PSA: SCAMMER on Preloved....please read and be aware

prudd

Hi all,

I have been fucked over by a scammer scum bag on Preloved.

this is the listing, don't get drawn into it:

https://www.preloved.co.uk/adverts/show/121586592?utm_source=preloved&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=AdAlert

I have been buying and selling (a lot of) gear for 50 years and would consider myself to be fairly intelligent and have sniffed out many would be scams over the years. Sadly this time I was taken in Hook Line & Effing Sinker, and oh boy was he good at his "craft".

I wont go into the detail now, I will fill you all in later.

His name is James Martin, on his joint bank account he uses the name Stephen, he banks with Santandaer (details available if anyone wants them)

He claimed to work for a musical instrument supplier.
He claims to live in Middleton Cheney, Oxfordshire
He offers Parcel Force Insured delivery
I have his mobile number if requested.

So, please, please, avoid this listing

Sevenof9

F’ sake @prudd ;
I am really sorry to read this, I sincerely hope there is some way that your loss can be rectified

I’m also gratified that you have taken the time to give us the heads up,you are one of the Stalwarts of this board that I have had the pleasure to meet

Teyeplayer

That’s awful, I do hope the fact you have his bank details makes things a little easier to track down and get your money back. In the meantime, we are pretty darn good with pitchforks round here.

bgmartinsbridge

Put his mobile number on here - someone might recognise it? 

Bellycaster

Nightmare. There are some real pond life fuckers around. I wish you all the best in resolving the issue.

prudd

bgmartinsbridge said:

Put his mobile number on here - someone might recognise it? 

Good point sir

mobile is     07712 415328

Teyeplayer said:

That’s awful, I do hope the fact you have his bank details makes things a little easier to track down and get your money back. In the meantime, we are pretty darn good with pitchforks round here.

My bank is helping at present.

Sevenof9 said:

F’ sake @prudd ;
I am really sorry to read this, I sincerely hope there is some way that your loss can be rectified

I’m also gratified that you have taken the time to give us the heads up,you are one of the Stalwarts of this board that I have had the pleasure to meet

thanks Martin,
I have decided to take this in my stride and not let it get to me, whereas I could do without losing £700+ I am going to put this one down to experience and to learn from it, you would not believe how convincing and reassuring this c**t was to deal with, if scamming was an Olympic sport this scumbag would be in pole position on the rostrum for sure.

Bellycaster said:

Nightmare. There are some real pond life fuckers around. I wish you all the best in resolving the issue.

There certainly are @bellycaster, I say we should bring back Capital Punishment

S56035

Are you going to post some details of the scam?

Fishboy7

Could there be any other explanation?  Like being hit by a bus on the way to the post office?  

DB1

So sorry to hear that. There are gobshites all over the place. He might £700 better off (for the moment, but he'll always be a low life prick. You, on the other hand, might be £700 worse off for now, but you'll always be a good guy. I know which I'd rather be.

kerryboy

Yes, let's have the details of how he managed to fool you. This might be a lesson for us all.

PS - what happens when you call his number. I just can't imagine any scammer giving out a genuine number to the person they are scamming.

prudd

S56035 said:

Are you going to post some details of the scam?

Yes I was going to tomorrow, so it goes like this:

 Sunday the 12th late evening messaged him to see if it was still available, it was, he gave his number and asked if I could call him Monday after work.
I did and he was friendly and helpful, pretty knowledgeable on guitars too , answered all my questions, we chatted about the pandemic and what a pain it all was.  All said and done it was a pleasant phone call, he talked about how he worked for an instrument supplier (and no I stupidly didn't ask which one and where ) and would have no issue getting it boxed up properly and would send it using Parcel force insured. There were lots of things said which really did make me feel it was all above board.
Next day I sent a bank transfer to him, he very cleverly didn't push me into sending it straight away, in fact I had to text him to remind him to give me his details. He told me it was going out on Tuesday and it would be with me Thursday, he gave me a plausible looking Tracking number, which didn't work as I was to find out on Thursday when I started tracking it, this has happened before so I still wasn't concerned at this point. he assured me it was "out for delivery".
Needless to say it did not arrive, so from the Friday onwards a whole load of texts were exchanged for the coming days. By Saturday I was starting to think it was a scam but he was still being very reassuring and agreed if it did not turn up soon he would refund the money. Tons of texts later and excuse after excuse it was obvious I had been scammed. 
The ad was still running all this time and I got someone else to approach him and he says he still has the guitar and is willing to send it, but deflected the question as to whether it could collected.

there is a lot more I could say but to be honest I am going to leave it at that just for now.

kerryboy

To be honest there's nothing I can see from his advert that would make me smell a rat.

tone1

Karma is a bitch and not to be messed with…She will have her day. I feel sick just reading your post….

danishbacon

Sorry to hear it Paul

joeW

Gutted this happened to you - I would have though this convincing given the level of correspondence and ad.  I hope your bank can help out. 

abw1989

Pretty much a carbon copy of how I got scammed out of £700 for a Helix Floor a few months back. I too had to push the guy to give me details on how to pay, and he came across totally 'normal' in all the conversations I had with him. As soon as the the money was sent, radio silence. 

merlin

So sorry to hear this, must be really gutting to be taken in like that. So sorry. 

Looks like he's only just joined Preloved so will probably make a few hits and then run...I hope he gets caught and roasted.

Dodge

Sorry to hear this @prudd - I hope your bank can somehow recover the funds.

HerbieTheRadDorklift

That sucks.

As always, don't pay for anything by bank transfer unless you know the guy.

guitartango

@prudd I take it that you have informed the Police and Pre-loved ?

Fishboy7

guitartango said:

@prudd I take it that you have informed the Police and Pre-loved ?

Exactly, This is clearly and actual crime and the guy can't be that hard to track down