This sounds/smells like a scam, kind of...

[Tachikoma]

Ok so I found a guy who's willing to sell me a good quality slightly used PowerMac G5 for around $1400. Sounds good? Ok. Here's where it starts getting funny...

He claims to be in Greece right now, living with his wife...

He wants to do the deal through Square Trade. I don't know anything about this site but it seems fairly legit. Is it an escrow service? He claims that if I ok everything he'll send the PowerMac, I send the money to Square Trade? Then after I inspect everything the money goes from Square Trade to him.

Does this sound legit? I'm not 100% sold yet...

 

[Tachikoma]

Hah it is a scam...

"SquareTrade Never Takes Payment on Behalf of a Seller:
Scam emails will often request the consumer to pay via a money transfer service, such as Western Union or Money Gram, an escrow service, or by money order. BEWARE! SquareTrade will NEVER act as an escrow agent for a seller and will NEVER hold or transfer money on behalf of an auction or seller. "

I figured Square Trade wasn't even an escrow service...

 

[tsk]

What you really need to be worried about is a fake escrow service. There are lots of sites set up that look like an escrow service, but are just a way for scammers to get your money.

As far as I can tell, SquareTrade is just a company that verifies sellers. It's possible the seller thought they were an escrow.

Regardless, when I hear escrow and foreign country, I think scam. This may or may not be true in this case.

 

[kainjow]

I just had a friend lose $2,500 from eBay, and the guy he was supposedly getting his item from was in NY, so I'm more more skeptical now. Don't even think a user's ratings means he's valid. People can get their accounts hijacked, happens rather often so I've heard.......

If I were you, I'd definitely pass on this. 98% chance it's a scam.

 

[Tachikoma]

Hehe I passed on it

It's getting frustrating though. Oh well, something will come along at a good price.

It's tempting to go back to the darkside. I can get a 3200+ AMD Athlon64 w/ a 6800GT and a complete Shuttle XPC setup for under a grand Tooooo tempting... must fight urge...

 

[wdlove]

One of those, if it sounds too good to be true. Then it's prpbably fake. That is kind of low for a Power Mac. You are better going with eBay or the Apple Store refurb.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore.woa/71408/wo/MS1DhHmfmSjc29WzG4kqMonTtXQ/0.0.11.1.0.6.63.0.0.0.0.0.0.3.1.1.0?91,47

 

[Capt Underpants]

Hehe I passed on it

It's getting frustrating though. Oh well, something will come along at a good price.

It's tempting to go back to the darkside. I can get a 3200+ AMD Athlon64 w/ a 6800GT and a complete Shuttle XPC setup for under a grand Tooooo tempting... must fight urge...

Are you a gamer? If so I'd stick with a PC until you can get both a mac and a PC. Mac gaming sucks...

 

[RndmAxess]

Deleted

 

[rainman::|:|]

once again the golden rule is observed: if you have to ask, it's a scam. and i'll say it the next time someone asks, and the time after that... don't bother asking, just ignore it, it's a scam. i mean, even if you had a totally legit transaction, the MR people would still probably guess "scam".

 

[CanadaRAM]

He Tachikoma
Props for asking FIRST instead of sending money and then asking on MR "gee do you think I shoulda done that" like others have...

 

[andiwm2003]

what a coincidence!

i once e-mailed with a guy who had a fully loaded imac g5 20" for 1000 bucks. he lived in italy but the imac was an american version and he also liked to do it via square trade because "it's save for both of us". unfortunately i passed on that deal.

funny how similar this stories are!

come on guys, if you want to do a scam at least come up with a new idea. maybe it was even the same guy.

ebay get almost useless these days.

 

[punkbass25]

tachikoma huh...?

ghost in the shell rocks!