Possibly Scammed by another user?

[Redmaus]

First off, if this thread does not belong here I will get rid of it/let mod remove it

Unfortunately, this happened a few months ago (september) and slipped under my radar due to school stress and other issues.

I bought 102 orange complicated alps from a user called Parabellum. http://deskthority.net/parabellum-u322/

I paid for them with paypal, and have not received them. I have messaged him and he has not replied. It appears he has not been active for a long time.

I understand that its my fault for not asking for pics and trusting a profile with little activity, but I have had many transactions on this site and none have gone badly except for this.

Mainly posting this as a warning that Parabellum should not be trusted if he comes back online, and if this is a misunderstanding I hope it can be fixed.

Also, Merry Christmas!

[scottc]

File a PayPal claim if you can.

[chzel]

Too late for that I think...
Crap, I hope there is a logical explanation and all will work out...

[scottc]

Ah, yeah, if it's been a few months then it probably is too late...

[Redmaus]

At least it was only 50$. The thing that bothers me is that he got away with it. Money down the drain...

[XMIT]

"Only" $50 - that's quite a lot of money to get in exchange for nothing in my book.

Best to stick with reputable sellers!

Still, very sorry to hear about this.

[Muirium]

Knowing who is reputable and who is not… that's the hard part. Best to ask around. I haven't been ripped off in any of the countless deals I've done at DT — indeed, people often throw in surprising extras — but then I know everyone I deal with, to varying degrees.

[Julle]

This is odd. Parabellum is someone I'd consider reputable on this forum, he's done quite a bit of business in Marketplace. Also, he didn't seem like the kind of person who'd need to scam someone for a relatively low sum of money (not to diminish your loss in any way, a loss is a loss). Even though personal problems are no excuse to do bad business, I just hope that everything's alright with him. Whenever someone suddenly disappears from a community, I tend to imagine the worst. At times, I've been right.

[guk]

Enjoy the read.

http://deskthority.net/f-o-r-s-a-l-e-f5 ... 11482.html

[Julle]

^Well, colour me fucked.

[E3E]

This is odd. Parabellum is someone I'd consider reputable on this forum, he's done quite a bit of business in Marketplace. Also, he didn't seem like the kind of person who'd need to scam someone for a relatively low sum of money (not to diminish your loss in any way, a loss is a loss). Even though personal problems are no excuse to do bad business, I just hope that everything's alright with him. Whenever someone suddenly disappears from a community, I tend to imagine the worst. At times, I've been right.

Yes, he is a scamming dipshit.

He scammed me and several other users on GeekHack.

I was scammed out of a huge imaginary batch of 330 SKCM blue Alps back in, you guessed it, September, for about $90 USD, plus the shipping label I paid for to ship some SKCM orange Alps to him as a token of my gratitude.

I only realized he was scamming me after I had already paid him. See, since I thought he was being generous, I took the time to desolder some orange SKCM Alps for him. I made a tiny log of the process and then asked if he could show me any pictures of the goods. His response?

I'd love to take some pictures but I don't have the proper batteries for my camera and my phone doesn't have one. I'm picking some batteries up next week but by then it'll already be halfway to your doorstep!

Immediate bullshittery called. I told him to hold the switches until he could get batteries to take a picture. Ever since I called him out, he has disappeared and never returned. There was a thread started on GH, and yeah. We all know he's a scammer now, so he won't show his face by that user name ever again unless he's stupid. I did not ship him his switches either. This guy had the nerve to ask for the switches immediately after I told him I'd ship them once I got his blues. He even had the nerve to ask me for my NTC 6151N PCB, saying that he'd take a look at it for me.

Sorry, but I'm not going to ship a PCB to Sweden for anyone to look at it when people with the same skillset exist stateside.

For a supposed electrician to say that he had a few blue Alps with nicks from the soldering iron and bent stems, I just laughed. A bent Alps stem is a nigh impossible occurrence.

Anyway, I sent the payment as a gift. I was in such a good mood and felt so happy with this community, that I let my guard down and it fucked me. So yeah, didn't get the money back. I usually go with invoices or goods and services payments, but the time I don't? I got screwed. I ate the $90 and the $11 for the shipping label I did not use. Didn't think to void it at the time, since I was waiting for him to respond for a week or two before it all came together.

I thought he was reputable too. I saw his classifieds here on DT and saw that he had sold before, so OF COURSE HE MUST BE LEGIT. No, most of the people who bought from him recently all popped up on that thread on GeekHack claiming they have been scammed by him.

Irony, my mental safety net turned out to be full of holes.

[vivalarevolución]

Yea, I thought it was already determined that this guy was a scammer. Oh well.

I've never been scammed here, but it happened to me in a different hobby. Bottom line, sometimes it is hard to figure out who to trust.

[Redmaus]

Ugh, I wish no one would have to worry about this stuff such a pain.

And I still would like orange alps. I thought the deal was good, but not exactly too good to be true.

