It seems that for every honest person out in the world there is another that wants to take advantage of their trust. Several months ago my company had a helicopter for sale and was contacted by a potential buyer. The following is the actual email communications that took place between myself and the potential buyer. The emails were cut and pasted exactly including all grammatical errors.

From Mr. John Kingsbury:

Dear,
I will like to know if the airplane is still for sale. Let me know the present condition. Send more pics if there is any The asking price. Kindly indicate is your preferred Method of payment. Bank Draft, Cashiers Cheque, Or wire transfer. I will also be glad if you can fix a date and address that i come view it. I’ll await your swift response.
Regards,
John

My Response was:

John,
I think you have my ad mixed up with some other ad. I have a 2004 Robinson R22 HELICOPTER for sale, not an airplane. If you want to talk to me about the HELICOPTER for sale, you can call me at 417-464-9999. Let me know if you are interested in purchasing this HELICOPTER and if so, I will send you some photos of it.

“John’s” response was:

Sure am interested in the Helicopter. I will give you a call as soon as i am done with the summit we are holding. But i will really appreciate if you provide me with all details of the Helicopter including pics.

Thanks for you response. I think need the plane, am actually purchasing this airplane for my wife has a gift for her upcoming birthday and will not want to disappoint. I will need you contact phone number were you can be reached at all times.

Do send me more pics and specs of the aircraft and kindly state the bottom price for the airplane i would need us to set up a meeting so that I can take a good look at it before we proceed. Currently am attending a summit in the UK with W.H.O. but hopefully I should be done by Monday so anytime from then will be ok with me.

I await your response ASAP.

John.

I Responded:

The helicopter is a 2004 R22 Beta II with 585 hours on it. It has the upgraded paint, the annual condition inspection was completed in may of 2007. The radio is a com KY197A with 10 channel memory and the pilot cyclic has switches for changing the radio frequencies. It has a KT78C mode C transponder with altitude encoder currently certified. It is equipped with an emergency locator transmitter, intercom system, engine primer, cabin heater and defroster. It has both gyros that cost $8,400 extra when new, and the artificial horizon with slip/skid indicator and the directional gyro, both electric. It has the factory installed fire extinguisher and pocket. The compass is a vertical card unit. It has the upgrade bubble windows observation doors with air vents and has an auto fuel stc for using automobile fuel . It is in Like-New condition and the price is $175,000.00 USD.

Orv Neisnigh

The same day I also received this email message:

I will settle for the price. I truly appreciate your effort and time in all. I hope you are not supposed to be collecting any extra fee from me? I regret to state that I won’t be able to come over to view the aircraft, as we have just concluded our meeting here in the UK and have been handed a letter of transfer that commences from tomorrow.

Am sending you a comprehensive mail with the way things are going to go through because I have just been posted out of the state to Western Europe for official responsibilities (W.H.O.)

The Shipping and moving firm will have to meet with the owner of the helicopter but I know there won’t be any transaction unless you have given my words and approval.

Payment has been drawn out to your name so as to proceed with this transaction. A check/Bank Draft of $105,000.00 will be sent to you, you will take 20% of it as a deposit for the Helicopter just to make sure that it is not sold to any other person, and to pull off all of the ads on any advert that it might have posted on.

You will make sure the rest are been remitted to the shipping and Moving Firm so as to enable them carry out all the inspections and rightful responsibilities as regards to this transaction, because they have confirmed to me that unless they receive some past payment ASAP, They won’t be coming over to the state.

As soon as they confirm the status of the transaction successful and approved by government that is after going through inspections and all legal proper documentation the complete funds for the aircraft will be wired into your nominated account before the release of the title or the change of ownership documents.

I will need you to provide me with either your company name or name and address that will be attention to the check/Bank Draft.

Thanks for your understanding and effort.

Please keep me advised as to any additional requirements you have.

Respectfully,

John.

By this point I suspected that I was dealing with several different scam artists so I sent this final reply:

John,

Funds will be WIRE TRANSFERRED to my attorney in the name of ______. The funds will not be coming directly to me. This is a title company by the name of _____ and they will be handling all funds.

• I will get you the wire transfer routing numbers tomorrow after I hear back from you that the following conditions meet with your approval.
• The funds will be wire transferred to the account and paid to the order of _______. Once I receive confirmation that the funds have arrived at __________ Title Insurance CO. I will sign all relevant paperwork.
• It will be YOUR responsibility to pay for the insurance, shipping, and crating of the helicopter directly and to arrange for payment of the shipping, crating, insurance, and inspection charges. YOU can pay YOUR OWN shipper directly. I am not going to be the middle man for paying your shipper or agents, that is YOUR responsibility as the purchaser.
• Once all of the $175,000.00 US Dollars has been received into the title insurance companies escrow account I will sign the aircraft bill of sale and allow your shipper to take possession of the helicopter.
• No title will be transferred, neither will the helicopter be moved from my location prior to full payment of $175,000.00 US Dollars received by my attorney.
• Please call or email me that the above conditions are satisfactory and then I will provide you with the account number and bank routing number that you will need to affect the wire transfer.
• I will take no further action until I hear back from you that these conditions meet with your approval. Until such time that the funds or a substantial monetary deposit is received by my attorney, the helicopter will remain for sale and all other offers will be considered.

