Just sold my DQ10s but could this be a scam?

John Casler · « **on:** 30 Sep 2003, 02:32 am »

I just sold my DQ10s to an internet inquiry for $399.

Since I told them I don't want to ship them they are making arrangements for shipping (I don't even know what country they are going to)

The last e-mail said that they would send me a $2000 check to cash and to give the balance to the shipper who would pick them up and package them, and then forward them to the buyer.

Obviously I won't be giving anyone money until I have the funds have totally "cleared" in my account, and no speakers are leaving here until then either.

But something about this seems "funny"??

and I don't mean Ha Ha

Could it be a money laundering scheme? to get money into the country and then sent to a second party via me?

Maybe its, cool, but my antenae go up on deals like this

Brad · « **Reply #1 on:** 30 Sep 2003, 03:05 am »

There are a lot of counterfeit check scams going on. It can take up to 2 weeks for the check to be returned - so factor in 3 weeks for the check to clear. Like you said, don't release any funds until your bank has completely cleared the check.

bubba966 · « **Reply #2 on:** 30 Sep 2003, 03:06 am »

John,

That's a popular scam that's been run out of parts of Africa a lot lately. I forgot the details of exactly how it works. But the check ends up being no good.

If there's some way to cash it and wait until you're 100% sure you've got the $ and won't get screwed, you should be fine. But keep on your toes on this one...

Marbles · « **Reply #3 on:** 30 Sep 2003, 03:16 am »

http://www.audioasylum.com/audio/general/messages/289088.html

As others have mentioned wait a long time before you let them pick up your speakers.

bubba966 · « **Reply #4 on:** 30 Sep 2003, 03:24 am »

Here's the details as I'd originally remembered them.

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/fraudscam.htm

A little easier to read than the AA thread...

John Casler · « **Reply #5 on:** 30 Sep 2003, 03:37 am »

Glad I posted this.

That does look and sound very similar.

Damn. and I thought I now had extra room in my closet

Fathom7 · « **Reply #6 on:** 22 Oct 2003, 05:36 pm »

SOOOOO -- please keep us posted. The situation sounds very unusual to say the least.

My primary interest is that I was once the proud owner of a pair mirrored DQ10s (with the stands no less) and have since spent so much time looking for the holy grail of that sound (likely the fact that the music was coming almost exclusively off vinyl back then helped) that every time I see someone selling a pair of DQ-10s I have to stop and look.

Not much of a contribution here I'm afraid -- especially since I (1) Don't have the spot for these jewels any more

and (2) don't have the amplifier power to get them to sing

. Still, DQ-10s remain the highlight of my mid-fi life.

naturephoto1 · « **Reply #7 on:** 22 Oct 2003, 11:27 pm »

Hi John,

If the check turns out to be bad. You may wish to do what I did last year in rebuilding my DQ10's. Working with Steve at Layne Audio, I basically gutted the speakers, replaced all the drivers, rewired, biwired with 2 pair of binding posts, and totally redid the crossovers. Only 4 drivers were reinstalled in each unit (elliminating the piezo supertweeter). I used Dynaudio soft dome tweeters and upper midrange, Peerless lower midrange, and a propietary replacement woofer for each speaker.

Basically I did the highest upgrade of the speakers that Layne Audio offers for a little under $1000. Tremendous improvement all around in performance. The speakers are more efficient, smoother and much faster, more open and transparent, with outstanding highs, much better upper and lower midrange, superb imaging and 3D sound stage, more percussive, and much better, deeper and more authoritative bass. The speakers have all this improvement with the same basic flavor of the original DQ10's. Steve from Layne Audio feels that the speakers will compare favorabley with $10,000 to $20,000 speakers. That I can't substantiate, however my local and not so local audio stores would like me to bring them in for demo.

Though I am still not sure if I have perfect placement for the room I will say that I am very pleased with the sound and feel that it was money very well spent.

Rich Nelridge

John Casler · « **Reply #8 on:** 22 Oct 2003, 11:40 pm »

Pretty sure this is a "SCAM" with a capital "S"

The buyer is really pushing that "as soon" as the check arrives, that I go to a check cashing business and cash it then "wire" the balance ($1600) to his "shipper" in Africa.

Hello!!!! Who in their right mind would do that.

