western union.........is this a scam?

Jacklin2001

hi,

i have found someone who sells ipods for cheap (wholesale) and they are asking me to pay through western union.

i told them i have heared about scams being used through there and would like to pay through paypal.

they then sent this is an email:

Dear sir,
Here is EXACTLY how I propose you to make a safe deal:
You go to your nearest WU branch and deposit the money
you have to pay me on a RANDOM name ( EG your
friend name, your wife name... etc. ) but the address
will be mine.
After you deposit the money you will receive the
receipt ( your Send Money Form paper copy ). Scan it
and send it back to me in JPEG format. In this
way I make sure you that the money have been deposited
correctly and I see you don't want to
cheat me.Once I receive the scanned receipt from you,
I will IMMEDIATELY ship you the items.
After you will receive the items you have 2 days to
inspect and test them. If all is OK, you will
have to go on Western Union and modify the
transfer details by changing the receiver name with my
name
so I can collect the money. And our deal ends there.
If you are not satisfied with the items, you can send
them back to me and securely withdraw the money
you have deposited at Western Union.
It's a 100% safe deal for both of us. Your big
advantage: you can inspect the items before I get
payed.
If this is ok for you reply me asap.


i then sent a message saying i dont want to email the receipt because it has the MTCN# number on it and thats all you need to withdraw the money.

so he replied saying to cover the MTCN# number up on the copy i send him.


is there any other way that he can take the money out of western union?

if not then i am happy to send the money this way because when i recieve the items i can check them and then change the name on the payment to him.

sorry for the long post i just needed some help

Andy

lewt

where is the seller? in africa? dont do it... scam i'd say.... WU is the chosen payment for scammer's!

Jacklin2001

he is in italy

jenniferpa

Don't do it. Have you looked into escrow services? This is exactly the sort of situation they are designed for.

smartie1976

sounds dodgy to me.
If you can get ipods cheap, then you need to ask yourself how they got them so cheap to still be making a profit.

rchddap1

Does sound dubious. Besides there aren't very many Western Union branches to walk into in the UK.

frivolous_fay

Bargepole... don't touch... with

me4bargains

I wouldn't even go down the escrow channel.
Scammer have been know to set up fake Escrow businesses who then tell you they have recievd the ipod, laptop, Mobile phone et al and once you cough up you never recieve your goods.
Please remember Ebay have BANNED the use of Western union because it is the equivalent of giving a wadful of notes to a man in the pub who you've just met and allow him to go off and get you 'your good's!!

jenniferpa

ME4bargains has a good point. However, there are reputable escrow companies e.g escrow.com

Edited to add
see here http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/community/escrow.html

mclaren_2

i woudl ask him if he would do a bank transfer as you would have his bank details if anything did go wrong so theoreticly report him to the police and contact your bank and his if anything did go wrong so they would be lookin in to it causing him grief. paypal imho isnt the best way - or ask him if he would accept a cheque from uk.

soolin

Please not a bank transfer.....that gives absolutely no protection at all as all you have is a bank account and sort code and have no way of knowing where that account is or who 'owns' it. I think a scammer would fall of his perch if someone offered a non returnable bank transfer.

A cheque is just as bad.

Soo