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SCAMMER WARNING: Due to a spate of recent scam attempts (some successful) recently, if you're doing a deal in the classifieds, ONLY USE PAYPAL GOODS AND SERVICES UNLESS YOU KNOW THAT INDIVIDUAL PERSONALLY. It's really not worth saving a few quid.

Scammer Warning

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CastroCastro Frets: 509
Good evening

This morning I received an email from a Donald Conte offering to sell me a Bartel Sugarland. What follows is the email tennis:

'How did you get my details?'

'through the forum your email is on there'

Hi DonaldThanks for clarifying, I tend to be hesitant when I get an unexpected email. What's the asking price?

'Its fine I understand. I will be willing to sell it for £2500 including shipping. Where are you located?'

I live in Chippenham, Wiltshire. But £2,500 is more than I want to pay so I'm going to wait to see if I can grab a less expensive one. I'm aware of two others that are about to be listed and my aim is to get one much closer to £2,000.

£2000 will be fine with me if you will cover the shipping cost which is not much we can have a deal today let me know 

Could I ask where you live? Also I will need the weight and dimensions of the shipping box.

'
i'm in scotland - Dimensions 20" x 17" x 10.5" - Weight 33lbs - That wouldn't be so much'

I have a good friend in Scotland who I could ask to collect it from you and pay you. Which town/city are you in?

'I'm sorry i will only post'


Yeah right! He is using this email address - donaldconte06@gmail.com

His surname is sounds like the expletive I use for such scumbags.

I do not have a friend in Scotland.

Be vigilant people!

Castro
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Comments

  • andrewawardandrewaward Frets: 1155
    Donald - from Scotland …. Guys really done his back story homework  ! 

    These scammers are really upping there game :-)

    I’ve noticed a lot of scammers on Reverb recently also , it’s as if a new glut of them have appeared 

      
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  • RolandRoland Frets: 8590
    We are currently receiving a spate of these. Scammers are using PMs and emails to try to avoid attention. 
    Tree recycler, and guitarist with  https://www.undercoversband.com/.
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  • guitarjack66guitarjack66 Frets: 1795
    I assume the scammers are private sales rather than music shops or businesses? I like reverb so tend to stick to shops for my lurchases.
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  • springheadspringhead Frets: 1583
    You needed to ask one final question - "Donald, where's your troosers?".  That would have shown him.  
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  • TTonyTTony Frets: 27342
    Castro said:

    I do not have a friend in Scotland.

    No-one does.
    Having trouble posting images here?  This might help.
    13reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • fastonebazfastonebaz Frets: 4065
    What a Conte!
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  • Good for you. Regardless of how far away the seller claims to be I always ask if I can come around as I "have friends in the area", "will be near there for vacation" or whatever else. Dodgy excuses always mean no deal and a warning to eBay, facebook or wherever else the as**ole is trying to do his thing.
    Wer nicht für Freiheit sterben kann, der ist der Kette wert.
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  • I got ripped for £530 on eBay SELLING! Was on eBay   20 years. Basically all they do is immediately lodge a dispute with the seller once they do unless you know what’s going on - and I didn’t - being a decent guy you’re on a slippery slope. Bottom line avoid EBay ax their buyer protection is so weighted as a seller even in spite on 20 years feedback is ignored and they will find in buyers favour scammers know this and play the eBay system -guy had very convincing questions to ask me etc etc seemed 100% genuine great communications etc etc 
    goes by Mark Mckeown in Scotland - 
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  • I got ripped for £530 on eBay SELLING! Was on eBay   20 years. Basically all they do is immediately lodge a dispute with the seller once they do unless you know what’s going on - and I didn’t - being a decent guy you’re on a slippery slope. Bottom line avoid EBay ax their buyer protection is so weighted as a seller even in spite on 20 years feedback is ignored and they will find in buyers favour scammers know this and play the eBay system -guy had very convincing questions to ask me etc etc seemed 100% genuine great communications etc etc 
    goes by Mark Mckeown in Scotland - 
    Thanks for flagging this. Curious to understand how it works? Like the buyer bought something from you, paid, you posted it, then they opened a dispute and eBay forced you to refund the price without having to return the item? 
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  • I assume the scammers are private sales rather than music shops or businesses? I like reverb so tend to stick to shops for my lurchases.
    You’ve invented the perfect word for GAS-fuelled spontaneous buys - first you lurch towards the item then you purchase!  :)
    250+ positive trading feedbacks: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/57830/
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  • I assume the scammers are private sales rather than music shops or businesses? I like reverb so tend to stick to shops for my lurchases.
    You’ve invented the perfect word for GAS-fuelled spontaneous buys - first you lurch towards the item then you purchase!  :)
    Bloody lausage fangers!
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  • justtt007justtt007 Frets: 205
    I had a very similar awful experience with ebay, sold a custom shop relic strat with all the paperwork seller opened a dispute over its condition.... (that should've been enough to raise alarm bells!) PayPal refunded the seller within 10 days and I got a mim strat sent back to me in a gear for music tweed case! I'm still fighting PayPal as I type! Ebay is an easy place for scum to target honest sellers!
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  • OnTheHuntOnTheHunt Frets: 60
    Just had my first (in 21 years!) eBay issue this week.  Buyer bought a vintage Boss pedal - received it, loved it, left +ve feedback noting how happy he was with it.  Then 2 days later a request for a return, the pedal now mysteriously damaged (he'd yanked one of the wires out of the battery connector).  Spoke with eBay and absolutely amazed that they said to allow a return and eBay themselves would refund the seller - so I get to keep the payment plus the pedal.  Apparently a goodwill gesture for being a customer so long and making them loads of £££.

