CycleTrader dot Com, Scam or Not...?

Hi Gang-

It's Jim here...

To follow K1100lt's thread on his Craiglist questions on the previous;
http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?t=30402

I had an interesting experience with an advertisement on CycleTrader.com.

This bike sounded TOO GOOD to be true.

2004 R1150RT, in Jersey City, NJ for $5800.00

The guy Stephen, now says he lives in London, UK.

You will see it is well written advertisement and with good intentions.

What struck me as strange, is that all of the posted photos, were taken
from different places at different times of the day and night...

I haven't responded.

Here's the thread of emails, which starts at the BOTTOM of the page, the most recent is on top.



Re: 93882322 on www.cycletrader.com‏
From: steven58crutch@aol.com
Sent: Tue 10/14/08 5:36 AM
To: jsoque@hotmail.com

Hi there,
The bike it's located in London,Uk.I`ll explain how the deal will be done:
1) I will contact the shipping company to come and pick up the bike.
2) They will inspect the bike,so i can't send you a box or anything else.
3) The bike will be insured with the full amount.
4) After I will give you the tracking # you will have 24 hours to make the first payment,half of the amount.
5) You will receive the bike to your address in 7-8 days.
6) After you will receive the bike you will have 3 days to inspect it and then you must send me the rest of amount.
7) If you see a scratch or you don't like it,you will contact the shipping company and they will get the bike from you.You will get your money back in the same day, because I have told you I will pay the insurance for the full amount .
8) The payment will be done through Money Gram money transfer because this is the fastest way to send the money and I will be able to check the transfer on-line.Before I send the bike I need your confirmation that you have the money. I hope you will be serious in this transaction because I am spending money with this shipping and I can't afford loosing them.
When you are ready to start the shipping process,i`ll need your full name,address and your phone #.

I`ll wait your soon reply ,
Thank you.
Steven


-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Soque <jsoque@hotmail.com>
To: steven58crutch@aol.com
Sent: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 6:44 pm
Subject: RE: 93882322 on www.cycletrader.com


Hi Steven,
Thank you for the informative note.
Your description states that the bike is in Jersey City, New Jersey, but,
that is not the case, correct? It sounds like your bike is in London
with you.
I'ld like to request you fax me a copy of the title for my inspection and
we'll try and go from there.
My office number is 631 924 xxxx
My office fax is 631 924 xxxx
It is a medical practice in Shirley, NY.
Thanks,
Jim Soque



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: jsoque@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: 93882322 on www.cycletrader.com
Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:02:20 -0400
From: steven58crutch@aol.com



Hello James,
The bike is still for sale with a clear title. It's in excellent condition never been down or dropped,no mechanical problems and never been involved in an accident.This beauty is very well kept,I mean only in my own garage,it has no scratches,all parts are original.As you've probably already seen on my auction I decided to lower the price, to avoid wasting time with negotiations and find a buyer as soon as possible.I must tell you that I had to move to London,United Kingdom one month ago with my work and I took the bike with me hoping to drive it here as well.Here I had an unpleasant surprise because the bike is an US model and to pay the registration here in Europe, to pass all the emissions and standards and many other would be quite expensive and nobody would do it. I have tried to sell it locally but it was not successfully. That is why I am trying to sell the bike back in USA, there will be no further problems because the bike passes US emissions standards and DOT & EPA as long as it has been purchased in US space.
If you are interested please reply asap.Shipping takes 8-10 day and it's included in the price.
Thank you for your time.
Respectfully,
Steven.


HAS ANYONE HAD ANY DEALINGS WITH THIS SELLER?

Fishy

Fishy to me.....
I would not do it IMHO

This exact scenario was posted in the other thread.

Scam-o-rama.

Ted Verrill nailed it on the head in the other post: it's probably a Nigerian scammer.

I had a similar scenario with a BMW auto. When I pressed him again for a fax copy of the title I got a very angry email response. You could get his Western Union or Money Gram information and turn it all over to your Attorney General. I would steer a wide berth around this add. If it is too good to believe well you know what they say.....


Kelly

ditto, here

I have sent the word out that I am looking for a K75.

I am getting emails from the same email address signed by different people all explaining how we will do the transaction in English grammar that is at best suspicious.

I requested pic's of the bike, and 4 days later I received commercially made pic's with the studio's site with a red K75 as the subject.

I requested a faxed copy of the title and other documentation. They totally ignored me. But, they wanted to 'further proceed with the transaction".

I finally told the scammers what they can do with various parts of their bodies.

The bikes in the UK. You know you can't trust the Brits. For crying out loud they burned the Whitehouse a while back.

The thing that catches my attention the quickest on all of these offers is the whole "The shipping company will inspect it" or "The shipping company will take it back if you don't want it after you inspect it" etc. If you have dealt with legitimate shipping and escrow, they don't do any of that, they are just shippers. And can you imagine what it would really cost to get a bike from the UK (or wherever) to the US just for the buyer to have a look-and-feel period, then to have it sent back to the sender? It's only going for $5,800 so how much room is there to spend this kind of extra cost? If this seller was serious about selling it in the US, the first thing they'd do is send the bike back to the US.

While you are at it see if they want to deposit 10 million into your checking account and give you a commision of 10% for holding it for them.

RJM2096 said:

While you are at it see if they want to deposit 10 million into your checking account and give you a commision of 10% for holding it for them.

Click to expand...

That's the response that'll get their attention. But to the point, I don't even like to sell a bike to someone that hasn't seen it. Let em come look at it and if they don't like it they can just leave. AFAIC, that's the only way to buy also. There's always another bike on the market and life's way too short to mess about with anything that might be below board. Besides a clean low model RT for $5800? .......
robert

When I was shopping for the Scooter, some craigslist scammer made the mistake of saying that he was in Italy, but the bike was in Oceanside.

Great, I responded, I'll drive up to Oceanside this weekend to take a look. Oh, btw, how's the weather in Italy? My mom's there now on Holiday.

His response ... none. Fool didn't know that Oceanside is 30 miles from San Diego, so duh, yes I'm going to drive up and look at it.

Scammers.

Maybe it's legit and it's 5,400 Euros.

Either way safer to walk away from this one.

If you read any of the good British bike magazines, you would see there's a thriving "grey market" as they call it. This refers to bikes from europe and Japan, exported to the USA, and then making their way to the UK. It is done intentionally and for enough of a profit to make it worthwhile, so this seller's excuse that it is cost prohibitive is just not credible.

As Ted pointed out - it's a scam. Called the "advance fee" scam. The usual story of being in some odd location, and the bike in a warehouse - then escrow done by Ebay (which doesn't do this) are big clues. The scam is - the money up front (that you're promised you'd get back if you don't like the imaginary bike/car/plane).. hence "advance fee".

If it sounds too good to be true... it is.

Motor31 said:

The bikes in the UK. You know you can't trust the Brits. For crying out loud they burned the Whitehouse a while back.

Click to expand...

Far better than what they're doing to it now!!