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Scammers still lurking

Its my understanding that you shouldn't use Paypal friends and family, only use regular Paypal. If you use friends and family you won't have any way of disputing a problem.
 
I found a fairly good way to deal with these types of transactions. Via PM or email I ask for the seller's phone number so I can call and talk directly to them. If they don't comply then it's a no-go. When I call I can usually size up the subject quickly just talking about the item and RV's specifically or airplanes in general. Works pretty good.

Just because an item is for sale on the internet doesn't mean we should abandon all traditional personal communication. We need to return to talking to people directly.
 
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Please call me

I found a fairly good way to deal with these types of transactions. Via PM or email I ask for the seller's phone number so I can call and talk directly to them. If they don't comply then it's a no-go. When I call I can usually size up the subject quickly just talking about the item and RV's specifically or airplanes in general. Works pretty good.

Just because an item is for sale on the internet doesn't mean we should abandon all traditional personal communication. We need to return to talking to people directly.

I’m at 303-772-2202.
Thanks
 
The Aviation community

Just when I thought/felt the world and society were going down the tubes, out comes a generous kind soul out of Houston with a proposal. He had read this thread and my experience dealing with a scammer on this site and felt the need to make it right. Granted I finally resolved my case with Venmo and got my money back, but he still felt generosity that is rarely seen anymore.

I only know him by his username, KenS from Houston. A few days ago he PM’d me to say he had an unused Bose headset that he was willing to send to me for free. That’s right, FREE. All he asked was that when I had the opportunity, was to “pay it forward”. Anyway the headset arrived the other day as promised and is exactly as advertised. So, many many thanks to him and today I’m going out to the shop to see what I have that I don’t need from my aviation stuff to do just that. I’m going to make a donation to VAF whilst thinking of his example. If anyone in the Houston area knows KenS please thank him for me personally. He is a prime example of what this world needs more of. Once again the aviation community goes above and beyond to help out a fellow aviator/builder. Here’s to you Ken.

[ed. This is one of the nicest things I've read online in a good while. Thank you both KenS for doing this and Dave for letting us know about it. v/r,dr]
 

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Referencing Ratdog's post above, I suspect an insidious method.

"A Garmin SL30 for sale. I responded to an email address of [email protected] and paypal'd the money."

jrs14855@ (xxxx) is the email address for well known, ethical builder and IAC member interested in Tailwinds, and IIRC Pitts.

Eternal vigilance!
 
Troll Alert

Hello all,

My quest for an AP74 got a response, off line to my
Email. Dang good price… requested paypal “family and friends”, out of the starting gate. Broken english. We swapped several emails. Plenty of bs scam
indicated throughout


Caution if this paypal email comes in play:

[email protected]


Vr/ BP
 
Got me for $60


This dirtbag got me for $60 too. Had photos of the sensor.

Also, don’t deal with this other scumbag too. He is here on VAF and goes by moetzmoet, member 32790. He is the one who PM’ed me and said that this guy had what I was looking for and gave me that email. He needs to be removed from VAF now.

I deal a lot with using friends and family, and I always send out within 24 hours, sometimes sooner with the tracking number. I guess everyone can’t be as honest as I am.

Lucky it was only $60, so from now on, I will pay the fees, so I have a recourse or I will pass.
 
same thing with a Propeller for the 0320 from 52F. (Texas).. as soon as I posted that I had sent a PM, I got a message from "THE SELLER", and supposedly they were in California. They discounted the Prop and assured me that it would go out the next day. I ended up NOT doing it, but later found out it was a scam... post less than a month ago...
 
Scammer alert 11/3/22

King avionics nav com and transponder
Listed by Dave Sutherland
Phone 615 649 0908
Scam!!!

[ed. Is it a post here? I don't see it. v/r,dr]
 
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Another Scammer

Sent a PM to the seller, then received an email from [email protected], claiming to be the seller. Had all the information about the item. Circled back to the real seller and found that it was a scam. Be forewarned!

[ed. No [email protected] in the forums system, so I'm assuming he reached out to you through email. Glad you were skeptical! v/r,dr]
 
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Scammer tried to

Posted my phone number for WTB. Two times people tried. Not that sophisticated, but persistent. One group used a pic. I googled the pic and it was from another person’s work. They never gave anything but first name. Never would confirm N number. And their pic was stolen.

Told them I was done.
 
Posted my phone number for WTB. Two times people tried. Not that sophisticated, but persistent. One group used a pic. I googled the pic and it was from another person’s work. They never gave anything but first name. Never would confirm N number. And their pic was stolen.

Told them I was done.

Don't post phone number.... Make your request and have them contact you through a Private Message (upper right hand corner of your screen) If they are not registered, they can't contact you.

