Classic scam. Whenever the words "freight forwarder" shows up, you know it is the classic stolen credit card scam. Buyer uses stolen credit card, you send item, actual credit card owner disputes charge, money gets reversed, you’re out the item. It’s one of the oldest scams in the book. That one has been going on well before the internet even existed. Although we haven’t seen it for a while at our small business, we used to get the occasional phone call of someone wanting to purchase an item over the phone; often times from another country, and the minute they mention the freight forwarder BS we knew it was a fake. If the credit card is declined they’ll cheerfully give you another, and another if necessary until they get one that goes through. By the time the credit card owner finds out, your item is long gone, never to be seen again, (by you at least). In this case, it adds insult to injury that the scammer didn’t even bother to "pay" the full amount.
Is this a scam?
I would appreciate some help with this, which has happened to me in the last few days. I listed an item on a site, not Audiogon but another one, and got an offer within a few days. The offer was lower than asking price, but reasonable, so I accepted. All of this happened with an exchange of emails. The buyer wanted to send me a deposit which was about 1/4th of the total sales price, and that amounted to a few thousand dollars. He said he would send the rest when the item was shipped. I thought this was a little strange, but agreed to it -- today I received his deposit via Paypal Friends and Family. Somehow I wish now that the money transfer hadn't happened. But the good news is, I have not yet sent him the items.
The guy has very little purchase history on the site that was used to contact me.
He says he has a Freight Forwarder and and will have someone pick up the items. All of this seems suspicious to me. I fear that perhaps I have been paid with a stolen credit card number, for example. Of maybe there is another angle here that I cannot perceive. Has anyone else been through a process like this? I think he is a scammer but don't know for sure.