scammed help

TallGlass

lukesmom wrote: »

Yes I've been using adverts a long time. I have over 200 positive feedback, no neutral or negative not one. I have never ever been scammed. Not once in 8 years on adverts until yesterday. I think the mods are quite helpful but their hands are tied in this instance.

Never let the gaurd down, ever. Always be weary with anyone you don't know. You don't know these people or they don't know you, they owe you nothing, will abuse this and will do you over in seconds. This is the 1%. Sadly these 1% folks can cost you alot, be it a scam job like this, dodge equipment, stolen cars/bikes that get recovered, bricked phones, literally bricks sold as phones or laptops and so on.

The longer your buying and selling, you slowly let the gaurd go down, do not ever do it. Always up, always checking and double checking, if it feels odd then ditch it.

My golden rule is 'money transfers like this', big no no. To many variables to go wrong, money received, not received, items sent, not sent so on so fort. Then the stonewall. That's when you know you've met the 1% of dodge online sellers.

I do hope you get the PS4, just an FYI Argos usually do great deals on them, so keep an eye on there or on the BA forum.

njs030

lukesmom wrote: »

Hi I have 180 euro donated. Thanks so much for keeping track and for the suggestion to donate any extra to charity that's a super idea

I didn't keep track at all. The first offer was for €150 and there's been multiple offers since so it doesn't take a genius to think it'd go over the amount your son lost.
It would be nice to help a child who has nothing too rather than profiting wouldn't it?

lukesmom

TallGlass wrote:

Never let the gaurd down, ever. Always be weary with anyone you don't know. You don't know these people or they don't know you, they owe you nothing, will abuse this and will do you over in seconds. This is the 1%. Sadly these 1% folks can cost you alot, be it a scam job like this, dodge equipment, stolen cars/bikes that get recovered, bricked phones, literally bricks sold as phones or laptops and so on.

TallGlass wrote:

The longer your buying and selling, you slowly let the gaurd go down, do not ever do it. Always up, always checking and double checking, if it feels odd then ditch it. My golden rule is 'money transfers like this', big no no. To many variables to go wrong, money received, not received, items sent, not sent so on so fort. Then the stonewall. That's when you know you've met the 1% of dodge online sellers.

TallGlass wrote:

Never let the gaurd down, ever. Always be weary with anyone you don't know. You don't know these people or they don't know you, they owe you nothing, will abuse this and will do you over in seconds. This is the 1%. Sadly these 1% folks can cost you alot, be it a scam job like this, dodge equipment, stolen cars/bikes that get recovered, bricked phones, literally bricks sold as phones or laptops and so on.

TallGlass wrote:

The longer your buying and selling, you slowly let the gaurd go down, do not ever do it. Always up, always checking and double checking, if it feels odd then ditch it. My golden rule is 'money transfers like this', big no no. To many variables to go wrong, money received, not received, items sent, not sent so on so fort. Then the stonewall. That's when you know you've met the 1% of dodge online sellers.

TallGlass wrote:

I do hope you get the PS4, just an FYI Argos usually do great deals on them, so keep an eye on there or on the BA forum.

TallGlass wrote:

Never let the gaurd down, ever. Always be weary with anyone you don't know. You don't know these people or they don't know you, they owe you nothing, will abuse this and will do you over in seconds. This is the 1%. Sadly these 1% folks can cost you alot, be it a scam job like this, dodge equipment, stolen cars/bikes that get recovered, bricked phones, literally bricks sold as phones or laptops and so on.

TallGlass wrote:

The longer your buying and selling, you slowly let the gaurd go down, do not ever do it. Always up, always checking and double checking, if it feels odd then ditch it. My golden rule is 'money transfers like this', big no no. To many variables to go wrong, money received, not received, items sent, not sent so on so fort. Then the stonewall. That's when you know you've met the 1% of dodge online sellers.

TallGlass wrote:

I do hope you get the PS4, just an FYI Argos usually do great deals on them, so keep an eye on there or on the BA forum.

Thanks that's some good advice. I thought I was pretty sharp to this kind of thing. But I was caught off guard. Especially with the using the family and friends option through paypal. That's the part that sickens me the most because things would be so different if I had said 'no I'm going to use the other option paying for goods and services'. He would most likely have said he wasn't interested in selling it anymore because there would be nothing in it for him.

lukesmom

notjustsweet wrote:

I didn't keep track at all. The first offer was for €150 and there's been multiple offers since so it doesn't take a genius to think it'd go over the amount your son lost. It would be nice to help a child who has nothing too rather than profiting wouldn't it?

notjustsweet wrote:

Not sure why you had to be smart about it.

I'm not being smart I think it's a great idea.

lukesmom

Hi it's after 4am and I'm sitting here wondering what an earth am I going to say to the gardai in the morning. And what will they do? I've been looking at ps4s on adverts and there are a handful of adverts with new users no feedback. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same guy. All for places down the country like laois and donegal. Hoping nobody else gets conned but it's hard to know how many he got besides myself. Fair

the_syco

Tell the Gardai what happened, get a Pulse number. The Adverts team can cooperate with the Gardai, and may be able to provide the IP address of the individual to the Gardai.

Tails142

People donating money, a solicitor offering help...great to see.

