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Have You Ever Been the Victim of a Scam?

MICHAELSD

MICHAELSD

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jul 13, 2008
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NJ
Curious to see how many people actually fall for scams. Frankly the only scam, using that word loosely, I was ever a victim of was when a buyer that I had sold an $100 Amazon gift card (digital) to used the card then claimed to have never received it. It's actually a pretty common occurrence as thieves target digital gift cards for this reason. Due to this among other reasons I firmly believe that more buyers attempt to dupe sellers on eBay rather than vice versa. I do wish eBay had a minimum feedback option as if I chose to only sell to people with over 100 feedback then I'd be much less likely to sell to a dishonest buyer. It's far too easy for a buyer to claim to receive a brick in the package sent, with no form of recourse for the seller. There's a valuable lesson in being careful even as an honest seller.

The second time I suspested a buyer to be duplicitous was when I was selling a certain new game console. The buyer offered to trade designer items for it, claiming their feedback was too low to sell them and would rather trade. My bs meter went off so I made sure that when they shipped the so-called designer items, I purposely held off on shipping the console (prepared to ship it had the items been legitimate). As expected the items were counterfeit. Not willing to pay to ship them back (not to mention how shipping counterfeits is illegal), I taught the scammer a lesson by keeping and discarding of these counterfeits. It was worth the attempt though since had those items been real it would've been a pretty favorable low-risk trade.

Not counting spam mail (unless you believed it to be true, if so :p... no judgement), have you ever been the victim or near-victim of a scam?
 
When I was 18 or 19 years old - about 10 years ago - I sold a computer to an individual through a message board. Foolishly I sent the computer first and allowed him to pay upon receiving the computer. Well, long story short, I never got paid.

However, I had the kid's name, address, phone number, etc. I was able to track him down and I was actually able to contact his parents. They eventually sent me back the computer, so I was able to get out of the deal without any major loss, other than some time, a headache, and some shipping $$.
 
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sdilley14 said:
When I was 18 or 19 years old - about 10 years ago - I sold a computer to an individual through a message board. Foolishly I sent the computer first and allowed him to pay upon receiving the computer. Well, long story short, I never got paid.

However, I had the kid's name, address, phone number, etc. I was able to track him down and I was actually able to contact his parents. They eventually sent me back the computer, so I was able to get out of the deal without any major loss, other than some time, a headache, and some shipping $$.
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Pretty funny story! Hopefully that kid got the grounding of his life.
 
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When I was in college in the mid 90's a friend introduced me to a pyramid scheme business selling phone cards. This was before wide spread cell phone usage so people still used calling cards for long distance minutes and so forth. And of course, college was a pretty ideal place to push the product because students were making lots of long distance phone calls to home. Like most pyramid schemes it really was just about getting as many of your friends and family as possible to buy the initial product. I didn't really lose any money on the deal because I was able to use the minutes I bought, but it ultimately didn't prove to be any real savings either and of course I never was able to sell the product to anyone else. No harm no foul, but a lesson definitely learned.
 
PowerBook-G5 said:
I think it's called cable TV...
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...and health insurance.

I'm pretty sure I alm st got scammed on eBay when trying to buy a Cinema Display about ten years ago. I put in a bid, then was contacted by the seller to see if I wanted to do the deal outside of eBay. This was before this was known a normal scam. So I kinda fell for it. The only thing that "saved" me was a big financial hit at the time which meant I couldn't complete the sale at the time. But looking back, I know I was getting scammed.
 
No, while anything is possible I go by the addage if its too good to be true then it generally is.

I also try not to take chances on buying/selling, so far my conservative approach has shielded me from any possible scams but I also understand that doesn't guarantee I'll not succumb to one in the future.
 
No.

However, some time ago, I did receive an email which purported to come from the New York municipal department which dealt with traffic offences ad which threatened me with legal action for non-payment of a traffic fine, and proceeded to advise me as to means by which said payment could be effected.

