WESTERN UNION AND SCAMMERS!

This has become a hot topic.

Fred, AA7BQ, the owner of QRZ, provided me the following information to help us with these scammers.

This thread is allowed comments so we can all learn and help each other.

No feedback though.

1. NEVER ENTERTAIN OFFERS FROM ANY PERSON WHO ISN'T LISTED AS A CALLSIGN AND MEMBER IN THE QRZ DATABASE. Is that clear enough?
   
2. Be extremely wary of overseas sales. It's almost a "forget it" situation.
   
3. NEVER SEND MONEY BY WESTERN UNION - NEVER MEANS NEVER.
   
4. Use PayPal. They are trustworthy and are well worth the percentage they charge in the long run.
   
5. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS Search the QRZ forum and GOOGLE the person's call sign and email address you are coresponding with.
   
6. If you would rather keep your email address private, use a PM". Using a PM
   does mean that the user has a QRZ account, but not necessarily a callsign. When dealing with someone, you want as much information about them as possible. After a person gets the initial PM, then continue the conversation via email. If a person won't communicate with with a valid email address, I don't deal with them. SEE NUMBER 5 ABOVE

http://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud/internet_fraud/internet_fraud

 

We have been warned about this alot here on QRZ. I don't know why some people do not heed the warnings?
I suppose they have the attitude of "that happens to other people but not me."YEAH, right.

 

Receiving money via Western Union is OK, so long as a shipping address is USA or Canada, and it is for the correct selling price plus shipping (no rebates to the buyer or any other nonsense).

Many legitimate Hams in other countries use Western Union to send cash to buy gear from USA Hams and have arrangements with friends and relatives here to get the gear to them. Western Union is also a favorite of college students when they have wasted important funds on dumb stuff and desperately need mommy and daddy to send more ... or they need bail money.

73, doc KD4E

 

There is no buyer protection using western union,

That is what this is about.

See number 3 in the starter post above

 

On Feb 2nd I posted the sale of my TEKTRONICS SOPE for 1.000.-$. Got an email from THOMASBRUCE98@GMAIL.COM who offered to send his "shipping agent" with a $4.000.- check to pic up the scope and I could cash it and send the remaining funds via WESTERN UNION to his shipping agent.???!!?? He wanted full name, address, Phone Nr. and asked me to take the post off QRZ.COM. I mailed him that this would be money laundry and never heard from the guy again. I wanted to contact QRZ.COM about this just when I read this post. THANK YOU !! I hope more Hams read about this!
73 Axel, N7AXL +++
P.S. the guy never answered my question about his call and location.

 

I am glad some have mentioned western union has no protection from losses, plus another good reason is the exhorbitant fees they charge for a simple money transfer, was $35 I think for $300 to send it I ran like hell when they said $35 bucks and with no protection is not worth the risk.
USPO IMO is the only way to go, paypal has its backfires as well,shady vendors,sellers sometimes take the money back or extra for no good reason.
I know on other sites on yahoo the forums have become rife with scammers and spammers, seems like some of those are creeping in here as well.
Without being unfair to unlicensed people who are trying to get their license or those unliicensed members there should be some means to make sure those who are on forum should be there and not some fake or stolen email adddy.
Verification is best way but if they refuse then no deal 73 folks, Michelle

 

N7AXL,

Your "scammer" was hoping that you would deposit his $4000 check and think that it had cleared your bank when you saw the funds quickly become available in your bank account. You would then send him the Tek scope and refund him the $3000 difference.

But, banks are required to make funds available for your withdrawal within a few days, and it could take weeks for an international check to actually clear their processing. So, weeks later, when your bank eventually discovers that the scammer's check is fake, they would remove the $4000 they had made available in your account. The net result: you never actually received the $4000, but you handed the scammer $3000 real dollars along with your Tek scope!

BTW, the same thing can happen with money orders. The only way to avoid it is to check with your bank that the check (or money order) has actually cleared their processing before sending any goods (or money refunds) to the buyer. Just because a deposit appears on the bank ATM screen DOESN'T mean that the money is securely in your account!

 

WW7F,
For international transactions, they could make money on both ends of the transaction: $35 dollars out of your wallet, and with a bad foreign currency exchange rate - reduced payment to the recipient.

 

Well,

Keyword is "connections". I had a similar paypal transaction/chargeback from say S. W. European Country. I promissed person on another end friends will stop by to p/up unpaid item. Got real $ same day. On another hand do not be afraid of intl sales, most of them are OK. Use rules posted above and your judgement. 73, Yuri N3QQ

 

This is all great advice. And I'm glad to see the PayPal recommendation. There has been so much unwarranted "PayPal bashing" here, and this is refreshing. (See http://forums2.qrz.com/showthread.php?283245-PAYPAL-why-I-don-t-use-it, starting with post #4.)