the fun of advertising your bike...

[izzi81]

Last week I put my bike up for sale on the Bike Trader website. By Saturday it was sold, which was excellent, but I included my email address in the ad and since it went online I have had 3 entertaining emails from supposed interested parties.

First, the day after it went online, I received 4 emails in the space of 3 mins from a Mr DeRossi:

Hello
My name is Mr De Rossi David.
I''m really intersted in your bike and i will like to know if you still have it for sale ,Send pics if also avilable for proper viewing and i would be very glad if you can get it sold to me.Preffered method of payment is United Kingdom Certified Bank Draft Cheque ? which would CLEAR in your bank account within 1 to 2 working days.Kindly email me back if it's still for sale.
Cheer


mmm yes, United Kingdom Certified Bank Draft Cheque. My favourite way to receive payment! I'd already had 2 genuine phone enquiries by this point so there was no need to reply - not sure I would have anyway.


Then on Saturday I received this one.. only 1 copy this time:

"With regard....I am interested in purchasing your following item forsale, so i will like to know the the last price.and kindly get back to me with the pics and the present condition of the item..my method of payment will be via cashier check or Bankers Draft. Do get back to me with all the following details before i can make an offer". I will also be responsible for the shipping of the item from you location to my destination..
 
Awaiting your quick response.
Regards.
 
Mark Bowell.


Even better! Not only a Cashier Check for payment, but a proposal to 'ship' my bike somewhere else! My ideal buyer! By this point I'd sold my bike, but I was entertaining the notion of emailing him back and stringing him along just to find out where exactly he was planning on shipping my bike to.


Most recent one was today:

Hi Good Day,
 
     In regard to your ADS which am highly intrested in buying it. Pls let me know if its still available and its present condition ? How many miles has it done ?
 
    Does bodywork needed to be done on it and when will it tax and mot expires ?
 
   I am really okay and comfortable with the datas your illustrated on the web site but i will still want you to pls tell me more about it (what you did forget to add on the advert and updated Document of it and other information you feel someone need to know about) .
 
Thanks soo much and i will look up to your urgent response today via e-mail.
 
Regards and have a nice day.
 
Clive Dent


My ADS... what's that exactly, I think I'm selling a zx6r... I'm so glad he's 'really OK' with the information in the advert, but how kind of him to suggest I might have forgotten some details. Most of the info he asks about is in the advert (MOT, mileage etc.) so perhaps rather than wonder what is missing he should read what is there (I say should.. I mean he should were he a real person, really interested in buying a bike!) And finally, nice touch with the 'soo' at the end to appear keen.


Does anyone fall for these people? Is it really worth their while? Who would think paying by check and wanting to ship the bike somewhere is legitimate (it's a 2000 zx6r, hardly collectable!)
____________________
"The problem with the French is they have no word for 'entrepreneur' " George W Bush
Age doesn't matter unless you're a cheese
https://www.bikepics.com/members/izzi81

[Villers]

This shyte has been happening for years. Makes you wonder if people are actually falling for it if they keep trying!

My best one was from the prince of belgium, sounded very interested and apparently it was 'perfect' for him. Would have loved to help him out but I'd already sold the bike so was unable to let his friend collect the bike and give me £14k and I would give him the 'change' (asking price was nowhere near that obviously. I could just see his highness, cape flapping in the wind as he flys by on his freshly imported from the UK, 5 year old RS125!
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RS125 > CBR6 > SV650S > ZX636R > GSX1300RZ Hayabusa > 06 RSVR Mille > SV1000S > Street Triple 765 RS

[G]

They may well have a program which does all the stuff for them - so they just click 'go' and it goes to all relevant sites and sends stuff to any email addresses it finds.
I suspect the most hassle they go through is from all people that mess /them/ around .

[thx1138]

My bike is advertised on ebay classifieds, and in the Friday-ad.


Told someone to piss off today, who phoned up from some magazine I'd never heard off, to see if I wanted to advertise in it.

[wikiwiki]

Heloo sar, https://thumbnails.putfile.com/images/1/1180373297881990266.jpg
I need your bank account details so i can put the monies into yar account.

[lydanial]

my borother had one o these when he sold his car so we strung the guy along, after about a week a cheque came through for £6k , 3 more than he had it advertised.

they wanted to pick the bike up as soon as the cheque had arrived as the 'shipper' needed to get it moved and could my brother give him back £2k and keep an extra £1k for his trouble.

it was fun and we kept this going for ages.

anyway theres a woman who has a website dedicated to these people, shes an american and sells horses (iirc) then she puts all the correspondance on her site, i will try and find it it made good reading.

