Fun With Scammers - Part Three-and-a-half

'Miriam' has apparently transferred funds to a PayPal account that doesn't exist. And the courier wants me to wire money to South Africa. More later.

Fun With Scammers - Part Three, plus Helping People Out

Heard back from the scammer, but was busy so it took a while to get back to them.

Thank you so much. I have forwarded the address to the shipping company so they can calculate the pick up and delivery cost for me to make the payment. I'm sure they will contact you soon. I would like you to know that the payment will be made via PayPal because is fast and secured to send and received money online, All you have to send me is your paypal email address so I can make the payment immediately.

Hope to hear back from you asap.

 And my reply:

Hi Miriam,

Sorry it's taken so long to get back to you, being a Timelord is a very busy job and there were some Yeti in the Underground that needed dealing with urgently. Don't let this put you off though, I am still very willing to sell you this instrument.

My PayPal email address is ravenor@ordoxenos.inq

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,
Grigori Rasputin
Russia's Greatest Love Machine

 Generally going for a less consistent and more surreal thing now.

As for the 'helping people out'... A comment on Part Two of this little adventure came from someone else who is also being scammed by 'Miriam' and wanted to know how to deal with it, I offered the best advice I could which is to report the scammer to Gumtree. And I really suggest that people generally take that approach, I just happen to be in a particularly happy/mischeivous mood at the moment which is why I'm deliberately baiting the scammer instead of going through official channels.

Fun With Scammers - Part Two

Heard back from the scammer, who is operating under the rather dull nom de clavier Miriam Berma.

I wish to let you know that I'm satisfied with the conditions and i will like to inform you that am buying the item for my Family in Thornton Heath,so i will be the one responsible for the pick up and delivery stuff.kindly get back to me with your full name and address so that i can forward it to the pick up agent to calculate the pick up fees for me.

Thanks.

Joy to You and Me!!!

Here is my response. Tactics used here are changing names, obviously fake address and a random Invader Zim quote at the end of the message.

Hi Miriam,

It's great to know that you are completely satisfied with a guitar that is in a constant state of exploding, I do hope your family enjoys it.

My full name and address is:
Harry Paget Flashman
221b Baker Street
London
NW1 6XE

I look forward to hearing from you soon regarding the collection

Yours,
Archibald McNulty

TAQUITOS! And a clown with no head!

Stay tuned!

Fun With Scammers - Part One

For quite a while now I've been trying to sell a 2002 Jackson KVX10. Thus far the only interest I've had has been from people who don't understand simple things like "no I won't take it all the way to Southampton unless you guarantee you'll buy it" or "dropping £100 off the price based on the cost of buying the current entry-level Jackson new is never going to happen."

But now I have what appears to be a scammer who has found my ad on Gumtree. The first communcation from them was a simple "is this item still available" message, to which I replied "for a legitimate buyer, yes."

This morning I got this message through (via Gumtree's own messaging service. No way was I going to deal direct until I had a fake email set up, of which more in a bit):

Ok, before we can proceed abt this sale i will like to know your

Contact number :..........
Email :..........
Condition of the item & Best price :..........

Regards

So pretty much a definite scam, as this kind of broken English and insistence on dealing direct is pretty common. Of course it may not be a scam, so this is the point where I start being a bit silly (an idea I got from Mr. Foxen), to see what happens. So I sent this reply:

Thanks for your interest in the item

My contact number is 0898 474747
My email address is horationelson39@gmail.com
The condition of the item is exploding.
The best price is £1,000.

Kind Regards,
Horatio Nelson (Admiral)

So quadrupled the price for a guitar that is currently exploding. The email address is a real one I've set up for the sole purpose of this 'transaction'.

Just gotta see what happens next.

Non-Guitar: Permanent Job

Well, hopefully the coming months will see a lot more activity from Atomic Tangerine as I have today accepted a permanent role with the company I am currently temping at.

A slightly greater disposable income from a non-temporary role means I can buy parts more regularly and maybe even branch out into doing gear reviews and stuff.

Flying V Bass Body

Further to previous posting I have now received the Flying V bass body. It's in pretty good nick overall, and seems to be made from a decent, solid hardwood (Not sure what type. Looks mahoganyish).



The previous owner has already had a go at removing the existing finish, which will make it a bit easier for me to strip the remainder and get some decent laquer on.

This project is likely to cost a bit, as cheap aftermarket bass soapbar pickups and non-Fender-style necks don't really exist so it's most likely that I'll be going with Seymour Duncan or maybe Kent Armstrong for the pickups and unless a better alternative presents itself Warmoth for the neck. Seeing as how everything else is going to have to be a more expensive option I might as well get a Hipshot bridge as well. And then this'll become my main bass so I can damn well get my money's worth from it!

Recent Purchases

It's all go here chez Dreadful... at least planning-wise it is...

Recently got a Crafter Junior guitar neck off eBay to go with the Squier Strat body I got off Mr. Foxen. The neck pocket will need to be made a little bigger but that's not a huge issue. Also going to get some Nitromors or somesuch soon to remove the 'burst finish and once that's done FiL will help me out filling the trem cavity and sorting out the channel someone thought it'd be awesome to chisel between the control and jack cavities. Electronics and hardware plans have already been covered here if you're interested.

And I'll soon be getting another bit of wood from eBay, this time a Flying V-style bass body (which may or may not include bridge and tuners). £21 including postage seems a pretty damn good deal to me. That's going to either get soapbar pickups or I'll fill in the pickup cavities so I can put P-bass style split coils in.

So now I'd best start budgeting for all the other parts I need.