I just got bit by a scammer.......

[DAPpower]

I saw a Audio 64 U12T listing on Classified Fields and I paid the person $1000 Paypal F&F based on his account being a long time member since 2007 but after sending the payment I got no replay back in PM and I realize his last posts were in 2011. It appears that his account maybe got hacked by scammers from a different country.

Here is his profile page,

https://www.head-fi.org/members/mookowz13.62216/

Now the listing has been deleted somehow (not even closed) and I can't find it on Classified Listings.


I sent the payment as Friends and Family but it says on my Paypal that the recipient won't be able to recieve the payment until July 13, 2023 which implies that it must be a foreign Paypal account, the paypal account name is "BODAN", this looks like a Paypal business type account created to hide their real name, in the United States, you cannot take F&F payments with a paypal Business account anymore but in foreign countries you probably still can.


This was foolish of me and please becareful of accounts that have a longtime join date but create a listing out of nowhere after more than a decade!
You have been warned!

 

[David A Silva]

Thanks for posting this. Truly scammers are everywhere these days. Sorry it happened to you...

 

[dunring]

I saw a Audio 64 U12T listing on Classified Fields and I paid the person $1000 Paypal F&F based on his account being a long time member since 2007 but after sending the payment I got no replay back in PM and I realize his last posts were in 2011. It appears that his account maybe got hacked by scammers from a different country.

Here is his profile page,

https://www.head-fi.org/members/mookowz13.62216/

Now the listing has been deleted somehow (not even closed) and I can't find it on Classified Listings.


I sent the payment as Friends and Family but it says on my Paypal that the recipient won't be able to recieve the payment until July 13, 2023 which implies that it must be a foreign Paypal account, the paypal account name is "BODAN", this looks like a Paypal business type account created to hide their real name, in the United States, you cannot take F&F payments with a paypal Business account anymore but in foreign countries you probably still can.


This was foolish of me and please becareful of accounts that have a longtime join date but create a listing out of nowhere after more than a decade!
You have been warned!

Call Paypal right away and explain to someone one the phone. They have indemnification agreements with banks and can reverse a fraud charge before the foreign bank releases the funds. The Friends and & Family transfers usually has no recourse, except for International transfers which take a lot longer. The only buy protection you have is if they send you an invoice describing condition of the item exactly and then fail to deliver. Bypass the chatbot and call them as soon as possible. The thing is, if that Paypal account was hacked, they'll likely know it and that's an automatic win for you.

 

[DAPpower]

Call Paypal right away and explain to someone one the phone. They have indemnification agreements with banks and can reverse a fraud charge before the foreign bank releases the funds. The Friends and & Family transfers usually has no recourse, except for International transfers which take a lot longer. The only buy protection you have is if they send you an invoice describing condition of the item exactly and then fail to deliver. Bypass the chatbot and call them as soon as possible. The thing is, if that Paypal account was hacked, they'll likely know it and that's an automatic win for you.

Yes, will call PayPal now that it is the weekday and if that doesn't work I will try a charge back from the bank.

I usually don't have any issues buying on Headfi, it's just that I should have detected the first red flag, right before I sent payment to him, it mention that the recipient was going to recieve a little less due to foreign taxes (foreign PayPal account) yet the Headfi user was based in USA in his profile, I ignored this fact and now paying the price.

 

[tdx]

If you paid with a credit card through paypal, try to also initiate a charge back on your card claiming you got scammed and explain to your cc the situation. If they approve it they will give you the money back and then figure it out with paypal, after which it's not your issue anymore. Not 100% sure this can work but if you provide proof of everything to them it might work. Just be aware once you start the claim on your cc it usually overrides the one from PP and they will tell you that until your cc makes a decision they cannot do anything. But I would still trust my credit card to come through rather than PP.

Good luck in any case, hope this works out!

 

[WilliamBlake]

I saw a Audio 64 U12T listing on Classified Fields and I paid the person $1000 Paypal F&F based on his account being a long time member since 2007 but after sending the payment I got no replay back in PM and I realize his last posts were in 2011. It appears that his account maybe got hacked by scammers from a different country.

