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New type of sting: Aircraft Sellers Beware
Selling an airplane is always a facinating experience, but this time through is a bit more facinating that usual for me. Someone attempted to con me, big time. I did not bite, and I think that most folks would not, but in the hope that it prevents someone from being taken, here is my latest aircraft selling story.
I am running an add in Aicraft Shopper Online (www.aso.com). I received an email reply to this ad from a gentleman in Dubai, U.A.E. indicating that he wanted to buy my airplane. He asked questions about the airplane, and we negotiated a price a bit less than my asking price. At this point, I am suspicious for two reasons. First, it is a yahoo.com email address, and second, the offer to purchase came too easily. But I sold an airplane to guy in Tennessee once just this quickly and easily, so I am suspicious, but still hoping it might be real. The gentleman in Dubai asks me for bank account information so he can wire me my price (which was $153,000). Now I am really suspicious, as nobody has physically inspected the airplane. I call my bank, we set up a special account with no money in it, flagged for special examination of all transactions. I send this account information to the "buyer". I also call ASO, ask them if they know anything about this buyer. They say no, but a bit of investigation shows that the buyer sent 13 messages starting the purchase process within a 15 minute period. Since many of these 13 are quasi military aircraft (helicopters, twins), my suspicions go in another direction relating to our current times. I call the FBI. Meanwhile, I am trying to figure out how the con would work. How could they get money out of my empty account? The FBI, after a bit of struggle with the bureaucracy, informs me that a new variation in fraud has been cropping up from Dubai. The idea is that the con man gets wire information, sends significantly MORE money that is expected for the purchase. As soon as it is received, they frantically contact the seller, saying a terrible mistake has been made, and request that you wire back the difference, or overpayment. The mark does so, and then the original transfer turns out to be fraudulent, and the mark is out the money he wired back. Now I am pretty darn sure a con is in progress, but since I have already provided the empty bank account information, I wait to see what happens next. What happens next is nothing for a couple of days, and then I begin to think I have heard the last of it. Then my bank calls. They have received a check, Airborne Express, for $272,000. With the check are instructions to deposit the check in my account, and let me (the bank's customer) know the funds have arrived. The check is a company check (not cashiers check) from a casino in Missouri, written on a reputable bank in Louisiana. Sounds like a straight, normal aircraft sales transaction to me so far, what do you think? ;-) I asked the bank to send the check back to Dubai, but the return address is insufficient for shipping. So the check is on it's way to me. (No, I am not going to deposit it.) Below is the text of the email I received the same afternoon: "Dear Sir, I have just been informed by my client today that there was an awful mistake in the money sent to you.The person that went to send the money made a mistake by sending your money to someone else that my client has a bussiness dealing with and the money meant to this person was sent to you by mistake,the irony of it all is that his money is far more thatn yours,so at the end of the day this person is been short paid and you are been overpaid. This has made my client to be very worried,but i assured him to be calm,that as soon as you received the money in your account you will take what my client owes you for the aircraft and the balance will be sent back to my client. Please as soon as you received this money get me informed so that i can inform my client and get instruction from him for his balance,please i am counting on you in solving this problem. Thanks" I wrote him back, asking for instructions for where to send the check back, etc. Haven't heard anything yet. Final thoughts. Although the bullet missed me on this one, I can see how a very busy or more trusting person than me could get hit. If the bank had not been warned, they might have deposited the check, notified the customer that funds had been received. If they did that, the customer MIGHT not have noticed this it was a company check, not a cashiers check, and not a wire. I let ASO.COM know what was going on, and they sent warning emails to the other 12 folks that were contacted at the same time as me. When the check arrives, I plan to frame it and hang it on my wall, after sending a copy to the FBI. As the sargent used to say on Hill Street Blues: "Hey.... Be careful out there." Kevin 
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