Author Topic: Vintage Motorcycle Scam - Beware!!  (Read 11032 times)

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Offline Barlz

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Vintage Motorcycle Scam - Beware!!
« on: October 22, 2021, 01:05:32 PM »
Hi Everyone,
I wondered whether to post this or not, but I decided I should so others can avoid the same scam. I was recently scammed out of $5,000 by a person by the name of 'Clay Hunwick' who supposedly sold me a 1971 Husqvarna 400 Cross project bike and parts. It's been 10 weeks now and the bike nor a promised refund have arrived.  There's a bit of a story to this, but I'd appreciate it if you can read it and let others in the VMX community know, as I'm sure 99.9% of the VMX community are good honest people. Here it is...

In August I placed a wanted ad on Gumtree for a vintage dirt bike and I had a number of responses, one of which was from a guy by the name 'Clay Hunwick' from Brisbane who said he had a number of bikes for sale. He was extremely knowledgeable about vintage bikes. He sent across loads of photos and we spoke a number of times (by phone and by text) over a couple of days and eventually settled on $5,000 for a 1971 Husqvarna 400 Cross with transport included from Brisbane to Canberra. I paid the money via bank transfer and was advised the bike would be picked up later that week.

Immediately he began to try and get me to buy another bike as part of the deal, which I politely declined (I was now quite suspicious). He followed me on Instagram, and we chatted back and forth on cars, bikes and watches.

So the pick-up of the bike was delayed a number of times due to COVID and border restrictions It was a month before it was finally picked up. The transport driver was a guy by the name of ‘Terry’ but despite my many calls to him he never answered the phone, he only texted. ‘Terry’ had a string of bad luck from COVID testing, border restrictions and his van breaking down almost every second day. The bike was always promised to be delivered ‘tomorrow’ or ‘by the end of the week’, but it was obviously all untrue. All the while ‘Clay’ was trying to sell me additional bikes (including ‘pay me half now, half when the bikes show up’) all offers of which I politely declined.
As this dragged on (I’d already reported this to the police by this stage) and I put the pressure on he began to suggest refunding me the money until the bike showed up. He said a number of times he’d send the money back and it of course never arrived.

I’ve learnt an expensive lesson, but I wanted to let the VMX community know that this guy is out there trying to scam people and he is quite knowledgeable. He says he has Triumphs, Elsinores, Huskys, Yamahas, Rickmans, that he has raced bikes in California. He’ll also use Instragram, Facebook etc to research you and what you like to build rapport and will call a number of times. The amazing thing is he is still in contact and has been the whole time, so it’s not the usual scam where they take your money and run, rather he’s always trying to lure you in. Just beware.

Offline LWC82PE

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Re: Vintage Motorcycle Scam - Beware!!
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2021, 11:31:58 PM »
Sorry to hear about this but thanks for putting it on here. i think this Clay guy was also the Terry guy. He would have had a second phone to use when he was acting as Terry and the reason it was text only with him was so that that you could not notice his voice was same as Clay. Its obvious this guy has put some thought into this. I hope you get your money back.
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Offline bazza

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Re: Vintage Motorcycle Scam - Beware!!
« Reply #2 on: October 23, 2021, 09:38:03 AM »
Police can see where his cell phone pings off towers to get you close to area he lives in
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Offline skypig

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Re: Vintage Motorcycle Scam - Beware!!
« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2021, 11:02:06 AM »
Police can see where his cell phone pings off towers to get you close to area he lives in

They can do a lot better than that. “Burner” phones don’t really exist in Australia - you have to provide ID to activate any phone.
A few recent examples of people being ripped off for Grand Final tickets - the law needs to come down on these scum.

Offline Matador107

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Re: Vintage Motorcycle Scam - Beware!!
« Reply #4 on: October 23, 2021, 04:27:19 PM »
This bloke has ripped off a lot of people, bikes cars and vintage guitars, there’s a lot on the Facebook sites of VMX etc . His father Rod Hunwick owned Action Suzuki at one stage and was also involved in the Hunwick Hallam superbike. I think “ Clay “ also operates under other names, am surprised he is still getting away with it, and police have been informed a number of times, I believe he’s on the Gold Coast. Stay away.
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Offline matcho mick

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Re: Vintage Motorcycle Scam - Beware!!
« Reply #5 on: October 26, 2021, 06:51:46 PM »
just amazes me it's still happening,heard of guys in vic been stung bigtime for fancy road race bikes,sells the same bike to different guys,i know of one got $20k back,still nearly that owing on another "deal",like the D's say,'if it's too good to be true,it generally is",good luck  :P
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Offline Barlz

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Re: Vintage Motorcycle Scam - Beware!!
« Reply #6 on: October 28, 2021, 01:39:49 PM »
Thanks everyone for the support and the stories of him ripping off other people, the police have my statement and have all the details, so we will see what happens.