    Shady character, damaging the pedal and requesting refund instead of being honest with the buyer's remorse....  but big credit to eBay for sorting me out!!  Bucks are in the bank and pedal is back with me.   =)
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  • merlinmerlin Frets: 6594
    OnTheHunt said:
    so I get to keep the payment plus the pedal.  Apparently a goodwill gesture for being a customer so long and making them loads of £££.

    Shady character, damaging the pedal and requesting refund instead of being honest with the buyer's remorse....  but big credit to eBay for sorting me out!!  Bucks are in the bank and pedal is back with me.   =)
    I had a similar experience with an item on Reverb that was sent from the US. The item arrived and wasn't as described. I sent pics of the item next to a genuine item, and they agreed it wasn't as listed. I got to keep the item and get a full refund from Reverb.


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  • rossirossi Frets: 1698
    I want to seel my GIbson MIdtown but scared to be ripped off Not sure what to do .
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  • S56035S56035 Frets: 1104
    To be fair, isn't the "sending someone else to pick it up" technique a scam as well?  Maybe he's sat on another forum saying "contacted this bloke about an amp and now he's trying to scam me" :-D
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  • Fifty9Fifty9 Frets: 491
    @suhrtone is behaving like a scammer. Avoid like the plague.
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  • Fifty9 said:
    @suhrtone is behaving like a scammer. Avoid like the plague.
    For the avoidance of doubt - his account has been compromised, and we've identified the source of the breach (it's not this site). His account has been disabled, pending him getting in touch to verify a lot of details to re-enable it. Along with a friendly lesson in digital security ;)
    <space for hire>
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  • Is 2 factor an option to enable on the site? Through cyber essentials accreditation I’ve had to enable it on several apps at work & despite being a PitA it does add a lot of security comfort. I can also appreciate the toolset you have might not be too helpful :)
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  • Is 2 factor an option to enable on the site? Through cyber essentials accreditation I’ve had to enable it on several apps at work & despite being a PitA it does add a lot of security comfort. I can also appreciate the toolset you have might not be too helpful :)
    Sadly, no. Apart from the fact that it's not available for Vanilla (and it doesn't properly support custom authentication systems in any meaningful way that doesn't make things less secure), there's also the fact that most users wouldn't bother anyway if it was optional, and making it mandatory would probably kill the site (and it's not something we'd be able to come back from).

    The problem is that it's hard to persuade somebody to use a secure method that's a pain in the ass, when the biggest consequences of their account being compromised are other people being scammed.

    I'm looking at alternatives, which might help. As it is, I think I've prevented the main approach these scammers are using, so hopefully we'll be free of this kind of bullshit until I can come up with a better auth solution.
    <space for hire>
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