The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Hi everyone, I didn't know quite where to place this

In any case, I received an unusual message today through my Youtube channel.

Hi ,

I wonder if you can help;

I'm looking for buy the following 78's

Al Bowley
Hutch
Lew Stone
Jack Hilton
Marrion Harris


And many more similar ones.

In return for your help I can invite you to some great events at places like Cafe de Paris, The Pigalle Club etc.

Euan
****** (He left his phone number and email address here)


Am I the only one that's a bit skeptical about this? I'm rarely approached for sale of records, let alone messages offering me tickets to the Café de Paris :S I've replied asking for a bit of clarification and what the records would be used for.

Any help appreciated! Thanks

Sounds odd to me. If he now has your email address I'd suggest changing your passwords to any email and financial accounts! Some hacker got into my address book and tried some mischief that fortunately failed.
Bob

I've had messages about wanting to get copies of records by certain bands before but not from this person, nor did they offer me tickets in exchange. I would either ignore it or proceed with extreeme caution particulalry if they ask you for bank details for them to pay money into your account. Even if they paid with paypal can't they claim the money back if they are unsatisfied with the goods or if they "claim" the never arrived? Or is that just ebay?

Edit: Just as an addition to what I originally wrote the person who contacted me was located in some east european country which just added to my suspicians that it could have been some kind of scam. In the end I told them that I was a collector not a dealer and as such none of my records were for sale.

Quite probably the person involved hacked your Youtube account and thus discovered your private e-mail address. Just this action shows that he cannot be trusted. I advise you to remove all your postings, delete the account and re-post under a different name. Also I would mention this action to the administrating board of Youtube, so that he can be banned. It is possible to see the IP address this mail was posted from, so even if he uses a different moniker, he can still be tracked and banned.

Peter.

I've had similar messages sent to me. On was from a guy who wanted advice on how to convert an Edison Dictaphone into a cylinder phonograph. I know his message had nothing to do with money but, it's awfully suspicious when you get a personal message from a guy who you you don't know. When I get messages like this, I just block the user and never hear a thing from them again.

I ended up turning PM's off on my youtube account. It got to the point where I was receiving messages several times a day, every day. Some were really kind messages, thanking me for uploading a song they'd been looking for, for decades, or asking if they could use uploads for radio shows etc, but others were down right strange. One guy kept requesting songs on a daily basis, many of which I'd already uploaded, while others DEMANDED I sent them a digital transfer of certain titles.
The latest kook found a Columbia process recording I uploaded, of a song her father wrote & recorded. She left several comments on the video & on my homepage, asking for an MP3 of the song, but finally said her fathers copy had "not for sale" on the label, and that her sister lives in Brisbane & could pick the record up

I would not trust them just a little bit for no other reason than even though English is obviously not their first language, they managed to spell Marion Harris' name wrong.

JohnM wrote:....they managed to spell Marion Harris' name wrong.

and Al Bowlly. It's double L and no E.

And Jack Hylton too. Poor Jack had nothing to do with the hotel chain.

Well at least they got Lew Stone right. I suppose they could of spelt it Loo Stone