Offline Hoony

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Re: Vintage Motorcycle Scam - Beware!!
« Reply #7 on: October 28, 2021, 05:59:55 PM »
i saw on facebook today he scammed a guy in the USA for $21K, the guy has reported him to Oz Federal Police and the FBI in the USA.

the guy intends to push it as far as he can due to the amount and importantly the principal.

there was some other interesting things said about a family member of his scamming some employees by not paying their superannuation for years as well.
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Offline Barlz

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Re: Vintage Motorcycle Scam - Beware!!
« Reply #8 on: October 28, 2021, 07:01:17 PM »
i saw on facebook today he scammed a guy in the USA for $21K, the guy has reported him to Oz Federal Police and the FBI in the USA.

the guy intends to push it as far as he can due to the amount and importantly the principal.

there was some other interesting things said about a family member of his scamming some employees by not paying their superannuation for years as well.

Yes lots of stories about him coming out on bikes, vintage guitars, cars etc, people getting scammed in Australia and across the globe.
« Last Edit: October 28, 2021, 07:03:36 PM by cbarlin »

Offline Wasp

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Re: Vintage Motorcycle Scam - Beware!!
« Reply #9 on: October 29, 2021, 08:06:07 PM »
Group class action will sort that bad boy out .
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Offline roon

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Re: Vintage Motorcycle Scam - Beware!!
« Reply #10 on: November 01, 2021, 11:58:13 AM »
His home address was made public on one of the FB posts  8)
Spending too much time online and not enough time riding: '76 XR75, '76 Husky CC175, '76 Husky 360 Auto, '83 510TE, '84 510TE, '01 VOR400, '04 VOR450, '00 VOR503, '75 CB400/4, '63 CB72,  '70 Guzzi Ambassador, '94 Guzzi NTX650, 1981 XL500S

Offline Barlz

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Re: Vintage Motorcycle Scam - Beware!!
« Reply #11 on: November 11, 2021, 06:27:11 PM »
Just an update, he's still out there ripping people off, I've spoken to seven other people over the past two weeks who have yet to receive bikes or money or both.  Apparently he's also taken bikes on consignment and the owners are still waiting for the money or bikes to be returned. Others have received one bike but are still waiting on more they have bought from him that have never arrived.

I'd ask that anyone who has been scammed to please report it to the police so they can shut this guy (and others like him) down. I know people are embarrassed to admit they have been scammed (I was too) but we need people reporting him so the police can take action.

Offline lc4

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Re: Vintage Motorcycle Scam - Beware!!
« Reply #12 on: November 12, 2021, 08:17:28 PM »
« Last Edit: November 12, 2021, 08:19:06 PM by lc4 »

Offline Tomas

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Re: Vintage Motorcycle Scam - Beware!!
« Reply #13 on: November 17, 2021, 09:22:15 PM »
Some sad stories here. But i guess if you are investing thousands in a bike and so on you should not try to save a couple of dollars on purchasing something like motorcycle based on what you see on a couple of photographs.I paid cash for me bike when I picked it up. Also it only may cost you less than hundered dollars to send money using paypal. If someone disagree with paypal than there may be something fishy. Never had any issues with paypal even when purchased items did not arrived. Also using a bank transfer gives you something in case you get tricked. Police can track bank accounts and so on. When someone ask you to use wire transfer than there may be something fishy again. Being a bit smart cost nothing and those stealing bastards get shit :D

Offline roon

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Re: Vintage Motorcycle Scam - Beware!!
« Reply #14 on: November 26, 2021, 11:54:07 AM »
Also using a bank transfer gives you something in case you get tricked. Police can track bank accounts and so on.  :D
Unfortunately not, I got done by a guy here in Australia, provided a Sydney CBA bank account and I did a transfer from my St Goerge account, but when I tried to get my money back neither bank could help me.
Didn't go to the police at the time, still get angry about being done as Ive bought and sold hundreds of car and bikes parts and bikes online all over the world and never had an issue, except for this one oxygen thief
Spending too much time online and not enough time riding: '76 XR75, '76 Husky CC175, '76 Husky 360 Auto, '83 510TE, '84 510TE, '01 VOR400, '04 VOR450, '00 VOR503, '75 CB400/4, '63 CB72,  '70 Guzzi Ambassador, '94 Guzzi NTX650, 1981 XL500S