Beware, this is a classic scam. It is not about the product to be purchased. It is about a “refund “ of the deposit. The deposit funds are not valid. The “buyer “ will either someone to pick up the item before payment is made, or with false payment and take away the item. They prey on making you feel guilty for questioning the transaction.
Or, after you question the transaction with them , they say just refund the “deposit “ . The reality is the “deposit “ isn’t real. Stolen credit card probably, maybe even a cashiers check. If you refund the funds , they get the money, stolen card or not.
I worked in the jewelry industry for over 40 years and I can’t even begin to tell you how many times this was tried on me or my employees . The new guys would fall for it every time.
The reality is , if a buyer wants to purchase an item they pay for it all with verifiable funds. As a buyer, I don’t mind a little caution as this problem can work both ways. I recently had a seller of a car try to scam me for payment without seeing the car. It’s in the warehouse, it’s at my sons in another state, and my all time favorite “I’m listing this for a friend”.
Not to cry wolf, in our area we have had a lot of people trying to buy with counterfeit cash!!! The top bill is real, the rest is bad. One poor girl got scammed out of a car because she didn’t check.
Anyway, know this if I want to buy, I’m real. My funds are real. I am cautious and careful with my funds.
My recommendation is to keep the funds and product until all the funds are verified before delivery. If the buyer gets angry, just explain the caution. If it’s real they won’t mind. If it’s not, they still get angry, but so what you still have your product.
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.