Americans - Can you explain this scam? Has this happened to you?
 

5 times in the last 5 years, i've had someone in another vehicle approach me in a parking lot or at a stop light and try to sell me a home theater system, high end tv etc with some bullshit story about how its all legit - i.e. too many were sent to a location and they need to get rid of 3 or some retarded type BS excuse which still doesn't explain how a piece of high end electronics suddenly has no owner.

This has happened in 3 cities. It's happened 2 times in the city where I currently live in the last 6 months.

So obviously, there is something going on... some common scam. Stolen from COSCO or something?

The guy who approached me today in a gas station parking lot was with a partner in a new Escalade, both wearing shirts from an audio store asking me if I wanted to buy a 3D Tv, claiming it was intended for a new sports bar up the street but that they had 3 extras due to a "mixup" (again, doesn't explain how it suddenly has no owner).

So what is going on? New high end electronics, still in the box, with paperwork being sold by random dudes driving around? I could understand if it was one random event... but obviously there is some common scam here.

It happens here too, you end up buying a box with bricks in it.

someone posted about this before here. can't remember what's up though.

It's just stolen stuff. May be perfectly good, but it's stolen.

half the time it's just stolen speakers.

half the time you'll get a box with bricks in it.

Our country is not quite there yet...

It's a VERY old worldwide scam

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_van_speaker_scam

I think it first happened to me about 20 years ago in London.

LOL. It has happened to me a number of times. I've even had cute girls come up to me in a parking lot trying to sell me perfume or jewelry. I bought a car stereo off one guy and still have it in my car. I also bought a set of kitchen knives off another guy.

I've never heard of it being bricks in a box. I guess it's possible but it seems a little ridiculous. Who's going to buy something in a parking lot without at least looking in the box?

It's just absolute junk equipment that they sell you for far more than it's worth claiming it's high end top of the line stuff.

They tell you the speakers, or whatever it is they're selling, are worth $2000 and they'll let you have them for $500 when in reality they're worth closer to $100.

I suppose if it is stolen stuff... police can't really trace a sale on the street easily, but it can always be found a pawn shops etc.

It seems really insane to me that I've had this happen to me so many times.


Talking to someone on ICQ about it:

"Ya they steal them from walmart and other places then sell them for dirt cheap on the street. XXXXX had some friends that were doing that shit"

This. A classic grift, part of the beautiful patchwork that is Americana :1orglaugh. There are also dudes who suddenly have an extra cooler full of prime beef worth 25/pound but you can have it for 10 today only, cuz I gotta move it now!!!!

lol - this has been going on forever, at least 25 years since I experienced it the first time.

very old very common scam.

I give anything you say more credence simply because you quote Blazing Saddles in your sig.

:)

No fucking way I'm buying shit out of some truck on the street. What the fuck kind of ghetto do that in?

Its not stolen. Its cheap Chinese shit.

they probably do it full time

buy a tv for 100$ and look for a sucker they can sell it to for 1000$

or

they are straight up selling stolen shit (much less likely if they are in new cars)

crime does pay so i think its just a sign of the times

not a sign of the dvtimes mind you - that would just be a picture of a pile of shit

Had this happen to me about 3 or 4 years ago in the parking lot at the Lowe's in my city. It was two guys in a van trying to sale me some speakers for a home theater system for like $500, but claimed they were worth way more than that. They had some story about having an extra set leftover from some job they had just finished earlier that day. At the time, I had just recently moved and had a home theater system put in the media room, which I told them but they still tried to get me to buy these speakers, saying that I could turn around and flip em for double. Definitely seemed like a scam or stolen merchandise.

Don't do it. Its empty boxes, boxes of bricks, boxes of shitty speaker cabinets with no actual speakers, or stolen stuff. If its stolen and you get caught, you're busted for receiving stolen goods.

