Scam? How to respond if not?

[terrlloy-0]

I have a notebook of vintage post cards that I have had listed for a while with lots of interest. I received this message today from someone who says the collection had been stolen from them. I don’t know if this is a scam or not but I really don’t know how to respond to it. This is the message: Good morning. Are you aware that this notebook with these old postcards is just a small portion of the complete notebook of vintage post cards and Easter/holiday cards? I KNOW this, as THIS ITEM WAS STOLEN from my house in Henderson, Nevada, in January/February timeframe. I did file a police report for this and other items stolen from me at that time.

[terrlloy-0]

Good idea! Thank you!

[a_c_green]

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@gurlcat wrote:

Using a stolen postcards story to get a seller's phone/email is a pretty viable theory.  So is (to me) the chance that the writer really did have postcards stolen and only thinks the ones in the listing are from that notebook (she said they were her mother's, so she may just recognize a few that she remembers, I mean they were mass-produced so the same ones would be in lots of collections).

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My thoughts, after reading this entire thread, is that the writer is, ah... getting on a bit in years, and probably goes after any seller who's listed something that she remembers owning. Even the theft angle is not unusual. I have an in-law in her 80s who sends the occasional email to all the family to report that something or other of hers has been stolen and she suspects the guy who comes in to clean her building every week, etc. Needless to say, nothing has been stolen, and the item usually turns up some time later, elsewhere in her apartment. 

I think unfortunately once someone starts down this path, they don't come back. The writer in this case is probably tormenting more than one seller of vintage postcards, or perhaps other mass-market items from her past, with similar complaints.

[gurlcat]

Yeah I could see that scenario too.  Like the part where she said she was having trouble getting the police report to attach to her message .... that's some geezer sh right thur, LOL.  (I truly adore old people btw).  

Then again ..... pretending to be a tech-inept geezer would be a clever way to exit a scam attempt "gracefully" if there never really was a police report.  🤣  I've had more than one situation where I was pretty sure that's exactly what was going on with buyers who wrote complaints about items but "couldn't" return them because they "couldn't" figure out how to use a return label.  

[itsjustasprain]

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@gurlcat wrote:

Then again ..... pretending to be a tech-inept geezer would be a clever way to exit a scam attempt "gracefully" if there never really was a police report.  🤣  I've had more than one situation where I was pretty sure that's exactly what was going on with buyers who wrote complaints about items but "couldn't" return them because they "couldn't" figure out how to use a return label.  

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Yeah but... for vintage postcards? I know what you are talking about but I just cannot see that in THIS case. Given the items in question and who they might appeal to - I just doubt that there is an Evil Network of Vintage Postcard Scammers. More likely some dotty old grandma who sees stuff that she used to collect in the past but cannot find her albums anymore because they got stored away when she moved into her kids place. (I know - imagine much? 😃)

[jonathanbrightlight]

@itsjustasprain 

If it was a scam, the postcards were never their goal.  They may have done a little research into them to sell the scam better, which is more effort than the vast majority of scams, but they never wanted the postcards.  They wanted something else from the seller, usually either money or credit card numbers/bank information/other details to steal their identity.  That's why @gurlcat was suggesting that them pretending to be inept was just a way to exit the conversation without confirming that it was a scam attempt, and I agree that's possible.  One of the most common ways scammers get info they shouldn't is by claiming they can't do something else that would be safer and more reasonable.  Lots of people get scammed by people saying they can't pay them via eBay, and asking for their email address to pay through some other service, but then of course the seller gets a fake payment notification to their email (happens many other places than just eBay too, of course).

[a_c_green]

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@jonathanbrightlight wrote:

@itsjustasprain 

If it was a scam, the postcards were never their goal.  They may have done a little research into them to sell the scam better, which is more effort than the vast majority of scams, but they never wanted the postcards.  They wanted something else from the seller, usually either money or credit card numbers/bank information/other details to steal their identity.

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I'm confused as to why a seller would offer money, credit-card numbers, bank information or any other details to a buyer...?

[jonathanbrightlight]

@a_c_green They often send emails with notices that their item has sold and the payment will be released to them once they confirm their payment information, or that there is some fee that has to be paid to receive their money.

[gurlcat]

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@itsjustasprain wrote:

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@gurlcat wrote:

Then again ..... pretending to be a tech-inept geezer would be a clever way to exit a scam attempt "gracefully" if there never really was a police report.  🤣  I've had more than one situation where I was pretty sure that's exactly what was going on with buyers who wrote complaints about items but "couldn't" return them because they "couldn't" figure out how to use a return label.  

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Yeah but... for vintage postcards? I know what you are talking about but I just cannot see that in THIS case. Given the items in question and who they might appeal to - I just doubt that there is an Evil Network of Vintage Postcard Scammers. More likely some dotty old grandma who sees stuff that she used to collect in the past but cannot find her albums anymore because they got stored away when she moved into her kids place. (I know - imagine much? 😃)

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Oh I agree, but trying to scam for the postcards isn't the only scam theory -as a previous replier said, they could have made the stolen postcard story up as a lead-in to getting the OP's contact info, for some other kind of scam.  

[animal-house-8]

Ask them to send pictures of their collection, no old vintage post cards are a like, creases, bends, dirt stains ect. They would be very easy to match up like finger prints. If he cannot do that then contact his local police dept. tell them the story, see his police report on documentation of the cards.

[glorybells]

I’ll be the first to admit that I tend to smell a scam under every rock, and this one really stinks.  I suspect something is very wrong here with the theft “victim” claim.  I agree with the responder who said that this sounded like a collector trying to get some free inventory.

[reallynicestamps]

@a_c_green

There is a woman in my writing group who brings two backpacks and a shopping cart with her every week, because according to her, both her car and her apartment are broken into at least weekly if not daily.

She is a terrible poet, too. But she needs our friendship.