Albert Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 6 minutes ago, staxx said: I have been on here for many many years and this is the first time I have been scammed. Had it been 15 mins later, I would have noticed this sales thread and not sent the payment. Let's see what happens and the other folks that paid also. As far as I can tell, only two people paid, you and another member. He had already solicited payment from another member for the Jaguar, and I'm sure he would have continued to do so had I not investigated. Thank you, @monzamess for finding that eBay auction, as that's what made me drop everything and investigate this user. ..Al 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 2 minutes ago, Dopy25 said: Maybe he just decided to join the scam. Even the OPs older posts seemed really abrasive. I hope I am overthinking and the same person wasn't just joining a forum to become established It's a scammer, he's doing this on other forums as well. It's obvious now that his email was hacked, as that's a trivial way to get into every website you registered for with that email address. ..Al 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
staxx Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 4 minutes ago, Dopy25 said: Ah man. I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt and thought maybe I was screwing over a sale with my comments so I deleted it. I got burned in a very similar situation in December. Paypal has this thing that you can get your money back even on F&F if the receiver hasn't yet transferred it out. I would call them immediately. Don't wait on a case or email. They have people that answer phones. F*** I tried calling and they just closed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dopy25 Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 1 minute ago, staxx said: F*** I tried calling and they just closed. If you used funds other than paypal balance, call that provider. Credit card or even bank transfer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 2 minutes ago, staxx said: F*** I tried calling and they just closed. Crazy that they close at 6pm PST. But not surprised, because, you know, PayPal. They do have a means of sending them a direct message, you should try that: https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/contact-us Not sure how helpful that will actually be, as it looks like a robot script that can pass you along to a customer service agent. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monzamess Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 20 minutes ago, Albert said: As far as I can tell, only two people paid, you and another member. He had already solicited payment from another member for the Jaguar, and I'm sure he would have continued to do so had I not investigated. Thank you, @monzamess for finding that eBay auction, as that's what made me drop everything and investigate this user. ..Al And thank Google Lens for indexing that auction already. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roadrunner Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 A search.brave.com brings up a bunch of SMALLTOWNGUY2 user accounts with various forums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 Just now, roadrunner said: A search.brave.com brings up a bunch of SMALLTOWNGUY2 user accounts with various forums. Yep, if someone can hack your email, they can then get into all your accounts pretty easily, unless you have two-factor authorization setup. Which is available here on AtariAge. I recommend everyone enable this on their account to help prevent this exact thing happening with your own account here someday. ..Al 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rogerpoco Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 I feel terrible for those caught up-I'm the lucky one, I suppose, but those I've bought from(many)know that I usually have a one or two day period of having to sweet talk the Wife before I actually pay, so I likely would have avoided this landmine on my own, but regardless- W/O elaborating, HUGE thanks to Al here. Above and beyond, even me understanding that this site is his "responsibility" and all, I was really, really impressed with the hands on approach to squashing this, double thumbs up, Man, Thanks. I hate this happening, but this type incident is actually why I trust these for sale offerings so much-I'd never actually seen it myself, but I always believed "bad folks", outright scammers or not, don't last long here w/o being exposed. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfollowell Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 Whoever this person is, they have several different auctions/sales going on at the moment. I know they could just could just easily create a new account, but wouldn't it be a good idea for someone with the power to do so, to close or lock their account so that they can't create threads? Also, I see that scam alerts were put onto this particular thread but shouldn't the same be done for every last one of this individual's threads? Just a suggestion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 1 minute ago, bfollowell said: Whoever this person is, they have several different auctions/sales going on at the moment. I know they could just could just easily create a new account, but wouldn't it be a good idea for someone with the power to do so, to close or lock their account so that they can't create threads? Also, I see that scam alerts were put onto this particular thread but shouldn't the same be done for every last one of this individual's threads? Just a suggestion. The account was banned immediately upon my seeing that this was as scammer. They created three "For Sale" threads within a short period of time, but this was before the account was banned. I also logged into their account to see who they were communicating with, and I sent each of those individuals a message warning them if they had already made a payment that they should try and get that money back as quickly as possible. I also posted in each of the threads stating this was a scammer, linking back to this thread which has the most information. ..Al 4 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+evg2000 Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 Thanks @Albert for looking out for us! ? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonard Smith Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 I'm getting asked to change / update my passwords for most of my banking + financial sites today. Good thing to do regularly anyway, but there's definitely a big hack-a-thon going on and the financial institutions appear to be aware and are taking no chances. Remain vigilant when buying and selling on here and other forums. If the deal feels off in any way or the buyer/seller starts asking weird questions, it's best to cancel the transaction and avoid any further communication. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bfollowell Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 2 hours ago, Albert said: The account was banned immediately upon my seeing that this was as scammer. They created three "For Sale" threads within a short period of time, but this was before the account was banned. I also logged into their account to see who they were communicating with, and I sent each of those individuals a message warning them if they had already made a payment that they should try and get that money back as quickly as possible. I also posted in each of the threads stating this was a scammer, linking back to this thread which has the most information. ..Al OK, great job. If you said that before I must've missed it. I should've known someone would be on top of it though. Thanks for jumping on it so quickly @Albert. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+frankodragon Posted March 23, 2022 Share Posted March 23, 2022 Good thing the Pinsider website took action as well. There are other sites where he is a member and those sites should be notified about his scam. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 On 3/22/2022 at 5:21 PM, smalltownguy2 said: are you stupid? I explained it to you, you bastard. My Paypal account has been closed for selling illegal products. That's why I opened a new account. When I receive G&S payment with my new paypal account, my account is restricted. Paypal bullshit! paypal F&F only The first red flag is a literal nobody who has not done any dealings with anyone here but comes up with some desirable items out of the blue. The second red flag is the asking price of "$250" which is what now would be a steal for a fully boxed Jaguar, or $150 for a Satiator. When the deal is too good to be true...well... The third red flag is this nobody is asking for F&F payment and using such abusive language to a member when he declined (good job declining BTW) The fourth red flag is the admittance of an account being closed for selling "illegal products". Are you serious, really? I can pick out more from just the initial post that smells like probably how this loser does. But whoever you are "smalltownguy2", you are truly a moron....and not a very good scammer if that is what you are aspiring to become. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightbit Posted March 24, 2022 Share Posted March 24, 2022 I would like to add a bit of advice as well in order to help keep your account here safe. There are security options in place in your account settings. You can set up security questions or use Google Authenticator (which is my preferred method). If you do not have this set up already you should probably do it now: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roadrunner Posted March 28, 2022 Share Posted March 28, 2022 Did the peeps that were scammed get their money back? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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