Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards OT ... Free grand piano to a deserving pianist

It's been a while since I've received this spam message, but I'm playing along.

"Good day,

I have a Grand Piano to give away to someone that can cherish and take good care of it. Kindly let me know if you would be interested or you can refer someone to me.

Sincerely"

The email address is James Scott <scottjames4901@gmail.com>

I'm waiting for his response. No address was given by 'James' or by me.

The scam works by you paying the delivery charges or something like that.

Yea, I've played along with these too. I sold a digital on craig's list one time and some guy from across the other side of the continent said he wanted this particular YDP-181. Ok, that's crazy. There are many on the east coast I'm sure

Anyway, I got a check in the mail (for piano and shipment). He then asked if I got it and I said yes, we cashed it, but my girlfriend and I spent it on crack, and then we sold the piano for more crack. Sorry about that, but we can't send you the piano now ;0

But he sent you a cheque - what could go wrong? I'm genuinely asking. Was the cheque possibly stolen?

They're usually fake cheques, and they take advantage of the fact that banks will allow a customer to deposit a cheque and then when the bank finds out it's fraudulent they take the money back out of the scam victim's account.

Here is a detailed description of how it works.

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-spot-avoid-and-report-fake-check-scams

I've played along this exact route too and I almost made the payment for the delivery truck "to be rerouted to me address." When I asked for the name of the delivery truck company, an invoice to be sent to me first and also demanded insurance to be put on the delivery - the person went AWOL. Number was disconnected the next day. Plus the person also asked payment via Zelle. I reported the Zelle account to my bank.

Thank you Frank, if I'd received a cheque I would probably have believed it to be genuine!