did anyone respond to the "shop closing" post?

[danielle]

A post showed up the other day about some shop closing down (they said it was their father's) and needing to get rid of a bunch of stuff from their garage. They listed a bunch of sea kayaks and a couple rafts at pretty cheap prices. The email to contact was foltin2213@aol.com.

Did anyone else reply to this? We did and exchanged a bunch of emails with someone about buying one of the rafts. Besides that I can't find the thread anymore here, the exchanges seem suspicious.

The person gave us only vague answers about the gear and would not give us a phone number to call, even after we said we would like to buy it. They insist that email is the only communication and that we should wire the money (western union) to them at an address in miami, florida. [Yes - I already know about the western union scam, hence the post here]. We have a friend in Miami and suggested that he go give them the money in person and take a look at the raft for us. The woman refused saying she didn't want to meet anyone off the internet.

Needless to say, we are backing out - I'm just wondering if anyone else responded and whether they had the same experience? We are just kind of wondering if we're being too paranoid or just wising up to another scam. And, how/why was the original post pulled - does someone already know about this.

[gh]

I didnt but another gear swap item dissapeared from the boaters forum. Andy if you did this then thanks and nice work.

[bkp77]

don't know about it but basically anyone wanting a wire transfer is a scammer in my view. there is no less secure way to do business for the buyer then a western union.

not to be a dick but the fact you are still wondering about whether it's a valid sale or not is a little scary.

[yojimbo]

I googled the email address listed and got many hits on sites listing boats for sale, scuba equipment for sale, Pilates equipment for sale, etc. Several had the same story, but some we "my father's shop" and some were "my grandfatehrs shop". Buyer beware.

[Jones]

I as well talked to this person, something Jones she said her name was, when giving me the address to send the western union to. Anyway, I offered to pay the paypal fees, and as expected she said no. When she said that the raft + frame+ cooler for $900 was a NRS 14' expedition series only used twice, a $4000 raft retail, I figured that it would be a scam but checked it out anyway. After emailing with her a little bit I said no and posted to the threads a scam warning. It turns out that she posted 2 different threads on the buzz, one of which was removed, the other can be seen at

http://mountainbuzz.com/viewtopic.php?t=10116

I mapquested the address that she gave me and it was sitting on some railroad tracks across from a mall, which I thought was pretty funny. Hope nobody sent anymoney, but if you did, hope you get something for it. If it happens to be the 14' NRS, I'll gladly take it off your hands for you

[danielle]

well...our story was an NRS scout brand new, different last name, and an address mapquest wouldn't even pick up. Husband in the hospital...

We're not really wondering so much if it's a scam as much as we hope no one else falls for it - they are pretty convincing. There's enough western union scam warnings to figure this out, but until that, it sounded legit. I tried asking a bunch of detailed questions, because something inside me just wanted to call them out on it.

What these folks probably didn't figure is that we have a pretty good "checks" system in our little community and hopefully, they are reading this thread and realizing that we're on to them, and maybe, they might feel a little low right now.

I hate scams.

[frenchy]

Danielle and all.. thanks for the heads up on the scam. These posts have since been removed. I hope nobody fell for it.

[danielle]

no to belabor this, but I found out that AOL has an address where you can report these types of email scammers. I sent them an email, can't imagine they will do much, but after also googling the address, it seems that a lot of people have already been scammed by this address.

Address is: TOSreport@aol.com.

[Smokey Carter]

Conversation on Kayakidaho about the same scammer---

http://www.kayakidaho.com/index.php?...;topicseen#new

[sandbagger]

Originally Posted by danielle

hopefully, they are reading this thread and realizing that we're on to them, and maybe, they might feel a little low right now.

Glad nobody here fell for it, but there ain't no way they are feeling low just cause they got caught. They're scammers, if they don't feel low about taking people's money, they sure aren't going to feel low because a few faceless people on the net found them out. Unfortunately.