# White Van Scams...



## I=V/R (May 25, 2011)

I am an avid Craigslist shopper. I have my city and several major surrounding cities on my instant search. It seems like every day, or every other day, I see an ad for these scam speakers. People post them claiming that the MSRP is like $2,000 but you can get them for an easy $500. Seriously?! Sometimes I post with a link to the white van scam wiki page. I guess I am just curious if any of you get irritated by this also? I mean do people really fall for these scams?


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## drdoan (Aug 30, 2006)

sadly many do. "if it sounds too good to be true..." Have fun. Dennis


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## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

Hello,
The White Van Speaker phenomenon never ceases to amaze me. Always seems to be a variation of the same story about them being available due to a big Installation being cancelled or an Employee leaving a Job...

And all the Brand Names seem to be Acoustic something or other. I always hate having to tell a friend that they had been had. Even worse, many of these "Speakers" pose a risk to AVR's due to wildly varying Impedance and other issues due to horrible Crossover Networks and pathetic Driver Quality. Thankfully, it has been a while since someone on this Forum has fallen prey to these clowns.
JJ


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## I=V/R (May 25, 2011)

It amazes me how they ALL look the same. I recently went to one of my friends pawn shops, and one of his employees had purchased a set of "image reference" speakers. I laughed when I saw them on the shelf and asked him who bought these? His reply was, "somebody that no longer works here."


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## zieglj01 (Jun 20, 2011)

This is interesting


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## tesseract (Aug 9, 2010)

zieglj01 said:


> This is interesting
> Australia's Got Talent white van speaker scam Mark Vincent (Marc Vincent) - YouTube


That is very interesting, thank you for that, zieglj01.

My girlfriend recently told me about some speakers being sold out of a vehicle in a grocery store parking lot. I asked her if it was a white van, and she said in surprise that it was. I then showed her the "White Van" link on Wikipedia, she was amazed.

I told her that I wish very much that I had been there with her... addle:


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## zieglj01 (Jun 20, 2011)

tesseract said:


> I told her that I wish very much that I had been there with her... addle:


I am sure, that would have been interesting!


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## BrianAbington (Mar 19, 2008)

I had a co-worker get ripped off by the scam when it came through Omaha. He invited me over to check them out and I think he was mad because I was laughing so hard.

The veneer looked like a thin shiny plastic. The "Kevlar" drivers had gaps in the weave showing the paper cone behind them and had stamped baskets and tiny tiny magnets. The 40" towers weighed about 20 lbs and resonated like crazy when subjected to a knock test. 

Amazing how people still are not aware of this scam.


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## fusseli (May 1, 2007)

BrianAbington said:


> I had a co-worker get ripped off by the scam when it came through Omaha. He invited me over to check them out and I think he was mad because I was laughing so hard.
> 
> The veneer looked like a thin shiny plastic. The "Kevlar" drivers had gaps in the weave showing the paper cone behind them and had stamped baskets and tiny tiny magnets. The 40" towers weighed about 20 lbs and resonated like crazy when subjected to a knock test.
> 
> Amazing how people still are not aware of this scam.


Or from the video, I like the blocks of concrete they put in the amps to make them heavy! The scam is unbelievable. 

Sadly my dad got taken five or six years back. Still have the tower speakers somewhere, may someday repurpose the cabs for something. Funny though, his had "aluminized titanium cones," which is a silvery metallic sticker stuck on the front of an uber cheap concave paper cone :sarcastic:


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## sholling (Oct 6, 2010)

What amazes me is that the white van scammers show up here. I live in a small town 20 miles from a freeway but they still make it out here at least once a year.


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## gorb (Sep 5, 2010)

I've never personally encountered a white van scam, but I wish I had. My current roommate used to do it though - he sold speakers out of a van for his cousin back when he lived in Chicago. I don't know if he realized how scummy it was or not, since he was actually using a set of the speakers 

I sold him my old energy take classic 5.1 set, and i'll just say it was a huge upgrade to what he was using before.


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## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

sholling said:


> What amazes me is that the white van scammers show up here. I live in a small town 20 miles from a freeway but they still make it out here at least once a year.


Hello,
Approximately once a year, I get a phone call from a friend from High School or University that tells me about the awesome new "Acoustic xxx" Speakers that he/she was able to get from a guy who had these super expensive Speakers for an Installation that the Customer cancelled and they were stuck with them complete with fake Paperwork including often Invoices, etc.. Or some permutation of that.

It too blows my mind that this still happens too. I do greatly enjoy the times where I have been able to save friends and other people there from getting ripped off. I have been able to do this several times. Once, violence was threatened by the scammer, but I am 6'1 and I was with 3 other friends where I was the shortest by 3 Inches. And one of my friends in this instance was an MMA Fighter so let's just say that the fella backed down...
Cheers,
JJ


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Its not just "white van" now its on line as well. I saw some speakers on Amazon the other day that someone posted here for cheep LOL defiantly the same kind of garbage as sold from these guys.


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## sholling (Oct 6, 2010)

Jungle Jack said:


> Hello,
> Approximately once a year, I get a phone call from a friend from High School or University that tells me about the awesome new "Acoustic xxx" Speakers that he/she was able to get from a guy who had these super expensive Speakers for an Installation that the Customer cancelled and they were stuck with them complete with fake Paperwork including often Invoices, etc.. Or some permutation of that.
> 
> It too blows my mind that this still happens too. I do greatly enjoy the times where I have been able to save friends and other people there from getting ripped off. I have been able to do this several times. Once, violence was threatened by the scammer, but I am 6'1 and I was with 3 other friends where I was the shortest by 3 Inches. And one of my friends in this instance was an MMA Fighter so let's just say that the fella backed down...
> ...


As the saying goes "There's a sucker born every minute".


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## tcarcio (Jun 27, 2007)

This really is another reason to do your homework and make sure to ask someone who has some experience in this equipment. In my neck of the woods it is called "Theater Acoustic" and I see them on Craigslist all the time. :rolleyesno:


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## zieglj01 (Jun 20, 2011)

tcarcio said:


> This really is another reason to do your homework and make sure to ask someone who has some experience in this equipment. In my neck of the woods it is called "Theater Acoustic" and I see them on Craigslist all the time. :rolleyesno:


And in pawn shops and flea markets.


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

I have heard of this alot but never encounterd any of them, i wish i would so i could laugh at them and make them leave in tears. 

I know that sounds bad of me but it's also not right for them to do what they do JMO.:T


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## MikeBiker (Jan 3, 2010)

It's human nature for people to want to get an amazingly good product for a very low price. Few people have enough speaker knowledge to know that buzz words and slick talk do not a good speaker make. I wonder how many people get those speakers as presents from a well-meaning relative who will never know what a worthless item they bought.


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