Watching/Warning a friend to be careful on a sell situation. There is a recently new member trying to buy a pair of speakers from a colleague. The buyer has a new account, no feedback, no posts, no purchases, no history. Instructions are to "drop off the speakers at their local UPS with a UPS account that will pay for it all" and instead of using PayPal or Zelle instant payment, buyer is sending a check. Name/Address on the check, over $500 is federal offense if fraudulent, right? My buddy said he will wait for the check to clear before sending the speakers. Buddy feels its legit, yet still cautious for him. Trying to figure out if it can still come back on him after the check supposedly clears. i.e. like initial clear, but not fully clear through (all) bank back end clearing-houses. Perhaps I’m overthinking it for him. Scammers are getting to be more sophisticated to scam you.
Buyer Beware
Audiogon has seen a number of fake accounts trying to rip off members. If you come across an item that seems very low in price and advertised by a brand new member the chances are it is a fake account trying to rip you off. My suggestion is to not attempt to buy from any of these accounts.
They have figured out how to get bogus tracking accounts from USPS, which look like an item was delivered to your house. Until you can prove that nothing was delivered, which can take time, you are out of your money. In some cases, the more that time passes the less likely you can prove this.
I’m not sure why Audiogon can not do a better job of filtering these scammers out but there are a number of ads up now that are most definitely scams.