Or am I just dealing with a timewaster?
Short story:
Selling a bike on FB marketplace, had an offer and a deposit paid to hold it and now the person has gone awol for 3 days. Was supposed to collect yesterday (Friday) but no show and now no contact...
Long story:
Put a bike up for sale last Sunday, guy gets in touch on Monday to say he's interested - a couple of 'is this a DH bike' (it's not) and 'is it a big bike, I like to feel like I've got something solid under me' (oo-er!) so told him a bit more and he seems fine. Wants a few more pics but he didn't ask for anything specific, just 'more close ups of the whole bike'. Also asks some more questions about details - some of which are in the ad but gave him the info and and some more pics.
Guy seemed keen, offered to pay a deposit before I sent the pics but I said I would wait to get the pics to him so he can decide and hold the bike for him. Comes back within an hour of seeing the pics and says he'll have it, how much is it so told him listed price again (this is on the ad too - I'm thinking maybe he's just forgotten as we're talking on messenger).
Now Tuesday evening, asks if he can pay a deposit to hold it again, I say yes as he seems to have the info he wants. He doesn't have PayPal so asks if he can send bank transfer, a bit of checking my facts that there isn't anything he can really do with account number and sort code and agree. Here he says he will go to the bank in the morning to sort it. Now it seems a bit strange but I guess not everyone has online banking so OK. Next morning the money comes through, he lets me know and says he will pick up Friday evening. I gave him a generic area directions to a nearby landmark to aim for, no specific address or any other details about where I live.
After that he asks for my phone number so he can ring me when he gets near, fair enough, I sent this to him (albeit 24 hours later, purposeful stall here to see if anything strange happens as it's starting to be a bit OTT with some comments about him being excited to get out and find some DH trails and he's buzzing to get on it and other gnar shredding chat). Put this down to him being excited like we all get with a new bike and that he seems to be about 23 judging by his Facebook profile.
After that, no contact, he read the phone number message but not the 2 messages I sent yesterday and the ones this morning.
So as it stands I have the bike still, £50 in my bank account and no idea what's going on.
He's got my bank account and sort code numbers, my mobile phone number and a very rough idea of where I live (within about a 1km radius). Nothing else as far as I can tell, my Facebook profile is fairly sparse and closed to non friends anyway.
So, is this some sort of scam effort - something to do with him reneging and I send the deposit back to his account and he somehow gets access to my bank account? Or is it just a young lad who went out last night and forgot he was coming to collect or has realised he doesn't have the cash/doesn't want the bike anymore?
I can't see how he could access your account with just sc and acc no.
If it were me, I'd advertise it again (let him know in a message you're doing this) and the buyer is the one who actually shows up. I would then offer to return the £50 should it go to someone else.
As always, if are unsure then back out, that said I'd say it sounds more like someone being disorganised. Maybe struggling to get the cash together and ghosting you to stall a bit, or possibly backing out themselves.
Not a scam
Yeah cheers all, kind of my thoughts too, seemed like a long way round to be a scam and didn't think there was anything that acc number and sort code can do really. Will give home the weekend and see if he shows up again, otherwise will most likely go down the route of cb400's suggestion.
How was money paid in? Could it have been a stolen card?
We took a card payment at work waited till it was in the bank, handed over goods, two weeks later cash was taken out of account. Card was stolen. Goods were gone. Out of pocket by £700.
Could be some variation on that but not got the cash to finish the transaction?
Don’t think it’s a scam, if it makes any difference I sold a retro bike a while back and the guy was desperate for it as he had been searching for it for a while. He paid me by bank transfer and said he couldn’t pick it up straight away but could I hold it. I was ok with that but they he went completely silent for weeks. He did contact me occasionally but sometimes not for weeks and it wasn’t to sort out picking it up. It was eventually 3 months later when he said he could come and get it and we met near my house. Lovely guy, no issues, I think he was just very busy and not very organised.
I would only accept the rest of the money in cash though if you are worried.
@theDTs it was a direct bank transfer so the card thing shouldn't be an issue but that was the type of thing I was wondering about.
Like the general consensus here I would agree it's probably just a realisation of lack of funds / changed mind. The fact he had to go to the bank to do the transfer makes me think he's living a like I would have done at around that age and spending all his money as soon as he gets paid so maybe waiting for payday or something.
Will give it a couple of days and see what happens. If no news I'll try listing again.
If in doubt about the bank detail given out, contact your bank - mine automatically watches out for any unusual transactions, so they're big on fraud these days. Tell em what's happened and they'll probably reassure you that you can't get scammed or you're protected if you do.
