Scam?

So,

Long'ish story short.

A few weeks ago I bought a frame I saw on eBay. I contacted the seller (seems legit, trades in bike stuff a bit) and ended agreeing a PayPal buy away from eBay (price was about right, not cheap, not expensive as in only a few hundred quid) as I wanted the frame only and not the almost complete bike as advertised. Frame arrives, I'm happy.

My seller contacts me today stating he's been contacted by the guy he bought from abroad saying its a stolen frame, the original owner wants it back, he's a collector etc. Lawyers and police both UK and abroad are said to be involved as this frame was one of many take in some big heist. He sends scans of the texts he's received, nothing threatening, just the original owner trying to track his bikes down asking for my details.

I've been given the "original owners" number as he's keen to get the frame back and will reimburse, so my seller tells me.

As you can imagine, I'm a little suspicious. My seller won't take it back, which is odd as he's very confident it's not a scam and has been in touch with both his seller and the "original owner".

It could be some long winded true story or some long winded scam.

Any ideas?

Well ask him for a UK crime number (ignore the foreign one as that could be part of the scam), what station and officer and get in touch with the police - not some bogus lawyer, test his mettle... You should be covered by PayPal anyhoo unless he asked for paying as a gift. Otherwise ignore them - as I suspect they work as a pair, if it's a case of stolen property, which I doubt, the police will contact you in due course, I smell bullshit...

I might just sit tight. If the police come knocking and it is indeed a stolen frame then fair enough. It goes back to its rightful owner and hopefully I'll get my cash back through Paypal.

Cheers Bernard

International police and lawyers over a bike frame does seem to stretch credibility! If it was by some long arm of fate, true, surely the original owners insured... I'd sit tight too

One part of a €30000 theft I'm lead to believe. Who knows.

Sounds like utter bullshit to me.

Surely the bloke you bought it from would be implicated in handling stolen goods?

Sounds very fishy

I'm happy to do some investigation for you on this, can you send me your debit card and pin code

On its way

I think you should offer to send the frame back, get it all worked out but instead of posting the frame fill a bike box with frozen sausages and post that instead

Make a frame from frozen bangers?

Like

LFGSS - sorting all life's hiccups with the hammering of a frozen sausage.

Not just one...

Many frozen sausages.

All the frozen sausages

Which frame was it, that you bought for a few hundred, which a collector wants back from overseas? It seems a lot of effort.

This was the best I could find

https://m.imgur.com/gallery/idKk8BX

the best I could find

certainly not the wurst

Scampervangogh

https://www.igcefalu.top/nitto-s65-silver-crystal-fellow-seatpost-pillar-250-mm-s65-268-l250-fs-new-p-293678.htm

Searching for nitto or thomson 25mm seatpost, came across this website. To good to be true?
I think so... unfortunately :(

Has to be dodgy.

They have Fox dropper posts for £75, should be almost £400.

Kinda tempted to try though. Pay with PayPal and your money should be safe.

It is tempting but the other items all just seem so random! I'll give it a miss. Not worth the hassle me thinks

Nitto post seems a strange choice of item to fake/run a scam on. Would have thought they’d stick to more mainstream stuff.

Even the prices on the obviously hooky stuff is really cheap. Like Avid bb5 calipers which are all over Aliexpress and eBay from China, that site is way cheaper.

Always check the contact us page if in doubt

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