I think I've been taken! After reading the messages in the forum, I'm afraid I just shipped off a $39,000 ring to a crook in Spain TODAY!
A friend going through a divorce wanted to sell a lot of jewelry on Ebay Isound familiar). I listed three items for him: A ring for $27,500 (appraised at $39K), a necklace and ring for $6000 and a watch for $6000.
Since my friend was computer illiterate, I helped him set up an email account, eBay account, and PayPal account. We listed the items and I started getting emails through eBay from all sorts of interested buyers for all three items ALL wanting to use escrow accounts.
I showed the emails to my friend and explained what I was reading about the deals, the escrow sites (which I had NEVER heard of before this). I figured I listed the items and helped him this far, but ultimately, it was his decision.
He decided that the escrow site seemed like a fair deal. It made sense and since it was in Spain, he couldn't run a BBB check on it.
I helped him set up his new account at http://www.suncro.com. The usual confirmations all took place. I believed it to be a reputable escrow company - it never OCCURRED to me that the ESCROW COMPANY was a scam! Never!
Here is a copy of the initial email from hadwigjaegareverlast (ebay member name):
Question from hadwigjaegareverlast
Item: 2.51 CT BRILLIANT DIAMOND WEDDING RING (5040577103)
This message was sent while the listing was active.
hadwigjaegareverlast is a potential buyer.
There has been a while since I haven't seen something as special as this. Buying this will be money well spent. You have a buyer for sure if it doesn't has any visible wear marks. My name is Jaegar Hadwig from Hadwig EverLast.co , half-owner of an small jewery and watches shop in Estepona, Spain.
We use UPS all the time and we have never been disappointed with their results so we would choose the fastest way UPS Express? as the shipping carrier.
Can you provide me your final buy it now price?
We also would like to know if you are able to ship to Spain and if you would accept safe payment using a secure escrow service that will handle our transaction in a profesional way and with me taking care of the fees and insurance.
Looking forward to hear from you.
Our best regards and a nice day
Additional Info on this guy:
email: HadwigJaegar@frominter.net
ebay member name: hadwigjaegareverlast
escrow site: suncro.com
Today, I shipped this item to Jaegar Hadwig in Spain. I will attempt with every ounce of my being to stop the UPS shipping on this item! I'm freaking out that I have done this to my friend.
When I returned from mailing this item to Spain, I just had a gut feeling something wasn't right. I called my friend and told him so - he said, "I trust your judgment." ACK! Don't I feel even worse.
I wis to god someone could email me and tell me this is a legit escrow company and all will be well, but I did do a whois.sc search on this site and found my email buddy is the Admin Contact and lives in Indiana. Now, I don't know how the item is shipped to Spain and he lives in Indiana....but you'd think the Feds would DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS! He is trying to rob us of $39,000! That's ALOT OF MONEY!