Scammer raises his price mid scam.

[tdstuart]

If you haven't noticed the big "Beware scams" when in messages, then good thing you are reading this. A popular scam that the forum staff are well aware of, where a scammer will message you claiming they or someone they know has a part you are looking to buy. Shoutout to staff for banning to guy superfast aswell.

Anyways the scammer Lucas990 claimed to know a guy with some comp cams for me. And sent me a phone number to contact. Messaged his friend (Dave) for a bit, and after playing some mind games, Dave said his friend Chris had the cams I wanted.

Well before getting transferred to Chris, Dave claimed that Chris had my cams for $985. Well after asking me what my budget was (and me explaining it was $1200 ish) Dave said that the $900 price was for 2 cams and not all 4. For all 4 cams I would need to pay $1300. Of course, because it makes perfect sense to give a list price for 2 cams, as if you would ever sell just 2 cams.

Once getting transferred to Chris he refused to send me pictures and claimed he would send me photos before shipping them out. He then refused to use paypal (because PayPal has buyer protection and he could lose the money once I figured it was a scam) and requested Zelle or Money Order (no buyer protection at all). I refused and told him Venmo, but apparently, Venmo doesn't have good buyer protection either as they state it is not for purchases with unknown people.

I attached some photos. Hopefully, this helps some members of the forums who may not have knowledge about how common these scams are and what to look out for. Moral of the story: Get photos, talk to the person, and use a payment service like PayPal that has buyer and seller protection. Also if anyone has some used stage 3 comp cams N/A for 15-17 GT...

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[turbosc297]

Dude you just posted your name, phone #, and address for the world to see?

 

[tdstuart]

Dude you just posted your name, phone #, and address for the world to see?

All fake info except my first name and state.

Don’t care about the forums knowing my info as much as the scanner knowing my info.

 

[Cobra Jet]

So what's the initial scammers phone # so everyone on this site can go and phone bomb him and all the other #'s seen in the text via use of online IP phone #'s? I'm sure they would like calls 24/7 from interested buyers...

 

[WItoTX]

The only giveaway there is refusing photo's. The rest, I could actually see how they arrived at their positions. For example, he did say "the pair" which can imply two cams or what you assumed, both banks.

I have heard stories of PayPal doing exactly what they are describing, where a seller receives something, reports it, and gets their money back. It becomes a giant PITA, and many sellers just say screw it, I won't bother with PayPal anymore. I've had it happen to me more than once actually. It's a pain when you got a couple grand locked in Paypal jail because someone wants to be an ass.

Either way, you made the smart call. Not worth the risk for that much money (in my book)

 

[tdstuart]

So what's the initial scammers phone # so everyone on this site can go and phone bomb him and all the other #'s seen in the text via use of online IP phone #'s? I'm sure they would like calls 24/7 from interested buyers...

You can see the original number in the screenshot of the DM aswell as the numbers I’m texting at the top of the text message screenshots.

 

[tdstuart]

The only giveaway there is refusing photo's. The rest, I could actually see how they arrived at their positions. For example, he did say "the pair" which can imply two cams or what you assumed, both banks.

I have heard stories of PayPal doing exactly what they are describing, where a seller receives something, reports it, and gets their money back. It becomes a giant PITA, and many sellers just say screw it, I won't bother with PayPal anymore. I've had it happen to me more than once actually. It's a pain when you got a couple grand locked in Paypal jail because someone wants to be an ass.

Either way, you made the smart call. Not worth the risk for that much money (in my book)

You have to also look at how he is constantly waiting to see what I want, so he can tells me he has it. He has every item I want apparently haha. Then when I mess with him to get him to say he has an item I don’t want he says his friend has the item I want.

Personally won’t do any service that doesn’t have buyer protection. I like PayPal but it does lean towards buyers more than sellers. That’s why I buy the purchase protection and send the seller extra money for it.

Also the original phone number is with a company called Magic Jack which basically sells disposable phone numbers. The second number is a google voice number.

The scammers are smart but they don’t talk like how a seller actually would. But I wanted to post this to show others that scams don’t have to be super obvious.

 

[Sound Wave]

The FB groups are crawling with scammers. As soon as anyone posts that they are looking for a part, multiple scammers reply in the thread. Fortunately they are easy to spot. I keep reporting them, but I don't know if the admins are doing anything about it. Even if they do remove them, the scammers will probably just make a new account.

