I'm the other one. I blame myself. Saw the red flags and ignored them anyway, when I shouldn't. For me, a $400 reminder to stay vigilant. It's easy for us to get too complacent in life and I admittedly did in this case. All the red flags were there.
It's a scam
Yes, definitely appears to be. Sad to see so many scam posts in this forum(s) already. Here is the actual real post this picture came from (remove spacing):
Not to laugh at you but how could you not tell it was a scam? Name was Stephen, sent you a Venmo for a guy named mark and, for me, wouldn’t send me a picture of his license or anything with his address. I inquired on the same thing but knew instantly it was a scam.
These kind of people are the scum of the earth!
Good for you. No need to pour salt in the wounds of others though. Congrats to yourself for being on your toes and not falling for it. Go give yourself a pat on the back. Then, go look in the mirror and smack yourself across the face for not showing a little compassion to some who might not have been paying as close of attention on a small transaction amount. Some people still like to have faith in the human race that there are good, genuine and honest people out there. In doing so, and trying to see the glass as half full rather than half empty, sometimes we might be a little too forgiving and relaxed. Lessons learned. Not the end of the world at $375 or $400 and hopefully this post helps keep others on their toes to recognize such scams. Doesn't help at all to have an "I told you so" type of response, after the fact.
Sorry to hear it. I've posted some warnings. The forum added some steps that will hopefully slow them down. Don't like to admit to our mistakes, but hopefully sharing the experience helps slow these slimeballs down and possibly prevents others suffering from their scam. One day, it will catch up to them.
Well, $500 isn't the reason why I feel disgusted. I can live thinking that I donated the money to some person that is less fortunate than me. What I disgusted about is the fact that I cannot believe the people any more.. I was going to buy another item from eBay, but I couldn't because of the trust issue.
I hear ya. E-bay at least, does have some buyer protections if the seller doesn't perform. Internet forums are a free for all and unfortunately, offer us no protection. Using paypal to pay for goods (not to transfer money among friends), also offers protections, similar to credit card fraud protection. So don't let it spoil all of your online experiences. Just double check that you have some protection if you run across another one of these low-life's again!. I agree, sad what many people have become. Fortunately, they're not all bad, but sad that we're forced to always keep our eyes peeled for the bad apples that are out there.