Here is his profile page,

https://www.head-fi.org/members/mookowz13.62216/

Now the listing has been deleted somehow (not even closed) and I can't find it on Classified Listings.


I sent the payment as Friends and Family but it says on my Paypal that the recipient won't be able to recieve the payment until July 13, 2023 which implies that it must be a foreign Paypal account, the paypal account name is "BODAN", this looks like a Paypal business type account created to hide their real name, in the United States, you cannot take F&F payments with a paypal Business account anymore but in foreign countries you probably still can.


This was foolish of me and please becareful of accounts that have a longtime join date but create a listing out of nowhere after more than a decade!
You have been warned!

Hope you can have your money back, you can never lower the guard in this world

 

[feverfive]

Sorry man, that's a bummer. I've never asked a buyer to pay me via F&F and I can't imagine I ever would (I've actually advised a couple against paying me via F&F, one, a dude in Russia, for a portable amp I sold and another guy in Italy for a pair of Sony IEMs). If I see a sales listing and the seller requests F&F, I typically just move on. If it's an item I want badly enough, I'll PM and ask if they'd take G&S payment with a +3.5% added to cover the fee.

That said, as a seller, I always include PayPal fees in my asking price; it is something I build in, as well as shipping. I just want to make it easy to do business, I guess.

 

[Sebastien Chiu]

Sorry to hear about this. Bit once, never again.

 

[DAPpower]

This community is generally very trustworthy and you can actually view other people's history on Headfi but I let one detail slip past me and now it bites back. Lesson learned, I won't stop being trusting in the community but moving forward I will have to pay attention much more carefully.

Anyways an update on my case, PayPal opened a case for me and will review it until a decision is made in one or two more days, if that fails I will go straight to the bank and file a case there. The recipient won't recieve the funds until July 2023 so I should have ample enough time to settle a case to get a charge back.

 

[DenverW]

I’m sorry man! There was a four Page thread about this exact scam, where someone hacks an older account and posts things for sale, but it seems to have been removed. I tried to find it when I saw this for sale posting to remind people to be careful. There was another headfi member that paid the guy but because he replied to the thread I sent him a pm to warn him. Mods took down the post right after that.

 

[pattont]

I actually refuse to do F&F on Paypal when buying audio gear. I will just pay them the 3% over asking to not send it F&F. I just did it on a Mojo 2 purchase. The seller (was amazing btw) told me he would sell it $580 F&F, but I decided to just do $598 and not do the F&F to protect both of us. I know 3% sucks to pay, but I sleep better knowing it protects my purchase especially when it's a decent amount of $$ changing hands.

 

[snapple10]

sorry to hear. one bad apple can spoil the ...

 

[DAPpower]

WE GOT ANOTHER ONE BOYS,

https://www.head-fi.org/members/fanteskiller.562147/#classifieds-listings

Do NOT buy anything from this guy, he is supposedly the same hacker/scammer that took money from me, look at all his listings and feedback history.
His forums posts consist of generic quick simple dialogue made to rack up post history to make him/herself look legit. His listings have brand new "users" replying with "PM" just like the listing that bit me 2 weeks ago.

 

[Doug2507]

WE GOT ANOTHER ONE BOYS,

https://www.head-fi.org/members/fanteskiller.562147/#classifieds-listings

Do NOT buy anything from this guy, he is supposedly the same hacker/scammer that took money from me, look at all his listings and feedback history.
His forums posts consist of generic quick simple dialogue made to rack up post history to make him/herself look legit. His listings have brand new "users" replying with "PM" just like the listing that bit me 2 weeks ago.

I sincerely hope you've sent proof of this to the @moderators and they're taking action rather than it just lying dormant in here...

 

[DAPpower]

I sincerely hope you've sent proof of this to the @moderators and they're taking action rather than it just lying dormant in here...

I reported the user but I doubt the mods want to take action. In their minds the buyer would be the fool in this case and they have their guidelines already set in place to warn people.

This person is getting crafty, and I'm sure he will be back with more hacked and new fake accounts in the coming weeks.

The best thing I can do is to try to warn others immediately right before they get bit.