Possible Scam?

[Smithy]

I placed an ad on friday-ad.co.uk (basicaly a free place to place adverts to sell stuff and the magazine/paper with the adverts on gets distributed around to area i live, but also gets placed on the internet on their site). The ad is for a drum kit with value of about £250. I hadnt heard from anything about it for a couple of weeks (and quite frankly didnt expect to) till a couple of days ago when a guy emailed me with this;

Hey Seller,
My Name is Mr ***** ******. i came across your advert place (FIVE PIECE Premier drum kit.) in which am indeed interested, pls i will need to know the condition and price you are willing to sell, so we can proceed for the payment and collection at your place... e-mail through this **********@hotmail.com

Regards

***** ******

to which i replied with;

Hi Mr ***** ******
The kit is in very good condition, with only a few minor paint knocks here and there (not apparent from a distance). On the bottom hat on the hi-hat there is a very tiny crack/split right on the end, which doesnt affect playing ability AT ALL and to be honest isnt easily noticed. Apart from that though there is no damage to the kit at all. I have recently installed new top skins on all the drums (including snare, and black front skin on bass drum). If your an experienced drummer then you may wish to fine tune the drums a little to your liking but if not then your ready to go (i might also add this a good kit to start learning on aswell).
As for the price, im willing to sell for £250 or near this offer. If you notice anything about the kit that i failed to spot then im sure we can re-discuss the price accordingly, though im confident ive been very honest in describing its condition.
Please feel free to come and take a look at the kit, and thanks for the interest.
Ryan

so i waited a couple of days for his reply and then this;

Hey ,
Good Afternoon and thanks for the message and your understanding towards this transaction,i am just mailing you to let you know that i will make the arrangement for the payment as soon as possible and i will email you immediately the payment has been sent out to you so that you can be on look out for it. Moreso, I will also like to let you aware that the payment that will be recieve by you will cover that of shipment aswell as i have already contacted a shipping company regarding this matter and i was made to understand that i should inform them immediately am through with you and also they also let me understand that you should start the arrangement for the pick up aswell such as the neccesary document that will back up the sales. So,the total amount that will be on the payment you will recieve will be £3,000 which you will deduct the money for the DRUN KITS am buying from you (£250) and the remaining funds will be giving to the shipping agent that will come for the pick up after everything has been settled between us and i will also compensate you with extra £50 if at the end of the day i purchase the DRUN KITS from you. The reason why the money will be that much is that already am owning the shipping company some amount to balance them in the last consignment they did for me and i have already told them that i will settle them along with this consignment they want to make now. I hope you understand my mail better, if all this is okay by you, Kindly send me all your full contact details such as :

NAME OF THE CHEQUE

ADDRESS THAT THE CHEQUE IS GOING TO:

YOUR PHONE NUMBER AND MOBILE PHONE NUMBER:

I will be expecting to hear from you as soon as you have recieve the payment.

Best Regards,

***** ******.

Now can anyone make any sense of this? Why would he need to send me £3000 for a kit that costs £250?
Im by no means aware of any methods of how i can be scammed here, i simply wait for the cheque to clear before sending the kit out, right? But then again i know little about how money going through banks works. Can anyone smell a rat here or do you reckon it all seems legit?
Just thought i would ask you guys your advice before proceeding with this.
cheers.

 

[Luke]

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You get cheque. Bank it. Let it clear.
Send items.
Cheque is cancelled and debited from your account leaving you with no money and no items.

 

[Borris]

Looks like a duck.

Smells like a duck.

It is a duck.

Here's the mechanics of the scam.

You, being greedy, say yes.

You cash the cheque, and deliver the drums, along with the balance (in cash).

The cheque is deemed fraudulent, even after being cleared, and the funds are removed from your account.

 

[ElRazur]

^^^What he said.

 

[me227]

The first two bits sound fine, then it just screams scam on the third bit.

 

[Wile E. Coyote]

Definate well clear, never heard such story about owing the shipping company money

 

[Smithy]

never heard such story about owing the shipping company money

^were my thoughts^


OK, took your advise and staying clear of the cheque procedure, i emailed him this;

Hi, i find it a bit strange that you wouldn't want to come and take a look at the kit first, before sending £3000 to me. And forgive me, but i have never heard of anyone oweing a shipping company money before. Im not willing to ship the kit out, local pick-up by buyer only im afraid, and even then i will only accept cash.
Thanks for understanding,
Ryan.

I expect by his next response i will be able to tell wether he is legit or not. Ill let you know.
And thanks for fast responses.

 

[UKDTweak]

this is a scam, and no doubt about it, if he owes money to the shipping firm, to the amount of £2000 or more, do you really think they would agree to collect for him untill he paid them directly himself ?

 

[Luke]

To be honest, I'd not have bothered emailing him back at all. You should just have left him dangling there, convinced he'd found a sucker.

 

[Belmit]

I had similar emails when trying to sell my car and they're all the same. Even if the bad grammar and spelling don't make it obvious enough, it's glaringly blatant that it's a generic template sent out to hundreds of people with the item for sale pasted in where the brackets are. I deleted them all without replying.

 

[PinkPig]

It doesn't matter what his reply is. He's a scammer, no doubt about it, you should have just deleted and ignored the email. Whatever he says, ignore him. no one would ask you to send change on £3000 unless they're trying to steal your money.

 

[CChrisca]

Yup I had the same thing as Belmit - selling a car and then received the same type of e-mail

Avoid like the plague

 

[Danger Phoenix]

Do scammers think we are stupid? I suppose some people fall for it, so these scammers jump on the band wagon and try it on everyone...

 

[Luke]

Do scammers think we are stupid? I suppose some people fall for it, so these scammers jump on the band wagon and try it on everyone...

The fact that these threads pop up so frequently from people who seam fairly clued up goes to show that there are obviously large numbers of people who may fall for them.

 

[AFK_Matrix]

Indeed its a scam. Had the same email when I was selling me petrol go kart. Guy wanted me to bloody well ship the thing without him comming to see it (this is a full sized adult go kart btw and weighs a bloody ton).

Needless to say that raised me eybrows and indicated a blatant scam, I replyed to his first email then ignored the other one he sent about having the thing shipped.