is this is a scam?

[BobCatMax]

so gents, I could do with a bit of advice.

My dad is selling his Hobie cat, and has had a bit of interest. one of the email response back to my old man goes like this..

Great, am glad to read from you, will appreciate more pictures.. i am a marine engineer, i am at sea right now.I am buying this for my son as a surprise Promise Gift so am willing to offer you the amount you required. I can only pay though Paypal at the moment as I don't have acess to my bank account online (i don'thave internet banking with it), but i have it attached to my paypal account, and this is why i insisted on paypal to pay,all i will need is your paypal email address to make the payments, and if you don't have one you can easily set one up at www.paypal.com it cant take you less than 3mins to do that. I have a pick up agent that will come for the pick up after payments have been sorted.

I will be wating for your reply asap

It reads a bit dodgy to me..but if he sends over the money via paypal then that's it, isn't it?..he can't scam my old man, can he?

would my dad be better off insisting on this bloke paying the fees, or is that only to protect the buyer?

ta for the help

 

[lewis1641]

dont touch it. i dont know what the scam is (maybe paypal sidpute) but that is dodgy.

if genuine surely he would just say "is it ok to pay paypal"

 

[orange71]

alarm bells ringing

 

[BobCatMax]

yeah, definitely alarms bells ringing.

would be interested to hear more, if anyone knows what the scam might be.

meanwhile I'll tell him not to touch it with someone else's, let alone his own

ta

(expect a Hobie Cat to go up in the non-bike classifieds soon )

 

[AR-CoolC]

SCAM

Anything refering to a collection agent screams scam.

Edit to add: Either the funds will be supplied by a false paypal account which will get withdrawn after the item has been collected. Of the buyer will claim to have returned the "faulty" item and get a charge back.

They will return something other than the bought item but you will sign for it, so in the eyes of paypal there is a recorded delivery of the "faulty" item.

 

[twain]

hmmm, the fact he is insisting on Paypal quite virulently would suggest there may be further scheming ahead. if he wants it that bad, he would also ask if it can wait until he's back from 'sea' to have a viewing of sorts. surely something like that you'd want to have a look at before buying....??

the words 'barge pole' come to mind.
although i have become quite cynical recently....

if it were me, i'd say a polite 'no thanks' to the 'paypal' transaction and stick to what you feel more comfortable and safer doing. if its legit, he'll work it out according to your terms.
after all you [your dad] are the ones selling it and it sounds like you have more than one person interested....

 

[Carge]

I thought that somewhere in the PayPal terms and conditions there's summat that an item has to be collected by the person that pays for it - otherwise PayPal wash their hands

I'm sure I read of a scam whereby the Buyer pays - his "mate" collects - and then the buyer says "where is it"
Your mate collected it holds no water with PP

 

[poweredbypies]

Tell him to pp his mate the money and he can come round with cash.

 

[GT-Steve]

paypal (gift) deposit please..

Cash balance on collection.

Not everything's dodgy out there, I sold a set of wheels on a car forum in the summer, to a newbie, and he was in Poland, had to wait for a 'collecting agent/driver' to pick up (took a couple of months for one reason or another) but was all good in the end.

The text you quote above reads like it's been through an online translator. :? :?

 

[drcarlos]

Tell him to pp his mate the money and he can come round with cash.

This.

Carl.