Despite the fact that I have no control over the legitimacy or accuracy of stuff placed for sale in the CR For Sale Classifieds, I still am interested in trying to track down any [potential problems and possible chicanery.. I just received a message from a lady who had placed a wanted ad and ran into trouble. I have e-mailed and tried to call the seller to no avail. I am copying the letter from the "buyer" and hope some of you on the CR list can report any similar problems or enlighten us all on the veracity of this seller. He is Mark Chance, Houston, Texas 281-924-3062 (Turns out to be a cell phone) mcjjj@netzero.net
Here is the story:
<<Subj: fraud alert From: (omitted) To: oroboyz@aol.com
hi dale--- last month i had a 'wanted' ad for a mercier bike on your site. on 6/6 a man emailed me that he had one available. i emailed you asking how to protect myself against fraud. after several days, this person and i agreed that i would send him a post-dated check (it was his idea) and he would ship me the bike by fed ex. i mailed him a check on 6/14, dated for 6/30 as he suggested. on 6/20 he emailed that he had just gotten the check and would send the bike out that afternoon. later he emailed me that it was too big for fed ex, but he sent it via the post office. he included a tracking number. when i tried it, it did not work. sensing a problem, i emailed him asking why. he did not respond until monday 6/25 and said he did not know it was not a tracking number, only a receipt number, but to wait a few days,it was en route, or to check with the post office. to make a long story short, he never sent the bicycle. fortunately, i had stopped payment on my check when i sensed trouble. yesterday i received a notice from my bank indicating that he had deposited it as soon as he received it, which was not our agreement. this individual is advertising bikes for sale on your website. he has 3 bicycles listed for sale (1/1, 1/13, and 2/11). his name is mark chance in houston texas, and his email address on your site is mcjjj@netzero.net. the email address he used with me is mchance@pahouston.com, apparently a temporary email address set up for the purpose of defrauding me. i am sending you this information because i want to prevent others from being defrauded by this man. i noticed that you took my 'wanted' ad off your website, which i guess is good because apparently something in the way i wrote it led mr 'chance' to believe i was an easy 'mark.' thanks for trying to help me find this old bike anyways! >>
Dale Brown <A HREF="http://www.classicrendezvous.com/main.htm">Classic Rendezvous</A>