 

[tdstuart]

The FB groups are crawling with scammers. As soon as anyone posts that they are looking for a part, multiple scammers reply in the thread. Fortunately they are easy to spot. I keep reporting them, but I don't know if the admins are doing anything about it. Even if they do remove them, the scammers will probably just make a new account.

Sounds right. Do you know any good Facebook groups?

 

[Angrey]

The simplest way to protect yourself is to use Paypal Goods and Services for any purchases that are not from someone you know/trust.

From what I've read, that's REALLY biting into the revenue for scammers. There was a discussion in one of the FB car forums where someone "infiltrated" the sphere of one of the scammers (I think he was located in Cyprus) and the guy was complaining (like two chums/thieves complaining to each other) that business is slow because so many people are demanding to use PPG&S.

The only aspect I'll add is that you HAVE to be mindful of the loophole scammers are using with FB messenger.

You can send money through FB messenger. Here's where it gets wonky. Others can send you a Paypal Invoice (and it looks VERY VERY similar to the invoices you may have seen or received in the past from legit businesses). Not only does it look like a legit business invoice, by the time you tread carefully in clicking, you've already sent the money and it's absolutely "friends and family."

Moreover, Paypal KNOWS about this approach and they refuse to do anything about it. (My one and only complaint against Paypal who's been VERY VERY good in the past about restoring money for any problems and doing it very quickly). The Paypal Agents can even SEE the records of someone who pulls the messenger scam and they refuse to address it.

So a very VERY simple way to protect yourself is to demand Paypal Goods and Services and NEVER send it any other way than through your Paypal App (or webpage) and to an email/paypal address. ALWAYS use the Goods and Services category.

I got scammed (for less than $30) from a very well known vendor (even on here) because I'd bought from them in the past and assumed I'd save us both a few pennies by sending the money friends and family. He sent the package to the wrong address and after I finally figured out why it kept getting returned, he simply quit responding to me.

ANOTHER person on these forums is selling products. Seems to be a stand up guy. I can see other posts about happy purchasers, but when I reached out to him, he gave me some bullshit excuse about why he doesn't like Paypal. Nope. Sorry. If you won't accept Paypal G&S (even when I offer to pay additional for the fees) that tells me you've probably done shady shit in the past and that's not an option for you anymore.

In summary, always use PPG&S and you have very little to worry about. If they won't or can't do that, it's best just to move on to a different seller/option.

 

[Sound Wave]

Sounds right. Do you know any good Facebook groups?

I am on a few, but I am most active two of them. One is "2015+ Mustang S550 Group". It can get pretty ugly there but if you sift through the trouble makers, you can get good information.

The other one is "Mustang Fan Club Community". Most of the people are really supportive of each other there. I go there to escape the drama of the other one. One of the few groups I know of that you usually won't get bashed if you say you own a v6 or ecoboost. Lately trouble makers have been joining that one as well, but there aren't many of them yet."

Unfortunately, both of those groups are crawling with scammers.

 

[Angrey]

Another way to protect yourself (although the PPG&S is enough) is to do a reverse image search of the item. Many/Most times, scammers will simply use photos from another legit listing (sometimes many years old). Sometimes the idiots even copy/paste the listing narrative. If you find photos from a listing (the same photos) from another site months or years ago, there's a very good chance it's a scam.

 

[ay1820]

I learned the hard way that Venmo offers no protection for the buyer. Fortunately, I was only out $25, so it was a relatively inexpensive lesson in the grand scheme. I now will only use PayPal and it is a no sale if the seller refuses.

 

[Sound Wave]

I learned the hard way that Venmo offers no protection for the buyer. Fortunately, I was only out $25, so it was a relatively inexpensive lesson in the grand scheme. I now will only use PayPal and it is a no sale if the seller refuses.

I got scammed but fortunately Venmo refunded me the money.

 

[tdstuart]

I learned the hard way that Venmo offers no protection for the buyer. Fortunately, I was only out $25, so it was a relatively inexpensive lesson in the grand scheme. I now will only use PayPal and it is a no sale if the seller refuses.

Ya Venmo states they have purchase protection as-well as saying that they don't cover purchases haha. Seems like they left themselves a lot of room to decide what they want to help with or ignore.

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