Flash back forty eight hours: Fighting sleep, Nate is bidding on two sleek, blue bicycle wheels in an down-to-the-minute eBay auction. As the high bidder, Nate has still not reached the (^%$#^@!) minimum bid level at which the items would be sold (stupid...stupid). Thus, Nate does not win the auction. Flash forward another 24 hours: Nate receives an email _apparently_ from an eBay user saying the item would still be sold to me, despite lowest acceptable bid not being reached. The unsuspecting Nate replies to another specified email address instead of replying through eBay (note: NEVER do this), and in three hours receives a reply asking for username, auction number, address, etc, so that seller can initiate payment procedure through wire transfer instead of PayPal (note: NEVER do this). I only realized this was a scam because the asshole on the other end misused some little grammatical article in a sentence, an ESL error the dudes at the bike shop in Indiana (from whom I was going to buy the wheelset) would likely not have committed. I was close to replying to the email, but thank goodness for the bitch that English syntax is, i was saved from a likely scheme. wheeeew!
