White Zombie - Scammer?

Mkjackary

Sad to see another. If someone has done a few deals, both sold and bought then I am a lot more trusting as there are multiple other people who know their address.

FWIW I think the paypal fee is 20p plus 3.4% If you are spending 100 quid on a pedal, £3.60 is nothing, not worth not buying something over either imo

@ttony is there a way to red flag an account if their ip doesn't match their location, or make their country of residence at least be set for them from their ip.

Website ads usually say "Horny singles in Chelmsford ready for you" when actually I am maldon/colchester, (hence why I don't click on said ads), so ip probably isn't accurate enough, or consistent enough for someones location, but it should atleast be able to pin people down to a country?

RMJ

Again?! 

Buffers and bumpers! (For the resident Thomas the tank engine fans)

randomhandclaps

Deijavoo said:

Regular members on here from now on only I'd say which is a bloody shame all round.  :-( 

Same feeling here for me.  Fortunately for a majority of the membership there is a Kevin Bacon/six degrees of seperation chain of actually knowing everyone through someone else in the real world, so PPG will continue to remain a norm in that context.

Heartfeltdawn

Mkjackary said:

Website ads usually say "Horny singles in Chelmsford ready for you" when actually I am maldon/colchester, (hence why I don't click on said ads), so ip probably isn't accurate enough, or consistent enough for someones location, but it should atleast be able to pin people down to a country?

I don't mind country irregularities. It's when the lady I've just emailed isn't a proper lady that my blood starts to boil. 

monofin

Such a crying shame to see this shit happening.
I've had many happy PPG deals both here and on MR over the past few years including paying well over £1k and sending guitars "on approval". Never had a reason to doubt anyone and hope I never will.
I really hope everyone that's been stung gets sorted and the conmen get a bad case of crabs

TTony

Mkjackary said:

@ttony is there a way to red flag an account if their ip doesn't match their location, or make their country of residence at least be set for them from their ip.

Not sure that'd really help in avoiding the dodgy deals though.  The scams that we have had have been UK-based.  

This specific one is odd in that the IP says Portugal, but the ad said "collection possible from Guildford".

ellangus

Really sorry to hear you got stung.

It's the few rotten bastards who spoil it for everyone.

Mkjackary

TTony said:

Mkjackary said:

@ttony is there a way to red flag an account if their ip doesn't match their location, or make their country of residence at least be set for them from their ip.

Not sure that'd really help in avoiding the dodgy deals though.  The scams that we have had have been UK-based.  

This specific one is odd in that the IP says Portugal, but the ad said "collection possible from Guildford".

Probably because collection from portugal would be a bit hard. 

In all seriousness I see it that he either used a proxy/VPN that is based in portugal so tracing where he lives is harder. (probably most likely) or he is just a portuguese scammer that said he is from the uk so people are less wary about buying from him. 

rsvmark

TTony said:

matt1973 said:

I have to say, IMO the whole gift payment thing should really only be considered when dealing with well established members. There's just too many scammers lurking around on forums like this one. To consider it the norm, is just leaving yourself wide open.

I've just added a sticky to each of the main Classifieds section to that effect.

PPG was used as the default method of payment back in the early days of the forum, when we were somewhat smaller, and most people knew most people.  It was safe to use because of the closeness of the community.

As we've got bigger, we've - unfortunately - attracted some less reliable people, and so you have to think about when to use PPG, and when to be a little more careful.

Thanks for that- very useful