Beware of requests to pay by Western Union

I expect that most of you are aware of this but for those of you who are not please read this.

Some time ago I put an advert on the anciennes.com website (a French one) for one particular chrome “baguette” for a small boot luggage rack.
Earlier this week I got a reply, from someone in France, to my wanted advert which said that they may have what I was looking for.
I asked for a photo.
What came back was a photo of a complete set of chrome baguettes for an 11BL rack.
I was very surprised to see a full set for sale and asked how much.
500 euros plus post and packing was the reply.
Too much I replied and said that I had bought 2 complete racks including all brackets for 350 euros each. I wished them luck but added that I would pay 150 euros plus post and packing to the UK.
The reply came back saying that they accepted my offer as they were not in it for the money.
I replied asking if they had a Paypal account.
No they didn’t they said but they would take a cash payment by Western Union.
I replied saying that I could not do that as it gave me no cover and I asked them to tell me their address, the name and address of their bank and their BIC and IBAN numbers.
Back came a reply to the effect that they did not have a bank account and that Western Union was how they must be paid.
I replied that instead I would arrange a collection and payment of 150 euros upon receipt by the collector of the baguettes asking where they could be collected from and also that I thought that there was 1 baguette missing and did they have the missing one.
The reply attached a photo of the rear of a Traction with a luggage rack fitted and the baguettes fitted to the rack, also they gave me the collection address as 145 Avenue des Poilus, 13013 Marseille.
A Google Maps search showed that this was the La Poste distribution centre in Marseilles, or the car park next to it.
I decided to try and find out something about the car in the photo and sent an email to Olivier de Serres, Stephane Hadangue, Jens Møller Nicolaisen, Nico Michon and Dominique Belliere.
Nico came back almost immediately telling me who owned the car.
I contacted the owner and the scam was finally confirmed – they had not sold the car and they were not using a pseudonym.

The person who was attempting to defraud me used the email address maxime.duffet@laposte.net