New Scammer

[Ol’ Sickly]

In response to a WTB (yes, I am the fool who listed a size) a brand new user, fedoralover21, requested I go through email and proceeded to send me the Thurston-Bros website pics, claiming he took them a few weeks ago but was out of town so unable to verify possession. Keep your eyes peeled folks.

 

[Guppy]

In response to a WTB (yes, I am the fool who listed a size) a brand new user, fedoralover21, requested I go through email and proceeded to send me the Thurston-Bros website pics, claiming he took them a few weeks ago but was out of town so unable to verify possession. Keep your eyes peeled folks.

I also got a message from this user about my own WTB ad... seeing they are a new account, I responded saying that we'd need to establish trust first. I'm skeptical and not easily taken in, so we'll see what happens, but I'd have to assume the odds of this one user happening to have something that we each wanted is probably low.

 

[TREEMAN]

It should be necessary to have 100 or more posts before being allowed to sell any merchandise.

 

[Guppy]

It should be necessary to have 100 or more posts before being allowed to sell any merchandise.

That's really hard to enforce unless you require that many posts simply to privately message users. Even then people would work around it by posting contact information in their profile or on public posts.

 

[Ol’ Sickly]

I’m new to this forum so this may have already been batted around, but have any established members acted as middle men? Say, receive 5% to hold buyers cash and not release to seller until it’s been confirmed delivered? Lotta trust and responsibility required of course. Perhaps some legalities as well? Maybe too many considerations? I think I just talked myself into it being a silly idea.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

In response to a WTB (yes, I am the fool who listed a size) a brand new user, fedoralover21, requested I go through email and proceeded to send me the Thurston-Bros website pics, claiming he took them a few weeks ago but was out of town so unable to verify possession. Keep your eyes peeled folks.

I also got a message from this user about my own WTB ad... seeing they are a new account, I responded saying that we'd need to establish trust first. I'm skeptical and not easily taken in, so we'll see what happens, but I'd have to assume the odds of this one user happening to have something that we each wanted is probably low.

I hope you immediately report the member if it’s ever shown that he’s a scammer. We’ll never get them all, but we need to do what we can to sort the wheat from the tares.

 

[Monitor]

Always do a reverse image search on the photos you've received by members you aren't sure about. Your everyday scammer is as dumb as a pile of bricks & they'll almost always use the first images that pop up on Google image search.

Also, other than some basic info, they haven't got a single clue about the stuff they're trying to scam you with. Asking for details about the item will immediately have them exposed as they won't even understand your question and will just attempt to rush the deal.

And honest sellers certainly won't mind if you ask them to take a photo of an item with a sheet of paper with their name & current date written on it. Tagged photos are a standard for every pricier item posted on Grailed.

EDIT: Grammar.

 

[Bones]

In response to a WTB (yes, I am the fool who listed a size) a brand new user, fedoralover21, requested I go through email and proceeded to send me the Thurston-Bros website pics, claiming he took them a few weeks ago but was out of town so unable to verify possession. Keep your eyes peeled folks.

I had the same experience yesterday with fedoralover21, he sent stock photos of item he did not have. Scam !!!!

 

[Mr.P]

Keep it simple. Sell to new members by all means, but only buy from proven ones. Although I sold as a new member a while back and appreciated the trusting buyer. Other than that just go with your gut.

 

[Will Zach]

^^
It is not that simple. Plenty of ways to get ripped off when selling, too. I'd only sell to (and buy from) members I know. You can also get ripped off by a long-time member - casus Lebowski. Therefore, I prefer to be dealing with members I know had multiple successful buys and sales.

 

[Edward]

It should be necessary to have 100 or more posts before being allowed to sell any merchandise.

This came up a while back, but as I understand it it's just not an option with the software we use (as with all forums, the Lounge uses a third-party forum software as a 'base'); if we did have such a policy, it would have to be manually checked through every time. Ultimately, we're just not in a position to be able to guarantee all of our users either.

Best option is to be wary (@Monitor posted some good advice above, among others), and report scammers to the moderation team as they turn up. I believe avoiding F&F paypal in case of unknown quantities also keeps you safer with Paypal's buyer protection.

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

^^
It is not that simple. Plenty of ways to get ripped off when selling, too. I'd only sell to (and buy from) members I know. You can also get ripped off by a long-time member - casus Lebowski. Therefore, I prefer to be dealing with members I know had multiple successful buys and sales.

I believe @Lebowski got the axe.
B

 

[Will Zach]

They just put a warning on his profile, he is not banned.

 

[ton312]

You can also get ripped off by a long-time member - casus Lebowski.

He wasn’t really a long time member, more a frequent poster in the classifieds (primarily). He never once posted a jacket he owned, being worn. Never once. I am always skeptical of folks who seem exclusive to the classifieds. If you post in other areas, jacket o’ the day etc…I’m much more likely to believe. Shame this site has been infiltrated by these scum. Or it could be Lebowski just getting a bunch of burner email addresses and creating new accounts. LOL.

 

[Guppy]

He wasn’t really a long time member, more a frequent poster in the classifieds (primarily). He never once posted a jacket he owned, being worn. Never once. I am always skeptical of folks who seem exclusive to the classifieds. If you post in other areas, jacket o’ the day etc…I’m much more likely to believe. Shame this site has been infiltrated by these scum. Or it could be Lebowski just getting a bunch of burner email addresses and creating new accounts. LOL.

 

[JMax]

Haha. Our Lebowski was the nihilist, trying to stomp and squoosh our pen…jackets.

 

[nick123]

My Arcadia is to Lebowski still in transit to Russia. As of January.

 

[Thuggee]

My Arcadia is to Lebowski still in transit to Russia. As of January.

I sold a jacket to Lebowski a while back went smoothly as can be from Australia to Russia, I’ve seen a few posts now about him maybe I missed it what actually happened did he take/receive your jacket and do a charge back or something? I was always weary about posting to Russia only dealt with him at the time as he appeared to have bought a few jackets from other members with no issues, obviously that’s not the case now.

 

[Monitor]

That is what I find most puzzling about Lebowski. He was an active forum member for too long a time and I spoke to at least three people who had a relatively straightforward, if a bit fussy transaction with him - He was primarily a low-baller and if the deal was made, he would insist that the seller follows a set of very strict shipping instructions; weird altogether but not something unheard of - so I don't know, something must've went down with the guy. Not saying he wasn't trying to scam people who got ripped off but he definitely wasn't a classic scammer. . .

 

[Guppy]

That is what I find most puzzling about Lebowski. He was an active forum member for too long a time and I spoke to at least three people who had a relatively straightforward, if a bit fussy transaction with him - He was primarily a low-baller and if the deal was made, he would insist that the seller follows a set of very strict shipping instructions; weird altogether but not something unheard of - so I don't know, something must've went down with the guy. Not saying he wasn't trying to scam people who got ripped off but he definitely wasn't a classic scammer. . .

I didn't get any impression that he was trying to scam me at the time, and as he seemed to be a regular forum user I didn't think that was a likely risk. He just asked me if I would sell him something that I wasn't interested in selling. I gave him an offer of exactly what I'd paid for it, which was less than you would pay for it through a retailer, but he did not go for it, and wanted what might have been a reasonable price for a used Thedi, but was a few hundred below my offer. Thedi didn't seem to have a lot of resale value and were not as well known then, so it didn't really seem unreasonable for either of us to negotiate as we did. I'm frankly shocked at learning that he's apparently got the reputation he now has.