parts for sale scam

[Rod beachell]

Please be aware of a scams as i was a victim. I would like to be proven wrong but a guy responses to your want ad and says he has what your looking for. I ask for pictures he replies. We negotiate a price and then set up payment and then no product. He goes online finds the part your looking for and leads you to believe it is his. I just saw the item i sent money for on Ebay and there is NO mistake in the photo.

       The person goes by Kacey Albertine  kaceyalbertineruv21@gmail.com  Money could be sent to PayPal account momanyimary948@gmail.com or paulina.chmiel24@gmail.com Now again 22 days and multiple attempts to contact with no reply leads me to call this a scam.

[CarlLaFong]

GMail is a big red flag, always has been

 

[Terry Bond]

Ive heard also that if you use PayPal NEVER send money to a stranger as a "friend". Pay for "Goods and Services. That way you can get a refund if the stuff doesn't show up. 

Terry

[pkhammer]

Yes, you can file a claim thru PayPal unless you sent the money "friends and family". If you did that then I don't think you have any recourse.

[Ed Luddy]

Same M.O. as a scammer troll on kijiji Canada site. Always has the parts you need, but if you check the pictures sent to you they are on google internet search. Be careful out there!

[3macboys]

2 hours ago, CarlLaFong said:

GMail is a big red flag, always has been

 

 

2 hours ago, Terry Bond said:

Ive heard also that if you use PayPal NEVER send money to a stranger as a "friend". Pay for "Goods and Services. That way you can get a refund if the stuff doesn't show up. 

Terry

 

1 hour ago, pkhammer said:

Yes, you can file a claim thru PayPal unless you sent the money "friends and family". If you did that then I don't think you have any recourse.

Don't get so hung up on the gmail email address thing, I would hazard to guess that a very large number of members of this forum have Gmail addresses as it is free and easy to use. Yes scammers abuse it but there are more legitimate gmail users than scammers.

 

Always ask for an invoice from the seller on PayPal - that gives protection both ways and as a seller I want the buyer to know that they have the protection offered by PayPal.   Yes it costs the seller about 4 percent in fees but that is on them, not you.  If they insist on the Friends and Family walk away.

 

pkhammer is correct that there is no recourse if money is sent the Friends and Family way, I believe that there is even a warning that comes up advising of the same.  

 

One other piece of advise is ask them where they are located and see if you or a friend can pick up in person, if they say no I think that you have your answer as to scam or not.

 

 

[Ronnie]

2 hours ago, Rod beachell said:

The person goes by Kacey Albertine  kaceyalbertineruv21@gmail.com

Well known scammer email address. See here. 

[BadGoat]

That is the same rag tag group that tried to sell me a full frame for $320.00. and free shipping...?? we went for days emailing and texting telling me to send him the cash, he shut down when I told him I had a friend that lived in the same area of SC and was going to look at it for me and pay him cash. never heard from him again.  and my Gmail account is not Bad...

 

 

[Bloo]

25 minutes ago, 3macboys said:

Don't get so hung up on the gmail email address thing, I would hazard to guess that a very large number of members of this forum have Gmail addresses as it is free and easy to use. Yes scammers abuse it but there are more legitimate gmail users than scammers.

This.^^  Gmail has been ubiquitous in the IT field, and probably a bunch of other fields since the mid 2000s. I stubbornly hung on to my Yahoo address in part because I hated Gmail's infinite scrolling web interface. People in IT see that Yahoo email address and assume I am 110 years old. Your mileage may vary.

 

Edited May 26, 2022 by Bloo (see edit history)

[wayne sheldon]

I just googled it, Yahoo email launched in 1997! If I recall correctly, I began using their free service their first year of offering it, and still use the same email today. I am not really happy with them, they have broken lots of promises they made, and tried for years to force me to upgrade into a paying account. They keep changing their user agreements in ongoing efforts to shake me loose. But I keep hanging on.

I like G-mail even less. How many people here remember when G-mail tried to force companies into a reciprocal arrangement to force customers to open G-mail accounts? I opened a G-mail account, and still have it, because a few companies forced me to go through G-mail. Eventually, that scheme (was probably illegal!) blew up in their face. and was abandoned. I only use that G-mail account as a backup and sometimes recovery account. Occasionally I will use it to send an email to a suspicious advertisement so that they do not get my real email address.

 

Sorry to read Rod b that you got taken. It shouldn't happen, but does all too often. Thank you for the reminder!

[ericmac]

I was looking for a top for my Model T (used, ideally original type, as it is a HPOF car). The scammer sent me photographs of the top and the car it was coming from. The problem was he sent me photos of three different cars, one of which contained a photo from a well known upholsterer's website...and a photo of a car I upholstered myself years ago. When challenged, but not before telling me I was crazy, he disappeared. My recommendation is run a Google image search and see where the photos come from. If you find your seller's part in the first couple pages of your search,  you just found a scammer.

[mobileparts]

Easiest way to foil a scammers' lies.....

 

NEVER send any money without a *** valid phone number ***

 

That will end all issues immediately......

 

(Make up a tale that you have to take a dump, and will call him right back.... No phone number, no deal..... No scam .....)

