Beware, scammers everywhere

I recently sold a $3K used streamer to a fellow audiophile. It started out on the forum but then I got an email from him because he was out of the US and couldn’t get the forum to load. At first I didn’t realize it was the same guy so I was treating this communication as a possilble scammer.

He made an offer, I countered, he countered, and we settled on a price. His sensitivity to price made me think it was not a scammer. He sent me his shipping info to his work address, in Florida, I asked why he didn’t contact me on the forum and that is when he explained he did and was having trouble outside the country.

Making sense but still not fully making me comfortable. Then he called me and we talked a while about our systems and details about various streamers and I realized he was indeed an audiophile.

Then he tried to send zelle and it didn’t go through. We waited a day. I was wondering if now that he had my confidence, he was going to try to get me to honor some sketchy payment method. Then we had a day of silence as he traveled back to the US.

The next day we started texting. BofA was saying that I needed to enroll my number. I sent him a screenshot of part of my Zelle page showing that my number was indeed enrolled (making sure not to have any confidential info on it) and he immediately realized he had made a typo sending the zelle payment on his phone. He fixed it and I had the payment, in irreversible funds, in minutes.

I tell this story to show some of the perhaps-not-red-but-yellow flags that can pop up, how you need to be aware of them but be aware of things that are inconsistent with a scam as well. In the end, I met a good guy and fellow member of our audiophile group.

Jerry

@jetter my feedback will always be zero. check for the same name elsewhere. You can figure it out pretty easily.

Having perfect feedback is important.  I've said for decades that a man only has one reputation.  It takes years to build it and only one bad deal to tarnish it.  Back when I had an ebay coin business I had perfect feedback over tens of thousands of transactions but had to bend over backwards a few times.

@jetter  you assumed, but not wanting to make waves, I was purposely vague.

Funny in this thread:  sellers will take nothing but zelle,  pp friends and family, cash and buyers say they will never pay with zelle, pp friends and family, cash....both think they are right.

My take:  as both a buyer and a seller,  I have never made a significant audio sale or purhase that wasn't done with a cash equivalent.  No fees.  I sent over $10K cash equivalent for a DAC once to a guy I met on ebay.  this was after we did a lot of interacting and I was sure he was legit.

Jerry