SCAM ALERT!

Agg! I have been scammed! If a guy called Erik Piquet ever contacts you with exactly the bits you want… DON’T GO THERE! Unfortunately, I just did. His real name is Fiodors Ritikovs. He says he’s from Latvia and his bank is in Lithuania. He contacted me through the Suzuki GS UK Facebook group. He’s now got my £109 and I have nothing. Live and learn but very annoying. Sigh.

Martin H-G, member

I nearly fell for this one. I put an advert in RC to sell my Enfield Bullet but it didn’t sell. About five weeks later I got a call from a gent who said he was editor of the Enfield club magazine. He told me a bike like mine was put for sale in the last issue and had immediately sold. Would I like to advertise mine in the next issue? The cost to members was £2.95.

I agreed and gave him my card details – but got the expiry date wrong. Lucky me! The scammer immediately tried to buy £600-plus worth of goods but was turned down due to the wrong detail. Within minutes the phone rang and a voice said that I’d tried to make that purchase, and could I confirm the details please?

Dodgy, I thought, hung up and called my bank’s fraud department using the number on the front of the card. They had not tried to contact me and no charge had been made. Lucky me – my mistake with the expiry date meant I avoided a scam.

So if any other reader is approached and asked to pay for an advert – even in a club magazine – check it out first.

Ray Palmer, member 5335

Thanks for the info, folks. Unfortunately, the changes that ebay have made to their payment process only make it easier for scammers to attack people – Paypal, it turns out, was much more secure! And that latter approach is truly worrying, because it demonstrates an uncomfortable degree of familiarity with the old bike world. Plainly, the criminals are closer to us than we might imagine: a sobering suggestion…

Rowena