[sdiy] Possible Minimoog Scam alert

[Tim Parkhurst]

Hi All,

Sorry if this is too OT, but I think I've been taken for a fair amount of
money and I want to warn others. Recently, I replied to a Harmony Central ad
from a guy named Ryan Lewis in Canada who was selling two Minimoogs and a
Voyager. The price ($750 each) seemed to good to be true, and I thought for
sure they'd be snapped up by the time I responded. I tried anyway, and got
an email back from Ryan stating that a previous deal to sell the synths had
just fallen through, he had deleted the other email offers he had because he
thought the synths were sold, and I was welcome to them. We emailed and
spoke on the phone several times and I thought I had a reasonable amount of
trust in the guy. We finally worked out that I was going to send him $1000;
payment for the Voyager and a deposit on one of the Minis, and that I would
send him the balance in one month. I've had very good luck with online deals
before, and I guess I'm just a trusting person. Too trusting, I guess. To
sum up the story, the synths were supposedly sent Friday, August 29th via
FedEx ground (a three-day service). Unfortunately, all I have at this point
is a tracking number that doesn't work, assurance from FedEx that nothing
has been shipped from Canada to myself or my company (had the stuff sent to
my work address), and a feeling that I've been screwed. MAYBE this is all a
misunderstanding or a miscommunication and the equipment will show up on
Monday and I will do my "happy dance" and have my faith in human nature
restored BUT IN THE MEAN TIME I JUST WANTED TO WARN OTHERS ABOUT THIS AND TO
SEE IF ANYONE ELSE HAS RESPONDED TO THE SAME AD. Mr. Lewis hasn't responded
to my emails in the last three days, and his phone message has been replaced
with a generic "please leave a message" digitized voice. 

I feel like an idiot admitting how easily I was taken in, but I wanted to
see if I could save someone else some headaches (and money). 

Anyone know a good Private Investigator in or around London, Ontario? Like I
say, I really really hope I'm wrong about this and the equipment shows up,
but I think I'm going to have to do a little investigating to find Mr. Lewis
and some legal wrangling to get my money back. His phone message stated that
he ran a company named "DSP Audio" and he told me that he specialized in
syncing and re-recording audio for video. It would not surpise me at this
point if the address I have for him is bogus also. 

Again, sorry for going OT, but hopefully I can keep others from repeating my
stupid mistake.

Tim Servo (who is now older and hopefully slightly wiser)


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