Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum FAQ - Piano Forum Beware! Piano Buyer Scams on the Internet

This started in another thread.
Decided to condense it and post in our FAQ.

We (Piano World) have had first hand experience with these scams. They have tried to purchase products from our online store.

Some of the people advertising pianos for sale on Piano World have also been approached.
And now, we find that some of our dealer-members have been contacted too.

See:
http://www.pianoworld.com/scams.html

Scam information I post on our site to warn people selling their pianos through our services.
There is also a link to an article about these scams.

You can report cyber crimes here...
http://www.ic3.gov/

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C).


Also, see this thread about accepting payments.
http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/1/13312.html

And this one...
http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?/topic/16/48.html

Received this copy of an email from one of our advertisers. He had received it in reply to his piano for sale ad.
Good example of the scams we were talking about...

===========================================
hello,
i am pastor matt roland.i am interested in purchasing your advertised piano for the church choir who wants to use it for there anniversary which is coming up soonest.i will like to purchase as soon as possible,because the anniversary is near.i hope it is in a good condition?my mode of payment will be through a certified cashier's check drawn from a major bank in the states.i will like you to mail me back so that we can finalise these transaction.the church will be making all arrangements for the pick up of the piano and the shipping to the church so do not bother about that.we'll send shipping agent who will come for the pick up and ship to the church.just tell me the last price of the piano so that the check can be sent to you.hope to hearing from you soonest.God bless you.

NB:i am an international buyer located in africa(nigeria) presently,but i am from the states.i just have my church here in africa because i am on a missionary work here which will last for some months,but all arrangements regarding the payment and the shipping has already been arranged for so,get back to me as soon as possible.
regards,
pastor roland
=============================================

FYI, received this email from one of our classified advertisers today:

"We were contacted by three separate supposed buyers from Nigeria, Switzerland and Saudia Arabia. We wanted to alert you to the fraudulent activity so you could warn other sellers not to accept international buyers. We are a small business and are wise to scams there are a lot of people that aren't.

Thank You
Renee B"

The latest piano buying scam going around.
I've received emails from two of our advertisers in the last two days about this one.

-------------------------------------------
hello,
i am chris sill and i am interested in purchasing your advertised
piano which is $2700.i hope it is still available for sale?
firstly i will like to know the present condition and my mode of
payment will be through a certified cashier's check drawn from a
major bank in US and the payment will be made out to you through my
client(friend)in US owing me the amount of $7000 of which he is
going to send these whole amount to you and you are to send the
balance of $4300 through western union money transfer to my shipping
company who will come for the pick up and ship.
i am using these process because the amount i placed with my client
is a refund for a cancelled order and being a refund can only be
written on a single check so i hope you understand why i am using
these method?
if it's still available for sale,please kindly give me your full
information to send the payment(check)to like your full name,address
and phone number so that i can forward it to my client in the STATES
who i told you will issue the check to you.please do get back to me
as soon as possible and you can send me a pic of the piano if you have.
regards,
chris sill.
-------------------------------------------

If you run into a scam like this, it might help to report them to the Internet Fraud Center...
http://www.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp

Another Example of a Piano buying Scam!

------------------------------------------------
Hello,


Thanks for your e-mail response and for the briefing on your piano.Am very much interested in purchasing the piano.I will take it for $1,995 as stated.I'm okay at that price.Consider the piano already sold to me.I would have love to come down and inspect it but am presently away to Canada on a seminar.As soon as i saw your advert for sale,i have to get across to one of my business associates in Rhode island telling him i've gotten the piano i'm searching for and that he should make my funds{$4000} available in payment of some farm equipment i supplied to him.He assured me he would make the payments (check) available. I will instruct him to get the check across to you (ASAP) and as soon as you cash the check you would need to deduct your amount of ($1,995) from the total of ($4000) and send the remaining balance to my reputable shipper via western union money transfer who would be coming over for the pickup of the + and also handle the necessary transfer titles on my behalf.
Though i can't predict your mind to know whether you really understand the above conditions but i must tell you that i am really interested in buying the piano and only by this means i can get you paid. Furthermore, if you have reached a conclusion and it occurs that the above conditions as explained above is okay by you, Then do get back to me with your information (FULL NAME, CONTACT ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER) so that i can forward it to my associate to issue the check for you as soon as possible.
cheers.
brucesanders01@yahoo.com
-------------------------------------------------

Yet another example of a jerk trying to pull a scam (forwarded to me today by someone selling a piano on our Piano Exchange)...

From: Morris James [mailto:morr_james01@yahoo.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 1:50 AM
To: Mahan, L
Subject: Payment arrangement.........

Thanks for the response . So I have contacted my client who is interested in buying the (piano) and he said he will like to see more pics.We've also conclude with the price that i will sell to him.However. i have also added my own profit to your own asking price of $15,000 .

You are hereby expected to confirm to me that i am free to add my own profit to your own asking price and will also agree to send my profit to me through western union.
Hence, any amount above your own asking price will be returned back to me as my own commission and profit on the sales.

I hope that is understood. As regards the pick up, as soon as you confirm to me that the money is cleared in your account, i will inform my shipper to come for the pick up immediatelty. I hereby you to provide the details for sending the payment to you only.

NAME
ADDRESS
CITY
STATE
ZIPE CODE
COUNTRY
PHONE

As soon as i hear from you, i will contact my client so that he can issue you a cheque payment immediately and will be mailed to you as soon as possible..

Thanks for the warning! It is important to know about fraudulent schemes when buying pianos. Links to scam information and the ability to file a cyber crime report are very helpful. It is important to be careful and check purchases, especially large ones, to avoid falling into the trap of scammers.