Beware - Scammed by ex-Forum Member

[Rob126]

I've just had the misfortune to have been scammed by a member of Fiat forum.

I placed a wanted advert a few weeks ago, with no success. Then a week ago I received a PM from a forum member saying that a friend of his had what I wanted and attaching the so-called friend's email address. Without going into too much boring detail, I paid for the items and received the promise of a delivery tracking number when the parts had been posted. The days went by and I never got the tracking number. Surprise surprise, I got no reply to my emails. The parts never existed.

I've always thought that I was fairly scam savvy, but in hindsight I made some basic mistakes, one of which was to assume that members of a car forum offering parts for sale to a fellow member would be legit.

My advice when buying parts through this or any forum would be;
Check the posting history of the person offering the parts - do they seem a genuine enthusiast?
Determine that the parts actually exist.
Only pay using a method with buyer protection against private individuals as well as businesses.

I've had it confirmed from the forum moderators that said member has now been banned which is good news, but I'm sure he'll just move on to pull the same stunt somewhere else. Take care online.

 

[portland_bill]

If offerred somethign from a forum member, I'd do some checks. There are a number of members that post regularly, and some that post frequently. I'd expect them to be honest. If any offer came from a member I'd not seen posts from before, I'd be looking at how many posts they'd made, and for how long they'd been a member. If not long, I'd be reading all their posts to try to get some feeling about them. I may also ask where they are, as a meeting for collection of any item might be possible.

Occasionally we get a new member, who posts once, asking a question, but never replies, so we have no idea whether our advice was useful. Others pop up, obviously trying to sell us something, or promote a religion, or similar, those tend to disappear quickly as tehy get removed. With any online forum, everyone looks the same, whether honest or fake.

 

[porta]

Please name and shame Mods…just in case we come across a pattern

 

[The Panda Nut]

I've just had the misfortune to have been scammed by a member of Fiat forum.

I placed a wanted advert a few weeks ago, with no success. Then a week ago I received a PM from a forum member saying that a friend of his had what I wanted and attaching the so-called friend's email address. Without going into too much boring detail, I paid for the items and received the promise of a delivery tracking number when the parts had been posted. The days went by and I never got the tracking number. Surprise surprise, I got no reply to my emails. The parts never existed.

I've always thought that I was fairly scam savvy, but in hindsight I made some basic mistakes, one of which was to assume that members of a car forum offering parts for sale to a fellow member would be legit.

My advice when buying parts through this or any forum would be;
Check the posting history of the person offering the parts - do they seem a genuine enthusiast?
Determine that the parts actually exist.
Only pay using a method with buyer protection against private individuals as well as businesses.

I've had it confirmed from the forum moderators that said member has now been banned which is good news, but I'm sure he'll just move on to pull the same stunt somewhere else. Take care online.

Really sorry to hear this. Its very sad. I agree with Bugsymike. As much details as poss so the offender has less paces to get back under their stone and hide.