Guitar sale scammer

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 14 Feb 2015 Posts: 2

Hi Folks. I have been a long-time lurker to the site here, as internet-related security topics have always been of interest to me. However, I have not felt the need to post anything until now.

This scam is the basic bait and switch which has existed on Craigslist forever; the lower-than-epectedly-priced item does not exist, the seller has recently moved to devote his/her life to work with a charity, and so wants to use an escrow account to conduct the transaction, blah, blah, blah. If I had the time and skills to bait this one, I would, however, I would rather leave it to the professionals here.

So anyways, here's a link to the item and the for sale ad in question:
http://clasificadoshouston.univision.com/MusicEquipForSale/2009-gibson-historic-1959-les-paul-50th-anniversary-model-guitar/24778952

If you want to check out background info on the item (50th anniversary 1959 Gibson Les Paul re-issue, made in 2009), you can research it on various Les Paul forums and ebay. Normal pricing for the item should be anywhere between $5,000 (US) and $8,000 (US), which is part of what tipped me off that this was probably a scam.

Here's the form email I received from the scammer when I contacted the seller about it using the online submittable form:

(scammer's email address account: "[email protected]")

"Hello,

Thank you for contacting me regarding my 2009 Gibson Historic 1959 Les Paul 50th Anniversary model Guitar that I have for sale. My asking price is $2000 as I need to sell it quickly.

From the start I want to tell you that I came back home in United Kingdom a couple of days ago, I was there with my work for Action for Children Foundation (I am a volunteer and I was in your country for 3 months for the foundation interest).

If you still want to buy it, I can deliver it to you and I will pay all shipping fees as I had to take it with me in United Kingdom.

If you want to buy and want everything to be safe, I suggest we use an escrow shipping company to handle the delivery and payment in the same time. I will also agree to a 10 days inspection period.

So if you want to buy it and you want to go on this route, let me know and I will explain how everything works.

Cheers,
Adam"

Hopefully someone will take this one on, as it could turn into a good read.

Thanks!

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18312

Hi Robert54 and welcome to Eater. Very Happy

Well done spotting the scam. As I'm sure you're already aware, this scam would play out with the scammer also posing as the supposed escrow service.

Thanks for posting it for our members to bait, and helping to spread the word. If you haven't already visited there, you may also be interested in our sister site, http://ScamWarners.com . You can post any and all scam attempts there so they show up in searches for other potential victims. It really does make a difference.

@Any members baiting this: These scams often use fake escrow websites. If/when you get one, please post it in Fake Sites for killing.

Edited to fix punctuation/the link.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 14 Feb 2015 Posts: 2

Ima Baeder wrote:

Hi Robert54 and welcome to Eater. Very Happy

Well done spotting the scam. As I'm sure you're already aware, this scam would play out with the scammer also posing as the supposed escrow service.

Thanks for posting it for our members to bait, and helping to spread the word. If you haven't already visited there, you may also be interested in our sister site, http://ScamWarners.com. You can post any and all scam attempts there so they show up in searches for other potential victims. It really does make a difference.

@Any members baiting this: These scams often use fake escrow websites. If/when you get one, please post it in Fake Sites for killing.

Hello and thanks for the nice welcome and information.

FYI, when I tried to access the scamwarners website via your link, I received a certificate warning in Firefox and then a phishing warning from my antivirus program. However, when I accessed the page via a Google search (https://www.scamwarners.com/), I did not receive either error message.

Cheers!