never a waste of time to give warnings of scams - if it saves one person handing money to a scammer then it's well appreciated by me at least.

Look how many times the banks & press are all over the phishing & phone call scams... but you still get even quite sophisticated people falling for them.

And we get our share on Gumtree UK & Craigs list, where a really nice accordion at what maybe just about credible price... turns out to be in the outer Hebrides, and they don't accept paypal... yeah, right.

 

[debra]

Thanks for the warning. It's better to get too many warnings than not enough of them!
For something as delicate and as difficult to judge by means of photos it is never a good idea to do a remote purchase. Going there and checking out the instrument is imperative. And when selling there is still the risk that cash payments may be using counterfeit money. (In the Netherlands there was a tragic case of an innocent older person being arrested and imprisoned in Cyprus for quite some time because he was trying to buy something with a fake 20 euro bill he received himself (unknowingly) when selling something through an on-line marketplace and receiving a cash payment. It was eventually resolved but took something like half a year.)
I have taken a chance only once, through "catawiki" which is an on-line auction site that acts as an escrow service (holding on to your money for up to 2 weeks to ensure you have a possibility to report not receiving the correct goods before the vendor is paid). It gets mixed reviews about cases where things did go wrong, but I lucked out and received a brand new instrument for an incredible price.
In general, I do stay away from on-line marketplaces and only deal in person.

 

[Corsaire]

Apologies, Wout, I didn't mean to be dismissive of your warning. We get so many scams by email and on the phone that I assumed everyone else did too.

I'm so paranoid about pirated bank accounts, cards and the like that I now only use on-line sites that I recognise or have been recommended. So far, so good .... When you live in the back of beyond of France as we did for nearly 20 years, being able to buy on-line is great.

 

[wout]

dont worry! Me personally didn't hear about escrow services before moving to Germany. I am from Holland originally and there I only did deals personally through the popular second hand site, which is also really quick with banning and removing false advertisements

 

[Pianoman1]

Thanks for the warning BUT I have just been through the buying process and looked at the juicy deals online IMO there is no free lunch - if a deal looks to be too good to be true it is

I have also seen some dealers advertising very good deals which turn out to be loss leaders to make you ring them

I eventually went to a dealer in my city London and bought face to face with a 3 year guarantee - worth the extra effort and in the long term cheaper and safer