I’ve put up a bike for sale on Pinkbike (also advertised on here). Had a message on PB saying they would take it for the asking price and would organise a courier to collect who would pay me cash on collection.

On the face of it I can’t see any issue or potential as nothing will be leaving me until the cash is in my hand but I still feel uneasy about it. Am I missing something? Is this some long winded scam?

Did they offer more than the asking price?

Regardless i would avoid, sounds dodgy as.

Sounds strange….. Do you know of any couriers that pay cash on delivery for items you are getting collected?

Yes, sounds like it..a new years bargepole would be needed there.

As ever, if you have to ask…

No record of any transaction anywhere. Money laundering? Counterfeit cash? Maybe the “courier” is two big blokes with baseball bats?

Do you know of any couriers that pay cash on delivery for items you are getting collected?

Also, this.

Are they talking about a commercial courier, or a mate doing them a favour?

As long as you have cash in your hand then how can it be a scam?

^Hmm, Can I have your address please and details of any bikes you may be keeping at the aforementioned address? Thanks, promise I won’t come round and steal them…

As ever, if you have to ask…

Best advice for this type of thing. Why bother if it sounds shady?

That said, I sold a road bike to someone on here and it was collected in a van consisting of all manner sex toys, videos and other “accessories”… but if someone had said that in advance I’d maybe have thought twice… I guess you shouldn’t be too quick to judge this Nigerian prince on PB and invite the two huge guys with baseball bats that show up in for a cuppa- what’s the worst that can happen 😀

I’m not sure if it’s an actual courier or not although he said he would need to organise it and would let me know the collection date.

Can’t be a courier as the driver wouldn’t take a cash payment on behalf of a customer.. No couriers work like that.

Also courier; it’s a very strange word to use for ‘I’m sending my mate round in his tranny because my cars too small.’

Too much needless weirdness for my liking.

Seems like a lot of effort, not to mention leaving a bit of an evidence trail, to steal a second hand bike when you could as easily do it by looking at a gumtree or Facebook ad where people include a map view of their location

Still iffy though, imagine you are the buyer, in what legitimate scenario would you employ such a purchase tactic.. It’s well dodgy.

Barge poles at the ready!

Thats what I thought. He has a profile on PB that is a a few years old, has sold some items himself on PB in the past. He has activity on there. He did haggle a little on the price initially

It seems a lot of effort to go to to nick a bike.

Cougar – Moderator

As ever, if you have to ask…

Always this.

It seems a lot of effort to go to

Well exactly.. Has he really fronted the cash to a courier to buy the bike blind?

No of course not. If he was that trusting he would have just bank transeferd the cash to you and said ‘my mate dave will be round tomorrow to pick it up in his van.’

Would a legitimate courier operate like that?

No of course not. Couriers get paid up front for delivering stuff, not for arbitration of sale and carrying wads of cash around.

It’s a scam.

It won’t stop at “cash on collection”. It will degenerate into some weird Western Union / pay you more than the asking price / refund through PayPal/ cheese induced nightmare.

Possibly involving the van full of sex toys.

Go for it, what could possibly go wrong?

Go for it as a STW experiment. Post pics of the sex toy van.

So apparently the bike is going to Germany. This is the message he just sent after I explained I was going to give it a miss –

I bought this way a few bikes. This is privat transportation company. I make them money transfer and the courier pay you cash on collection. This is the easiest methot to buy a bike from abroad. Courier will call you before and give you delivery note number. All you have to do is wrap a bike.

I got info that he can pick up the bike on Saturday. I can send you a car number and all needed details. Courier will call you before the collection.

There is no risk on your side becase you get the cash on hand. Also I am protected because courier will have all information about the bike and I know I get what I ordered.

Please let me know what is your decision because transportation company wants me to make the money transfer for this order.

Just arrange to collect at your local bank. Then, get them to put the cash into your account there. If the bank take it, it’s their problem not yours – they can’t reverse cash deposits.

