Tarriffs - No More Coins from European Auctions?

Something really bizarre just happened - I kept on getting notes from UPS that it was going to deliver a parcel to my house - although I receive coin shipments at my work address - and that when it showed up I would have to pay $597 to UPS presumably for tariff charges. Also it was from Boxtal France, from CDMA - a known French coin dealer.

I have probably purchased coins from CDMA but if so it would have been in the distant past - and I have not been able to get in touch with the company since they are not on ebay, nor Numisbid or Biddr, which are the auctions houses I use to buy coins for my collection. My recollection is that CDMA is a bit on the pricey side.

Any ideas? If this is a scam it is pretty sophisticated since it has UPS collecting the money - I was not able to shell out $597 just to purchase a mystery box which might be a catalogue or something. Since my wife was the one who answered the door for UPS I have no idea what was in the parcel only I was not going to pay $597 to see it.

I will look on the internet and find out if this is the latest scam, but it does to seem to me to be very good - who would pay this kind of money for something they did not order? And CDMA is a coin auction house.

P.S. I have received coins lately from Europe no tarriff charges including a worn Plotina sestertius I was able to considerably improve with a bit of olive oil. I always wanted an example and will show it shortly.

 

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Scam, if you didn't order anything it's a scam, even if you did order something, the seller would contact you and ask wtfooey!

 

I thought so too - it does mean that someone from France actually paid UPS to send me something counting on my naivete in paying for what may well be an empty box. Still it is elaborate in that the scammer had to pay the shipping charge to UPS in the hope of collecting the $597 - it is bizarre!

 

How would the sender in France collect the supposed 'tariff'? Doesn't that money go to the government??

I recently was sent a package by the same dealer and they used the correct harmonized code for ancient coins, no tariff.

 

I just read about a week ago about just such a scam. I don't recall all the details, but this sounds very much like the one described in the article.