Given that I have never actually set foot in New York in my life, in a car or otherwise, I had no difficulty in consigning this email to the dark, outer ether of blissful oblivion.
 
Well, PayPal and credit card merchants prove once again that they make it too easy for buyers to scam sellers/merchants. All a buyer has to do is state a charge was fraudulent weeks after the fact, then *boom* they get to keep the item and the seller is out the money. For some sellers that can be an entire month's pay.

It is despicable how easy it is for dishonest buyers to scam wholly-honest sellers. The law needs to make fraud of this matter enforceable theft. Not that I'm going to stand back and be inactive. I have an aggressive plan for the buyer who did this to me today and for buyers who view defrauding sellers as ok in the future.
 
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MICHAELSD said:
Well, PayPal and credit card merchants prove once again that they make it too easy for buyers to scam sellers/merchants. All a buyer has to do is state a charge was fraudulent weeks after the fact, then *boom* they get to keep the item and the seller is out the money. For some sellers that can be an entire month's pay.

It is despicable how easy it is for dishonest buyers to scam wholly-honest sellers. The law needs to make fraud of this matter enforceable theft. Not that I'm going to stand back and be inactive. I have an aggressive plan for the buyer who did this to me today and for buyers who view defrauding sellers as ok in the future.
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Yup. eBay + PayPal are pretty much a scammer's heaven. As long as they pay with a credit card through PayPal, you just have to pray they don't charge back the transaction. It's unfortunate how easy they make that process.
 
sdilley14 said:
Yup. eBay + PayPal are pretty much a scammer's heaven. As long as they pay with a credit card through PayPal, you just have to pray they don't charge back the transaction. It's unfortunate how easy they make that process.
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It's not even eBay. On eBay I can gauge my risk just by looking at a buyer's history and amount of feedback. Basically any site that accepts credit cards can be a scammer's haven. I assumed PayPal was the most secure way to process payment for sellers and buyers alike but I will reassess for my next web-store assuming they are of no assistance with the chargeback I was issued today.
 
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Pardon me, seems I'm late to the party, again!:(

Not yet, but that doesn't mean there haven't been attempts made.
Just the other morning my phone rang at 6:am in the morning??
A male voice with a heavy middle eastern accent claimed he was calling from Canada Revenue, at that point I hung up the phone.
Scammer didn't even factor in the time zone difference.
 
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Cracker Jack used to screw me over as a kid. And I kept falling for it too.

Once in Beijing or Tianjin I ventured out and bought a few things from a market. I paid with USD and returned with some apparently obvious counterfeit money (yuan).
 
No but they've certainly tried. Me previously working in a call center really helped me to identify scammers who called. Email, I never open links unless it's from a saved or anticipated source.

Ebay, I've had a package or two go missing but no big deal. They've made it right with me.

Craigslist, I've always met up in very public and well watched places. No issues or a defective item bought.

I use a credit card at all gas stations and stores. It is a secured card and doesn't have more than $600 on it. So if someone does steal my information that way, Capital One will give me my money back rather quickly. They gave me back an extra $45 that was siphoned from I'm assuming a hacked gas station external card reader. Got it back in about 5 days. Now I only go to one gas station and they got new pumps recently, the way the card reader sits, you'd know if it was tampered with quite easily.

My bills are paid through auto pay or with money orders. I don't generally shop online except eBay and my guy uses Amazon. He's had no issues with Amazon.

I do feel for people who may be easier prey than myself. There are a lot of scams out there.
 
I joined a kinda nice (at the time) Christian Church group and things were fine. Then the Pastor started getting all weird and saying weird stuff about the Bible and turned it into a Bible Cult.

Had to finally leave as things were essentially not-fixable...

Religion Scam, I guess...
 
Never. I'm cautious by nature. I'll trade in my old iPhone at a walk in shop or sell to someone I work with rather than eBay even though I could get a bit more for it.
 
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