I advertised our tandem recently on the club board but after reading all the previous posts about scams I included in the advert.

 "Cash on collection only. No bank transfers. No posting"

Only had genuine enquiries from people prepared to travel and sold it successfully to someone local. 

Persistent little "Buyers" or a another word beginning with B, they are still at it, had two enquiries, Stephen Kyle being the most persistent. Told him it was cash only in response to first enquiry, then got a second email with usual tail in imperfect English saying that he would send a cheque and arrange for his courier as he is out of UK on holiday.
I replied that it was cash only as per the advert so no sale .

Another was from Johnson, in appalling English, politely declined his enquiry.

Posting this to let people know that the scammers have not given up.

Hi.

We advertised our Thorn Tandem, have had, the Johnson and Stephen contact us. Both sounded off. If an offer sounds too good to be true, it is a scam. Genuine people want to know more about the Tandem, sizes, pictures,  where you have been with the tandem. Sellers beware.

Jackie

I

I was about to post about my recent 'encounter' then I saw that others had had very  similar experiences. I think that it is still worth highlighting this as it appears to be an ongoing problem that I was unaware of despite it being on the information about how to sell a bike page about payments Briefly I am advertising my Tony Oliver tandem and was contacted by a John Adams wanting to buy by a secure bank cheque. The cheque arrived for nearly £3.500 in excess of the cost of the bike with instructions to give the rest of the money to a courier.It was obviously a counterfeit cheque. I have reported it to Action Fraud, It is unsettling as he has my home address and mobile number I have replied to him to let him know about contacting the police and that I would be blocking him. I have amended my advert too. 

Thank you for reading this 

Sue

I too have had "offers" from Stephen Kyle and James Lewsen for our Pino. Thanks to the posts on this site it was pretty easy to spot that they were scams - but they are persistent aren't they?

Dave

I have had 4 people attempt to scam me in the last 2 weeks, 2 were minutes apart and had exactly the same wording. I have therefore decided to take my lovely Tony Oliver Tandem off the for sale site for now and perhaps try another platform. 

I feel very frustrated and angry.

Sue

We too have had 4 separate scammers try and con us but to each email enquiry, I have stated that we will not accept their 'bankers checks' (not cheques). That it must be a cash or bank transfer sale only.

Funnily enough, they've not gotten back to me since!

Not just tandems. Any decent bike on any site seems to attract scammers. I think it is often the same person or organised crime group trying different identities.

I put a

"Scam Aware! Cash on collection by purchaser only (no third parties)"

notice on my most recent attempt and haven't had any scam attempts.

Also decided that I would not courier a bike anywhere (even though it limits my market) as it is just so much aggravation especially on eBay as despite saying no returns and posting plenty of photographs I have had people trying it on and wanting to return stuff or get a discount or even the item free. Sonyou end up paying the return postage costs and insurance. Unfortunately, eBay favours the purchaser if the claim the "item is not as described" even if it is perfectly described and in the original packaging.

Hi my first post on here and thanks for the info Re scammers. I've only had 1 enquiry about my beautiful Cannondale sadly from a scammer Stephen Kyle who seems to be well known on this forum. I will continue with caution. Thanks Martin

These scammers are not just targeting us cyclists. I had almost exactly the same email some years ago for the sale of catering equipment on the NCASS website.  It's a numbers game to the scammers - the more emails they send the more likely someone will fall for it. Their success/conversation rate will be low so again they need to send at every opportunity; they probably have a daily email target to reach. When I replied 'You are a scammer' the fake buyer disappeared. 

One small but useful step towards dealing with the problem is to forward such emails to report@phishing.gov.uk.  I do this with frequent offenders and it does seem that sometimes the nuisance fades away - but not always.  The National Cyber Security Centre has so far received 32 million reports and has taken down 184,000 malicious sources - not a bad track record.

Peter

Very useful information. As I consider selling kit ,

I read that people are happy to accept cash  and having been taught to be cautious, I wonder if anyone has had an issue with counterfeit currency.?

Please can someone direct me to the "How to sell" page @SusanHarris mentioned,.thanks 

You can find it here https://tandem-club.org.uk/files/help/forSale.html