Is this a scam?

Always get payed before shipping unless you know the buyer. 

pure scam

You are being scammed, refund his deposit immediately. 

..."He said he would send the rest when the item was shipped."

And what guarantee or assurance do you have?

None.

Probably a scam.

Please send his deposit back and do not follow through with this transaction, IT IS A SCAM!! I will be the deposit was paid on a stole CC through PP. 

The funny thing is, he has already sent me part of the money, it seems to be the reverse of the typical scan.  I am the seller, not the buyer.

What’s his ID. Some of us here with experience will ID him for you. Sniff sniff. They can smell the scammers miles miles away.

And, if I refund the deposit, I am sending back funds out of my paypal account.  That's not the same as how I was paid -- it's directly linked to my bank account.  I called Paypal and it did seem to kind of stump them too.

He has no Audiogon ID, don't think.  This was on USAM.

But I think the CC was stolen.

The answer was from Paypal was to just refund the deposit.  If he went to his bank to claim he had not received the item, Paypal would support me by informing the bank that in fact his money had returned.

I have asked him to call me, still not sure that it is illegitimate.  But guess what, no call yet!  Thanks to everyone who tried to help.

Run away.

so, if this is on usaudiomart, why did you not post this over there so the mods could look into this ????

looking at your feedback, you have tons and you should know that this is not how a typical transaction goes.

For what reason did he only send partial payment?

Got to e a scam.

Iam buying a troubadour audio mirror dac at audio mart , slowly the mode of payment keeps on changing,according to the seller choice like payment thru PayPal family or fiends? I did not pursue the deal, something inside of me is telling me don’t do it.

"Trust your gut." 

If the hairs on the back of your neck are standing up, get out.  Red flags all over this one.

Cancel the transaction.  Wait to refund until funds have fully settled, or until PayPal agrees they will cover you if buyer used a stollen card (and not take funds from your general account to cover bad funds due to buyer malfeasance).

Good luck.

He sends you fictitious money and you're going to refund him real money?  What until he starts screaming and hollering before you take any action.

I saw this in a David Mamet movie -- the conman doesn't ask you for your trust, but instead gives you his.

Great point @onhwy61 betting it was a stolen card. 

+1 @onhwy61, totally agreed.  Don't send your real money until he asks for it.

It may be a scam, and it may not.  I have sent thousands of $ friends and family after I convinced myself the seller was up and up.  But if I am even a little bit unsure, I take actions to protect myself.

I suggest telling him the truth:
 "I am uncomfortable shipping this item until I have been fully paid.  If you don't want to do the deal, that is ok.  I will refund your deposit.  But I can not ship until I have full payment."

He will probably argue. Stick to your guns.  Be ready to walk away.  If he suggests something even more convoluted, refuse.  The more complicated it gets, the more likely it is a scam.

There is no problem refunding the paypal payment.   Paypal works by reversing the payment,  It isn't a way to launder money.  Now if you initiate a new payment to him instead of refunding his, that is a different story.

--Jerry

Never dealt with that one. Tell him you will send his deposit and your items to me. I will be the escrow agent.

It’s 1000% a scam, they do this on craigslist all the time. They want your item and they will have their people arrange shipping or pickup or whatever, it’s a fraud scam to rip you off for sure... They run these operations out of India and other places

SCAM!  And I agree 100% with @carlsbad.  Have PayPal reverse the payment. DON'T initiate a new payment back.

Just to be clear, you don't need help from paypal to refund a payment.  Open it up and there will be a refund button. 

You weren't smart to accept it, and it has to be a scam first of all because of the partial payment...first red flag, and second, he says he'll arrange for freight to pick it up. I don't think that's possible. If you have a freight company pick up an item, they want it to be packed and on a pallet  when they arrive for pickup. How would he arrange that?

To answer a previous question, I am pretty new to USAM and don't if they will or can provide much help on this -- anybody know?

I think to be safe, I will refund and get out of this.

Smart........ people suck.  I like local cash sales .   

If you contacted an online seller such as Upscale Audio or Schiit and asked how much of a deposit do you need for an order to be shipped, what do you think they'll tell you? 

@scottwsmith   100% scam.  Just Google 10 biggest PayPal scams.  All the info is right there.  

Nigerian maffia 

It sure sounds suspicious, I would not go along with it. Bail out.

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.

Send him an empty box, and give him a tracking number.

See if the payment shows up in your account. If it does, send him the real thing.

If it doesn't, well.....there you go.

Whether it is a scam or not, who in their right mind would agree to sell an expensive item online for only a fourth of the money up front? Life is too short to put yourself through such anguish. Lesson learned.

I have sold items on Craigslist for many years. This scheme reminded me when a couple of years ago, I was selling an audio rack that I no longer used. It was a 5 shelf thing very sturdy. I got a response the first day. The buyer said to take the listing down as it was sold. I was asking $150 and he was sending me $175 and he would have his freight company contact me for pickup. I was thinking freight company for a $150 audio rack. No way. I said no thanks. It had to be a stolen credit card scheme. 

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.

. This is why when buying expensive gear I look local so if there is a problem it will get resolved face to face. I will close with this old chestnut better safe than sorry.

Why not ask that whoever picks up the item bring cash.

The reason they want to send their shipper to your door is that you would have no recourse to 'stop shipment' and initiate a 'return  to sender's base' if it all goes fraudulent in the middle of it being shipped.

If they initiate shipping, it is entirely out of your hands the moment the shipping company arrives and it is in their hands. Even if you found out it is fraudulent and the shipping company is still in your driveway, you are beat.

Not paid in full, not shipping item, end of story....and I've sold components for several thousand dollars. 

A simple solution is to tell the seller that any freight company coming to pick up the item must pay 100% of the amount in cash and you will refund his deposit via PayPal.  No cash, no sale.

Other things you can do is offer to ship to his verified PayPal address.  If he doesn't have a PayPal account but is using PayPal for payment that is another red flag.  You have no protection when payment is via friends & family.  I would rather lose 3% or 3.5% (Whatever PayPal is charging) by issuing an invoice and being paid on the invoice and have recourse than lose it all.  Then only agree to ship to a verified PayPal address with buyer paying shipping and PayPal fees.

The simplest solution is to cancel the transaction. As an experienced seller, I don't know how you even agreed to any of it.

It's got more red flags than a Soviet parade...

The business I used to work for ran in to this sort of thing all the time. Any payment method that is not perfectly normal is almost certainly a scam. Any shipping pickup that they arrange must absolutely have full payment before pickup. 

 I bought a wife like that once. One of these days, she will show up.

It's got more red flags than a Soviet Parade! Haha and yes I agree. And don't be one of those guys.- "A fool and his money soon part".

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.