Somethings that I've been going through...

[87RX7RACER]

Since I consider most people on this forum my friend, I decided I'd share something with you guys that has been weighing heavily on my mind.

About a month ago, I found an SR20DET swap for my RX7 from a guy in the UK. Recently, I found out that he actually lives in Romania. I'm not 100% sure yet, but I'm pretty sure I got screwed over.

After a long string of e-mail's back and forth negotiating on price and shipping preferences, I sent him the money by western union the last week of march. It was 2,800 dollars. The money went to UK to the following address:

Name : leigh mulholland
Address : 49 Lavender Gardens
Battersea, London
Zip: SW11 1DJ
United kingdom

The thread where I first found out about the motorset can be found here:

http://forums.nicoclub.com/zeropost?cmd=tshow&id=409464

As of right now I have most of the administrators and moderators of NICOClub.com involved in trying to find out whats going on. The scheduled delivery date was supposed to have been on 4/9/09 at the latest. At this point I am hoping that if he actually did send the box, that it just got held up in customs.

This is the shipping information I have:

Carrier: Royal Mail
Ship To:
Vincent Coker
2613 5th Avenue East,
Tuscaloosa
Alabama
35401
United States
+1(205) 657-0700

Number of Packages: 1
Package: Car parts
Weight: 607.06 LBS

Reference Number : LN 534 8634 5GB

When you check the reference number, you'll find that it's only 12 digits. It has to be 13 digits in order to get any information. The e-mail came from shipping@royalmail.com. At this point I really don't know what to do.

I am hoping that I'm just being over reactive and that it is actually on it's way. He has sent me pictures of every item that was listed, and he even sent me pictures of the box that everything is coming in. If anyone has any advice that they can offer, I can assure you it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Vincent.

[TouringBubble]

If royalmail.com is the actual reply address of the e-mail, then it is likely a legit shipment. If the reply address is different, then you did likely get screwed.

If you did get screwed, then you may need to contact local authorities in the UK and give them that shipping address to start the investigation. They wouldn't have you send money to a physical address if they or someone else wasn't actually there.

Sorry that this isn't working out ... hopefully it's just stuck in customs.

[JohnW8]

I would think that he just wanted to screw you over, he would'nt go to so much trouble.

[VroomGrrl]

FBI internet fraud complaint page:

http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx

[chuck schultz]

This looks bad - http://scams.flipshark.com/westernunion.html

http://www.westernunion.com/info/fraudTips.asp?country=IN

[zukitek]

Man this is not looking good .I hope their prostate falls off.

RR

[Erv]

i hope its held up in customs

[VroomGrrl]

"Thornhill man Jason Lee Mulholland admitted being part of a sophisticated £80,000 scam where he stole parts from his employees to sell on internet auction site ebay. He was later given a 12-month suspended sentence and ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid community work."

COINCIDENCE? GOogle found me that here: http://www.dewsburyreporter.co.uk/ne...eak.3623251.jp

[Cholewa]

I don't want to sound like a dick or anything, but why would you buy a motor from someone overseas? That just screams shady business.

[87RX7RACER]

Thanks for the concerns everyone....here is what a Moderator from a Romanian website that he posts regularly on told me...

"Hey.. sorry for those reported to you but if indeed it was a fraud will try to get help as we can.. we will wait to see if it proves to be a fraud and then we will try to help.. we talked with other supermod and we will do what we can to help you.. but 172.31 party from what I forgot I was a PV beadily so it will be very difficult to solve-all if you and all acts and expect to recover with a PM "

That's the best that the translator could do. But at least they are willing to help me. Xerius has several post on this site. Here is the link to his personal car's thread...

http://forum.4tuning.ro/showthread.php?t=75587

It took me a while to find that, but once I knew he was from Romania it wasn't too bad. Best I could hope for at this point is that he was working through a third party(friend) who had the motor in the UK and he was trying to help him sell it. He did ask me for the Western Union number and I did give it to him. But also know that Western Union was not our first choice for payment. We were going to do it with a direct wire transfer to his personal bank. But that proved to be too hard and complicated(they needed all kinds of information for this). So the Western Union idea was an afterthought.

We will see what happens in the next week or so...

And Kathy, his actual name is Mr L P Mulholland so the Jason Mulholland guy is someone else...

[VroomGrrl]

Thanks for the concerns everyone....here is what a Moderator from a Romanian website that he posts regularly on told me...

"Hey.. sorry for those reported to you but if indeed it was a fraud will try to get help as we can.. we will wait to see if it proves to be a fraud and then we will try to help.. we talked with other supermod and we will do what we can to help you.. but 172.31 party from what I forgot I was a PV beadily so it will be very difficult to solve-all if you and all acts and expect to recover with a PM "

That's the best that the translator could do. But at least they are willing to help me. Xerius has several post on this site. Here is the link to his personal car's thread...

http://forum.4tuning.ro/showthread.php?t=75587

It took me a while to find that, but once I knew he was from Romania it wasn't too bad. Best I could hope for at this point is that he was working through a third party(friend) who had the motor in the UK and he was trying to help him sell it. He did ask me for the Western Union number and I did give it to him. But also know that Western Union was not our first choice for payment. We were going to do it with a direct wire transfer to his personal bank. But that proved to be too hard and complicated(they needed all kinds of information for this). So the Western Union idea was an afterthought.

We will see what happens in the next week or so...

I hope you get your engine, but oh man, the red flags. "Western Union was not our first choice." That could very well be just another part of the scam. Not that direct wire transfer would have worked out any better, mind you! But what I'm saying is seasoned scammers have an approach which starts with building trust. So it's typical for them to propose a safe payment method up front, then manipulate the buyer to get the money some other way by saying that the "safe" method won't work for whatever bogus reason, their wife was just in a car wreck, their bank's computers are down today, etc.

[VroomGrrl]

I would think that he just wanted to screw you over, he would'nt go to so much trouble.

I dunno - how much trouble is it to have a bunch of photos on your computer, and to email them to fifty different people, all of whom think it's photos of the engine they just wired a big chunk of money for? Sounds like very little trouble for big cash return to me.

[87RX7RACER]

I hope you get your engine, but oh man, the red flags. "Western Union was not our first choice." That could very well be just another part of the scam. Not that direct wire transfer would have worked out any better, mind you! But what I'm saying is seasoned scammers have an approach which starts with building trust. So it's typical for them to propose a safe payment method up front, then manipulate the buyer to get the money some other way by saying that the "safe" method won't work for whatever bogus reason, their wife was just in a car wreck, their bank's computers are down today, etc.

He did say that his wife was in a car accident, but that was days before the transaction took place. But that wasn't a reason for the change. The bank wanted some additional information that he didn't provide....

[Cholewa]

This is all a joke right? Some elaborate prank on all of us, isn't it? Please tell me it is.

[TouringBubble]

But that wasn't a reason for the change. The bank wanted some additional information that he didn't provide....

Vincent, that should have been a red flag ... he should have been able to provide any information they needed ...