Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

FIRST PERSON/OPINION

Via e-mail:

You may wish to advise your classified ad subscribers that they may be the subject to fraudulent offers. I received an email in response to a Roadracing World classified ad. Mr Frank Joseph claimed to be in Holland and wanted to purchase my motorcycle. He offered to pay the full asking price provided I would ship it to Nigeria, where he was being transferred.

A cashier’s cheque arrived, apparently drawn from a Texas credit union, for the motorcycle cost, plus shipping. I was supposed to pay for the shipping and keep the difference.

Unfortunately, the cheque is a forgery and no such funds are available. A simple call to the credit union verified the cheque was fraudulent and the persons (names) involved, Frank Joseph, Fred Mark, David James and John Wood have a history of forged cheques and fraudulent activity.

Michael Steszyn
Portland, Oregon




This reaction just in, from another reader:

FIRST PERSON/OPINION

My teammate was contacted by the same person, or at least the same situation back around the time of the Daytona AMA round.

Sean Wyatt
Chicago, Illinois


More, from another reader, the father of racer Chris Peris:

FIRST PERSON/OPINION

Follow up to your article, I was contacted by the same person this morning, via e-mail.

I would like to thank Roadracing World for keeping all us, unknowing potential victims informed. Very nasty, do the scams ever end?

I guess my bike’s still for sale. There goes my holiday. Good thing I wasn’t going to Nigeria, I probably would have delivered it.

I thought it was a little weird, they were going to send too much money.

That’s not racing…

Fernando Peris
Calgary, Alberta, Canada