Andrew Margan just wanted the old family pianola to go to a good home. Instead, the Hunter Valley winemaker found himself in conversation with a Nigerian scammer.
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"Am buying it for my lovely Son who just graduated ontop of his class in Autralia national university (ANU) ,he studied Business Law and Professional Ethics Minor and am so proud of him . I want it as a suprise package to appreciate him towards his achievement and to be delivered before my arrival NT as my family lives in NT." [sic]
That's an excerpt from the email that arrived in Mr Margan's inbox on Friday morning only 15 minutes or so after the winemaker had posted a for-sale ad for a Gulbransen pianola on the online classified ads site Gumtree.
The 1940s pianola had belonged to his wife Lisa's grandmother and had served the family well. The couple's three children all learnt to play piano on it and there had been at least a few sing-alongs beside it.
"We've sat around it jamming, but not in a post-Second World War scenario, more like too many glasses of red wine." One of Margan's good friends played for the '70s and '80s pub-rock band the Radiators. He liked to bash out old Radiators' songs on the instrument. "The one that springs to mind first is Gimme Head," says Margan.
Margan quickly realised that the emailer, who went by the names "Neville Kewa" and "Neville Fewa", was unlikely to be a genuine lover of good music.
"Coming from a village in Nigeria? They wouldn't have too many [pianolas]."
Through a lengthy email exchange, he teased out his modus operandi. The scammer quickly agreed to the $2500 asking price. But there was a hitch. The courier needed payment before pick-up.
An email purporting to be from PayPal arrived in Margan's inbox. It claimed that an amount of $3500 had been deposited in his account but, before it could be released, Margan would need to pay the courier $1000. The email included bank BSB and account numbers.
When Margan asked for the courier's details, he was given a link to the "Mediterranean Shipping Company". But the scammer was clearly off his game. Margan clicked on the site's "contact me" tab where a Google map had helpfully been embedded. The red teardrop marking the location of the site's creator sat squarely in the centre of Nigeria in an area scattered with villages.
"Thats too funny! Love a good Nigerian email scam!!" Margan emailed back.
The scammer replied, imploring him to complete the transaction: "... you leave me no choice than to further report this transaction to PayPal and AFP because, you are starting to act strange to me especially with your previous email ..."
The pianola is still for sale.
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