I was just on the way home from work sitting at a traffic light at 23rd Ave and Cactus Ave. This guy in a blue Ford Explorer SUV turned onto 23rd Ave from Cactus Ave and stops yelling "Do you want to buy some surround sound speakers for a really good price brand new!?". I'm an electronics guy so I'm interested. This guy tells me "turn around I'll park over here". I turned around and drove over to where he was parked. He got out of his vehicle with a magazine in his hand. A stereo magazine that had a listing in it for the speakers he wanted to sell to me: Olin Ross brand. Never heard of it. He said they're worth $2800 and the magazine ad "confirmed" it. He tells me I'll give them to you for $100. I asked him why he said that he works for a home entertainment sound company and a customer ordered them and then backed out (he actually had an "order" in his hand too with a receipt stapled to it). He said that he's authorized to sell them or they go back to the distributor and the distributor sells them.
I told him they seem to be nice speakers but I don't have $100 on me. He said his warehouse is only a few blocks away. I can follow him and take a look at the speakers and if I like them, he'll load them into his vehicle and follow me to an ATM and we can make the exchange their. I told him I'd follow him to his warehouse. That's when I noticed (while following him) that he had a Florida license plate (298 HYC) and this is in Arizona. That was one of several red flags that were waving.
While following him I got on my cell phone and called my brother who is an electronics buff too. I asked him if he ever heard of Olin Ross speakers and he hadn't so he decided to Google the name for me. He said multiple links came up stating to beware of guys in white vans and SUVs selling speakers of this brand name (among many others, i.E. Genesis, Davinchi to name a couple) and that it's a scam.
These guys buy the speakers from China for $40/pair. China advertises these speakers in multiple national electronics magazines as retailing for $2800. So when the guy told me he's giving me the deal of a lifetime for "beer money" it was pretty believable.
This guy's warehouse is near 23rd Avenue and Peoria Ave. If you go North on 23rd Ave from Peoria Ave you'll come to Mercer Lane take that West to 24 Ave and the "warehouse" is in an office park right on the SW corner of 24th Ave and Mercer Lane. Suite #1168.
He's caucasion, has multiple tattoos all over his legs and arms and piercings in his eyebrows. He drives a blue Ford Explorer with severe rear-end damage and a Florida State License plate numbered 298-HYC. Don't let him scam you. A couple of my coworkers already have told me that he's approached them at gas stations nearby that area too. He said he was with a company called Sound Labs. Fictional I'm sure.
0 comments