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Beware of the conmen
#1
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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#2
   Yes, actually when I'm searching 'Le Bon Coin" in France, unless I can speak to the buyer personally on the phone I won't follow up the purchase, many now won't give out their number, so I reply to the mail asking to contact me by phone, if they do, I chat ask a few photographic questions and study their replies..............the human voice and straightforward answers tell much about the seller. 

  No call no sale!

 

   Some things for sale don't actually exist in real life, why steal when you can sell something on line you don't even need to have?

 

Oh and watch out for those who send you a link to a site trashing Paypal and asking to pay by bank transfer....a link to that site will come only from con-artists!...........never ever send a bank transfer!.....usually it goes into an account that hasn't a persons name. The banks are not allowed to give out any information about the account, the only way to pursue a reclamation is through the courts!

 

Caveat emptor!

 

   Nearly got caught out once, I saw on "Le Bon Coin" site a D800 (€830) only two kms down the road, sent a mail to ring me, got another mail back..."I'm in England, I'll put it on ebay UK" + the famous Paypal trashing link" + a request to pay by Bank transfer.

   I looked at his ebay record...thousands of boat chandlery items, nothing over €10, not a lens or anything photographic, with a business name!.......he'd blagged it from someone no doubt. his address was in London,  an architectual company.....(selling boat chandlery??)..........later that day the D800 was still there. 

 The next day the on the Bon Coin there's the Ad again, same photo, same wording, same price.

​ I signaled "un abuse" to the site and gave them all the info, the Ad was removed. The seller would have been informed that the Ad had been reported and had been removed.

   One month later the same Ad appeared again, I sent a link from the mail I received from TBC, again it was removed....the last time a while later the same Ad, it was again removed it never appeared again.  

 

  The guy was obviously a "barsteward".......... I enjoyed messing up his scam, he could have caught out several innocent buyers!

#3
:-(

#4
I only buy via hand to hand delivery the advantage of living in a tiny country.

I even became friends with Zahi from whom I bought lenses he's actually one of my best friends now, yesterday we were shooting together and he has used his own ex lenses Big Grin.

I just remembered a funny scam, some Russian ladies claimed they wanted to become jihadis wives and scammed ISIS, funny isn't it?




http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...Syria.html
#5
  BTW Klaus for some reason your emoticons "always show up" as their component parts here; all I see here is,

 

                          : - (    

 

    I have added a space between each letter to show you how it looks to me.....   

 

   Not sure if you're crying, laughing,  sad or what!

 

 

 

            :-(    Hmmm....strange!

#6
Sad I think he meant that one but adding a dash in between leads to "no emoji".

 

I never use eBay these days, too big the chances to end up as victim of conmen. Had that once. Complaining at eBay only lead to an offer to give my rights to them so they could sue the seller. But that would mean say Goodbye to a part of the money. At that time I thought police would fine him. Easy enough because whilst I was trying to find out what happened he went into prison.

 

Likely to learn how to do better without getting catched next time.  :ph34r:

 

Couple of times I wanted to sell something and got a mail like "I pay more but you have to send the item to my sister / brother whatever in a country far away" Sure I do.... And for the rest of sold items I never had a bad experience - just one bought Pentax lens arrived with Fungus. Coming from a "professional" photo dealer.

 

It's easier to betray these days and the chances are high the thieves or conmen get away.

#7
Quote::-(
 

  I guess we will never know!
#8
Hi Guys,

 

A phonecall is no guaranty that you won't get conned. I have spoken to this guy and he later even called me back saying he wanted to help me find the lenses or refund them, but 2 months on and it stays silent.

 

I know there is always a risk, but a saying in Dutch is 'A warned men count for two (men)). .

 

 

Kind regards,


Reinier
#9
Quote:Hi Guys,

 

A phonecall is no guaranty that you won't get conned. I have spoken to this guy and he later even called me back saying he wanted to help me find the lenses or refund them, but 2 months on and it stays silent.

 

I know there is always a risk, but a saying in Dutch is 'A warned men count for two (men)). .

 

 

Kind regards,

Reinier
That should then be "a warned man counts as two"

But we say mens, so more correct should be "a warned human counts as two".
#10
Quote: 
 

Quote:Hi Guys,

 

A phonecall is no guaranty that you won't get conned. I have spoken to this guy and he later even called me back saying he wanted to help me find the lenses or refund them, but 2 months on and it stays silent.

 

I know there is always a risk, but a saying in Dutch is 'A warned men count for two (men)). .

 

 

Kind regards,

Reinier
  There's never a guarantee that you won't get conned, only a guarantee that you might do!

  


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