I feel dumb

[Dauntless152]

So I messaged a member on here who sold me a CCI short pump that I was going to use for a project. There’s only 15 bucks, but the communication was weird but it was cheap so I did it anyway and now that members band and I can’t even contact them through PayPal. In a long time since somebody scammed me out of any money. Just feel kind of dumb lol

[lew]

Well, proper spelling and punctuation would go a long way to making one appear smart.

😁

Couldn't resist. I'm glad it was only $15. Consider that a cheap lesson learned. Cover thine own ass first, foremost and always. We've all been there.

[Dauntless152]

Noted

[homerj]

Don’t feel bad. I’ve only ever been scammed once but it was for a little over 10x the amount you got taken for. The worst part is, if i had done just a little research on the guy i would’ve known to steer clear of him. Lesson learned though i did eventually get my money back.

[Tarsun2]

my fiance bought an RTIC cooler for something like 80% off... she was excited and didnt realize the website was redirecting her.

it was something like RTICUSA instead of RTICOutdoors. but when you click on the site, the hypertext would change to something with random numbers and letters.

2 weeks later, we received a purple dollar store dish sponge. lol Tracking said "delivered" so everything was fine in paypals eyes.
paypal told us to return it and when its received back by them, they'll refund the $. Problem was, the return address was simply "china".
took some effort on our part but paypal did refund the $ after the company (or person) was unresponsive and other complaints started pouring in of people getting sponges delivered. lol

got a good story out of it and a pretty crappy sponge but lesson learned.

[shooter311]

It happens, the first transaction I had on here (since the crash), I was scammed. I couldn't get my money back either.

I do a lot of buying on here, FB, and other places. I have had attempted scams multiple times and luckily Paypal has made it right every time.

The trades are what make me leery, I prefer a third party if someone isn't willing to ship first. I have been burned on a couple trades. Once the item was never shipped, but other times it has just been non-working items that were supposed to be working, stuff like that.

[CrowsFeast]

I've only ever done trades in person, though if it was a green member on here who I recognized I would probably be willing to do it through shipping. That's about as far as my trust goes.

[Jay R.]

What does the green and blue names mean?

[shooter311]

If you are a paying member you get a green username and access to the member only section on the forum.

[Dauntless152]

I feel dumb because I did it again lol. With only 19 dollars.
but it was a brand new member here , pictures were legit , no red flags ,, buuuut I was taken again . Learning lessons sucks

[Pumpytrilly1]

Will PayPal help?

[Seajay]

Only if you pay for a purchase, if you send friends and family you are sol.

[Dauntless152]

I did PayPal . Ff , and actually just opened a case. Explained it and it looks like I’ll be getting it back.

[DocsMachine]

Yep, we're seeing this on every board that has any sort of classifieds section. Last year, I posted a WTB for a CNC lathe on a machinist board. Got no less than four responses from scammers- sent me pics of machines (legit pics, but almost certainly just Googled) and descriptions just cut-and-pasted from the factory website, etc.

The first one looked legit enough, but he never provided any contact info beyond a Gmail address and a general location ("West Virginia", which doesn't nail it down much. )

Thing is, no one's going to send $15,000 off to some random schlub who won't even give you phone number, but there's tons of people who are more than happy to send off $15 and $40 and $36 and whatever.

And we're seeing those guys on the car and hotrod boards, the machinist boards, the motorcycle boards, etc. Facebook is flooded with them, I'm told.

It takes seconds to rez up a fresh Gmail and PayPal account, scam as many people on as many boards as possible 'til the complaints start coming in and PP shuts it down, dump 'em and go start new ones. Look at some of Mark Rober's videos- there's a good chance there's an office building somewhere, full of people sitting at computers running these kinds of scams.

Here, I would not, personally, transact- with money- anyone with less than a dozen or so posts, and/or a green screen name.

Doc.

[Dauntless152]

Yeah I deal heavily with pocket knives on other forums and I’ve never had a scam in 10 years. But then I put a classified up for a marker and just like you said I got about six or seven inquiries. I got to be more careful.