Scam alert? A person calling himself Fred Goodwill just emailed me from email contact on this forum. He said he had R parts, and wanted info on mine. I did a bit of searching and there were a lot of Fred Goodwills in Nigeria!
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It’s a scam,there is no one of that name registered on the forum
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I had a similar e-mail about a month back fishing for info and wanting me to buy something, but not bike related.
The scamming bastards are everywhere! I had another one try tonight. I have Yamaha TT 250 parts posted on Gumtree. Said he wanted to buy and he wanted me to post a part to Perth, but he couldn’t even spell it…
Thanks Bif, the scammers and bots are everywhere. It would be funny except they bite a few people. On the FB forums they seem to be targeting people after R parts. Maybe they have a cunning algorithm which senses when someone is desperately lusting after rare parts!!!
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I had a close call with one on FB,he had pics of freshly painted R panels plus “lots of other parts”
I enquired if he had a U.K. spec speedo,to which he replied yes and gave a price and shipping cost.
I twigged then that he was in the US as the price was in dollars,so why would he have a 180mph speedo?
I asked twice for a picture of the item after which the post was deleted along with his profile.
You can’t be too careful
regards Big
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Bif, It seems like they lose patience once you request more details, and go on to find a more gullible buyer. It’s certainly a good tactic to just keeping asking for more details, a genuine seller will continue, but the scammers seem to go, luckily!
Spring has sprung here in Canberra Oz, must be starting to get damp and chilly over there?
Greg
I’m a member of the GSX1100 FB group (I apologise for the heretic act of restoring one). Scammers are rife there, too.
Just for a laugh, I said I was looking for an ABS sensor (it’s an '85 bike. ABS? What’s that?).
There were about five different people saying ‘I have one in good condition. DM me if your (sic) still looking’. I played along with one for a while. He quoted $90 plus shipping. When I said it was way too much he dropped it to $50. I asked for a photo. He sent a pic of a BMW sensor. I told him it was the wrong one, and I needed the three phase sensor. He sent one from a gold wing next. He wasn’t clever enough to use an internet photo without a water mark.
When I said that I wasn’t interested he started with the ‘let’s conclude this business sir. I’ve been to the shippers already and it’s on its way’. Neat trick given that I hadn’t given him an address. He was increasingly persistent.
As far as FB is concerned, it’s full of the bastards. Look and see how long they’ve been a member of the group - I’ll guarantee that it will be less than three days, and they’ll be using a cloned account.
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