Legit or not?

[Muad'zin]

I came across a 2nd hand Axe FX III on the Dutch auction site Marktplaats.nl. Asking price was €1750. That's like 3/5ths of what G66 charges. That's too good a deal to pass up, I figure I could spare that cash if I were to sell one of my II's with a guitar or two afterwards to make up for it. The original add said it was in Rotterdam, I'm in Nijmegen, that's like an hour's worth of driving to try it and pick it up. Cause there's no way I'm going to pay in advance that kind of cash for them to ship it to me. It's Marktplaats, its more like Craigslist then eBay, which is very regimented. Plenty of ripoff stories from people who got ripped off using Marktplaats.

So I mailed the dude, got a reply back that the device was being offered by a pawn shop and that I could order it via their website. And no trysies, as the device is in Italy, not Rotterdam. Got a link from him as well:

https://www.pawn-shop-europe.com/index.php?id_product=196&controller=product

When a deal is too good to be true, then it usually is too good to be true. No trysies, and payment via Western Union, bank transfer or bitcoin, that just got to be a scam. Oh, and have fun googling pawn shop europe, I couldn't find it. I might be tempted to chance it if they offered credit card payment, as you can at least get your money back if things fall apart, but WU, bank transfer and fecking bitcoin?

So incredibly low price + location switch & bait + dodgy non refundable payment options = scam?

 

[iaresee]

scam?

I would not take the chance on this deal. Seems too good to be true. If it walks like a duck...

 

[Rick]

Western Union may as well be renamed Scammers PayPal. I wouldn’t dream of doing a purchase of any kind if that’s the sellers payment method.

 

[yek]

Scammers are indeed active on Marktplaats, scanning for opportunities. One was interested in buying my Axe-Fx II. Seemed legit until it turned out that I had to pay a large transportation fee through WU. This fee seemed to be already transfered to me by PayPal but it was a fake transfer. I saw it was fake and I never do business with WU anyway.

 

[Geezerjohn]

Looks like your spidie sense is tingling.