Scam? South African wants to buy trophies.

[Larry Ashcraft]

I got three calls through an IP relay this morning from a "Rev. Brandon Reicherts" about prices on a 5.75" "ball head bobble".  Assuming he meant bobblehead trophies, I quoted him $12 each.  I know he can find them on the net for probably $7.  I gave him my email address since I couldn't understand him.

1st message:

Hello Mr. Larry,
Thank You for your Time with me on the phone.Okay i will like to Order 100 piecess of the Ball Head Bobble Size: 5 3/4. and i will like u to reply me with the total price for that and what method of payment do u Accept.
Thanks alote and i will be waiting for ur Reply as soon as possible.

I replied that the total would be $1200 plus shipping, and I would take Visa, MC or a money order.  And that I would need to know what sport he needed the bobbleheads to be.

2nd message:

Hello Mr.Larry,
                    Thanx alote for ur Reply.I will like to Order This Trophies for my Inter region tonament in West Africa and i will like to Handle the shipping my self.So let me know if u are ready for my Master Card for the Total Charesg for the Order.
 Rev. Brandon Reicherts

I replied that I do not know how to ship overseas and I still need to knw what sport.

I am treating this as a scam until I learn more.  What do you think?

[mtnbkr]

Sounds legit, if poorly worded.  There was no mention of money orders, cashiers checks and the like.  Can you confirm the CC number with Mastercard?

Chris

[Larry Ashcraft]

Good idea.  I just got another email wanting to give me his MC info.

What bothers me is how do I ship trophies overseas?  He says he wants to pay the shipping.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Why/how are you involved with shipping trophies to South Africa?  How on earth could this be legitimate?

[Larry Ashcraft]

Well, I am in the trophy business. 

What bothers me is someone from South Africa calling a trophy shop in Pueblo, Colorado out of the blue and agreeing to pay full retail to have trophies shipped to him.

[charby]

might be a scam.

I have heard of overseas scams using money orders and the money orders are bogus.

Tell him you need the money in full before you ship.

Also to ship overseas you will have to declare to the post office what is in your package. I think Fed Ex you can get away with out declaring.

-C

[Larry Ashcraft]

I talked to oone of my suppliers north of Denver and he said he'd been scammed just about like this, only on some t-shirts.  Credit card turned out no good.

This guy did send me his CC info, so I replied:

My business associates advised me that on an international shipment I should deal in cash.  So if you can get me US currency, we can proceed

We'll see what happens

[K Frame]

Yeah, this just screams scam at me.

[Brad Johnson]

Scam.  Probably a stolen credit card number or a bogus number that won't work.  Or he will suddenly call, stop the order, and want a full refund in cash (or immediate electronic transfer).

Tell him to have his bank call your bank so they can wire the funds directly from bank to bank (never to your personal account).  That, or have him wire funds via Western Union or some other outside party that only makes the transfer when they have the cash in hand on the other end.

Brad

[Larry Ashcraft]

Thanks, everybody.

Five phone calls and four emails, and then after as I sent my last email demanding US currency, everything went silent. 

So, scam it was.

[Monkeyleg]

Larry, a few weeks ago I put an ad on Ebay for a Sony Play Station that my BIL won in a drawing at work. You can buy these things for about $175 at WalMart.

I had several emails from people who offered me as much as $500 if I would ship the game station to some African country.

Dunno what the scam is, but it's a scam.

[wmenorr67]

Usually they try to send you a false money order or check or bogus credit card number and either send more than the amount you want and ask for the balance in cash or cancel the order and request cash instead of crediting the credit card.