My intentions are to take the check, if it ever arrives, to my bank and tell the bank of my suspicions. As them if they feel they should do anything, with any specific athorities, and see if the check is "real" (no way

)

If I can save any "unsuspecting" lunatic from losing his money then it is worth it.

So the DQ10s are still for sale and I'm not interested in keeping or reconditioning since I already have the RM40s.

Thanks all for the suggestions

cryoparts · « **Reply #9 on:** 23 Apr 2004, 01:53 pm »

There is a "Dr. from London" who contacted me the other day wanting to do a similar thing. Hmmm...

I thought it was kind of strange that he wanted to buy a few hundred dollars worth of parts and then send me a money order/cashiers check, so I finally wrote it off to being a scam.

Please keep us posted on how this turns out.

JoshK · « **Reply #10 on:** 23 Apr 2004, 02:03 pm »

Scamming on a global basis, isn't technology great?

Indeed this is a scam, but what suprised me, John, was that you first suspected money laundering. Most people don't catch on to money laundering scams and they are getting much more sophisticated. As a private business owner who does business with people outside the US (even in the US) it is easy to find yourself getting involved in money laundering unexpectedly. And the government isn't being so nice about it to any parties involved.

Since I work in the money management biz I am required every 6 months to be retrained on money laundering scemes and ways to spot them. Some of them are really clever.

John Casler · « **Reply #11 on:** 23 Apr 2004, 02:24 pm »

Hi Guys,

Yes it was a total scam and I played along with it and tried to get the authorities involved, but they weren't interested.

The guy FEDEXed me a check for $2500 and even had the "check cashing" establisments name and address.

Instead I went to my bank and ask them to check and see if the check was good.

They actually thought it was and would have cashed it, but "I" would have been responsible if it turned out bad and they would have deducted the money from my account.

They also told me that if I had gone to the "check cashing" establishment that they would have cashed it with no recourse on me.

I just threw the check in the trash a few days ago.

mgalusha · « **Reply #12 on:** 23 Apr 2004, 04:14 pm »

I think someone is trying to play one on me. I've got my pinball machines up for sale and received these emails this morning.:

Quote

i saw your ad and i am highly interested in it,pls i would like you to go remove the ad on the internet because i am ready to buy it.so i will like you to get back to me with the present condition of it and also i will like to see available pics of it,include your latest selling price of it. Your timely response will be higlhy appreciated.

I sent the guy the pictures and received the following a few minutes later:

Quote

Okay i will like to have your full contact information and phone number of whom the check will be sent to

This just smells bad. I'm 99% sure it's a scam. Fortunately I have a potential buyer who seems legit, so I can safely ignore this but it's amazing the lengths people will go to. I specified that I could not ship and yet he wants to send me a check... Homie don't play dat!

mike g

nathanm · « **Reply #13 on:** 23 Apr 2004, 04:24 pm »

Quote

i saw your ad and i am highly interested in it,pls i would like you to go remove the ad on the internet because i am ready to buy it.so i will like you to get back to me with the present condition of it and also i will like to see available pics of it,include your latest selling price of it. Your timely response will be higlhy appreciated.

Well, this one doesn't fall under the "clever" category JoshK was talking about!

Go back to scam writing school, do not pass Go, do not collect $200...

macnewma · « **Reply #14 on:** 23 Apr 2004, 07:22 pm »

Yes, that is a scam. I have been contacted about both audio equipment and golf clubs with the exact same proposition. I know a guy that posted his entire dealings with a similar scam artist trying to buy his BMW M3.

The first inquiry for my golf clubs came from a guy on an island off of the east coast of Africa. He asked some very basic question initially, then I offered to give him more info or pics. On his next email, he said he would buy them for my asking price. No questions asked. I said OK, I will ship via DHL or UPS. I will take payment via Money Order or PayPal.

He said, how about I send a courier...yada yada yada. My next email I sent him said that I would only ship UPS/DHL and only do MO/PayPal. I never heard back.

Amazing. I suggest telling everyone you know that might sell anything on the web. I think they are just sifting through classifieds and trying it on everyone.

Glad you didn't get screwed.

Max

mcgsxr · « **Reply #15 on:** 29 Oct 2004, 02:33 pm »

Yep, same scam circulating around audio gear, and also for motorcycle parts I have sold on completely unrelated sites.

Annoying pain in the ass, but usually easily rid of, through either ignoring it, or sending back an email, correcting the spelling of theirs, and requesting that they piss off...

Mark in Canada