Good morning David (and all), Unfortunately this type of behavior is becoming more common and I read about such happenings far too frequently. Usually starts from someone posting a "wanted" ad someplace.
You are correct, from you description this sounds like a scam plain and simple. Asking for payment via Western Union is one of the BIG indicators. You did your homework and made the right call. There are a number of websites devoted to out-smarting the scammers (a quick google search will find them). There are some individuals that make a sport out of screwing over those that they can and go to great lengths to do so. However, I know of Alex, he belongs to same the ham radio contest club that I do - Contest Club Ontario and is a member in good standing and I have not heard of any complaints. http://www.va3cco.com/index.htm Concerns about Alex could be asked about through the club executive. Alex also holds callsign ve3kf - the QRZ web page for KF has a yahoo email address and the email address in part includes another previous ve3 callsign he has held. I think the real issue is that there is someone or some group pretending to be Alex ve3xax and is attempting to perpetrate a scam and NOT that Alex ve3xax is behind the scam. I guess what I find inappropriate is your subject line in that it is directly being accusatory. Scam artists always pretend to be something or someone they are not. I would suggest that if you already have not, contact the real Alex through the Contest Club Ontario and advise him of what is going on and your concern. He may already be aware of someone defaming his name but then again he may not. As you have already posted to a variety of other email groups and reflectors including at least one of the ham radio contest lists I would suspect that Alex is already aware. Play along with the scammer if you like, you may figure out where he is located and it will most likely not be in North America and could be somewhere in Europe or else where (think Africa). Cheers, Graham ve3gtc -----Original Message----- From: time-nuts-boun...@febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-boun...@febo.com] On Behalf Of David Kirkby Sent: June 15, 2011 06:42 To: amps Cc: kenw...@mailman.qth.net; Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement; Yaesu Subject: [time-nuts] Watch out for a scam by Alex Barski. VE3XAX I advertised on eHam.net and qrz.com that I was looking for a Kenwood AT-230 ATU. I got a reply from someone claiming to be Alex Barski from Canada with the callsign VE3XAX who has an email address of ve3...@blumail.org. I've no idea if his real name is that, or if he holds that callsign, but I'm suspicious. This person offered me the ATU for $220 shipped to my house, but there were a number of things that make me suspicious this is a scam. 1) When I checked on QRZ.COM, the address and name did not agree with the callsign. The only similarity was they were in Canada. Today when I checked, the information agreed.But yesterday they were definitely different. 2) When I offered to pay via Paypal, I received this: "Thanks for the response to my email David but i am sorry i don't use paypal or bank transfer as means of payment due to the instruction giving to me by my bank and lawyer but i will entertain any other safe and reliable mode of payment. Also what is your full shipping information and we can discuss about the payment over the phone, give me your number and i will give you a call to talk." This immediately made me "smell a rat", but I decided to play along and gave him my mobile phone number. 3) Today he rings me, withholding the number, and says Western Union would be a safe method of payment. I'm rather sorry I did not play him along a lot longer, but I told him the deal was off. I might email him and say I had second thoughts, and will string him along for a bit of fun. But basically be aware. Today I looked on qrz.com and found others have basically formed the same conclusion of this person http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?300792-Fake-VE3XAX-Scam-from-wanted -add The strange thing is, the other person reporting the scam also played along with it. Sometimes these scams can be fun! I think I'll play along a bit more too. there. _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts@febo.com To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.