[DoubleEs]

Quote:

Originally Posted by omegaman /img/forum/go_quote.gif x2, You should give the guy a bit longer to reply before you name and shame him. A couple of days is nothing, He could not post it over the weekend so perhaps he was waiting until it was in the post before replying. The one bit of feedback he has from AGC sounds like its from a very satisfied customer. Have a bit of patience.

Little did we know, qspeedss is AGC

 

[Kilane]

Quote:

Originally Posted by robojack /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yikes, that's quite a few scammer stories in a short period of time. I'm really going to make sure whoever I buy from now on has a decent amount of Head-fi feedback.

We all started with no feedback at some point, so I don't know if that's justified. We just all need to take proper precautions, demand pictures, be up front with the fact that a user has no feedback he's going to make most of the concessions when dealing with a more trusted member etc...

There's been more bad news around here lately though, it just reinforces the notion that if it's too good to be true, it probably is.

 

[aaron313]

So, everything is resolved, now. I was refunded the $450!!!

Now, I'd like to share my story and the thoughts that were running through my mind for the last few days:

I was approached by user qspeedss, because I had put out a WTB for a Pico. I immediately took him up on the offer, because it was a good deal, and his feedback was good. After I purchased the item, communication was cut off. I became suspicious very quickly, so I sent some PMs, and started this thread. I was then chastised (rightfully, it initially seemed) by some established members. I sent some PMs explaining myself. Then, I decided to read every post by member qspeedss. I became suspicious of member AGC, and figured out immediately that he was qspeedss (or whoever hacked his account), because of the awkward correspondence between the two users in a thread on the Shure 530. I then did a search on all Picos sold, and found the picture that qspeedss had sent me, which was taken by someone else. I then contacted that member, and asked him if the Pico was sold to qspeedss, to which he replied "negative." I was then 100% sure I had been scammed. I opened a paypal dispute, which would likely have been an unfruitful effort had it not been rendered moot earlier today. I just got home from the bank (wanted to open a fraud claim) and checked my email. Q (name left out) had refunded me the money, and told me that his accounts had been hacked. This is a dreadful situation for all involved, but it looks as though it has been resolved.

Final note. I would not recommend starting a thread like this until you are VERY sure that you have been scammed. The correct course of action is to contact Jude (which I did, too) and paypal. I would like to say that I harbor no bad feelings toward anyone who criticized me for starting this thread, because in most instances I would have been wrong. This has not affected my opinion of Head-Fi, because it looks as though the fraud was not committed by a rogue member, but by a hacker. I should have trusted my instincts initially and not made the purchase, because I am usually right about these things, unfortunately. I hope we can all learn another lesson from this, and get along happily. Of course, this is aided by the fact that my money was returned!

Thanks, and happy posting.


And sorry about your wallets!

 

[GSurge]

Glad to see you got the money back. Was this user actually "hacked," or is he just BSing after being caught? I find it hard to believe that someone would steal a relatively unknown head-fier's account to scam people on head-fi.

 

[thische]

My situation has been resolved too. I was paid back my money for the Grado SR325i he had listed.

I was just about to open a PayPal dispute against him.

I got the same explanation from Q about his account being hacked. However I don't believe him, but I got my money back so I'll leave this matter behind now.

 

[RockCity]

aaron313, you're being too gullible if you believe qspeedss' account was hacked. No hacker can hack three accounts (qspeedss, AGC, and his PayPal account) at the same time unless he knows that qspeedss and AGC are the same person or use the same password. Most normal people wouldn't know that. You only got your money back because we exposed the scammer's real name in the sale forum. I bet Quang just realized his scam was planned piss poorly.

 

[aaron313]

^

His story is rubbish, and there is no way that the alleged hacker would have known that qspeedss would not log into his accounts at any random time and catch him. It coincidentally happened after he got caught? That's BS. If you read every post by q, it appears that this is a case of a member going rogue on us, and that this was a month-long setup.

 

[jude]

I checked his IP addresses. AGC and qspeedss are one and the same, according to that information. It seems to me he created the AGC account to support his qspeedss account, and then to try to use it to amateurishly throw people off the scent in a show's-over-sorry-you-got-scammed-by-this-guy-now-move-on sort of way.

Before I delved any further into his accounts here, I was sent additional information via e-mail that coincided with his IP addresses, and pretty much identified what appeared to me to be the likely suspect (including work contact information for his father, which was found only through information he'd previously posted).

I contacted him, and he denied it. In response, I told him that if he had absolutely nothing to do with this (as he claimed), then forwarding the information I had to the authorities shouldn't alarm him. He panicked and told me his father passed away. I told him that if his father had indeed passed, that I was sorry about that, but that it didn't change the fact that people had apparently been ripped off by him--and that, upon trying to call his father, I did get a voicemail prompt with his father's voice on the outgoing message (I did not leave a message).

He asked to instant message with me. I declined.

He Facebook-friend-requested. I declined and blocked.

He used the same explanation with me--that he was the victim of some seemingly elaborate hacking. I told him that the information in total really didn't seem to me to point to that at all.

He forwarded the username and password of some PayPal account to me, and asked me to login. I refused this very odd request.

He begged me to not turn the information I had over to the authorities. I would not make that promise, but told him that if he had indeed ripped people off, it would be in his best interest to remedy the situation(s).

He contacted me later to say that he'd refunded everyone.

If you feel you have been ripped off by this guy and not had the situation remedied, please let me know in this thread or via PM.

Thanks to those who helped by providing information.

 

[juniperlater]

Great news!

 

[aaron313]

I called his father, and the guy answered; then he hung up. I am angry that this child lied to me, and to Jude. It's up to everybody else now to decide on their course of action, since I am not going to report this to the police.

 

[analogbox]

I seriously think you should still hand this over to the authorities. If he gets away with this who knows what kind of things he'll do later in his life. It seems like he's still juvenile so he might just get away with minor civil services but at least he'll learn that behind every ill-intended actions there will be consequences.

 

[Al4x]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoubleEs /img/forum/go_quote.gif Little did we know, qspeedss is AGC

wow, i almost ought a pair of 325is off im, but he had no feedback so i backed out,

damn, its a shame you have to be this wary
even since ive been on its been getting worse

 

[tohni]

Quote:

my uncle backed out

seriously doubt that any "uncle" was ever involved in this.

edit: just saw in jude's post that he only refunded the buyers after the git hit the fan. - One more useless post.

 

[aaron313]

You know, I also have no feedback, even though I have all kinds of successful transactions. That's not fair in my opinion.

 

[thische]

Thanks Jude for your great work.