On Apr 10 I made a post looking for a 62 Starfire transmission crossmember.
Gusto, a forum member sent me a pm and referred me to jdorour or SuperG also a member of this forum.
I contacted SuperG and he had the crossmember, we agreed on a price, now it was time for payment. I wanted to send him a personal check, let it clear his bank and then send me the crossmember. No SuperG wouldn't do that, he had to use an internet money transfer service and now I know why, SuperG is a crook.
I wasn't a member of any of these services so I signed up with Zelle. I sent SuperG the money by way of Zelle, ZAP it was gone from my account and in SuperGs.
SuperG, in his LAST email to me said that he didn't get the money and that was our last correspondence.
Watch out for this internet stuff.

 

I don't see a "SuperG" listed as a member of this forum.

 

I found a "jdorour" member who has not been on this site in nearly seven (7) years.

 

How about jdorour, when I email jdorour using the email address that Gusto provided to me SuperG is the handle that came up

 

My take. Member name "Gusto" is the culprit here. I have reported the username "Gusto" to the Moderators/Administrators. I suggest you do same. Gusto made a total of two posts, no replies from Gusto, and a recent member. Very sorry to see this happen to you or anyone.

 

It's unfortunate that this happens when people overlook the red flags in internet buying. Generally any message or post received by a relatively new member with a low post count referring you to someone else's email address should be assumed as a scam. Member Gusto has been banned.

 

I've been noticing that some accounts (forum and Facebook) which have been involved in scamming efforts are older accounts which have had no activity for an extended period of time. I believe the account log in information is gained on the dark web and being used for these purposes to lend some credibility as an established "real person".

 

This is why Chris Witt insisted on using USPS money orders. Any illegal scam and it was a federal felony (interstate mail fraud) investigated and prosecuted by the Postmaster General’s office.

 

Great point.

 

This is not so far removed from this discussion but I'll share something. Certain things I can see on this (CO) website...nothing any different than any other normal member user can see. But, I've noticed when these scammer/thieve events take place there are Guest users viewing the thread of discussion (e.g. Ripped Off, etc., etc. whenever these events have occurred). In the Tools drop-down menu if you select Who's Online after one of these events, I've noticed several Guests viewing the thread of discussion. This is sometimes referred to as obfuscation in the parlance of network management & monitoring (which I have familiarity). A nondescript Guest user finds select information pertaining to a particular user/event/post/thread, etc. They garner information as a Guest (not all information is available to a Guest ) just enough to create a ploy i.e. did anyone catch the other user (Gusto?), SuperG, jdorour, etc., etc., was an e-mail listed, a phone number, any 'useful' information to further their endeavors. These guys are tricky, but they're in the world of really Kiddy forum hackers. They're not stealing credit card numbers, SSNs, bank accounts, etc. - but, they employ obfuscation to hide themselves and their trickery. There is s/w available (EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE) to find, locate/track these events/pecker-heads. You won't find it installed on any free forum sites. But, next time you see one of these types of "events", head to the Tools drop-down menu>Who's Online and checkout if there are any Guests viewing the thread of discussion. When this event (posting) took place I rummaged through the Guests viewing the thread "Ripped Off". Think about it, what Guest account (and there were several) would have ANY interest in viewing a thread titled "Ripped Off". Yeah, maybe someone...but, often times a Guest or several Guests viewing this type thread/post event is actually "phishing" from another PC more-or-less hiding in the background to see if they're caught, garnering more information, did their trickery work, anyone catching onto them. All under the disguise of a Guest account. Might seem sophisticated, but it's not; yet, it is thievery.

 

I've noticed that but jdorour has not logged in since 2017. The scams on old accounts that are hacked have usually been offsite link related embedded into posts and the account info. I went ahead and banned jdorour as a precaution earlier. As far as the guest thing, who knows, I'd bet most are bots.
While the Postal Money Order in theory should work, it's the government and imagine the amount of red tape and frustration you'd have to go through to succeed, if you can succeed at all. The Post Office does not actively pursue mail fraud money issues.

 

Yeah, much of it is bots. Little kiddy scripts written w/ enough task information to garner/provide information. Drives ya nuts, eh?

 

Same thing just happened to me, but it did not feel right so luckily I stopped it before any money was just sent:

1968 Cutlass Drivers Side Rear Quarter Extension MoldingHello, have you tried to ask (jdorour) a forum member here, the last time i got bumper from him, he mentioned he has it for sale you can send him an email for a quicker response from him argocatt12@gmail.com

Good Luck”

 

Wow, that right there says red flag all over it.

 

Crazy, right? So sad. And I rag on my 83 Y.O mom to not answer these types of things! Where is the Administrator account so I can let them know as well.

 

Click on the red triangle in the PM

 

Top RH corner of every PM is this icon to report a member....click on it.

 

Just did it, thanks!

 

Thanks for reporting the pm, member Gusto has already been removed from the site.

 

I suspect Zelle and other online money transfer entities have no legal protections at all.

