This is a 25 year old scam that is apparently still very active & occurring regularly here in Melbourne, and from what I can see on ebay and other places, all over the world... funny if you haven't been a victim. I asked my housemate & he's been approached here in the last 6 months. BEWARE... (oh, and prepare to laugh)
http://reviews.ebay.com/Kirsch-Theatre- ... 0002467097
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_van_speakers
From the email where some mates of mine were discussing this...
> > there are quite a few threads about the "White Van Speakers" on diyaudio.
> > one funny story I found:
> >
> > I have read a lot about "white van" speakers, and always wondered what
> > would happen if I was ever approached. Well one day a couple of years ago
> > it happened!
> > I was about to leave the parking lot of the local supermarket, when I
> > heard the words "Hey Dude, wanna buy some speakers?" There behind me was
> > the infamous white van, loaded full with speakers. I got the standard
> > talk "just come back from a job site, customer didn't want all the
> > speakers, boss will kill me...etc"
> >
> > "Now for some background. I have been involved in speaker design for over
> > 30 years. I was chief engineer at KEF, then Infinity, now at TAD. At the
> > time of the white van event, I was on my way to a party to meet up with a
> > past president of the Audio Engineering Society and also Tom Hollman from
> > THX.
> > Perfect timing. So now for some fun........
> >
> > So I asked for the guy to tell me all about them. After the usual
> > nonsense talk, I said "Now let me tell you about speakers" I had just
> > received a review in Absolute Sound of my TAD Model 1 speakers, so I
> > pulled the magazine out of the car, flipped open to the relevent pages
> > (now dog-eared from showing them to anyone I could accost) and said "Now
> > this is a speaker"
> >
> > I give him credit. He said " so you don't want to buy one of these then?"
> > after which he jumped in the van and took off rather quickly. That made
> > my day, and of course was a great conversation piece at the party
So if anyone in San rolls up in a White Van and says "hey buddy" - think twice...