Page 1 of 1

User: Arth - SCAMMER (What a Scam Looks Like)

PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 4:14 pm
by Zebra
I posted wanting to buy a BM42, and this idiot attempts to scam me. Here are the details.

He contacts me less than an hour after I post my WTB:
Image

Here are the pics he linked me to.

[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/193/00624e.jpg/
Image[/URL]

Image

Image

Image

Image

... this immediately seemed to good to be true - the pics seemed to be of an authentic BM, but they were too authentic. They look almost like promotional photos. you know - direct from Benchmade? of course not quite the quality... so I continued to speak with the seller.

At this point - I just wanted to agree on a price, before I started getting all paranoid, so I got that out of the way.

Image

He responded fairly quickly.

Image

Mint Razor Sharp? These knives are a couple years old as you all know, so this seemed to good to be true. Also - he was fine with $325.00. Didn't even put up a fight. It was only $25.00, however, so I continued to speak with him.

With a price agreed on, I started to probe him for some assurances that this was a solid deal.

Image

His response was more than unacceptable.

Image

For his vouches he links me to some random eBay account - with thousands of positive reviews and the same name (more or less) as his account on here.

This is the eBay account he showed me.

Image

It had no visible history of ever dealing with any sort of knives / outdoor products of the kind ever. But I still entertained the notion of seeing this to the end. By now, I was extremely hesitant to continue the talks - but I really wanted a BM42 - so I wanted to keep this going until I was sure.

As for the second link he posted... He said that he couldn't show me the visible proof I had asked for with the knife, because he already packed it. To show me he really did this. He sent me this picture.

Image

Because, clearly this box says it all... "See, here's the box. You can trust me." (He didn't say that but he might as well have.)

I wanted to play this out until I couldn't any longer. I asked if he could ship to CT.

Image

He replied...

Image

Davis... @ Japan.com.... Japan.com?! what the hell is japan.com....? I found nothing on google pertaining to this - and it just seemed very very strange to me. I never trust these sort of email domains. On top of that - He gave me that email completely out of context - so I didn't even know what it was...

This made me very very suspicious - so I decided to look at his account page (yes, yes, I know, I know. I should have done this first probably. Also I should have seen if he introduced himself... I'm new to that whole concept of formal introductions on forums - so I didn't think to look into it at first. w/e I did in the end.)

this is what his account page looked like.

Image

Not sure if you can see but it says he joined the forum Apri 29th (yesterday) - the same time i posted about a BM42.

I then confronted him about my findings.

Image

He responded quickly, and rather convincingly - but I still was not willing to give this guy a penny.

Image

He then sent me another message saying:

Image

^^ this I saw right through. His attempt to seem like an understanding, honest seller.

I then pursued the most obvious form of verification that I had overlooked.
The ebay account he linked me to.

Image
Image

no response from him after that.

Soon later, I received this private message from eBay.

Image

Of course this made me absolutely sure it was a scam (not that i would've given him my money anyway. Too little assurance - too fake pictures - too good to be true)

hope you enjoyed this little tale. I thought it was pretty amusing.

-Zebra

Re: User: Arth - SCAMMER

PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 5:37 pm
by feenxfire
:TU: :TU:

Awesome post, dude! I enjoyed it thoroughly. And I'm glad you weren't one of the unlucky few that do get scammed by these guys. Glad to see you kept your shit together in the face of a NIB BM42.

I can only hope others will learn from this.

:clap:

Re: User: Arth - SCAMMER

PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 5:57 pm
by Looseyfur
deserved a sticky...

read and learn noobs.

Re: User: Arth - SCAMMER

PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 6:11 pm
by Bladejunkie
Looseyfur wrote:deserved a sticky...

read and learn noobs.

QFT

Re: User: Arth - SCAMMER

PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 6:58 pm
by senseicharles
I got this very same reply to a post I left! It's as though I you just gave me a play by play of what was about to happen to me! It can't get better than that. Good looking out! :blush:

Re: User: Arth - SCAMMER

PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:13 pm
by JJhamilton
What a prick.....knowing so many people are really trying to find a b42 and leaching off of peoples desires....suggestion ...most of the forums ive been apart of required you to give you telephone and address before using the markets....only administration would have it but it migbt would help detour some od the scams...just a thougbt

Re: User: Arth - SCAMMER

PostPosted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 8:09 pm
by Zebra
No problem guys! Yea it was some fun putting this post together haha.

Hopefully this will help prevent others from getting scammed.

A lot of times the little things are the most obvious.

The second i saw that Japan.com domain - I knew this guy was full of nonsense.

Re: User: Arth - SCAMMER (What a Scam Looks Like)

PostPosted: Sat Jun 02, 2012 8:57 am
by Mittens
Dude as soon as you saw the Click-N-Ship label on the box you should have known, how the fuck would he get a Click-N-Ship if he doesnt know where its even going yet. herpin'n'derpin, good post though.

Re: User: Arth - SCAMMER (What a Scam Looks Like)

PostPosted: Mon Jun 18, 2012 9:27 pm
by Piper Maru
Mittens wrote:Dude as soon as you saw the Click-N-Ship label on the box you should have known, how the fuck would he get a Click-N-Ship if he doesnt know where its even going yet. herpin'n'derpin, good post though.


I thought the same exact thing, thats why that paper is covering the address.

Also this is a really great post, nice detective work.

Re: User: Arth - SCAMMER (What a Scam Looks Like)

PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 9:04 am
by Mr.Bali-SongGuy
Also look out for a guy who goes by russeljohn@gmail.com.. he tried to scam me once, and i've seen posts of other people saying they almost got scammed by him to. They need to be stopped!!! :pirate_ANGRY:

Re: User: Arth - SCAMMER (What a Scam Looks Like)

PostPosted: Mon Aug 27, 2012 7:32 am
by Daffiestlime
A nice little tip for you guys; if you go to Google Images and press the little camera button next to the "search" button, you can search using a picture URL, or a picture from your computer. Really useful for checking if that picture is anywhere else on the internet.