# Buying used gear - beware of this trick



## Hannes_F (Jun 22, 2015)

Hi there,

I've experienced this new (for me) fraud (but did not fall for it). In order for others to be careful I'll explain how it works:

There are classified ads (in Germany ebay Kleinanzeigen, quoka.de, Kalaydo.de) for used brand gear like Neumann or Schoeps for a price that is good but not yet too good to be true. The location is given in the country (in my case Germany).

If you respond to the ad you'll get the answer that the vendor just returned to his home country, in my case in Scotland, UK (but that turned out not to be true at all). One purpose is to have the communication in english, the other is to prevent the buyer from local pickup.

The alleged vendor sends a few pics and suggests to hire a shipping company for the transfer. He will send the goods to the company which collects then the money from me. After that I get the goods and can decide for 10 days whether to keep it or not. After that the vendor will get the money. So far so good.

Quite conspiciously the vendor ignores any questions to his conventional telephone number and also all other questions about details.

A few days later you'll get a mail from this company with a tracking code. However neither on the mail nor on the company website is a phone number (again). The bank account in my case was in Poland despite the company allegedly sitting in the UK. A research at www.whois.com showed that the company website (with 5 sub-pages including two forms) had been registered at that very day, obviously just to make this transaction look serious.

I assume the pictures and ad texts are from older ebay auctions. The alleged vendor names and adresses are all wrong of course.

Thanks to Ray who checked the adresses in place for me. I had a bad feeling right after the first responses and it turned out to be true. Nevertheless this scam was quite well executed. HTH Hannes


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## reddognoyz (Jun 22, 2015)

too good to be true is almost always exactly that. 

on a less serious note I saw some guitars on ebay, sort of off the beaten path instruments dan electro baritone guitars with opening bids under 20 bucks, I almost bid. I checked out the seller, an art dealer, I'm thinking she must not know what she's selling? "too good to be true" 

they were pictures of guitars, she's selling PICTURES of guitars, as clearly stated in the description dumb ass(I say to myself)


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## Hannes_F (Jun 23, 2015)

Well the price was good but not too good to be true. I've seen those mics being sold in that range before.

I think the lessons for second hand deals are: 
- If there is a change in location, especially a change of country: danger
- The use of a transport company or cargo company is only of use if this company really exists and is well established (I know of none). A website is quickly done and does not prove anything.
- Use paypal or credit card if possible
- Don't hardwire money to a different country unless it is a company or somebody you really know or you already have the goods
- Check whether the selling person knows whether they are talking about beyond the ad text
- Insist on talking to the person via conventional phone line
- Do a google research whether that person really exists and is related to music
- Try to have the goods to be checked in person by somebody you trust

BTW I just talked to the police about this case and they are collecting such information although no damage has been done here.


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## Bohrium (Jun 23, 2015)

I had almost the exact same thing (with UK) happening to me with a rather expensive keyboard (a Korg Oasys) in 2013 (if I recall correctly). I actually talked to a guy on the phone, but when I insisted, that I pay only after I see the keyboard at my door ... I never heard from them again.


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## muk (Jun 23, 2015)

Experienced this exact same method too. It was about a Sennheiser HD800 headphone. The price was fair, but not conspicuously low.
Luckily I didn't fall for it either. As soon as the seller claims that he is moving to another country you can basically sure that it is a scam. If the seller claims to use a shipping company you have never heard of, but that has a nice and professional homepage (that was created on that very day, as you'll learn upon research) it is beyond any doubt.

Good that you took the time to make your case known to the police Hannes. But I fear there's not much that can be done. I reported all the offers by this seller, and sure enough they were deleted from the site. But that won't stop scammers uploading new adds under a different name.


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