You never see a garda on these type of threads saying 'pm me, I'll call you in the morning and we'll hunt this b*rd down'... Anyway, fair play to the people donating, I hope the gardai do something for ya op, if not just move on and put it behind you, they've probably got bigger fish to fry

dudara

Posters - I hate to do this, but I do think that a general warning about handing over money to strangers via the internet is needed. Boards cannot take any responsibility in such situations. Please take this warning in the spirit in which it is intended

dudara

@lukesmom - good luck with your efforts.

Suckit

Tails142 wrote: »

You never see a garda on these type of threads saying 'pm me, I'll call you in the morning and we'll hunt this b*rd down'...

Bird?

TerrorFirmer

A PS4 Pro with 5 games for €200 literally is a massive neon sign screaming 'SCAM! SCAM! SCAM!"

And then for him to ask for family and friends payment on top of that?!

I'm not having a go at you lukesmom and obviously it's a nasty thing to do, but at the same time there were literally two massive red flags being waved immediately!

He probably never even had a PS4 Pro at all and set up the account to scam.

I would still go to the Gardai. If he's SMS and Address verified they can get that information from the Gardai.

AndrewJRenko

lukesmom wrote: »

Hi it's after 4am and I'm sitting here wondering what an earth am I going to say to the gardai in the morning. And what will they do? I've been looking at ps4s on adverts and there are a handful of adverts with new users no feedback. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the same guy. All for places down the country like laois and donegal.

It would be easy enough to set up new email/adverts accounts, and go through the process with him to see what paypal email address he is using on these sales.

mikeybrennan

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

It would be easy enough to set up new email/adverts accounts, and go through the process with him to see what paypal email address he is using on these sales.

Get his PayPal shut down if possible

Presumably that will cause the scammer lots of problems

my3cents

mikeybrennan wrote: »

Get his PayPal shut down if possible

Presumably that will cause the scammer lots of problems

A lot more problems that most people realise.

If paypal close your account they also blacklist any credit or debit card linked to the account and won't allow you to open another account using them ever again.

sweetie

You're still making offers on adverts, look here at amazon warehouse, full warranty consoles with minor blemishes (indescription) and sometimes nothing wrong just a mark on the outside packaging.

Wexfordboy89

Gamestop or Cex are other places to try for ps4.saw and add on Gamestop facebook page 500gb ps4 slim extra controller and ufc 2 for 299 not a bad deal

2forjoy

When I buy via Paypal , I always ask the buyer to send me a Paypal invoice.

degsie

2forjoy wrote: »

When I buy via Paypal , I always ask the buyer to send me a Paypal invoice.

magentis

Did you contact your card issuer?I still believe a chargeback is possible,even with friends and family.Paypal then go after the paypal account holder.

keyboard_cat

http://www.game.co.uk/en/playstation-4-500gb-silver-with-dishonored-fallout-4-doom-and-now-tv-3-month-entertainment-2066808?spotlightOtherCatFlag=Y

fairly decent deal on a new PS4 Slim 280ish after parcel motel, with 3 games and 2 controllers (if you dont want the games you could sell to Cex for about 35euro)
I wouldn't bother getting a used one (unless its very cheap) when you can always find a good deal on a new one if you shop around
People dont tend to clean dust out of them and that can cause problems after a while with overheating
And dont get an original PS4 they had HDMI issues

webpal

If I was asked to pay via friends and family I would usually say and offer to add extra to cover the fees. That way buyer still gets what they asked for and I get protection. Don't let locations on adverts fool you either, I don't even put in my real location, just the county. Can pm exact location details one deal is agreed.

Jesus Shaves

magentis wrote: »

Did you contact your card issuer?I still believe a chargeback is possible,even with friends and family.Paypal then go after the paypal account holder.

This can be done, I've done it recently with success

ED E

Issue a CB to paypal and expect to have your account with them permanently closed. No paypal is pretty limiting...

AndrewJRenko

webpal wrote: »

If I was asked to pay via friends and family I would usually say and offer to add extra to cover the fees. That way buyer still gets what they asked for and I get protection.

If the advert states that they accept Paypal, I wouldn't be offering anything extra. Their fees are their problem.

Ultimate Seduction

How much is a new ps4 from the shop?

Wexfordboy89

Ultimate Seduction wrote: »

How much is a new ps4 from the shop?

They have an offer on a the moment 500gb ps4 slim extra controller and ufc 2 for 299

Ultimate Seduction

Send me your PayPal via PM Lukesmom.

Johngoose

Ask PayPal if his money is in fact frozen or is he spoofing?

luketitz

Horrible tale but fair play to those who donated, restored my faith in humanity!

Ultimate Seduction

Please don't buy the next one off the internet. Let me know how much you have and I'll send the rest to get the new one for 299

lukesmom

Hi. I bought another one off adverts today. It's used but working perfect. I got it with 2 controllers and 2 games and a turtle beach headset. It is 1tb. Got it for 280 euros. I drove to meet the seller he came up from limerick so met him halfway in kildare. Anyway my son is happy so I'm happy. Thank you so much all for suggestions and advice. For donations and for helping me. I went into the gardai this evening and gave them all the information relating to what happened. I have to go back in tomorrow evening to make a statement. Would have liked to have gotten it done there and then but he said no has to be tomorrow evening. He took loads of details and wants photos of conversations between myself and the scammer. I wouldn't be too confident he will be caught though but there's always a chance.