07-01-2017, 09:30 PM
Hello All,
I hope you are all doing well. It was about time I got back to the forum, which unfortunately, is not always possible. But it is great when I am able to visit, when I can!
I had bought a defective lens(I repair lenses now and then) from someone in the Netherlands. It arrived a few days later and everything seemed fine. A month or so later the seller contacted me saying he had some more lenses for sale. So, I thought I could trust him and paid. He shipped the lenses and he also sold lenses to an acquaintance who lives in the other side of the Netherlands. But the packages never arrived. It is a long story and I won't go into details further, but because I was conned, I looked elsewhere and have spoken to several people whose photographic equipment got stolen or people who sold their equipment and the people who bought it, paid with a fake app. So, after the buyer left, they noticed that they had not been paid.
Most of the people I spoke, never wrote down the serial numbers of their equipment. So, it is almost impossible to find it back or check if someone sells stolen equipment.
So, after my own problems and the stories of these people, I decided to take photographs of all my stuff. One general overview photograph and one of the serial number. This is even better then writing it down, because now I can show it to my insurance company if something happens and I can check if my equipment would surface somewhere or has been found, if it was to be stolen.
In the Netherlands there is a website to check if goods are stolen http://www.stopheling.nl. You can enter a serial number and add your own if it is stolen. Maybe there is one in your country as well.
I hope appreciate my tips and take it to heart to stop these conmen's from taking our stuff or selling stolen goods on.
Kind regards,
Reinier
I hope you are all doing well. It was about time I got back to the forum, which unfortunately, is not always possible. But it is great when I am able to visit, when I can!
I had bought a defective lens(I repair lenses now and then) from someone in the Netherlands. It arrived a few days later and everything seemed fine. A month or so later the seller contacted me saying he had some more lenses for sale. So, I thought I could trust him and paid. He shipped the lenses and he also sold lenses to an acquaintance who lives in the other side of the Netherlands. But the packages never arrived. It is a long story and I won't go into details further, but because I was conned, I looked elsewhere and have spoken to several people whose photographic equipment got stolen or people who sold their equipment and the people who bought it, paid with a fake app. So, after the buyer left, they noticed that they had not been paid.
Most of the people I spoke, never wrote down the serial numbers of their equipment. So, it is almost impossible to find it back or check if someone sells stolen equipment.
So, after my own problems and the stories of these people, I decided to take photographs of all my stuff. One general overview photograph and one of the serial number. This is even better then writing it down, because now I can show it to my insurance company if something happens and I can check if my equipment would surface somewhere or has been found, if it was to be stolen.
In the Netherlands there is a website to check if goods are stolen http://www.stopheling.nl. You can enter a serial number and add your own if it is stolen. Maybe there is one in your country as well.
I hope appreciate my tips and take it to heart to stop these conmen's from taking our stuff or selling stolen goods on.
Kind regards,
Reinier