Beware: Unscrupulous potential buyers

I have been getting some strange offers also from buyers with little or no feedback. Be careful out there!

Badnixie2, I am not aware that we can contact members directly anymore.

Yes, as Rrog stated, Audiogon does not make it possible for us to contact other members through the new system unfortunately. Why don't you post your details here for all to share. We have all been experiencing scams from potential buyers during the past year, most of them from new members, insisting that they send you a money order or check for the item, then also insisting that they will send a "shipper of their choice" to drop by right after you receive the payment by mail (usually on the same day before you discover their payment bounces!) Please share your experiences here, to help make us all aware... Thanks!

Doesn't asking the buyer to use Paypal or perhaps a postal money order solve these problems for the seller? Or is it possible to still get burned with those methods?

Eliz- IIRC, Audiogon did have a verified member feature at one time. Maybe it went the way of the direct email feature.

I recently saw an ad from a "verified member" with a link to follow to become a "verified member". The link didn't work so I E-mailed AudiogoN but didn't get a reply.

I don't know if anyone really noticed but I did pay to be "verified" here. I don't remember what the charge was but I still have the "verified" on my user info. Just click my name and you should see it listed as my status. It would be a good idea to start this back up.

Looks like you have to do a member search to see my status as verified and not just click my name.

There are many big turkeys out there.

Make sure you cash the MO somewhere other than your bank, although they can verify it. A MO can be cancelled once you send the buyer a tracking # as long as the buyer bought it with a credit card. Crooks will claim they don't have a paypal account, and won't send a MO. Use caution.

You can get burned with wire transfer, PayPal, personal check and MO. Money Order is the most risky of the lot.

Use a common sense, always try to get in contact with the seller via the phone - you will know within minutes if he is a real audiophile or a scammer.

Call your local FBI and they will be all over these guys. You may have to go through the "motions" of pretending to accept their offer and receive the check.

You can't get burned on a MO if it has been cleared and you do not cash it where you keep your bank account. Do not ship or send the buyer the tracking # for a few days. I take money orders but warn the buyer not to make a habbit of using them. I let them know that if I don't ship the item, they are stuck. If they still want touse one then ok.

I don't understand the trepidation about Money Orders. Are you guys refering to Bank issued MO's as opposed to Postal MO's? Seems to me, if I cash the postal MO at the post office and have the money in my hand, then what can go wrong after that? This is the way I have always dealt and it protects both the buyer and the seller. If I scammed the buyer, I believe the post office would consider it "Mail Fraud"...a Federal crime. Please fill me in.

Hifiharv is correct. If you cash a postal m.o. at a p.o. and walk out w cash, you are golden. Bank-issued m.o.s are another story. Accept w caution unless the member has long feedback history.

I don't know about your post office but the ones around me won't cash a money order for more than three hundred dollars. They told me to deposit it in my bank account.

If you sell an item for more than 300.00 grt the buyer to send seperate MO's. Some only go up to 1000.00 so more than one needs to be purchased. If your buyer dosen't agree, don't ship.