I advertised on eHam.net and qrz.com that I was looking for a Kenwood
AT-230 ATU. I got a reply from someone claiming to be Alex Barski from
Canada with the callsign VE3XAX who has an email address of
ve3xax@blumail.org. I've no idea if his real name is that, or if he
holds that callsign, but I'm suspicious.
This person offered me the ATU for $220 shipped to my house, but there
were a number of things that make me suspicious this is a scam.
1) When I checked on QRZ.COM, the address and name did not agree with
the callsign. The only similarity was they were in Canada. Today when
I checked, the information agreed.But yesterday they were definitely
different.
2) When I offered to pay via Paypal, I received this:
"Thanks for the response to my email David but i am sorry i don't use
paypal or bank transfer as means of payment due to the instruction
giving to me by my bank and lawyer but i will entertain any other safe
and reliable mode of payment. Also what is your full shipping
information and we can discuss about the payment over the phone, give
me your number and i will give you a call to talk."
This immediately made me "smell a rat", but I decided to play along
and gave him my mobile phone number.
3) Today he rings me, withholding the number, and says Western Union
would be a safe method of payment.
I'm rather sorry I did not play him along a lot longer, but I told him
the deal was off. I might email him and say I had second thoughts, and
will string him along for a bit of fun. But basically be aware.
Today I looked on qrz.com and found others have basically formed the
same conclusion of this person
http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?300792-Fake-VE3XAX-Scam-from-wanted-add
The strange thing is, the other person reporting the scam also played
along with it. Sometimes these scams can be fun! I think I'll play
along a bit more too.
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