I don’t get it, the guy offered to do a wire transfer. As long as it’s a true wire transfer, like a swift or ach payment, it almost impossible for someone to get it back. I’m glad people like using escrow, but we send and receive wires on a daily basis, and short of a credit card wire transfer, they are one of safest methods, while nearly impossible to reverse. Someone offers me a wire transfer and sends proof of transfer where I can see the funding source I am selling 100% of the time.

Funny story about perceived scams turning out to be real:
I had a new customer from Nigeria who wanted this expensive unit (over $50k) and I said sure, but I need a wire. I thought it was a total scam but sent the info anyways on the off chance it wasn’t. A few days later the money was in my account, I waited a two weeks and checked with bank to confirm there was no way the money could be returned and they said there was no issues and they couldn’t get it back. The address I was supposed to ship to was like this:

BB labs
Attn:
Interstate 98, next to Toyota dealership
Behind goat field, near body shop
Lagos, Nigeria

The fedex lady thought it was a joke, but they forced it through. I called the customer and said my chain of responsibility ended at fedex, and if it’s lost it’s on them. Sure enough, 4 days later it was delivered and signed for, and the customer was happy. Still to this day I can’t believe that address worked and it turned out ok. There is definitely a ton of scams out there, but my experience has been more positive than negative, and after thousands of wire transfers we have yet to have an issue with one. Good luck to both buyer and seller and hopefully they can make it work.