[mistergixer]

[athelstan]

I thought that this was a novel approach!


Subject: Nigerian Astronaut Wants To Come Home

Dr. Bakare Tunde
Astronautics Project Manager
National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA)
Plot 555
Misau Street
PMB 437
Garki, Abuja, FCT NIGERIA

Dear Mr. Sir,

REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE-STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
Click here to find out more!

I am Dr. Bakare Tunde, the cousin of Nigerian Astronaut, Air Force Major Abacha Tunde. He was the first African in space when he made a secret flight to the Salyut 6 space station in 1979. He was on a later Soviet spaceflight, Soyuz T-16Z to the secret Soviet military space station Salyut 8T in 1989. He was stranded there in 1990 when the Soviet Union was dissolved. His other Soviet crew members returned to earth on the Soyuz T-16Z, but his place was taken up by return cargo. There have been occasional Progrez supply flights to keep him going since that time. He is in good humor, but wants to come home.

In the 14-years since he has been on the station, he has accumulated flight pay and interest amounting to almost $ 15,000,000 American Dollars. This is held in a trust at the Lagos National Savings and Trust Association. If we can obtain access to this money, we can place a down payment with the Russian Space Authorities for a Soyuz return flight to bring him back to Earth. I am told this will cost $ 3,000,000 American Dollars. In order to access the his trust fund we need your assistance.

Consequently, my colleagues and I are willing to transfer the total amount to your account or subsequent disbursement, since we as civil servants are prohibited by the Code of Conduct Bureau (Civil Service Laws) from opening and/ or operating foreign accounts in our names.

Needless to say, the trust reposed on you at this juncture is enormous. In return, we have agreed to offer you 20 percent of the transferred sum, while 10 percent shall be set aside for incidental expenses (internal and external) between the parties in the course of the transaction. You will be mandated to remit the balance 70 percent to other accounts in due course.

Kindly expedite action as we are behind schedule to enable us include downpayment in this financial quarter.

Please acknowledge the receipt of this message via my direct number 234 (0) 9-234-2220 only.

Yours Sincerely, Dr. Bakare Tunde
Astronautics Project Manager
tip @ nasrda.gov.ng

[Faldo]

Haha, Phonejacker rules.

I work on tele-sales and every day I get "Mr Jonathon Brown" or "Steven King" etc trying to order stuff with credit cards. They can never speak English properly and always want goods delivered to South East London.

They really make me laugh, like I'm going to believe them. The world is awash with people making the most obvious scam attempts ATM, it's getting really boring.

Sometimes works in my favour though. As I sell car parts, sometimes they are really difficult to get hold of, and I'm probably the only person in the UK with them in stock, so charge quite a premium for them. If someone tries a dodgy card, and can't get hold of the part anywhere else, they'll come back on the phone asking where the parts are. I just tell them their card's declined and they'll have to pay cash into my bank account. I won't hear anything for a couple of weeks, and when they've gone out and robbed somebody else they decide to actually pay for it. I then keep their money and tell them I've got a phone recording of them ordering parts with a stolen card, I ain't giving them their money back, and if they have a problem with that then they should go to their local police station. Shock Horror, they don't bother. Thats happened twice now. Not vast amounts of money, but the victory is sweet.

Thats real Karma!
____________________
Current: ZZR1400
Previous: ZXR 400 L9, ZX-7R P5, ZZR 400, ZX-7R P6, Bandit 600, GSXR 750 Slingshot, DRZ400, DR650, ZX10R C1H, ZXR 750 L1, ZXR 750 L3, '99 ZX7R P4, KTM 300 EXC, ZX-9R E1, TDM850

[LeeR]

"Me fail English? That's unpossible." - Ralph Wiggum
____________________
My claim to fame: Austin Vince nicked my pen...

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

[izzi81]

haha I like the astronaut story... and there was me thinking it couldn't get more bizarre than attempts to smuggle members of the royal family out of the country!

thanks for the 419eater link too, I visited that site years ago and had totally forgotten where it was!
____________________
"The problem with the French is they have no word for 'entrepreneur' " George W Bush
Age doesn't matter unless you're a cheese
https://www.bikepics.com/members/izzi81