Alert! Scammer reached me through SB trade post

[scubasean]

Genesis once bubbled...


Frankly, I think the guy is nuts. If I wanted to rob him I could just keep the money, and he'd be out the cash and the item. Good thing I'm honest eh?

True, but he might have at least some recourse through the feedback provision, and maybe fraud processes...

heh...

 

[The Chairman]

of the owners and moderators here at Scubaboard, that none of you get burned by any transaction.

1) Trust no one, and make no exceptions.

2) Never, ever accept an out of country check. Ask your bank to verify any foriegn cashiers check by phone. Set up a Pay-Pal direct deposit account and demand that all monies go through it. Sure they skim a bit off of the top, but it is better than losing the whole nut.

3) If ANYTHING smells fishy, contact the local authorities pronto! Also, if this is happening through Aquatrader, we need to know ALL of the details.

4) Caveat emptor... yet another reason to patronise your LDS! Of course, this is impossible if you are trying to sell your gear!

 

[o2scuba]

NetDoc once bubbled...
of the owners and moderators here at Scubaboard, that none of you get burned by any transaction.

1) Trust no one, and make no exceptions.

2) Never, ever accept an out of country check. Ask your bank to verify any foriegn cashiers check by phone. Set up a Pay-Pal direct deposit account and demand that all monies go through it. Sure they skim a bit off of the top, but it is better than losing the whole nut.

3) If ANYTHING smells fishy, contact the local authorities pronto! Also, if this is happening through Aquatrader, we need to know ALL of the details.

4) Caveat emptor... yet another reason to patronise your LDS! Of course, this is impossible if you are trying to sell your gear!

Thanks Pete,
As I said before, I certainly do NOT blame any of the fantastic people on SB. Just wanted to stress the point of being careful.

Andrew
ps-if you want more details feel free to pm me.

 

[redacted]

NetDoc once bubbled...
4) Caveat emptor... yet another reason to patronise your LDS! Of course, this is impossible if you are trying to sell your gear!

Many of the larger volume Scuba sellers appear to be LDS's using another popular outlet to sell gear, new & used. I suspect some would be quite happy to make an offer on your old gear.

 

[yknot]

I have a close personal friend who was ripped off by the same scam. It originated in Nigeria. Fraud of this nature is investigated by the Secret Service but good luck recovering anything. Even though it seems that the whole scam should be obvious, what it plays on is our mistaken belief that a cashiers check is as good as cash. Bottom line is to wait until any check has cleared your bank before you can consider it valid.

 

[Lead_carrier]

Genesis once bubbled...
His item is shipping today, where he wanted it to go.

Frankly, I think the guy is nuts. If I wanted to rob him I could just keep the money, and he'd be out the cash and the item. Good thing I'm honest eh?

:wacko:
Genesis, I'm sure you've been called a LOT of things, but I doubt dishonest is one of them.

 

[Genesis]

someone wants me to wire money internationally, I'm going to tell him that he's NUTS!

 

[dvleemin]

NetDoc once bubbled...
of the owners and moderators here at Scubaboard, that none of you get burned by any transaction.

1) Trust no one, and make no exceptions.

2) Never, ever accept an out of country check. Ask your bank to verify any foriegn cashiers check by phone. Set up a Pay-Pal direct deposit account and demand that all monies go through it. Sure they skim a bit off of the top, but it is better than losing the whole nut.

Well, keep in mind that the banking industry in Canada and the US is really well linked. So when you say don't accept an out of country cheque, I would not included Canada in that list.

Darryl

 

[dvleemin]

This still doesn't make any sense. How can someone call you and as a result have charges put on your phone bill? I would be calling the phone company immediately and asking them about this charges. Its my understanding that you can only be charged for outgoing - or incoming collect - calls.

Darryl

 

[divinglife]

We received a strange call like that at the shop. Not a scam byt it was an operator who would type in my responses and then I would HEAR the guy speaking and asking his questions. But he had a heavy forein accent so I had to keep asking the operator if she understood what he had just said. It was a brutal call and I kept trying to get him to llook at our website for info and he wasn't understanding. Now the operator was very unclear on what the hell was going on and I really had to pressure her to explain why this guy couldn't just call me direct (she said something like his phone doesn't allow him to call out). I don't know if we got extra charges but will definately check now.