* demand they email you from their ISP email to verify their location. If he's at work tell him to do it when he gets home. EVERYONE online requires an ISP and they all come with email addy's. Yahoo, hotmail and other anonymous email accounts are perfect tools for con-artist's.
* mandate NEW pictures with an identifier, such as a note "PICS FOR GLEN C." in each picture. Have them print your email and put that partially visible below the fretboard (ie. can't be photoshopped). Have them put a post-it note with today's date somewhere else ON EACH PICTURE.
* get all the info (name, home addy, work addy, home phone, work phone, cell phone. google it and google map it. check if it's a legitimate residential street addy, etc. call the local police if necessary to verify the address.
* tell the user you need his IP addy. get that here:
http://myipaddress.com/
or
http://www.whatismyip.com/
* from there lookup his IP here a:
http://www.geobytes.com/IpLocator.htm?GetLocation
* compare the IP coming from his email headers
* no western union
* tell them you want to use escrow.com service and see if they back out (even if you dont want to use one).
*if you bank transfer get the local # to the bank, verify the bank online, including phone # and CALL THEM.
I will update the "buying safe" area over the next few weeks. If anyone has some great tips please post them.
Someone can pass all these tests and send a box of bricks but that is very, very, very unlikely as opposed to the low-level scams that are hooking trusting people... glen