Then give him the bike.

I’m normally pretty cynical but I’d imagine this could be legit. Go with your gut feeling though.

People who are afraid of someone finding out you own an expensive thing and coming to rob you, are you too afraid to actually use the expensive thing too in case someone sees you with it?

Why the hell would someone from Germany want to buy and ship a second hand bike from the UK rather than source one more locally that he can inspect.

You need to look at this propersition from the other side.

It’s a scam. It’s such a big scam it’s got a name, it’s called scammy mc scam face.

But go ahead op, I look forward to your next thread ‘they took my santa cruz AND my Audi!’.

Am I having deja vu or did this exact same thing happen with someone else on here recently?

The whole courier /cash job is a well known ebay scam, usually accompanied by a wishy washy back story about disabled or sick reletives, and having to ship the goods overseas.

What’s the value of the bike, op? I’m guessing it’s not something that they could buy locally without the additional expense of shipping, insurance and private couriers. Lol.

So what is the scam? I’ve opted out but i’m still confused about what the ‘well known scam’ actually is.

The ‘courier’ will put the screws on you on arrival, they’ll either be casing you out for burglary, or they’ll intimidate you in to parting with it for less cash, or they’ll convince you into some western union scam.

Or they may simply just wrestle the bike off you and drive away.

I can’t see any scenario how this isn’t some sort of scam from what’s been said.

I reckon you’ll be fine, not a scam but just inconvenient. German market is very xc orientated so if you’re selling something more gnar then the hassle may be worth it for the dude.

Really. I find it difficult to believe there is no type of a certain bike in the whole of Germany.

And even if there wasn’t, why would the purchaser employ such dodgy purchase tactics?

How does the scam work? Simple – it starts off sounding like a straightforward transaction that gets more and more complicated with the seller made to feel that they’d be messing the buyer around if they back out.

The van would be at your door and then it’d be ‘really sorry not got the cash but can western union / PayPal’ etc with some geezer on your doorstep looking impatient.

Best avoided really.

Too weird by far but I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the story…

If scammers could use a spill spell chicker checker they wud get a heck of a lot more bizness

Oh, and just to play along with the scammer offer to use MyHermes rather than bother their “courier” 🙂

The whole courier /cash job is a well known ebay scam, usually accompanied by a wishy washy back story about disabled or sick reletives, and having to ship the goods overseas.

My wife almost got drawn into an identical one a couple of years ago. Unwanted pugs were being offered free via FB, but the ‘owner’ needed to stay in Scotland to look after a sick relative. A courier would deliver the dog. The only charge would be for delivery.

I’m guessing that once the unwary victim has been drawn in bank details would need to be sent over as the courier suddenly won’t accept cash. Having harvested info from social media the scammer suddenly has all sorts of info to play with. (I may be wrong about all of this!)

If a seller wanted to confirm that the other party is legit then they could just contact the courier to ask about working methods?

I’m with allthegear on this one – meet at the bank, otherwise he can foff

grum – Member

I’m normally pretty cynical but I’d imagine this could be legit.

As long as you don’t hand over anything until you have cash in your hand I don’t see how you’re going to get scammed.

Link to the German dhl courier service offering cash on delivery option.

https://www.dhl.de/en/paket/information/privatkunden/service-nachnahme.html

It’s legit

I for one would tread very carefully. The eBay scam is for the purchaser to pay by PayPal and then claim the money back from PayPal saying that they never received the goods. As the bike was collected there is no proof of delivery, so PayPal refund and you are out of pocket. As suggested above chances are that there has been an ‘error with the cash transfer but the purchaser will put the money straight into your PayPal account instead..
I’d run a mile..

Oh, and just to play along with the scammer offer to use MyHermes

Known as going full Ling.

That’s not quite the same thing – that’s where you arrange the delivery and the buyer pays cash to the agent. The suggestion here is the other way around – supposedly the agent comes with cash which they hand over on collection.