Screwed... Aren't I???

Edit: Never mind, I didn't notice that 70ss has already made the same point.

akeefer wrote in post #12072683
... a somewhat recent member funds ...

Understatement of the year - if this is the same guy whose whole history on the forum is about 10 WTB posts and whose first post was two days before your deal. Don't mean to rub salt in the wound but I wouldn't sit on my thumbs waiting for the lens to arrive.

Edit again: It looks like he's still an active member of POTN. Shouldn't he be banned and shouldn't the other buyers be contacted?

akeefer,

did a quick search and this turned up from 3/21/11 (which he sent to another POTN member):

http://www.pbnation.co​m …p?p=70749773#po​st70749773

looking at his "gear list", he listed a 7D and T3i.. yet, he was trying to sell some other guy a used 1DM2 for $5500? I dunno.. I would think someone who owns the amount of gear he claims to own would know that a 1DM2 doesn't sell for that much, regardless of what is listed on Amazon.

Good luck though.. I hope things work out for you

speedline_fc wrote in post #12074524
akeefer, did a quick search and this turned up from 3/21/11 ...

A few seconds on Google and I'm finding more stuff under his name. Joined photo.net 2/10/11 and has 13 classified ad postings.

Don't know if it would lead anywhere but he has a Skype ID in his profile.

cacawcacaw wrote in post #12074499
Edit: Never mind, I didn't notice that 70ss has already made the same point.

Understatement of the year - if this is the same guy whose whole history on the forum is about 10 WTB posts and whose first post was two days before your deal. Don't mean to rub salt in the wound but I wouldn't sit on my thumbs waiting for the lens to arrive.

Edit again: It looks like he's still an active member of POTN. Shouldn't he be banned and shouldn't the other buyers be contacted?

The mods aren't going to step in unless he's got some significant proof that he's been scammed. Speculation at this point amounts to nothing. If you ban one, another will rise to take his place.

It's probably better if they just implement something along the lines of being able to see the WTB section ONLY after accumulating 100+ posts. If they don't see the section when they first register, problem solved--because they won't even know it exists.

Look at the lenses in his gear list compared to the cameras. Not too many people would have lenses like that with those cameras in combo.

I feel for you OP, Im in it for two transactions totalling 700.00 between here and Ebay.. both sellers members here. Maybe you will get lucky and the money has been captured by Paypal. If he has a lot of bad transactions though, you may have low priority if you payed gift.

Two words Small Claims.

You have to assume you know the real name, address of the perpetrator though. That is not likely the one used to pull off the scams.

isoMorphic wrote in post #12075009
Two words Small Claims.

You'd have as much chance as getting your money back from a Nigerian email scam I reckon.

=) Thanks for the support.

Hope everything works out for you. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.

akeefer wrote in post #12072683
Hey all,

Sent a somewhat recent member funds for a 15-85mm lens that he was selling with pictures and an average price. I accidentally sent gift paypal as I usually send regular but had a brain fart and sent it that way. So anyway, guy says it's been shipped today UPS Express and with my email as reference. Then I get this PM:


Okay...this is screwed up. I recieved an permanent account limitation. Please redeem your money. Call the paypal help center, since my account is limited, it means that my credit card is stuck. Thus, I can't send you back your money. My account got limited because I bought two eBay items at the same time. =.= I've been on and off the phone with them (paypal) for the last two ours. Do you have any advice? I have asked them to return the money to you, so you should receive a full refund.
Thanks,
John P.


So typical scam, huh? Any advice?

I don't know about this particular seller. But I can comment on what appears to be his story.

The problem lies in using Paypal gift as a payment type for the sale. No, don't get me wrong, not saying you shouldn't have as it's your call. What I want to point out is that paypal flags seller/recipient accounts for review that seem to receive large amount paypal gifts. Especially if multiple "gifts" are received by an account in a short time period. What constitutes "large amounts" is probably arbitrary, but I would think anything over a few bucks (seriously, who receives a few hundred $$ in gifts from numerous people!)

Once the seller account is flagged, it gets assigned to the paypal account review specialist. Upon preliminary review, if the specialist has a reason to believe that the Paypal personal (especially gift) payment feature has been abused, they immediately put a freeze on the seller account until further review is completed.

The freeze can be in different forms based on the degree of abuse, account holders tenure and business relationship with paypal, amounts involved, etc. But I believe, at the minimum, they put a freeze that:
* Does not allow payments to be sent from the frozen account
* Does not allow funds to be withdrawn from the frozen account
* Does allow (no, not a typo, but I did mean does allow) refunds
* Does allow payments to be received (but received funds will be frozen)

During the freeze, the account review specialist will look at all the sellers transactions and request additional information around those transactions like:
* proof of the sellers purchase of items to establish that it was indeed his to sell and not stolen
* Tracking numbers for any shipment(s) involving those items
* NET proceeds from the sale of that item, etc.

In this particular case, it is possible that the sellers account was frozen with no access to his funds and he panicked and asked the funds to be refunded to you.

Call paypal and talk to them if you haven't already done so.

Also guard against the natural human tendency of distrust. We all started with ZERO post and ZERO feedback. People are way to quick to believe or suggest that a new seller could be (or worse - IS) as scamster at the slightest of opportunity. Tread with caution, but give the person at the other end of the line the benefit of doubt unless you conclusively know that he has victimized you.

dgsphoto wrote in post #12076473
What I want to point out is that paypal flags seller/recipient accounts for review that seem to receive large amount paypal gifts.

from his recent history looks like he was responding to a huge amount of WTB posts all of a sudden (all of his posts are replies to WTBs), maybe that's why there was a "large amount paypal gifts", although that still doesn't discount the case as "something's fishy", and in fact adds to it.

akeefer wrote in post #12072683
I accidentally sent gift paypal as I usually send regular but had a brain fart and sent it that way. So anyway, guy says it's been shipped today UPS Express and with my email as reference.

How was the guy able to ship it? The mailing address isn't provided to the recipient of a paypal gift payment.

dgsphoto wrote in post #12076473
Also guard against the natural human tendency of distrust. We all started with ZERO post and ZERO feedback. People are way to quick to believe or suggest that a new seller could be (or worse - IS) as scamster at the slightest of opportunity. Tread with caution, but give the person at the other end of the line the benefit of doubt unless you conclusively know that he has victimized you.

QFT - Having had some problems with paypal before, in my case, temp holds on funds because I was provided with the wrong email (although, I should've checked first), I wouldn't be so quick to assume you're being scammed here. So long as you are still in contact with the user, and they're still being cooperative, I'd proceed in trying to sort this out with them.

nelsonhua wrote in post #12077092
QFT - ... I wouldn't be so quick to assume you're being scammed here. So long as you are still in contact with the user, and they're still being cooperative, I'd proceed in trying to sort this out with them.

Except that there hasn't been any more communication from him, there hasn't been any word from PayPal regarding his instructions to refund the money, and that his only forum involvement has been selling a non-nonsensical variety of equipment only through WTB ads.

From the PBNation thread about the same guy:

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