 

Makes me so sad to see these things happen to good people. Out of the past 15 or so years of dealing on the internet, so far I have been able to avoid the fraud. I did get burned on Pay Pal for a $500 deposit one time. NEVER tank a deposit for an item by Pay Pal unless it is as friends.

 

I bet they're behind a VPN as well.

 

@jensenracing77 How did the deposit fraud work?

 

The best advice is to use Pay Pal. Not Pay Pal "friends and family" but regular Pay Pal. They will protect you. If somebody will not accept that then its a big flag not to mess with them.

 

There you go assuming. I don't take Pay Pal any longer. Not because they'll "protect you" but because they're a bunch of no-talent *** clowns IMO. I don't even have a Pay Pal account anymore. Totally different reason. I don't want their fingers in my bank accounts. Believe me, I've had no problem selling stuff, but don't assume someone is out to hose you because they don't have a Pay Pal account. But I also don't do Zelle or any other third party pay thing, either. Personal check or USPS money order for me. You don't want to pay that way? Then I'll keep my parts. No problem.

And maybe it's hit or miss with USPS money orders and the Postal Inpsectors getting involved when something goes wrong. I had an incident with a guy near Hurst, Texas try to rip me off of a sort of pricey part. Sent a USPS money order which naturally got cashed, and simply filed the complaint and kept on it. I got a letter in the mail saying they were on it, and pretty soon I got my part, PLUS he refunded my money! (with a USPS money order- ironic) Imagine that. Out of the goodness of his heart, I'm sure. A couple weeks later I got another letter from the Postal Inspector of the steps they took and that they feel the matter was resolved and if it wasn't, I could just contact them again. All this for a couple hundred dollar part. The hardest part is you have to wait a certain time period before they stepped in per their protocols.

 

A guy give me a deposit for an engine using Pay Pal to hold the engine for a month. I ended up giving him two months and still not picked up or paid for. He later decided he did not want the engine. In this case I get to keep the $500 because I missed other opportunities to sell the engine. This is the reason for the deposit. He filed a claim with Pay Pal that I never shipped the engine and since I could not prove I shipped the engine (because I was not supposed to) Pay Pal refunded his money. I contacted pay pal and they told me that is a problem they are aware of and not going to change it. They told me to never take a pay pal payment if I am not shipping the item because this can happen. I no longer take Pay Pal unless it is friends. If the buyer is not comfortable with that I will keep the item I am selling. If paid regular and I loose the tracking number they can claim I never shipped and they get there money back.

In this case I still had the engine and sold it later but that is not the point. A deposit is not supposed to be refundable.

With more research I found that people were going in person to buy something off of local add listings. They would talk the seller into taking payment with Pay Pal and a month later claim it was not shipped and get the money back. These days I protect myself against all things selling or buying. If I loose a sell over it then so be it.

 

Us "common" people can't get around that but recently learned that the feds can work around any of those is seconds. Not that I do anything for them to need to do that.... From what I understand, they can't see what you are doing but can find your location very easy.

 

I have almost been caught a few times, asking for pictures first is my go to. I was looking for an oil pan on FB and they produced a pic of an oil pan end seal. I had to laugh!...then proceeded to block them.

 

Legally that is probably only true if you stated that to the buyer in writing. Lots of deposits are refundable.

Just saying

 

Anytime I have a problem with an internet issue I use this to threaten the perp. It has worked every time.

https://www.ic3.gov/

 

The entire transaction was by email. They had it is writing. I give that documentation to Pay Pal. They said it does not matter because I did not ship the item. They said it is a known problem but they are not changing the policy. They are only for shipped transactions.

 

I noticed a newer user with low post count is selling complete cruise control kits for several different years in for sale. Wants paypal friends and family, or cash, or money order only. Strong money, too.

I can think of a few reasons someone would want to do those options:
1. He wants to avoid paypal fees for goods and services.
2. He wants to commit tax fraud by not reporting income via the paypal 1099 that you get for G&S sales over $600.
3. He does not want to be victimized by someone receiving the item, saying that they never received it, and having Paypal side with them.
4. They're a scammer.

The problem with 1 is that you can ask the buyer to cover fees and not risk both your accounts. 2 is federally illegal. While 3 is a good point, the correct thing to do is to not sell to sketchy people in the first place. When one is in business, one assumes the risk, meaning, if you are selling something, and I take you up on it, the risk is yours since you started the transaction (you did not have to sell, you chose to), whereas if I just cold approached you, it would be different. Putting all the risk on the buyer to avoid any risk as a seller is morally indefensible, and you don't look any different from 4.

My personal take is you do what you want. If you want F&F and want to dodge taxes and fees and I know you; fine, that's your deal. I pay plenty of people I know on here like that, and I pay immediately and people like selling to me. But, some new dude should not be requesting strong money in formats that offer no buyer protection because he doesn't know anyone.

I don't know if it is possible, but I wonder if we should try for a member classification that differentiates new, potential scammers from long term members. Easiest way might be a group of members who post in a thread adding people to a Preferred Customer list or similar so that it is known that they are known and trusted. People could know that they could feel ok buying cash / MO / F&F with that.