[ Ref. FS: Yamaha Baby Grand Disklavier in Tennessee (Charles Webb)
 [ This is an article referenced above was only posted to email as I decided
 [ after sending the email and receiving several comments from PTG members
 [ that this had the smell of a common scam so decided I wouldn't post the
 [ message to the website.  Since Reg Smith did some additional "homework" on
 [ this one, I thought I'd post what he learned and I'll make a couple
 [ of comments afterwards.

To all fellow and sister MMDers: I responded to the sender "Charles Webb"
who posted an offer to give his wife's Yamaha Baby Grand with Disklavier
system, for only the cost of moving.

Being the suspicious person I sometimes am, I investigated and learned
this is a repeating scam where the pattern is always the same. Some man
or woman claims his or her deceased spouse's beloved piano was in a
Tennessee storage company _named_ "Gregories Moving & Storage" in Johnson
City, Tennessee, and that the recipient should contact the company
directly, which I did and immediately received a moving invoice, with
a woman's email address and instructions to pay via Zelle.

My suspicions now on full alert, I searched the purported address and
found an empty warehouse, and the phone number provided of course did
not work.

Luckily I did not lose money, but if I could get my hands on the crooks
who intended to defraud me, I would do severe harm to them, because our
nation's law enforcement does _nothing_ about this kind of thing.

 [ I believe that if more of these cases were followed up on, and then
 [ successfully prosecuted, there would be a lot less of this.  --Jody

Isn't it reprehensible that these people can continue getting away with
this? I was lucky. But my bet is some others have not been so lucky.
As the old saying goes, if it seems too good to be true, it probably
isn't! So gentlemen, please publish this as a warning to others.

Reg Smith

 [ Reg, Thanks for the follow-up on thus. As stated above, I did not publish
 [ the advertisement to the MMD Archives but I think this a good reminder to
 [ proceed with caution with any transaction where you don't know the seller
 [ and you can't hand the seller the money after you have personally inspected
 [ the item.
 [
 [ Zelle's terms of service forbid using Zelle for paying for goods or
 [ services. It is only for use to send money to friends or family.
 [ A vendor asking to be paid by Zelle (or by Venmo or by PayPal with
 [ the option "sending money to a friend" selected, is a _super_
 [ "red flag."
 [
 [ While I would choose to use softer language, regarding support from
 [ law enforcement, I will say that I was disappointed by the FBI's response
 [ to me when I was approached some years ago to sell a batch of Wayne
 [ Stahnke's Live Performance diskettes in a deal where a "courrier" would
 [ pick them up from my place of business.  Even stranger, rather than wanting
 [ to purchase 1 of each in the catalog, they wanted 50 of one title!  The
 [ FBI said this was clearly going to be one of those "Cashier's Check for
 [ too much" scams where you go to the bank, cash the cashier check and give
 [ the courier the overage and some time later the cashier's check bounces
 [ and you're out the money you gave the courier and your product
 [ (which was most likely put in the nearest dumpster).  The agent I talked
 [ to at the FBI was not interested in setting up a sting operation as they
 [ have too much on their plate.  I did find the confirmation and advice they
 [ gave useful and I appreciate that.
 [
 [ I think the advice here is to have your B.S. meter set to "extra sensitive"
 [ and be sure to not violate the rules set out by the Internet payment
 [ systems.  Even PayPal, with "buyer protection," can be circumvented,
 [ apparently, if the seller knows how to fool them into thinking something
 [ of value was really shipped. It's very frustrating.
 [
 [ Of course, you can be burned after mailing a check, too.  That has happened
 [ to me when I accepted a "side deal" on some additional CDs from a vendor I
 [ had purchased CDs from successfully on eBay.  The amount was under $20 so
 [ it was only a minor annoyance, but I learned my lesson.  Sigh...
 [
 [ -- Jody