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Motorcycle ScamsIf you are you selling your motorcycle on eBay or cycletrader.com or elsewhere, you've probably gotten some emails from buyers in other countries. We've seen strong interest lately buying motorcycles in the USA and then shipping them overseas to Australia, Germany, Poland, France, England, Ireland, South Africa, and Indonesia, to name a few. Why? Because in Poland for example, motorcycles are real expensive and are a hot commodity. We're talking Harleys and especially sportbikes (R1, R6, GSXR750, CBR929RR, etc.). We can ship a motorcycle over there for between $1350 to maybe $2350 depending on where it's going to and where it's coming from in the US. Motorcycles are $2000 to over $8000 more expensive outside the USA, so it makes sense to buy used motorcycles and ship them over. We have customers who ship motorcycles for resale every month. So understand that there could be some very legitimate offers on your motorcycle that come from other countries. It could also be an international motorcycle scam. Here's what to look for. The two countries that we see most often trying to scam people out of big ticket (items like motorcyles, cars, trucks, SUV's, boats, horses, furniture, etc.) are Africa and Indonesia. Whenever we give a quote to move something there we immediately suspect a scam. We'd like someone to prove us wrong on this one, but we don't think there are any honest deals coming out of Africa or Indonesia. Let's start with Indonesia.
They usually sound very interested and sincere. Lots of emails. Proof of bank references. A solid and respectible person. But wait, let's see how they pay you. It's one of two ways, either in cashiers check or credit cards.
So far so good you think. You get the payment and deposit it in your bank. Everything looks good. Your bank says it's good. No problemo. It "clears" the bank in 24 hrs and the funds are "available" for withdrawl the next day. Then two weeks or even three weeks later everything falls apart.
The bank calls you and says the
cashiers check was fake or the credit cards were stolen. It takes about two weeks for the banks to sort it out. Then your bank has no choice but to chargeback your account in full. Oops. Sorry. By then you've already shipped the motorcycle. Too late. You got scammed.
The photo below shows a fake cashiers check. Looks real, doesn't it?
How can you prevent yourself from getting scammed? Easy, just wait at least 3 weeks after receiving your money. Tell your buyer you are going to wait three weeks after receiving his money to be sure everything is okay, and then you'll ship the bike. Legitimate buyers understand. Scammers won't. Even if the bank says it's okay and the funds are good, wait anyway. You have to be sure that there really is no problem. Treat credit cards and cashiers checks like you just received a personal check. The problem with overseas credit cards is that you can't verify the cardholders address. If it's stolen, you won't find out until the real cardholder complains to his bank. That could be a month or more later. Overseas credit cards are the highest risk. Another way to receive payment is to get a wire transfer. Wire transfers are very secure. Here's a tip. Open a new account. Have them wire the money into the new account. You receive your payment, then transfer the funds into your regular account, and close the new account. Why? Because you have to give your bank account number and bank routing number to the other person to receive a wire transfer. A scammer might figure a way to use this information to write a check on this account. Better to be safe and not have to worry about it. Now lets talk about Africa. That country is famous for the Nigerian Advance Fee Scam, otherwise know as the Nigerian 419 Scam. Here's how it works. A guy emails you and says he's interested in your motorcycle, car, truck, SUV, horse, furniture, or other big ticket item you are selling. Let's say you are selling a motorcycle for $5500.00. Okay, they tell you they are very interested. They want to buy it NOW. They are in Africa, but they have a client in the USA who owes them $7950.00. They tell you they'd like to have their client pay you the $7950.00, and as soon as the check clears you can send them your motorcycle and the difference of $2450.00. They know you are an honest man and trust that you will act quickly to finalize this transaction. The email will say something like: "The reason why I am doing this is because it would take at least 30 days for a check sent from over here to clear, whereas it would take only between three to four days for a check sent within the United States to clear. And this is the fastest way for me to send money to you now." So they send you a check like the one shown above, it "clears" the bank in 24 hrs, you send your motorcycle and $2450.00, and two to three weeks later you are in for quite a shock. Don't even deal with anyone that wants to send you more money than your item is worth and asks you to send them the difference. This is not a legitimate way to do business. In conclusion, if someone contacts you from another country to buy your motorcycle, it might or might not be a good thing. Keep the above advice in mind and don't get scammed. If all is well and it looks like it's not a scam, have them contact us for a shipping quote. In fact, you can send all your potential buyers to us for a motorcycle shipping quote. We move bikes within the US or overseas too. We'll collect the moving charges from them so you don't have to be involved in setting up the transportation services. Just send them to MoverQuest. On the other hand, if you are looking to buy a motorcycle and don't want to get scammed from the seller, you might think about an escrow service. One of our customers told us about Escrow.com. He bought a motorcycle from someone on eBay. Here's how it works. The buyer pays the escrow service for the motorcycle. They hold the payment. The motorcycle is then shipped from the seller to the buyer. They send the money to the seller only if the buyer receives the motorcycle. We notify Escrow.com when we pickup and deliver the motorcycle. It only costs $75.00 for this service. It prevents a scam from either person. They are not affiliated with MoverQuest in any way.
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