If you get a response through PM, look up the person for past posts and see if they are involved here. And last, check the donations list (upper left corner) if they have not donated in the past two years, and have not posted and no one here can vouch for them......
DO NOT DEAL WITH THEM unless you pay after the product arrives or there is a middle man.
 
Terry--I had dealings with Nadine Molina and she tried to scam me. Claiming she couldnt talk on the phone because she was taking her chemo treatments. Wish there was a way to get attorney general after her
 
Another PayPal Scammer [email protected]

I got bit on the GTR200 that popped up yesterday (June 4) for $650. It was from a hijacked member profile. I completely missed the big red flag: the PayPal email was completely unrelated to the poster’s name.

Don’t PayPal any money to [email protected]. It’s a scam.
 
And here I was thinking somebody didn't know what a GTR 200 was worth. That was about $400-ish under NIB NOS value. Didn't occur to me that it was a scam. Doh! I don't buy or sell anything without physically talking to the other party on the phone. If they have a bunch of excuses why they cant take a phone call I write it off as a scam. So there is a very slight chance one of the deals I pass up might be legitimate but that's okay by me. I got to talk airplanes with a physical person before comitting.

I got bit on the GTR200 that popped up yesterday (June 4) for $650. It was from a hijacked member profile. I completely missed the big red flag: the PayPal email was completely unrelated to the poster’s name.

Don’t PayPal any money to [email protected]. It’s a scam.
 
Watch out....MOOR Halley Ray

think an accounts been hacked....

April 29th...sent this guy a FB Message complimenting an interior i saw..asked hi..asking where he purchased his interior from.

never did receive a response, which is ok

Oct 7..Recieved "are you still interested?" message. i replied "would like to know about your panels"...

The reply to that is "well the plane has a couple of interested parties on it so bu the time you get here it may be sold unless you are willing to put down a deposit so i could get the "plan" (not plane :)) off the market till you can come look at it"

Theres a special place in **** for these people.

[ed. 'FB Message' ? That's not VAF, but FB. But yeah, trust but verify. v/r,dr]
 
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[email protected] is currently trying to scam me on a WTB part I have listed here. I right clicked the google search image of the part he said he had and it was the same image found on ACS. That and it being pulled out of his Shenyang J8 that he flew for 1760 hours kind of made me realize what was going on.
 
Anyone have dealings with a Sheriff Burrell. He copied prop photos and serial numbers off a BAS salvage web page for a prop he has for sale. Won’t answer why he did this. Frustrating!
 
I was Hacked

Hey guys, I got an email this morning stating my VAF messages were almost full. I thought that was odd since I don't spend much time over here at all, and for sure hadn't been messaging anyone, so I logged in and noticed someone was using my account to attempt to scam people. I have since changed my password, and I hope this stops things from my end. I hope noone sent this person any money. Sorry for any trouble that was caused on my behalf.
 
I was inquiring about an item for sale and posted in the seller's thread. I then received an email from someone who saw my email address, which I use for business purposes so I can't really hide it online. Someone, not the seller, had immediately sent me an email saying is "paypal OK?" It thought it was odd that they didn't contact me thru the seller's PM or through the seller's VAF account. They also asked for payment to be sent to a different name, and then another completely different name popped into the conversation. Ugh.

But the kicker was that I received a "conversation" message from a user with the exact same user name as the seller EXCEPT that they were listed as "I'm new here" and had 0 posts and 0 reactions.

I'll say it here............ HOW IN THE WORLD CAN SOMEONE NEW GET THE SAME USER NAME AS ANOTHER VALID VAF USER WHO IS A WELL KNOWN USER? I can't figure out how to contact Doug on this. I hope someone alerts him!
 
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I …….I received a "conversation" message from a user with the exact same user name as the seller EXCEPT that they were listed as "I'm new here" and had 0 posts and 0 reactions.

I'll say it here............ HOW IN THE WORLD CAN SOMEONE NEW GET THE SAME USER NAME AS ANOTHER VALID VAF USER WHO IS A WELL KNOWN USER? I can't figure out how to contact Doug on this. I hope someone alerts him!
Post the username and I will lock that account down. It’s pretty easy to do with this new software. Dealing with scammers that is.
 
Post the username and I will lock that account down. It’s pretty easy to do with this new software. Dealing with scammers that is.

Dbr0172

I'm New Here · From Denver
Joined Yesterday at 1:57 AM
Last seen Today at 6:31 AM
Messages0Reaction score0Points0


NOTE: There is a wellknown user with this name also. I'll let you figure it out. Thanks. You can look at my PMs as both are in there.
 

Dbr0172

I'm New Here · From Denver
Joined Yesterday at 1:57 AM
Last seen Today at 6:31 AM
Messages0Reaction score0Points0


NOTE: There is a wellknown user with this name also. I'll let you figure it out. Thanks. You can look at my PMs as both are in there.
Banned. If if there has been some mistake, the person will reach out to me and I’ll look into it.
 
