Soooo, looking around the net I came across this - http://www.preloved.co.uk/fuseaction-adverts.showadvert/index-1031427488/2b2fc8eb.html
Seemed interesting, so I emailed the user asking about the bike.
The reply came a few days later, with this person telling me that he still has it, and he’s found a way to do the deal that would suit both of us. He then goes on to tell me that Royal Mail have a service that will allow him to send the bike to them, once they have it and confirm this to me, I send the money to them. When they have both, they would then send on the bike to me for inspection. Once inspected, if I agreed to buy it, I then tell Royal Mail to send the money on to the seller.
It sounded o.k, so I sent him my details and 3 days later I get an email from Royal Mail telling me they have the bike at there depot and would I now send payment to them (using Western Union...)
The email looked official - loads of Royal Mail logos all over it. A tracking number, an invoive attached, the depot’s full address and email (in Liverpool) and also the name of the Royal Mail agent (called Greg Thompson) who I should make my payment out to.
This email also said that I can verify my transaction by going here (a clickable link) - http://www.royalposte.com/transactions/trackpackage.html
Got there and couldn’t help but notice that it didn’t look like the Royal Mail website I’d been to in the past. So I go back to the email and see another link “quick track” to track my item. I clicked it and it took me here - http://www.royalposte.com/transactions/trackpackage.html
Wasn’t quite sure what was happening (maybe another postal service???) So I email him and asked him which shop he bought it from and he says FreeWheel in Manchester. I call freewheel (in Birmingham I think) and they say they’ve never had one in Manchester.
So I go to the official Royal Mail website and check the tracking number and it comes back that it’s too long. I go to parcel force’s website and try the tracking number there and it says the same thing. So (eventually) I email Royal Mail (from the official website) and 4 days later they get back to me and say that that website is nothing to do with them and they have no such item with that tracking number. They say do not send any money and that I should contact my local police.
Now I will admit, I came pretty close to sending him my money. It’s all well and good you reading this and thinking “it’s just so obvious” but it wasn’t. I really wanted the bike, the email looked official - I even asked for the frame number which he gave me. The invoice looked legit and in his email’s he didn’t sound like some typical theif (with even worse english than mine and/or used slang)
The thing that made me just a tiny bit suspicious (but not much) was the reply from one of the first emails I sent him. I asked (in detail) about the bike and it’s use and he didn’t answer many of my questions. Not that they were hard to answer, he just didn’t answer then like a mountain biker trying to sell his bike would have. At first I just put this down to him being a bit of a arse. But if he’d of answered them in the way I expected, I’m pretty sure that when this so called Royal Mail Support email came through I’d have sent my money.
So watch your backs ppl, it seems they’ve targeted us now....