have you ever been scammed by a con artist?

vash · vash's Garage

i have. bought bogus stereo speakers after hearing some lame story on how they got them. empty boxes. lost $200, but it was a cheap lesson. made me the paranoid, cynic that i am.

my mom just got RIPPED! i am pissed.

cantdrv55 · 02-26-2010, 06:58 PM

Never been scammed. Too smart for that. I've actually scammed some Nigerian fool recently. Dufus is sending me a cool mil if i send him $10000. I'm gonna be rich!

WolfeMacleod · 02-26-2010, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cantdrv55

Never been scammed. Too smart for that. I've actually scammed some Nigerian fool recently. Dufus is sending me a cool mil if i send him $10000. I'm gonna be rich!

I scammed one of those guy into flying from S.Africa to Amsterdam to collect. Reverend Mustafa was awfully upset when Father Mulcahey didn't arrive.

A930Rocket · 02-26-2010, 07:27 PM

Bought some 930 parts from a PCA member in the NE for $200 on another forum. The menbers in that region were as helpful as a kick in the nuts.

alf · 02-26-2010, 07:32 PM

Mastercard/Visa took me for $5000 when they authorized a stolen card. They assured me on the phone, when i called to confirm, that the charge was legit and they would stand behind it 100%.

Tom '74 911 · 02-26-2010, 07:36 PM

Got scammed on eBay recently on a '95 3.6L motor. The seller sold it twice, collected money from both of us and has not been heard from again. eBay did issue refunds, but wow, I am seriously soured and crusty from that experience.

Scuba Steve · 02-26-2010, 07:47 PM

Never have been, but my grandma was when she started getting up in years. The scammer was caught and did jail time in Texas, but she never recovered all she was out. He was in for 7 years or so - hope he had a nice roomate.

Westy · 02-26-2010, 07:56 PM

I got married. Does that count?????

cantdrv55 · 02-26-2010, 08:04 PM

I'm telling your wife.

Dantilla · 02-26-2010, 08:36 PM

I traded a fellow pelicanhead a pair of seats for a set of wheels.
I sent the seats, still waiting for the wheels.........
That was a few years ago, the other guy no longer posts here.

I bought a pair of Jeep doors on eBay, sent money through paypal, no doors. When I issued a dispute, the seller had a sob story, sick in hospital, yada yada, and couldn't print a shipping label as long as the transaction was in dispute, and he would ship as soon as I cancel the dispute. Ummmm, no thanks. No more response from seller, and paypal refunded me.

aigel · aigel's Garage

PayPal scammed me out of $200. Someone I had traded with had gone belly up and paypal went after a cash refund I had gotten from this person shortly before. It counted as a non-secured payment and they took it flat back out of my account with nothing that I could do.

PayPal Alternative - Pay Pal Lawsuits, PayPal Complaints & Fraud

I avoid them if I can, especially taking payments. If I buy something I only use my credit card.

George

Westy · 02-26-2010, 08:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cantdrv55

i'm telling your wife.

snitch!!

dafischer · 09:13 PM

Yup...scammed out of my first 911, in fact. It was 1974, home from college for the summer, and I found a 1965 911 for sale in the local paper. It had some rust issues, but was pretty straight, and ran well. The price was $500, since it had low, almost non-existent oil pressure, per the gauge. Bought it, dragged it home to my parent's , and hooked up a manual gauge, and voila! perfect pressure. Bought a new sender, threw in some plugs, points, and timed it, and put it in the Sunday NY Times (it used to have a great cars for sale section in those days) for $2000.

Got a call from a guy from NY city, who was really interested. He came to look at it, called me back and said he'd take it. Showed up with a set of plates, and a certified check. He left with the car, and all was good. I deposited said check, went back to school, all fat, dumb and happy on $1,400 profit. Then I get the call from my dad, telling me the bank had tried to get in touch with me since the check turned out to be no good. Turns out that the buyer was a pro who forged certified checks (he'd made his own stamp) who'd ripped off lots of others for cars and artwork, and was well-known by the law enforcement community.

I had to testify before a county Grand Jury and got an indictment against him, and later found out that he was arrested (after the indictment) in another town in the county, but they let him go. Smooth move on their part. Anyway, out the 911 and my original $600 investment.

Long story short, that is why I've only dealt in cash for subsequent sales

m21sniper · 02-26-2010, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vash

i have. bought bogus stereo speakers after hearing some lame story on how they got them. empty boxes. lost $200, but it was a cheap lesson. made me the paranoid, cynic that i am.

my mom just got RIPPED! i am pissed.

I have in the past, but i've also gotten quite even a few times in the past too.

pwd72s · 02-26-2010, 09:46 PM

I've made several "loans" to people knowing they'd probably never be repaid. But the upside is that these people avoid me now. I figure I'm ahead.

Also, got ripped off for $200 for a supposedly "great shape" sports muffler through a PANO ad...this was back in the early 70's. I got a pile of rust for my 200 bucks. This AFTER a PCA regional president assured me the seller was a good guy. Monterey Bay area...sheesh!

m21sniper · 02-26-2010, 09:49 PM

I wouldn't even pay $200 for a muffler now.

pwd72s · 02-26-2010, 11:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by m21sniper

I wouldn't even pay $200 for a muffler now.

Hell, I was offered a grand for my old 911's muffler...an old stainless liestritz (sp?)
The $200 one wasn't a total loss. I was able to cut it open, figure out how the factory made 'em. Had written up a nice piece to send off to Pano, but somebody else beat me to it.

jkarolyi · 02-27-2010, 07:39 AM

Three friends from church and I each lost $2000 to a container shipping scam artist. We put together a container full of computers and 2-3 year old medical equipment for a college and hospital in Zambia. The scam was quite elaborate...took another guy for over $100,000 worth of cars. This was my first time being scammed...thought I was smarter than that! Douchebag stole our money and the contents of the container were auctioned off in Mozambique to pay storage fees. No good deed goes unpunished.

The whole sad story:

Anybody have a contact at Maersk? My charity container shipping nightmare...

glewis80SC · glewis80SC's Garage

Had identity theft couple years back, they made copies of a check we wrote, put a fake but close to name on the new checks, same acct and routing number they would buy $300 to $500 from Home Depot etc then go return merchandise for cash. We got our money back but the whole process of changing accounts, filing police reports and dealing with the returned checks was a pain, would love to find them but the cops pretty much shrug it off, no more checks if don't have to and NEVER put DL number etc on the check. They got about $1800.00.

t951 · t951's Garage

Sadly, yes I have.

During the stock boom a lot of us at a Software company did very well. That had tax complications that none of us understood. A few people that had lots more money started using a dedicated tax accountant. She was used by the wealthy and could help us navigate the unknown, and expensive waters.

We ended up having companies started in our names, and getting large refund checks.

Long story short, 206 of us were taken by her, she made over $1mil, with no cash or assets to show. The IRS had a task-force setup. All of us were audited, had to pay what we actually owed, plus interest and penalties. AND we had to testify against her in federal court.

She was sentenced to 10-15yrs in prison. Oh, and afterward we found out she was referred to as the Fat and Shady Tax Lady. That would have been useful info!