Online scams, Buyer beware Options

[CAMAricer]

Hi guys,

Just wanted to share a real life story that happened to me recently. It actually happened on a reputable website (club lexus).

Club lexus scam
Scam link 2nd thread

Alot of what happened went down through PMs, but here's the jist of it. A (senior) member of club lexus stated that he was going through hard times so decided to sell off his parts from his car. Some of the other members of the forum actually has met with him in person. Anyway, he parts out his car, CF hood, fender, NOS system, etc. I paid him ~$300 for his fender and his stock hood for the SC430. Another member pays $3000 for the CF hood. It took several PMs back and forth to get the amount finalized, address confirmed, etc, but eventually I sent the money to him.

Then coincidentally the PM stop. A week goes by, nothing. PMs sent, nothing. So I start making waves and publicly make posts for the other forum members to see, asking where is my parts. Then the other member makes a post asking for the status on his item as well. At this point, the forum moderator decides to step in (apparently he's known the seller via the forum for several years now). The moderator explains that the seller is a nice guy, has a wife and kids, and is a stand-up fellow. Then he assures us that there must be some sort of miscommunication going on.

I was not convinced. Sorry for being such a cynic, but I don't trust people I meet over the internet so easily. Anyways, the seller finally responds to the other buyer that he was in a recent car accident and has suffered some injury and that the past few weeks he was in the hospital recovering from surgery. This explanation satisfies the CF hood buyer, but not me. I find the story too convenient because the time line does not add up to me. For one thing, one I offered money for the fender/hood, I got an immediate response. Then silence for two weeks. I then inquired about the NOS kit, which I got an immediate response. So long as anyone wanted to buy anything, responses would be made, but any inquiries about items shipped were ignored.

So to make a long story out of all of this, but I wanted to let people on this forum know that SCAMS on forums (all forums) happen all the time, even by "trusted" members who have been around for years. This seller, known by the forum moderators!, scammed some members out of lots of cash. He used the sympathy card (surgery) to buy him more time to scam other members. And when it happened to me, I researched online scam tactics and found out that this is a common, the seller will have multiple accounts on the same forum, use one to praise and legitimize the other account, and then proceed to sell items, apologize with excuses for delay in shipping, make inconsistent threads. The longer the seller can stall, the more sells he can make. Then sending out bogus tracking numbers that make the buyers go on a wild goose chase with the shippers, sending out incomplete items, all are intended to stall and buy more time. By the time people finally realize what has happened, it's been months and the seller is long gone.

So my warning to everyone, be diligent and wary. Scams prey on people's weaknesses like pride, arrogance, greed, and even sympathy.

This post has been edited by CAMAricer: Sep 14, 2009 - 3:27 AM