I await your reply,

Orv Neisingh
Sho-Me Helicopters, LLC

I never did hear from this person again. When I attempted to call the contact phone number it had been disconnected and the email address became non-existent. These scam artists were trying to play on a sellers desire to make a sale to steal his money and/or helicopter.

I was not sure how they would make it all work since they were going to mail me a bank draft that they wanted me to deposit. Well, I soon found out when a former student of mine decided to put up his Rotorway 162F for sale so that he could purchase a certified helicopter (mine had since sold) to be able to fly a commercial contract.

Pete was contacted by an individual, much like I had been, who requested more information and pricing details. Pete told me his story and sent the following emails that he had received from the prospective buyers. I don’t have copies of Pete’s emails to the buyers but he told me how it all went down and I will paraphrase it here.

Pete had been told by phone that this fellow was going to purchase his helicopter for the agreed price and that they were going to send him a cashier's check to deposit into his personal bank account. Pete was cautious but agreed to their terms of taking funds from the deposit amount to pay the buyers agent their fees out of the deposit check to be reimbursed before the sale was finalized.

Pete received the following email. I cut and pasted it verbatim as it was on the email that Pete forwarded to me. I find it interesting that both the first email that I received and the first one Pete received started with DEAR, but no name attached:

DEAR,
I have reviewed your helicopter information and after evaluation and due to time constraint on the fact that we are running short of time.
I'm delighted to tell you that I have recommended your helicopter,
with full interest I also instructed My agent Mr Charles Neptali to carry on with this transaction while I am away.
Please payment will get to you in form of a cashier check of $15,000.I included ($8,000) for agent, broker,
and my pilot th at will be coming to the helicopter present location for Inspection and test drive.So you are required to deduct the (7,000 )which
is the deposit of you helicopter, and refund the of balance $8,000 to the Agent for him to be able to comeover & t ax charges,
and other cosmetic repair costs.
After payment has reached you and balance sent to the Agent, the agent will come for inspection,test drive, and signing of title papers,
make some cosmetic touches and he will follow you to your bank for wiring of the remaining funds. Please I will be glad to see the airplane when I am back from Oil rig in Kuwait.So hopefully everything goes well.
Please confirm this and forward the following information’s; < BR>Names:
Address:
Phone number:
For payment to be made and send to you as soon as possible.
Your honesty, understanding and co-operation will be
highly
appreciated.
Regards,
Mr George Owen

the check has already being made out, if you will understand with me you have nothing to worry about, once you get the check just take it to the bank it will clear over the counter or aleast 24hrs, please Mr Pete at this time to avoid any further delay i will need your approval to send you the check (15,000) in your next mail, and also reconfirm your address below.
thanks GG

OK,
I WILL CONTACT YOU AS SOON AS AM SENDING IT TO YOU, AND ALSO PROVIDE YOU WITH SOME NECESSARY INFO THAT WILL BE NEEDED, AND PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO LET ME KNOW WHEN IT GETS TO YOU.
GG

Pete received the check and took it to his bank. He deposited it in his account and despite numerous phone calls from the buyer and his agents to send the agent fees by Western Union, Pete held firm until his bank told him that the funds had cleared and that the $15,000.00 was indeed in his account. Once the bank told him that the funds had cleared, Pete sent $8,000.00 from his account to the Agents by Western Union as requested. As soon as the funds were picked up by the Agents, Pete received the following email:

Hello pete
Thank's for ur understanding and my agent told me they were
able to pick up the fund without problem and am so grateful because
it shows u are a man of his word and i like ur sincerity
but pls i need u to do me
a big favour am suppose to pay my agent 12,000 dollars not 8,000
so pls i will be very greatful if u can send 4,000 to my agent
today so that they will be able to come over for inspection tomorrow
and am so sorry for the inconvinience i must hav e caused u but i
will pay u all on friday with cash and i will appreciate alot if
my request is granted and i will call u later to discuss with u
right now am in england and i promise to make it up to u when i
come over to ur place and the y insist they will receive the fund
before coming over and i appreciate ur honesty

Below is the Agent's daugther information:$4,000(minus transfer charges)

So by this time Pete had received a $15,000.00 cashiers check. He deposited it into his personal bank account. When the bank told him 2 weeks later that the check had cleared Pete sent $8,000.00 to the Agent as directed. He was immediately asked for another $4,000.00 to be sent to the agent which would still leave him with a $3,000.00 deposit on his helicopter. Except for one little detail, that day Pete was notified by his bank that the check was no good, this even after they had told him that it had cleared.

The bank removed the $15,000.00 deposit from Pete’s bank account along with the $8,000.00 he had taken out and gave to Western Union for the Agent. Pete is now in a legal battle with his bank over the $8,000.00 of his own money the bank siezed. It will be interesting to see who ultimately takes the hit. For right now Pete is out $8,000.00 and lays awake at night wondering how he could have been so trusting and taken advantage of. Bear in mind that Pete lives in an area where a man’s word is his bond and if a person promises something, they deliver.