[nicstreet]

As a though, what about if somebody who has been scammed makes a $1 payment for "goods and services" now. A claim could then be pursued and documentation/evidence provided to substantiate also referring to the fact that other payments have been made as gifts on the insistence of the other user? ... This would then at least open up the comms chain with Paypal, I'm sure it would be a long and arduous challenge but perhaps worth it.

If more than 1 person claims this would surely set alarm bells ringing at Paypal!!

... as a side, I think unless you are 100% about someone then payments should not be made as gifts! and photographic evidence always sought prior to any exchange of money.

[elecplus]

Maybe there could be a sticky under Marketplace of Beware of Vendors and Beware of Buyers? I got screwed by a couple of buyers, because I sent before the PayPal payments hit, and it turns out the payments were never even sent. Would Marketplace show for both Member to Member and Vendors?

[Redmaus]

Maybe there could be a sticky under Marketplace of Beware of Vendors and Beware of Buyers? I got screwed by a couple of buyers, because I sent before the PayPal payments hit, and it turns out the payments were never even sent. Would Marketplace show for both Member to Member and Vendors?

That's not a bad idea. Even though they can make new accounts, I might be more wary of an account with a very small amount of posts. I believe Parabellum had around 100 posts or so and I didn't fret. That was clearly a mistake.

[Compgeke]

An area for member feedback could work. I know some forums have a thread for deals that went good\bad (like the thinkpads.com forum) and others have a dedicated subforum for feedback (like 68kmla). I quite like the separate subforum myself however a sticky thread for just "Something went wrong" would be a lot easier to implement.

[Muirium]

I'd prefer an icon next to the user's name and avatar. A little pirate! The icon can link to the report of their misdeeds. It can be set by the mods, at other users' request, and the user in question is free to appeal for its removal by posting about it on the forum. The mods can adjudicate.

This stuff is quite rare here on DT. And no one is going to bother searching a lengthy thread on the off-chance someone they're about to deal with is chastised on there. No one bothers reading 7bit's sales threads before posting the same old questions either!

Let's work with human nature, instead of against it. Icons work. Long threads do not.

[seebart]

I'd prefer an icon next to the user's name and avatar. A little pirate! The icon can link to the report of their misdeeds. It can be set by the mods, at other users' request, and the user in question is free to appeal for its removal by posting about it on the forum. The mods can adjudicate.

This stuff is quite rare here on DT. And no one is going to bother searching a lengthy thread on the off-chance someone they're about to deal with is chastised on there. No one bothers reading 7bit's sales threads before posting the same old questions either!

Let's work with human nature, instead of against it. Icons work. Long threads do not.

I don't have anything against a function like that but it might be abused and cause major resentment and longterm grumpiness amongst users! Threads like this are impossible to fake or misuse.

[Muirium]

Or use, for that matter.

[seebart]

It would be a lot clearer and faster to use than threads like this, true. I guess I'd be for it.

[Muirium]

Here's the thing. Mods (or admins, do we have anyone who isn't both?) can delete any regular user's account already. So the potential for misuse of such a new system is not exactly a big deal. If we had bad admins, you'd know about it!

The idea is simply to make disputes more obvious. Not to rule on them, but just to point anyone with an interest to the original thread where the dispute came up. And if it didn't come up in the open, on a thread: no icon! Any complaint must be backed up with a forum post, so everyone has a place to argue.

[SL89]

It's also very easy to just make a new account, or change IP's or whatever.

[Muirium]

Yes. But then the user is obviously new and not quite as trustworthy.

Think of how much worse things are when someone turns into a cheat (as apparently happened here) but has a high post count and a year or so's history on the forum. All looks good at first glance. And first glance is all any buyer will ever do, until they're conned.

[seebart]

Yes the complaint must be backed by the post, no reference no complaint! It will involve some admin work of course. Let's vote on it!

It's also very easy to just make a new account, or change IP's or whatever.

True, rotten users can come back but the "pirate function" will turn them off to more scaming.

[Muirium]

Before voting on something like this, it would be good to know if it's technically possible!

A new icon would be great. But if we can't do that, it's harder to hack into what we've currently got. I can change people's usernames for instance, but they won't link. I can apply a rank, but those don't link either. I've no idea if we can implement this easily.

[seebart]

I'm sure webwit will have some idea if it's even possible. But the idea itself is pretty good. Of course we could just keep one thread dedicated to this with just a list page for scamed users with links to the actual threads. Much less elegant.

[webwit]

I'd prefer an icon next to the user's name and avatar. A little pirate!

Yes I want one myself!

There is support for rank icons in phpBB but I might have ripped that stuff out when I built the deskthority theme. Shouldn't be too hard to put it back if the club master wants this implemented.

[SL89]

Yeah i'd like a pirate too.

And is this getting added to the list, right under 'ability to selectively mute threads'?

[webwit]

Did I hear an echo in the wind? Might be just a quirk in my todo list muting filter.