Scammers

The problem is honest folks don't think like a thief. How about they send a picture of there drivers license and pilots license. and a copy of there electric bill ?
Well I'm in the process of selling a $140,000 sailboat, I did exactly that. Got their drivers license, verified it was a real person, even checked county property records from the online clerk of courts and validated home ownership.

Still a scammer, who I'm totally messing with now. FWIW the actual person whose drivers license it is is also a victim here, recent widow who tried to sell her boat on the same web site and lost her drivers license a year ago. Right now I've got the scammer traced to the dallas metroplex, maybe can get to the individual.

(I deleted the last sentence. Rules. Doug.)
 
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Dbr0172

I'm New Here · From Denver
Joined Yesterday at 1:57 AM
Last seen Today at 6:31 AM
Messages0Reaction score0Points0


NOTE: There is a wellknown user with this name also. I'll let you figure it out. Thanks. You can look at my PMs as both are in there.
The two user ids weren’t the same but the nefarious person tried to make it look like they were….
The long term account ends with o172
The fake account ends with 0172
One has a lower case oh, and the other has a zero.

Shows the lengths these people will go to…. If only they would put all that brain power into a real job….
 
Well I'm in the process of selling a $140,000 sailboat, I did exactly that. Got their drivers license, verified it was a real person, even checked county property records from the online clerk of courts and validated home ownership.

Still a scammer, who I'm totally messing with now. FWIW the actual person whose drivers license it is is also a victim here, recent widow who tried to sell her boat on the same web site and lost her drivers license a year ago. Right now I've got the scammer traced to the dallas metroplex, maybe can get to the individual.

(I deleted the last sentence. Rules. Doug.)
What's the nature of the scam? Is this one of those 'I'll pay you $200k and you can just refund me $60k' type scams? If you fell for his plan, would you still be meeting him in person to hand over the boat? (I'm trying to be as educated as possible for when I try to sell a larger item.)
 
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Got me for $60



This dirtbag got me for $60 too. Had photos of the sensor.

Also, don’t deal with this other scumbag too. He is here on VAF and goes by moetzmoet, member 32790. He is the one who PM’ed me and said that this guy had what I was looking for and gave me that email. He needs to be removed from VAF now.

I deal a lot with using friends and family, and I always send out within 24 hours, sometimes sooner with the tracking number. I guess everyone can’t be as honest as I am.

Lucky it was only $60, so from now on, I will pay the fees, so I have a recourse or I will pass.
I received a PM from moetzmoet this week in response to my WTB. Same type of message: this person has what you want contact him at sixatsea@ proton.me

Looks a bit sus that she occasionally posts newby questions on this forum.

Ed: The account moetzmoet has been locked down by me. dr
 
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I received a PM from moetzmoet this week in response to my WTB. Same type of message: this person has what you want contact him at sixatsea@ proton.me

Looks a bit sus that she occasionally posts newby questions on this forum.

Ed: The account moetzmoet has been locked down by me. dr
Had the same email in regards a crankshaft. Not the best English, but could be mistaken for someone who isn’t good with new technology. Luckily I insisted everything be done through a respected engine vendor, so no money transferred. Thought it could be real since Moetzmoet had a longer history than a few weeks.

When told everything was to be through a 3rd party, they requested shipping costs via Venmo just to know I was serious. Told them no and he dissappeared.
 
What's the nature of the scam? Is this one of those 'I'll pay you $200k and you can just refund me $60k' type scams? If you fell for his plan, would you still be meeting him in person to hand over the boat? (I'm trying to be as educated as possible for when I try to sell a larger item.)
I'm not sure tbh, I haven't let it get that far. I'm messing around trying to get his bank info without disclosing mine.

The boat is 38' long, 61' high and weighs 20,000lbs, its not like he can just load it on a trailer and tow it away lol

Typically for this sort of thing the buyer would engage a professional to survey the boat in and out of the water. I'm not entirely sure the scammer knows this.

The other thought might be they want to get enough information to get a lien on the vessel then hold it for ransom.
 
Had the same email in regards a crankshaft. Not the best English, but could be mistaken for someone who isn’t good with new technology. Luckily I insisted everything be done through a respected engine vendor, so no money transferred. Thought it could be real since Moetzmoet had a longer history than a few weeks.

When told everything was to be through a 3rd party, they requested shipping costs via Venmo just to know I was serious. Told them no and he dissappeared.

I also got a message from moetzmoet related to a g3x bezel request I posted in the classified. They asked me to "parthills" at email that same [email protected] address. This one looks like a real user who got his account hacked based on prior posts.

For reference, he started this post around 30 minutes before I got the email from the classifieds.


moetzmoet account has been locked down. v/r,dr
 
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