Well apparently the scammers are in full force on here posted a WTB AR headers. Got a PM from a member. Talked with him he sent me pictures of the headers and x pipe. All seemed fine. Sent the funds and later today I get several notifications from the forum saying there where several scammers band. One of them was my guy. Welp another 650 down the drain.

 

How'd you send the money? Who's the member?

 

holy ****! post up the scumbag's name plz and where you sent the money.


try to get it back from the service you used

 

And when were you scammed the first time?

 

That really sucks!

What has worked for me is to use an escrow service. I’ve done this in the past when dealing with expensive purchases from private parties I know little to nothing about.

One in particular backed out when I let them know that I’d require using an escrow service/process. That person backing out was a red flag in itself.

IIRC PayPal and some credit card companies provide certain protection to buyers… might be good to loo into that too.

Good luck moving forward.

 

I posted a WTB for AR headers s couple months ago and the only 2 replies were scammers.

I always check post history and join date. If they haven't engaged in any real discussions and just immediately offer items for sale, that is usually the first sign of caution. They also talk pretty vaguely about the details of the product (because they don't actually have it).

Would be good in that case to have them send a picture of the item that included a paper with their username and date to confirm they are actually in possession. The site Swappa requires all sellers to do this.

Don't pay with Friends and Family service on Paypal. That isn't considered a retail transaction and you won't be covered by the buyers protection. Should be a good and services transaction. Offer to include the 3% seller fee upfront.

Last resort is filing a police report, but that would take a long time to materialize to anything especially if you don't have direct personal information of the seller.

 

I feel bad for OP. BUT-This thread is useless without names/usernames.....

 

 

This guy Golatah88

 

How did you pay? Paypal should refund unless it was a gift, I believe

 

Member since 1/6/22
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums/members/655234-golatah88.html

I'll hold out hope for you. He'll probably just start a new account, or a few, and continue with this practice.

I've been pretty lucky on this site buying parts from other folks but I ALWAYS pay the extra 3% to make sure I can get my money back.

 

Gonna answer any other questions? How did you send money?

 

I will not buy anything from a member or vendor who has not been established here or anywhere for a long time or that I cannot trace back to a positive sale history, here or anywhere
ARH headers and mid pipes for $650 is a too good to be true red flag from a new member with no history.
A web search shows no history of this scumbag anywhere. That immediately tells me to stay away. My advice is to STAY AWAY from people with untraceable names.
Golatah88 is going to continue his scams under different names again and again. Hopefully this scumbag gets caught and . Sorry to hear of this.

 

zelle

 

I caught on to some weird post responses that screamed fraud a few months back. I warned the interested buyer in a PM. Not sure how it turned out so I just PM'd him with a follow up.

If seller is a new member and responds to WTB threads with "I have one of that" and provides a direct email address, or historical posts are all immaterial, or target new members to the forum it's a sign in my opinion that the seller is up to no good.

Always research your seller on here anytime you attempt to buy anything. Even the "trustworthy" ones can let you down. You need to mitigate your risks and improve your odds with a bit of due diligence.

Unfortunately this happens often enough and you can't be too cautious.

Sorry the OP got screwed.

 

So sorry to hear that Tbair64. That really sucks brother.
Like mentioned above, I always check as much as the forum provides about someone before considering a purchase. A new member, price too good to be true, and no garage/home or on the car pics are 3 pretty big red flags for me.
At least a first name and home state are another 2 good sources of info. IMO, if someone wants to really be a part of the community and make friends, they will share some minimal info.
On the same note I wouldn’t recommend posting personally identifying information such as complete D.O.B. or address info either.
I have bought and sold several times here over the past 6 years and never had an issue, but always being a little suspicious is your friend. Sad we live in a world that is like that, but it’s really always been that way. There were even Con men back in the Old Testament in the Bible.
I don’t know anything about Zelle, but I hope you have some recourse and can recover your money. Best wishes.

 

He sent pictures and even called me. Well that’s what I get putting to much trust into people. I would never do that to someone and was hoping that would be the same from others. Guess not.

 

PayPal Goods and Services or cash in hand. Any other option can pound sand as there's a way for the seller to potentially screw you.

Sorry about your loss, OP.

 

Try going to your bank, ask for a manager and see if anything can be done.

Was Zelle tied to debit card with Visa or Mastercard on it?

2 years ago I got scammed by a house painter, for Christmas gift for my mom getting her house painted, she picked the company and I should not have let her pick but her HOA was threatening to fine people whose houses need paint jobs.

She told me him and his men were doing wonderful work, and said the owner wanted me to call him, he said he needed to collect the $2100.00 to cover the $650.00 he spent at Dunn Edwards and to pay his men, however the deal in the ad she claimed is you don’t pay until you are satisfied, but she told me he was doing wonderful work so ok, I paid online though a link and was running behind to get to work.

A few days later I go there on day off and see front of house is pretty good, except some missed spots on garage door, it was well prepped and some dry rotted wood was replaced or filled in.

The sides & back of house were not pressure washed, old dog fur and fuzz ***** spider webs painted over, chipped flaking original paint shot over, I blew my top.

I called him and left voicemails he better get over here and fix this crap.

He dodged me, I looked up his company address that night and the suite # did not exist in person, so I went to my bank thinking I’m screwed but going to try.

Explained situation with manager, he needed me to provide as much evidence as possible pictures, text conversations etc, he said document everything, wrote a whole story like right now including the fake non existent address and he is a scammer.

I kept what I was doing in secret from the scammer and kept calling, for 3 or 4 appointments in a row he stood me up, leaving my home early to meet him at my moms house at 8 am, he would text back after 5 pm most times saying he had emergency, if he called back, bank said keep trying and document and I did.

I finally WON!

He called freaking out saying I got his account locked up and he can’t buy materials or pay his men, poor baby.

At this point the loser met me at her house and put on an act he had no idea the paint was done so bad, and he would send someone that day to start fixing it and asked me to fix the stop payment, I didn’t!

Wait all day and his fixer guy came out and told me he would be back tomorrow morning, I couldn’t get back over there until the following week and the loser owner left crybaby messages about how his company is locked up, I let them go to voicemail.

Then some person trying to talk tough started calling saying the paint is fixed and I need to pay, the guy said the name of another company 3 times and then corrected himself each time, he would say this is so and so with Blue Fox painting, er I mean Gila Monster painting.

Googled blue fox and saw the same scam over and over in bad reviews, they switched names to start over.

The house was fixed good enough after the guy prepped and repainted, then I did what bank said and let them have $$$ back or I could be in trouble legally since they fixed it.

It took over a month for the funds to be put back in my account, the Visa logo on my card is what protected me, kind of like a credit card but the customer has to do all the leg work.

Sorry about long story but go ask your bank manager for help, if visa or Mastercard they probably have to, but they may be confused as mine was, he had never had this situation.

 

Looking up at outside stucco wall and plywood underneath, you can see how the original paint was not scraped, it wasn’t even pressure washed, just shot paint over dirty unprepared, it looked much worse in person.