I just had a strange thing happen yesterday.  I got an email from a fellow
in Nigeria saying that he wanted to buy "Vanagon Ring. for 84/86".  I asked
him to clarify what he meant and I got a strange phone call.  It was
actually from a place called "I P Relay" which is an internet service that
is supposed to be for the deaf or hard of hearing.  The deaf person uses
thier computer as a TTY device and a relay person at IP Relay acts as a
go-between in your conversation (reading what the other person types and
then typing in what you say).  Well this call was from this fellow in
Nigeria.  He explained that he wanted Piston ring sets for the Vanagon.  I
said OK they are $55 each and each set does one engine.  He said he wanted
24 of them!  He said he wanted some for the 84 and some for the 86 Vanagon.
I said OK so you want 12 each with a total of 24.  He said no he wanted 24
each for a total of 48!  Well this was a large order for me to say the least
(over $2500).  He said he needed them really quickly and wanted me to
express mail them that day.  I told him that I normally don't stock that
many ring sets (neither do most of my suppliers) but I could get that many
together over the next couple of days from my many suppliers and then ship
them on Friday.  He agreed and said he would email me with shipping and
credit card info.

The whole thing was very fishy to me.  First of all the guy was saying he
was from Nigeria (the hot bed of internet scams lately).  Secondly he was
placing a huge order and needed this huge order very quickly (why?).  Third
using the IP Relay system to contact me instead of phone or email was really
wierd.  Why not just email me or set up an IM chat somewhere?  Or even call
me as many overseas folks do from time to time (Israel, South Africa,
England, Spain, etc.).

He sent me two credit card numbers and an address in Nigeria.  I checked the
card numbers with my credit card company (merchant service) and neither one
lined up with this guy's name or address.  The folks at the CC company told
me that these were probably stolen card numbers.

I just wanted to do this as a heads up for those of you out there doing ebay
or even other vendors.  It seems as if the internet scam world is opening up
even in the obscure and small town of Vanagonland.  I guess it was only a
matter of time.  The guy sent me all of this information under the name
Roger Coker.  Just FYI.

Thanks,
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
http://www.vanagain.com
http://www.strictlyvwauctions.com
Phone: (856)-327-4936
Fax: (856)-327-2242