Playing you for a fool. The only thing you can do, is nothing. If you respond to a single inquiry, you’ll play into his hand. This will all go away on its own. When the illegal funds are found, they will disappear from your bank account. If you send any money back to the buyer before that, that money will be the scam you are trying to figure out. Just wait it out. Do nothing. Don’t click on a response from the buyer, the shipping company or any escrow service in your inbox.
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.