Some of you who have been around for a while may recognize this scam. It’s been going on for years. Nothing like an old hustle with a bright new spin on it. Here’s the usual scenario. You see a couple of guys sitting in a van or in a truck. You notice them because they want to be noticed. They have all the doors swung open and music is playing. The sound grabs your attention like a cobra rising out of a basket to the sound of a flute. You approach the van with some level of trepidation. They are selling speakers. A decade or so back it was probably a set of huge stereo speakers that took up an entire living room. Now it’s something different. It’s a set of little kickass Bluetooth speakers that can fit in the palm of your hand. You are attracted by their futuristic cone shape look- like little rockets ready to sail off into the sky. One guy whispers for you to come close and listen. He turns the speakers up full blast. The mid-range sounds powerful enough to shake a small city to its knees. Now you’re interested. You eye the speakers closely and being the bargain shopper that you are. You begin bobbing your head around inside the van looking for a brand name, a logo, something you can identify them with, in order to pull up a value from Amazon or eBay on your phone. But you can’t find any designation. You ask them about the brand, and they tell you they are one-offs, built by some electronics genius in Silicon Valley. They were supposed to deliver them to this rich couple up in the hills, but they weren’t home. They tried calling. No answer. Maybe they had to leave town, who knows. All these guys know and care about is they’re stuck with them, and they want to sell them. The other guy turns them up again and the street rumbles, your feet shake, and your chest pounds. You’re in love They say they’ll practically give them away because they’re busted out and need gas and a place to stay for the night. They throw out a price that's way too high. You being astute bargained that you are, do some hard negotiations with these guys, and finally, come to terms. Through the process, you’re thinking about walking away because deep inside you feel it's a scam. But, a deal is a deal after all, and you go for them. You get them home, fire them up, and what amazing speakers. What a score you just made. Two months later they stop working. You have a friend who’s an electronic geek and he tries to fix him, but they’re toast. Now what? Whenever you’re on that same street you look for those guys, but they are never to be found. It was nice for a while, but in the end, you got punked. If there was only a way to find that genius who made them. He could fix them. But that is never going to happen. Most likely they made him up and he doesn't exist. My father used to say never walk away from a guy selling goods from the back of the car. I’m pretty sure he would have excluded electronics and some other things from his list.
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