Edited May 26, 2022 by mobileparts (see edit history)

[Bloo]

That's not bad advice, but I don't think it goes quite far enough. Speaking of phone numbers, don't ever put yours in your ad. That allows them to contact you without even registering on the forum. This problem is endemic on car forums today, all of them. Now I'm going to cut and paste myself from another thread.

 

Quote

If they want to take the conversation away from or off of the forum immediately, that is a huge red flag. If tell they you to contact a third party off of the forum, who has what you need, that is an even bigger one.

 

You should only deal with members who are well known. Keep in mind that most of the parts people advertise for on this forum are not easy to find, and ads can stay up for literally years. I've had an ad up for some used roller 34x4 tires for ages. I can't even remember how long that has been up.

 

Look in the seller's post history. If the seller is a recent joiner to the forum, and almost every response is to an ad, saying the seller has what the advertiser is looking for, and the makes and models of car that the parts are for are all over the map, then there is a 99.9995% chance it is a scam. This happens all the time. The moderators here are pretty quick about deleting these, but someone has to notice it and report it. People still get ripped off.

 

It is unfortunate, but people just do not read threads like this. The administrator here had a big red warning banner at the top of the screen for quite a while, with a link to some advice similar to what you see here. I doubt many clicked on it.

 

Edited May 26, 2022 by Bloo (see edit history)

[yachtflame]

If I don’t know the seller and can’t find him on any of the forums, I get suspicious. I always ask for a photo with a current newspaper or magazine under the part. If he can’t provide that then I walk away.

[John_S_in_Penna]

If the dishonest seller has a user-name on this forum,

be sure to tell the moderators so they can ban him.

 

14 hours ago, Rod beachell said:

...I sent money for...Now again 22 days and multiple attempts to contact with no reply leads me to call this a scam.

He can't hide.  God knows where he is, even this moment.

His punishment is assured, and his downfall will be more

sudden, lasting, and severe than he can possibly imagine.

[TAKerry]

One just needs to be as cautious as possible and be prepared for the worse. My school of thought is that I never buy something solicited online that I cannot afford to lose the money. I dont think I have ever been taken but I buy parts from people that I think I know. Most of them have a contact in my phone and I can text to them. One time I bought a large purchase and was a bit apprehensive but he was a well known seller on the site. I had never bought from the guy. Purchase went through without a hitch.  I have watched some nice stuff come and go on ebay but I guess I am too old and stubborn as I dont trust it.

[leomara]

I get very vexed when I read about these crooks because they continue to operate with impunity.  Years ago if anyone stole something or swindled someone law enforcement would make an effort to do something no matter how small the offence was.  Today anything less than a million dollars is small potatoes to law enforcement because they always have bigger fish to fry.  It's a sad commentary on where we've come to.... 

[SC38dls]

As far as yahoo or gmail being less than ideal why don’t you consider this point of view - We all grumble about cheap not well made parts and say “we get what we pay for” - apply that to your email account. Scammers use gmail because of the cost and easy (compared to an owned) address to hide on line IP addresses. 
dave s 

[TAKerry]

I only have a gmail because one was needed for some stupid reason when I was setting up my phone initially. I do keep it and it comes in handy for sending pics from my phone via email to others. But that is about the only thing I use it for and I do tell people not to reply to that as I rarely check on it.

[Peter Gariepy]

 

 

[ak]

He is now interacting on the forum through a surrogate who IS registered on the forum using the handle:

AMUSA

[marcapra]

when you ask for a pic, ask that he put a banana, apple, or today's newspaper in the pic.  

[JACK M]

These guys were busted earlier in the week.

Must have been banned as I don't see amusa in my PMs any more.

[arcticbuicks]

i just want to know one thing .......how much do they make $ ?            besides knowing they get caught

[JACK M]

19 minutes ago, arcticbuicks said:

i just want to know one thing .......how much do they make $ ?            besides knowing they get caught

I suspect  it's like most endeavors.

After some practice there may be a profit.

However, I don't know how to factor in the "karma".

[Peter Gariepy]

51 minutes ago, Jack Bennett said:

I done a member search for AMUSA last night, and he still had a ACCA member profile on the site.

The amount of money they (he) gleans from such a scam is hardly worth the risk of getting caught. But, again, what is the penalty for a conviction for perpetuating a on line scam game?

As a retired Army NCO, I have trained soldiers as a Drill Instructor, recruited them into the Army as a recruiter, and served in a combat zone with them for over five years.

It bothers me most that a guiltless person can use the same system of freedom to buy and sell, that countless young soldiers have died to preserve, to weasel another person out of their honestly earned money.

Had I lost my money as a consequence of this scam, I am at a point in my life that it would not financially devastate me. But that is ME, and not a person who works, perhaps at a thankless, and maybe dead end, job and their hobby of antique/classic car restoration is the only thing that makes “working” worthwhile. 
The scammer is as guilty as any other criminal when it comes to taking their hard earned money, and possibly shooing them away from a hobby they love.

Jack

Jack,

AMUSA was banned from using the forum when I saw this topic thurs.

Yes, AMUSA can be found when doing a member search, but if you take it one step further, you can see they are banned.

 

 

 

[Peter Gariepy]

Scams happen.

Take personal responsibility for yourself to NOT get spammed.

Scams are not unique to the AACA forums.  Look at Hemmings, craigslist, fb marketplace, etc.

Caveat Emptor.