If you are in the position of selling your helicopter or other large ticket item, be very careful that you do not end up scammed.

I Just received this email from a person that almost got scammed in the sale of his Cessna: Hi Orv, I listed a Cessna 182 for sale on controller and was contacted by what sounded like a shady buyer from the start. When they asked for the name and address where they could send a cashiers check I decided to check them out a little before proceeding. I found your web site page after I googled the name "Charles Neptali." This was the name of the supposed "agent" the buyer would send. I am coping you the buyers email below. This looks exactly like the scam they pulled on your friend. Thank you for posting this information. It saved me a potential problem and I can go on negotiating with other real buyers now. Blessings, Jett Harris Fort Smith, AR Copy of email: I have reviewed your Aircraft information and after evaluation and due to time constraint on the fact that we are running short of time. I'm delighted to tell you that I have recommended your Aircraft, with full interest I also instructed My agent Mr Charles Neptali to carry on with this transaction while I am away. Please payment will get to you in form of a cashier check of $17,000.I included ($7,500) for agent, broker, and my pilot that will be coming to the Aircraft present location for Inspection and test drive. So you are required to deduct the (9,500 )which is the deposit of you aircraft, and refund the of balance $7,500 to the Agent for him to be able to comeover & tax charges, and other cosmetic repair costs. After payment has reached you and balance sent to the Agent, the agent will come for inspection,test drive, and signing of title papers, make some cosmetic touches and he will follow you to your bank for wiring of the remaining funds. Please I will be glad to see the airplane when I am back from Oil rig in Kuwait.So hopefully everything goes well. Please confirm this and forward the following information's; Names: Address: Phone number: For payment to be made and send to you as soon as possible. Your honesty, understanding and co-operation will be highly appreciated. Regards, Mr Cruz Address:34 twin hill road,Austell GA.30160.

In September of 2008 I received the following from another would-be-victim. Thanks for posting the info on your web site. I received almost the same emails you did for a Cessna 172 I am selling Here is the latest communication. I will settle for the price. I truly appreciate your effort and time in all. I hope you are not supposed to be collecting any extra fee from me? I regret to state that I won't be able to come over to view the aircraft, as we have just concluded our meeting here in the UK and I have been handed a letter of transfer that commences from tomorrow. Am sending you a comprehensive mail with the way things are going to go through because I have just been posted out of the state to Western Europe for official responsibilities (W.H.O.). The shipping and moving firm will have to meet with the owner of the aircraft but I know there won't be any transaction unless you have given my words and approval.Payment has been drawn out to your name so as to proceed with this transaction. A check/ Bank Draft of $105,000 will be sent to you, you will take 20% of it as deposit for the airplane just to make sure that it is not sold to any other person, and to pull off the ads on any advert that it might have posted on. You will make sure the rest are been remitted to the shipping and Moving Firm so as to enable them carry out all the inspections and rightful responsibilities as regards to this transaction, because they have confirmed to me that unless they receive some part payment ASAP. They won't be coming over to the state. As soon as they confirm the status of the transaction successful and approved by government that is after going through inspections and all legal proper documentaries the complete funds for the aircraft will be wired into your nominated account before the release of the title or the change of ownership documents. I will need you to provide me with either your company name or name and address that will be attention to the check/Bank Draft. Thanks for your understanding and effort. Please keep me advised as to any additional requirements you have. Respectfully Caroline. Email given was carolinging1@gmail.com For a Caroline Giggs Thanks again, Rick

On October 20, 2008 I received the following from a friend who is selling his Bonanza. Note the similarities to the above scam emails. The first email is at the bottom and the latest is at the top of the dialog below: -----Original Message----- From: Caroline Giggs [mailto:carolinging1@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, October 20, 2008 12:22 PM To: Raymond B Subject: BONANZA 1969 V35A Thanks for you response. I think need the plane, am actually purchasing this airplane for my husband has a gift for his upcoming birthday and will not want to disappoint. I will need you contact phone number were you can be reached at all times. Do send me more pics and specs of the aircraft and Kindly state the bottom price for the airplane I would need us to set up a meeting so that I can take a good look at it before we proceed. Currently am attending a summit in the UK with W.H.O but hopefully I should be done by Monday so anytime from then will be ok with me. I await your response ASAP. Caroline. On 10/17/08, Raymond B<wrb******@comcast.net> wrote: > Still for sale. Price is $139,500. Come view it anytime. It is at my > home in *******, Tx., 77546. I will take CASH only. > Raymond > > _____ > > From: Caroline Giggs [mailto:carolinging1@gmail.com] > Sent: Friday, October 17, 2008 4:53 AM > To: wrbutler@comcast.net > Subject: [Norton AntiSpam] BONANZA 1969 V35A > > > I will like to know if the airplane is still for sale. > Let me know the present condition (Send more pics if there is any) The > asking price.Kindly indicate which is your Prefered Method of > payment.Bank Draft,Cashier Cheque Or wire transfer. > I will also be glad if you can fix a date and address that i come view it. > I 'll await your swift response. > Regards > > Caroline.