avionics fraud on ebay

There was someone offering super cheap (I think $5000-7000) Garmin 430s
on barnstormers.com a few months ago. The description made it sound
borderline plausible (eg, they described that the reason they were so
cheap was that they were sold internationally, and did not have US
plates, etc etc) but subsequent fraud warnings that popped up on the
website made it sound as if there was a problem.

Avionics have gotta be an attractive target since there's such a price
premium attached.

Ben Hallert
PP-ASEL

A some signs of online frauds:
1) outside US or Canada, usually europe.
2) Western union only
3) price too good to be true
4) approved bidders only, esp. with a low feedback rating
5) After the auction ends and you aren't a winner, you get contacted
back channel asking if you'd still be intrested cause the winner backed
out for whatever reason. They'll ask you for what you'd like to pay, and
they usually "relucantly" accept it cause a family member in Germany (or
whatever) was in an accident, and they need the money ASAP, and please
send it WU to the "victim" to pay the hospital.
6) they may claim they have bought the remaining stock of a "going out
of business" store, usually in europe (a former eastern bloc country is
even better), and are just clearing the stuff out.

John