Guys, today, I almost got conned into sending money to a con artist.  I got an e-mail from a guy via lespac.com for an ad I posted for a user here.  This was about 5 weeks ago.  It came from:
From: *gregpeter23 <matt.melvin@ymail.com

Anyway, perhaps I didn't know much about this name/alias (but there are a bunch of hits on google for it).

He said he was from Spain and that he had a client (in Canada).  After awaiting payment for weeks, I finally got a money order from somewhere (no return address on envelope).  It had the name from Jeffrey Williams from Red Deer Alberta.

Anyway, the Money Order was Canada Post in US dollar but it didn't quite look right to my eye (although I had not seen such a money order type in a few years).  I had noticed that it said "check instructions on the reverse before cashing.' and yet there were no instructions on the back of it.  The guy wanted me to cash the MO, take the money agreed upon and then send the rest via Western Union to someone in Barcelona.

Anyway, I took it to the post office and sure enough, they told me it was a fake (after I asked them to show it to a senior in the back room) and they confiscated it!

Be aware.  
Even I wasn't bright enough to not trust an internet stranger (damn, I just trust people in this hobby way too much).
Thank god I never cashed anything and that I never Wired Anything.  Don't agree to anyone asking for WireTransfer.

Thanks for reading.

I'm glad you didn't get conned....

As a rule, any deal which involves you sending back money for an over-payment is most likely a scam.

I'm so suspicious of Western Union money transfers,
that even when someone offered to buy some eproms and paying ME via Western Union,
I was very uneasy.

But since I was receiving the money, and not sending anything back, I figured I was reasonably safe.
(... although I was still worried that it was a scam or phish to get my banking info...)

It turned out to be a legit deal, and I got the money without any problems.

Still, I'm always suspicious of deals like that.

Seller beware !  

Steph

Quoted Text

The guy wanted me to cash the MO, take the money agreed upon and then send the rest via Western Union to someone in Barcelona.

Can't believe you would actually go to the post office with that!!

It ' s a classic ! Anyone that comes up with a third party , a brother , a cousin or who ever , payment true western union ... But be aware , some come up with new scam tricks ...

Alberta, you say....  

(I'm kidding!)

Hey man, don't stir up the nest again.  There's lots of good people here.  Just a few wacko's to ruin it for the rest of us.

Quoted from pinsRfun

Hey man, don't stir up the nest again.  There's lots of good people here.  Just a few wacko's to ruin it for the rest of us.

Hence the "I was kidding"    

Besides, Ontario is no better..

Quoted from pinsRfun

Just a few wacko's to ruin it for the rest of us.

Are you saying pins only is sane?

He might be a really good guy but when it comes to pinball he's nuttier than a loon.

Let's make the red flag simpler: Anyone that is buying that wants you to send them money is probably a scammer.

Quoted from pinsRfun

Hey man, don't stir up the nest again.  There's lots of good people here.  Just a few wacko's to ruin it for the rest of us.

Well, I bought a pin from Hardkor and never had a problem... Calgary ain't THAT bad. Shipping was reasonable as well...

Quoted from Mrhide

Can't believe you would actually go to the post office with that!!

I would have framed it on my wall... it would look good beside a Nigerian cheque and a Wayn-o C&D.

Quoted from 80s.fan

Guys, today, I almost got conned into sending money to a con artist.   The guy wanted me to cash the MO, take the money agreed upon and then send the rest via Western Union to someone in Barcelona.

No offense, but in this day and age, it amazes me that anyone could be so niave as to even "almost" fall for this, it's the oldest con in the book, and reeks so bad you should have been able to smell it coming a mile away.  Having said that, I just knocked on wood, because it's the scam you don't know about that will get you.

Quoted from Sparky

I would have framed it on my wall... it would look good beside a Nigerian cheque and a Wayn-o C&D.

You're more likely to get a Nigerian cheque before you ever see an actual C&D from Wayne.. unless you'd rather frame his email threats, in which case I've got a few dozen you can have.  

Quoted from necro_nemesis

Are you saying pins only is sane?

He might be a really good guy but when it comes to pinball he's nuttier than a loon.

Yeah, he's insane.  I want to be insane too but my wife won't let me.  

Quoted from Mrhide

Can't believe you would actually go to the post office with that!!

FYI.  It is a Canadian Postal money order and hence the best place to cash (for smaller amounts only I found out) is at the Post Office.  

Quoted from websherpa

No offense, but in this day and age, it amazes me that anyone could be so niave as to even "almost" fall for this, it's the oldest con in the book, and reeks so bad you should have been able to smell it coming a mile away.  Having said that, I just knocked on wood, because it's the scam you don't know about that will get you.

You said it right.  But, it COULD happen to you, trust me!  I have more experience buying/selling than ANYBODY on this entire great forum.  Not just EBAY, travel to USA, lespac and other, etc.  But all possible ways of sending & receiving money.  It happens that someone is so serious and knows the hobby so well and he did a thing that said that I had to send money (after I subtracted the machine price) for a shipper to come buy to pick up the machine which sounded all right at first.  

I wasn't actually going to send money unless I cashed money out (of course if the bank/post office didn't realize that it was a fake, would they have traced me back later to ask for their money back - that might have been a problem).  Lucky for me that my eye had seen enough Postal Money orders to realize it wasn't right....