Suspected fraud from Italy

[leojm]

Hello,

I am planning on buying an iphone 3g that is factory unlocked from a seller in Italy. I live in Ireland. Here is what the seller said to me as regards to a payment method:

For our security we can use TRUSTe.
1. I will send to TRUSTe the details for the
shipping and for the payment (send
me the name and address for the shipping)
2. TRUSTe will start the transaction, they will contact you and will send you
the invoice for the payment with all instructions and confirmations for the
transaction
3. You will pay in the TRUSTe account, they will verify the payment and you
will receive the phone. The shipping of the phone will be made through FedEx,
DHL, TNT or UPS (24 hours) in the same day that TRUSTe will confirm me that
they
have received the payment.
4. After that you receive the phone will have 10 days to verify them (You will
also have 2 years warranty for the phone).
5. If the phone are not like described or as you expected you will send them
back on my costs and you will receive your money back from TRUSTe (that is not
the case here because the phone are PERFECT !!!) .
6. You should notify TRUSTe that want to buy them and ONLY THEN THEY WILL SEND
ME THE PAYMENT THAT YOU MADE !!! Remember that they will not send me the
payment until they will receive your confirmation that you are happy with the
phone.
7. After that the transaction is finish, you will have the phone and I the
payment.
Send me your full name and delivery address so i can start the transaction.

Is this fraud or not??I am not sure if this is a way of paying someone??





EDIT: Yes the email address of the person is e250_95@yahoo.com and he says his name is Simeone Marco

[peg]

This is definitely a fraud.

First of all TRUSTe does NOT perform these kinds of services.

According to their site http://truste.com/

TRUSTe helps consumers and businesses identify trustworthy online organizations through its Web Privacy Seal, Email Privacy Seal and Trusted Download Programs. TRUSTe resolves thousands of individual privacy disputes every year.

The have NO Escrow type programs. The purpose of this scam is to help convince you by using a name that is known and hope that you don't look to deep in to the real website.

I suspect that payment would have to be made by "Western Union" or some other easy (and non-trackable) method (for the scammers anyway).

Do you have the scammers email? Phone? Address? Anything? Any information about the scammer would be helpful. By no means should you pay them.

Also you will not get a "Factory Unlocked" phone for an iPhone. This is just a further enticement to try and get you to buy into the scam.

The next step of the scam is after you send the money, they will magically have things screwed up and accidentally end up with 2 (or more) phones in the shipment. In order to pass customs you will have to buy both of them (at a now reduced price) or wait a real long time for it.

Either way avoid.

[JaxHot]

Your suposed seller is in Romania, not Italy.
Post this email address.