BEWARE - scammers targeting broadcast equipment collectors

[austvarchive]

Just wanted to warn all fellow collectors out there, that the nigerian scammers are taking things one step further!

I've been receiving emails from time to time through my website from supposed individuals who have old equipment they wish to
either donate or sell to me.

The latest one is extremely bold, i got an email from someone telling me they have an RCA TK76 for sale, when i asked for more info
they sent me a whole lot of photos...which i thought looked familiar, and are actually from Chuck Pharis's website...a quick google search reveals
that this persons email is one that is well known for a nigerian email scam...and of course fittingly there is very bad english and grammatical mistakes
in it too!

No doubt this person is hoping i will hand over money for this camera which doesnt exist!

So, all please be careful - the must be getting desperate to go to this much trouble

James

[austvarchive]

Further to my previous email,

the pictures they sent me of the TK76's, i have worked out come from both chucks website and the UK based golden age tv website...

Today i received a response and they say:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Yes the photos of the actual cameras.The camera is for sale.I am located in USA.

The RCA TK-76 Handheld Color Camera are 2 in stock.One of the camera has Lens and it cost $18,500usd and the other one without Lens cost $10,500usd as you can see in the photo.Are you taking both?

Let me know your decision urgently

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LOL!! - as if you would fall for it, i think they think i am dumber than they are...but still amazes me how they are resorting now to targetting people individually
in niche markets like us!

James

[bob91343]

Offer to come look at the equipment. For that much money it could justify a trip to the seller's location. The response, if any, will be revealing I think.

[Sandy G]

Still think these jackasses oughta be caught, have a fair trial on Monday, have their appeal on Tuesday, & then be executed/tortured in the most excruciating way possible on Wednesday, as an object lesson on why NOT to do crap like this...

[BrianSummers]

Hmmm, interesting that!, I have just had an email asking if I wanted to buy a TK47P and an even bigger selection of Philips LDkxxx cameras than Philips has!

I asked him were in the world he is, perhaps I shall get some useful pictures out of him for my museum site!!

Brian

www.tvcameramuseum.org

[heathkit tv]

Good call on noticing where you saw the pix before. I use a free website that's an image search tool which scours the interweb for a similar photo, that way you can see if it's been used or lifted from other sites.

www.tineye.com

It doesn't find a hit all the time but at least it gives you a shot.

[austvarchive]

I have to laugh, this thread is now being picked up by search engines and being read by people checking the value of their tk76's, and somehow my post about the scammer is being read as if the tk76 cameras are *really* worth $18,500 as i have had a person contact me thinking they were worth that, after telling him he has mid-read part of this thread somewhere he said ok he would settle for $2,000 or its not worth selling...

hmm or perhaps it was another scammer...

[JB5pro]

Let me know your decision urgently



That sort of odd wording reminds me of the scams coming from haiti, etc where they have thousands of poorly educated workers writing to everybody with wording that gives them away everytime.
The part that frustrates me and reminds me of how multitudes of people are is that they make millions from this approach. I saw Dateline with a latrin woman that gave over $200,000.! Her life savings!
It reminds me of how lies seem to be the only way to compete in today's world. Seems like evertime I tell truths people ought to consider I get hatred in response.
Should I become a liar too?
Do I just sit by and watch the liars steal from the innocent?
I have finally come to realize why all politicians lie... because if they tell the truth they will NEVER win.

With that said I must clarify that I am not mean, jealous or bitter which is what many seem to interpret when I talk on an adult level.
I am happy like a child much of the time but I appreciate the adult world of factual knowledge over the child minded ways that are too popular.. in my humble opinion
I hope I did not say too much. Do I need to dumb myself down again?

[Vidiot]

I'm not sure a TK-76 is worth $180, let alone $18,000. I mean... geez, it was a great camera in the 1970s, and not horrible in the 1980s, but get real. And many (if not most) of them are going to be beat to hell by this point, and the new tubes are tough to find.

I'd only buy one a) out of nostalgia, b) if it was in mint condition, and c) if it were like a hundred bucks.

[julianburke]

Yeah, I'll let them know my decision urgently!!

[Woodronics]

Just thought some may be interested in the real cost of a '76 back in 76

Can someone who was in to luxury cars back in the late 1970s correct me if I'm wrong... I figure this money would have bought a Rolls Royce at the time?

[julianburke]

I owned a 1979 RR Shadow II and it was $82K in March of 1980.