Well, as many of you know I am starting a traditional build of '32 Roadster now my coupe is close to being done, the plan is build it 100% early ford parts and traditional and the only concession will be the Brookville Roadster body. I have been looking for original '32 pedals, '32 Wish bone unsplit, '32 headlight bar and original frame rails etc so I posted a couple of Wanted Ads on here and the Ford Barn. I got a couple of emails from people I recognized as members and then I got an email from a guy named Tom Reed in Allen Texas with a bunch of pictures of real legit '32 parts that he described as an abandoned '32 roadster project, he had pictures of '32 rear axle with the curved spring, '32 Bones, dropped '32 Heavy axle, headlight bars, 32 ****** mounts, Flathead engines etc. His emails were very short and I thought that is fine because maybe he doesn't like typing. Then I asked for some prices and his pricing were very good like 10 year ago Deuce parts so I was excited. Then I ask him how to arrange payment and that's when things got interesting, the short email communication got more involved he started using words like " Kindly Please" and other non-American phrase that certainly "Tom Reed" from Allen Texas would not use, so my sirens started going off in my head that this may not be legit. Then he says his Paypal is down and he prefers Wal-mart money gram which is the same as cash and to send to his wife in Metaire, Louisiana, ????? Another alarm goes off, so I ask for his phone number to discuss details thinking certainly a Nigerian scammer would not want to try and pretend to be "Tom Reed" from Texas on the phone. I could not believe it when he sent me a phone number to call!!! So I reverse Googled the number and it is an internet IPO phone and a known scammer number, then my computer says his email address is coming from an internet server in California not Texas ,so then my phone rings and it is his him with a thick African accent, definitely a scammer, so beware they are getting much better and actually have pictures of rare parts I ***ume stolen off the internet and they have done basic research to lure you into trusting them and possibly sending cash.
Ha. I live in Allen. I'd be happy to come eyeball the parts, and hand him cash. Think wbrw32 is an Allen Texas HAMB'r too. We can show up with a wicked enclosed trailer and supply cold water and beer to clean out Mr Reed's garage for you. Hell, hopefully Mr Reed likes our special flavored hot dogs too. Maybe the wife likes Texas hot dog also ?? Double !! mmmm' mmmm' !!! Edit : signed, Jamie Campbell .... hit me, if you need me !!
Glad you didn't get caught in his web of deceit. For once it would be nice to hear of one of these jerks getting caught and receiving his just reward.
Good job not getting screwed! Made me think of this that popped up on Facebook, I think, a while back. Hilarious! http://www.boredpanda.com/funny-dealing-with-scammers-stephen-masumbo/
This is definatly off topic, but last week I received a check for $140.00 from a company here in Las Vegas called DAX Contracting DBA Blue Heron. Said cell phone refund. Looked them up, legally licensed in NV and Clark county with at least 3 different addresses. Phone is answered"Blue Heron, leave a message". Just a way to get your bank info if you cash the check.
Hey I live in Metairie. I could check out the address. It probably is a postal box or some such thing.
It might not be a bad idea to repost the pictures this guy used here on this thread, that way in the future if he tries to use them again and a potential buyer does a Google Image Search for the pictures, they'll come up to this thread, would be a great tipoff.
The old "I've got a buddy in your area that I can have run by and either pick the parts up or check them out for me" works too. I gave up on posting parts requests because of the strange responses.
Here is the email he sent me and the pictures, so you can see how smart these guys are getting...... "Hi Doug, Thanks for writing. Great! I have a partially complete abandoned 1932 Ford V8 roadster project with a set of original unsplit wishbones in excellent shape and condition, ready to mount on. I'm asking $300 and happy to arrange delivery via USPS or Greyhound to your door step and would acknowledge payment via Money Gram since my PayPal is still not up and running. What's your complete shipping address?" Many thanks again and regards,
Boy these deals never stop. A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine put his nice little t bucket for sale on C-List. He was asking a real decent price for it. Almost immediately he got a response for full price and asked him to take down the ad. He did. Then comes the rub. "I will send you a check for $5000 over asking price" "Blah blah. I'm getting the money as a loan" "So send me the extra back as cash so I can have money for shipping and incidentals" Yeah right! No deal. How stupid do they think we are????
