western union seems to = scams. tell him you have a friend who is in the sellers area and if it is ok for him to eyeball the bike. I bet you don't get a response.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT send them the money. It is 99.9999999999% most likely a scam. I almost fell for this 2 days ago, when a guy was offering a Colnago (worth about $8-10k) for $2500. I requested using escrow.com for the transaction, but he insisted on a western union money order, and paying half up front and half upon delivery. I was about to send the money, but got a little suspicious when I found a carbon copy of the add on a reputable LBS's website, and the picture did not match some of the parts in the description. I then asked for more pictures, and he said he had none. However, he was more than happy to pay for the "shipping" to anywhere in the US. Basically, I would have sent $1250 to him via western union, and never heard from him again. Check out the www.roadbikereview.com classifieds. They have several articles on these exact scams, and indicate that anytime someone recommends western union, it is most likely a scam. Also, the LBS escrow is probably a scam too, as they have several accounts of fake escrow sites out there, and many people only recommend the use of www.escrow.com



Therefore, I would highly recommend insisting on using www.escrow.com for the transaction, and if he doesn't agree to it, then walk away and save yourself the heartache of losing $650. I know there are deals to be had, because I've been buying parts off the internet for cheap and reselling them on ebay, but they are usually "good" deals, not what appears to be a "once in a lifetime" kind of deal. Also, as we've all seen on this forum, these scammers have been rampant on ebay for awhile, but in the last few days, they've hit many other cycling classifieds sites such as roadbikereview and the cycling forums, although many of the adds have already been taken down. However, I agree with the saying that you have a friend in the area who can pay him directly and pick up the bike, or maybe even that you'll be over there this weekend and could just buy it in person and take it back on the plane with you. (basically, shipping a bike from Europe is about $100-200, so he's offering to sell a $3-4k bike for about $400). Hope this helps



Ben

I agree with DD, sounds like a scam to me. Western union and a price way to low usually means a scam. Tell him you will be in London for business and you will pick the bike up and pay cash, see what he says.

Andrew

Yeah, I figured as such-just wanted to see what the general consensus is.

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Cheers, tbo

I came across something like this before. Basically what you should do other than not even thinking about sending them a dime is fish out as much personal information as you can from them and threaten to turn them into the police unless they send YOU money or just post all of their personal information on the web. There are various web sites that specialize in scamming scam artists. If you don't feel up to scamming money out of them just tell them that you want to be sure everything is legitimate and clown them by having them email pictures of themselves (to post later) or do whatever you can to embarrass them later.

Or the other alternative is you can just ignore the lowlifes but that's not fun is it?

Funny-I asked for add'l photos, and he sent 4 more! Then again, that's not to say the bike is really for sale.

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Cheers, tbo

you will note that in the picture on cyclingforums, the bike has Van Dessel wheels with carbon aero spokes, not the Ksyriums that Cannondales usually come with (and that he said they come with). Van Dessel is a US company, and I have only seen those wheels _once_, at Tour de Toona (big US stage race). I can't imagine that there would be many sets in Britain. they're hard enough to find here. ask him about those and post his reply here. and ask him to take a close up of some part from some wierd angle.

My kid brother/family is in London, find out where this guy is, and I'll ask the brother to go check it out for me.

Let me know if you're interested. He has a digital camera so he'll be able to send pictures too.

Nick

I offered to use escrow.com or to have the bike packed at Evans Cycles, so if he rejects that, I know I'm dealing with a scam, but I'll see if he would allow someone to check it out.

Thanks for the suggestion.

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Cheers, tbo

Yes, you are an idiot, but it has nothing to do with this potential transaction...hope your feeling better...

Thanks Stevie-I can always count on you for the cold biting truth.

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Cheers, tbo