Hmmm... so it might not be legit?

if it's a really good deal, buy a few and sell them on ebay :}

in 1992 I gave one of my friends a lift to a job interview that turned out to be for the speakers version of this.

he didn't stick at it long. not because it was a scam but because it was completely set up to make money from the 'salesmen' too.

as a seller you paid for 1 set of impressive looking speakers.
you paid weekly for the van.
you paid for the matching boxes of (in this case - broken wooden pallets)

sales pitch is that they are a mistaken doubled delivery intended for refitting a pub/bar/club and their boss has sent them out to sell them off at a bargain price.

show customer the one real set. take as much money off them as you think you can then help them load weighty sealed boxes of crap into their car and they won't actually work out they were conned until they get home as the boxes need cutting open.

Hum,

OMG, do I do it ? No I can't .. Hum my god... way too tempting.. NAh It's not ok.. Oh Crap...



j/k :upsidedow:upsidedow:upsidedow


Seriously, this thing is happening since forever... Been offered this I think 30 years or so ago.. Yeah usually, it's empty boxes with bricks or Shitty speaker boxes... Don't do it :thumbsup

In my defense, i've never had this happen to anyone I know. I'm 5'9", 230 pounds, can bench 405 pounds with ease, deadlift 500 pounds with ease and squat 500 pounds with ease. I've got a long history in martial arts, boxing and kickboxing. I'm very quick to shut these people down and tell them to get the fuck away from me.

I personally think I'm an odd person to approach for something like this. Maybe its just that i dress very casually and usually in workout clothes and come off as being pretty relaxed. Maybe I just look like a sucker and lack a certain degree of self awareness :)

But only today did I actually start wondering what they are actually doing and got curious about it. This was the first time where it was clear they were pretty organized... brand new Escalade, clean cut, wearing matching shirts from an audio store, polished story, well pitched, paperwork etc.

At least now I know this is basically a free ticket to bitch slap someone if i'm having an off day... then again, I guess that's why they are always in pairs.

I vote All of the above.

So, how do they sound?

.

Very few times is it bricks or empty boxes

These are just REALLY REALLY CHEAP products that the drivers are selling. It is actually a real business and these guys are hired to go around and try to sell the stuff.

:2 cents:

Got asked this by some dude in a suv last summer actually, he had the boxes visible and said "i get them with stolen credit cards". Have gotten the wave down one in the past too.

Strangest con like this i've ever experienced was an old italian guy driving around suburban streets trying to sell versace suits out of the boot of his car.

His pitch was he was heading back to italy and had all this excess *stock* from a sales convention.

Have also been approached by idiots in a white van attempting to sell speakers - they get chased off pretty quick by shopping centre security though.

Once I was at a ghetto gas station and a kid walks up to me with a box full of $200 Tom Tom GPS devices selling them for ten bucks each :1orglaugh

who cares if you're a 98 lbs weakling or hulk hogan. if you buy it, you'll never see them again.

used to have guys try this all the time on me when I owned a bar.... my favorite was on guy the ally who drove up on a bike and asked me to buy it. I screamed out "HEY, That's my bike!" and charged him. He shit his pants and I JUST missed grabbing him as he drove off as fast as he could. Sooo funny.

Went to a training once when I needed a job. It is basically an affiliate program. They buy the shit in bulk and sell it for what my math at the time indicated must have been 4 times the cost, given everyone's cut.

The sales concept is an old one, called "fear of loss" where the seller tries to come up with a story to make the customer feel he has to act on a rare opportunity. Just like in the movie "boiler room" but on a much smaller scale.

How many times have you seen the words "limited time offer"? It is the same concept.

what's kinda sad, there is probably nothing illegal about it...
I know some guy who got suckered into buying $100 speakers for $500 from one of these idiots... :(

I always offer to pay with a check - that is usually where 'negotiations' end.

This +1 :thumbsup

theyre all over drew park in Tampa, they frequent the amscots and check cashing places.

Buy a big screen and we'll throw in an oven for FREEEEEEEE!

http://www.wesh.com/news/8442540/detail.html

Or at least part of one...

My brother was offered a job doing it in London years ago. They had a massive warehouse with vans going out daily. It seemed to be very profitable.

And we have a winner!