I did this a few years back. Kept a guy wasting his time for about 2 weeks. Finally he quit emailing me. I was kinda sad...
Thanks for the heads up! His sentence composition and word usage sounds like a scammer to me. But living in E. Tennessee with it's unique dialect makes it easy for me to ferret out them there furiners lookin' to steal your poke. NOW GIT!
If you're gonna post a wanted ad, you need to have your antenna up from the get-go. It is an invitation to scammers. You should go in ***uming BS until the seller proves otherwise. Pics don't mean sqaut--for god's sake, if I can find my own car with a Google image search, some scammer can certainly plug your wish-list into a search engine. So proceed with caution. And the moment they start with that "my paypal account is down" ********, end the conversation. End it! A phone call at that point is a waste to time. It's a scam. Nevertheless, good on you for posting this, because it seems the board needs a weekly reminder.
I am not a scammer and I do not, nor will I have a Paypal account. The one time I dealt with PayPal it was a scam. I had my Harley on eBay and a scammer was paying by PayPal. Scammers had copied paypal. It was fake, and it was a very good fake. PayPal spooks told me that they had a real problem with fakes that were so good that it was very diffuicult to spot and may be weeks before found out. too late. This was about ten years ago. After a lot of BS, I kept my Harley. Maybe they have fixed it by now, but I use postal money orders, cash and or good commom sense. I have been hit on sales for motor cycles, tractors, parts and guns and knives, but I have not lost anything other than time to scammers yet.
You've gotta be careful out there. I went to look at a '32 Ford roadster advertised on Craigslist for $700. Next thing I knew I woke up in a bathtub filled with ice and one of my kidneys was missing…
I have no need for someone scaming to steal hard earned money , you and your family are the losers in this deal ! I could see my self as a real collection agent to collect stolen funds . You can run but you can't hide , life may not catch up now but your seat in hell will be on a nail keg for being a no good thieving ******* .
Got a response to my wanted ad from a HAMB member. A look at the profile said joined in June with no posts. Said they had my part and wanted my phone number. When I didn't respond right away got another message asking why I didn't respond. Told them to give me a pic and a price for the part and the response was no pic or price until I sent my phone number.Also said I didn't respond to first message as it appeared fishy to me. Got another message where they got all pissy and kind of went off on me.Don't know if they sent another as I added them to my ignore list. Have no clue why they needed my phone number.
I had a situation with a Nigerian (I think) scammer when replying to an OT Suzuki Samurai ad on Craigslist a few years ago. He started out convincing enough but it fell apart when I wanted to come look at it and he couldn't produce. I led him on awhile and then finally told him I was retired FBI and my hobby was hunting down scammers. I asked him how hot and sweaty the weather was in Nigeria. He didn't take it well and texted me about hundred **** You's in a row and told me he was coming to hunt me down. I told him to hurry up because we all own guns over here, and I'd see him coming a mile away here out in South Dakota and he would make a great target practice and give the coyotes a nice meal. I then told him that I had some Defense Department buddies and they had Predator drones on ***ignment in his area . I told him to watch the sky because they were zeroing in on his IP address at that moment! He didn't reply to that!
"Here is the email he sent me and the pictures, so you can see how smart these guys are getting...... "Hi Doug, Thanks for writing. Great! I have a partially complete abandoned 1932 Ford V8 roadster project with a set of original unsplit wishbones in excellent shape and condition, ready to mount on. I'm asking $300 and happy to arrange delivery via USPS or Greyhound to your door step and would acknowledge payment via Money Gram since my PayPal is still not up and running. What's your complete shipping address?" Many thanks again and regards," Though that one is better than most, there's a lot of red flags in there. Grammar such as "ready to mount on", "many thanks again and regards". Greyhound doesn't deliver to your door. It has to be picked up at the bus terminal. And the photos of the parts are date stamped 2 years ago. How about the old verification of asking for pics with the current day newspaper?
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