Fraud scam

[sodaworks]

Gentlemen,
  I just wanted to warn everyone of my recent nightmare. It all started with an ad I placed here in the classified section. I was advertising soda machines restorations. I really like this site and will continue to support it 100% but I do not want any body else to encounter the (&$%# I just went through. I recieved an email back in early Dec. from a guy named Chris Ola, email address chriscar002@yahoo.com  he claimed to be a broker for his client in the Bahamas and that they wanted to buy one of my restored machines advertised on this site. He was interested in a 2500.00 machine but I told him that the only thing I had restored at the time was a 3995.00 machine that I would sell to him for 3600.00, I sent him some photos of the machine. He claimed to have showed the pictures to his client and that they would purchase this machine. An agreement was made that I would crate the machine for 150.00 and he would arrange for all the shipping so that when the monies were funded I would purchase the crating materials and call for his shipper to pick up the machine from my house. Time goes by, I passed up 3 potential sells on the machine. I finally hear from the guy 2 weeks ago saying that his client sent out the money via UPS and included a tracking number. Several of my e-mails requested his phone # so that I could talk to him, but no luck! Yesterday morning I recieved an e-mail from this chump saying that the Bahama guy's check was in Kentucky and headed my way. A few hours later I recieved the check from UPS and noticed it was shipped from Texas. Hmm.. This started to confirm why I felt very uneasy the last week or so. Here I stand in my shop looking at a cashier's check from the "Bahama's", that was earlier in the day in kentucky, shipped from Texas and drafted from a bank in Collinsville, Illinios. I opened the check only to find that it was for 6500.00 instead of 3750.00? Confused/ yet honest, I emailed Chris Ola to see why the extra 2750.00 I was thinking that maybe they wanted the extra 2500.00 machine or maybe they just some how over looked the extra money. I was told that they only wanted then 2500.00 machine and to send the balance of 4000.00 to his shipper in the form of a (cash)International money gram. He enclosed the east coast shippers email address and said that they just happened to be in california and was leaving at 06:00 in the morning and that the machine needed to go with them. He also nastily claimed that we never talked about the 3600.00 machine. I copied all of our earlier emails and sent them to him so that he could see our previous agreement. I reminded him of our previous shipping agreement in the order of funds, crate and ship!   He emailed me back and said ok, send the 3750.00 machine to him and the balance of 2750.00 to the shipper TODAY! Hmm.. I emailed the shipper and asked for thier business phone #, I told him I had some very serious concerns about this transaction.I was told to send the cash gram to his shipping agent in Ontario, Canada and he would authorize the picking up of the machine. The only info. that I had was his name and Ontario,Canada?He also expressed the severity of them leaving the state in the morning. He also wouldn't give me A TELEPHONE #. Hmm.. I was once again contacted by chris ola stating that I needed to forget the crate costs. I told him that I would not build the crate for free! He sent me a nasty email saying that he didn't want the crate and that his shipper would build one when it arrived on the east coast. I told him he was insane for shipping a restored machine across the country un-protected and that I would not be liable! He said fine JUST DO IT! by now I am think Holy &*^$ what did I get myself into. It was late in the evening and I am getting hammered by emails demanding CASH tonight! I told them that my bank did not open until 10:00am and that would be the soonest. I was told to cash the cashier's check and have the cash sent out at 10:00am to insure the machine to be picked up. I went to my bank as soon as they opened, I explained to the manager the situation at hand, I told her that I suspected that the check was a fraud and that I didn't want to lose not only my money but also my machine! She looked it over really good and it had all the authentic markings of a real cashier's check. She said that the check was real and to go ahead and cash it. I asked her to please call the Illinois bank and confirm the check, I wasn't going to accept nothing less!! As suspected all along it was a phoney check. I was actualy relieved to get out of this ordeal!! I forward the emails to the secret service and FBI per instructions from the bank. I found out that this is referred to the "Nigerian Scam", it is used heavily in the aviation,watercraft and classic car markets. So just be very careful with who your dealing with!




































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[ussexplorer]

Banks seem to need a good course in customer service. I believe after a certain amount they should call no matter what. I can't believe you had to ask them to call for you. Also for that amount I would wait a couple of days to make sure it actually cleared. If the guy wanted his money that much. You could have just sent back the check. If you could find him that is. But from what you said. You couldn't. At least you didn't loose your machine, car, airplane and what not.

later,

Josh

[Jim]

Terry,

I very glad this siduation was avoided!
I'm glad you where cautious and remained that way throughout this transaction because I believe if things don't seem normal become very cautious and pay attention to the details as you pointed out... If someone wants to spend several thousand dollars on your product, but doesn't want to talk via phone, there's something wrong in my eyes!

Lastly, I want eveyone to know that Soda-Machines.Com does NOT condone this type of activity in any shape or form! It's unfortunate that some fraudulant person utilized our service to promote illegal activities...

Thanks for the heads up for everyone!

[Kevin C]

Wow

I guess the bottom line is that if you feel a deal is not right then don't ship the goods or send the money. The is an eye opening story.

Thanks for posting!

Kevin

[loman4ec]

I have had this same problem a few times. Mine not as bad as yours because my father has sold classic cars for a long time so he was able to tell me to get out of the deal before anything was final. But now I just try to stay away from international sales or make it clear that I will only accept a check for the exact amount and will wait for it to clear before anything is shipped. It is a shame that people feel they need to rip innocent people off to make a few dollars.

[Eric]

Just had a eBay scam happen to me.
I sold a old gumball machine on eBay and all seemed well.

Well the next day a few of the back up bidders were
emailing me about the second chance offer.

Well I sent no second chance offer?!'>....

Someone had developed a email that looks like it came from
eBay stating the winning bidder backed out and that
the seller was offering the item to the next highest bidder.
Well Who ever did this emailed each bidder and thank
goodness some of the bidders knew each other. One contacted me... since I (obviously being the seller) didn't
receive this email.... Well we all contacted eBay to make them aware. Hope they follow through and catch this person.

About this fake eBay email.... There are real second chance offers. This fake email offer the person was able to attach
a message stating “Do not reply to this email contact
me at (then they give a email adress) for any questions on
payment and address......

One of the bidders of my auction and I tried sending a second
chance offer... It doesn't allow you to write any attached message. eBay contacts them.

So watch out when buying or selling on eBay.

And yes it is a shame that people feel they need to rip
innocent people off to make money!

Eric