At our Club meeting last week, one of our members told me he saw an advert in a National Newspaper offering a Technics KN7000 for £1,000 in the London area. He rang the telephone number given and chatted for awhile to the man who answere, but when he said he would go to London to collect the keyboard, the man said there was no need as if our member would send the money he would put it on the train and he could collect it from Cambridge Railway Station. Our member thought this a little strange and not willing to part with that amount of money without first seeing the keyboard, he told the man he would think about it and ring him back.

A few hours later he was reading a magazine and saw an identical advert but this time the address was shown as 'Holland'. He rang the telephone number shown and again was asked to send the money and they would ship the keyboard to England.

By this time our Member was becoming concerned that this could be a Scam so he rang our local Police and asked them to investigate and was told they would cerainly look into it. To date, he is still waiting to hear from them.

Is it a Scam or not? What do you think?

Aud

Aud,

If this were the U.S., your friend will probably never hear from the police. There are many other crimes that deserve their attention.

What a shame we have such scum all over the world.

If you cannot see it, do not pay for it.

Fran in Florida

On three separate occasions my daughter has bid on a 7K on the eBay forum..... All 3 turned out to be bogus! Each time she asked for a picture showing the label on & the back showing all the ports....One the picture did not include any label, another was withdrawn from the bid, the third would not produce a picture.....all three wanted the money wired directly!

There is a great need to be very cautious!

Read this link. It explains all about these Cheque Scams.
www.organfax.co.uk/scams.html

Dear Audrey,

As some of the forum members are aware, we work in a branch of Law Enforcement. There's no doubt about this one though; definately a scam. It's almost as much of one as the kid in Wales who sold stuff of E-Bay he hadn't even got.

The best advise remains that anyone offered a keyboard, particuarly Technics (now very sort after) is don't even hand over a pound coin until you've seen the board and given it a good workout.

When I brought my 7K the local shop allowed me to sit and play it for at least an hour. So better to deal with a dealer (hopefully local) and get the bearings of the purchase before you part with hard-earned cash. I'm glad to see your friend didn't suffer any financial loss (phone calls excepted); shame about the police (!).

Luce

Hi Audrey

As the other post have said, tThe answer is yes. It's probably the same scam that has appeared several times on ebay. The ebay one offers a KN7000 with 'no reserve' - the seller always has a zero rating and became a member of ebay within the last day or so and requests bidders to contact the seller. The private auction method is also used (bidders identities witheld) and I have seen the same picture of the keyboard on at least 4 occasions!!!!!!!!!
I intended to report this suspected fraud to ebay - but all methods of reporting fraud seem to require you to have been defrauded before any action can be taken. I finally gave up trying.

Having said all that, I bought a brand new KN2600 (as a back up for my KN7000) from ebay at a very good price with no problems at all.

John




[This message has been edited by John North (edited 11-14-2004).]

Hi Folkes.You may recall I posted about the KN7000 that I was scammed with.
We live and learn.I have since then,made it my business to Vet any item I see for sale on ebay that seems too good a price.I email the seller and ask a lot of questions.I then make up my mind,If I think it is a scam I email anyone who has bid on the Auction,no matter what the seller is selling.I know of scams that involve many items. Motorbikes, Cars, Tools,etc.My advice is, never pay by Wire Money Transfere.The questions I ask are,What do you expect to get for the Item?.The usual response is, Hi. my buy it now price is "£1,100".They have just joined ebay,have no feedback.And they want payment by "Western Union" You can email back as I do,and keep them thinking they have you.In the meantime,I always report to ebay.and to this date I have had 12 people barred from ebay.
ebay have thanked me for the information.
I will continue to look for scammers.and hope that people will not be defrauded as I was.The people I warn not to go ahead with the deal befor contacting ebay, do email back and say thank you.Because ebay do withdraw the sale,and inform anyone who has bid on the item the reason .
I will not get done again.Hopefully.
Joe Baron

Yes Aud this certainly sounds like a scam.

Avoid it at all costs!

Derek

Hi read you problems - sorry to hear there are people who have fallen for this scam.

I have just bought a KN7000 via a FreeAds paper 75 miles away. Found it with Google.

However I am also selling my KN6500 on OrganFax and I have had nine emails wanting me to send it to Holland / Germany / etc. They send a cheque for £4000 and I forward the difference to a "friend". I obviosly ignored these but I would like to point out - even when a cheque has cleared in your bank, it can be refused by this issuing bank up to a YEAR from when it was sent. Be warned the crooks are targeting our Hobby.

Hi All,

I would like to add that banks do not necessarily accept a Cashier’s Check either. A friend recently offered a truck for sale on EBay and he got one of those emails that said they would pay more for the item than asked and he could forward the difference. After he explained that he would not do this, the person insisted and said he would send a Cashier's Check, which he did. Of course the check was no good.

My suggestion is to always pay with a credit card, since purchases are guaranteed, and accept only checks, money orders or something like PayPal and send the item after it has cleared.



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Heather- Leesburg, FL PR54