I historically meet sellers at a Starbucks with a buddy of mine. Never have had an issue. Scammers never want to meet in person, but audiophiles have no issues.
One thing folks whose identity has been appropriated for a scam CAN do is contact the federal agencies. Here's a link to a website from US DOJ that has a series of contact points: http://www.justice.gov/criminal/fraud/websites/idtheft.html
I spoke with someone who has knowledge of how these things are done. It is very easy for a competent computer crook to pull off.
Please, no Eric Holder jokes.
I was a little apprehensive (to say the least) after reading this thread again and about my payment for my S7i on Audiogon. But the paypal check came yesterday to my relief.
Not a fequent visitor to Audiogon ... What are they (Audiogon) doing about this? WHat kind of communications are they having with their registered members? Are they just counting on the unusually high tolerance of Audiophiles?
When the level of frauds is reaching such proportion isn't it time to pause and regroup?
Last question: Any ideas who are the principals at Audiogon?
Hi, My name is Stian M. Helland.
In the beginning of this thread Dev mentioned that I contacted him about a bank transfere. That I managed to do and I transfered 10000$ to this German hacker for a pair of Wilson Sasha speakers.
The thing is that this had happened before with the same speakers (exact same ad but with different user name), this time the speakers went for 12000$. The guy buying the speakers had contacted Audiogon and they just said they were sorry.
So all in all this hacker has at least cashed in 22000$ in a couple of monts. I have all the bank account information but it seems like I might as well just forget the money.
It seems quite stange that Audiogon haven`t done **** to prevent this from happening again.
Just one week after I bought the speakers the ad was posted again. This is when I found out that it was scam.
I contacted Audiogon and they suspended Dev`s account and said it was hijacked and that they were sorry. To me this seems to be a bit easy way of solving this case.
And one week after this the ad was posted again, I then made a new account on Audiogon and started communication with the guy. This time he had a different bank account in the same bank in germany.
I then contacted Audiogon and asked them to try and find out who it was, they just suspended the acount.
I am wondering what I should do about this??
it use to be that with anyone i did business with on Audiogon i could somehow verify who they were thru audio friends i know all around (and they could verify who i was too). we would have common friends or some sort of connection. communication flowed much easier.
whether it's just that scammers have discovered that high end audio is a more trusting environment than other auction sites, or that more restricted communications make things tougher to verify, or both, but things have changed.
Hi, My name is Stian M. Helland.
In the beginning of this thread Dev mentioned that I contacted him about a bank transfere. That I managed to do and I transfered 10000$ to this German hacker for a pair of Wilson Sasha speakers.
The thing is that this had happened before with the same speakers (exact same ad but with different user name), this time the speakers went for 12000$. The guy buying the speakers had contacted Audiogon and they just said they were sorry.
So all in all this hacker has at least cashed in 22000$ in a couple of monts. I have all the bank account information but it seems like I might as well just forget the money.
It seems quite stange that Audiogon haven`t done **** to prevent this from happening again.
Just one week after I bought the speakers the ad was posted again. This is when I found out that it was scam.
I contacted Audiogon and they suspended Dev`s account and said it was hijacked and that they were sorry. To me this seems to be a bit easy way of solving this case.
And one week after this the ad was posted again, I then made a new account on Audiogon and started communication with the guy. This time he had a different bank account in the same bank in germany.
I then contacted Audiogon and asked them to try and find out who it was, they just suspended the acount.
I am wondering what I should do about this??
Contact the federal authorities, including the FBI. I posted a link above to the US Dep't of Justice website (see earlier in this thread) which has some contact information. What country are you located in Stian?
it use to be that with anyone i did business with on Audiogon i could somehow verify who they were thru audio friends i know all around (and they could verify who i was too). we would have common friends or some sort of connection. communication flowed much easier.
whether it's just that scammers have discovered that high end audio is a more trusting environment than other auction sites, or that more restricted communications make things tougher to verify, or both, but things have changed.
The daily audiogon scams are a real problem, especially for international guys like me. I have prided myself over the years of being a honest buyer and seller. That scammers can come in and take over someone's identity and goodwill is not good.
Nowadays I see more and more US sellers not wanting to do business, even for low risk items like cables.
I see today Maxx3's from Germany for 20k, now it is gone.
If I sell something now, I will not even list international money transfer as an option - otherwise I will be a scammer.
Surely audiogon can do something more to protect their business and their customers, otherwise they will not have one.
BTW Stian - really sorry about your misfortune, I really hope you can get your money back somehow.
The daily audiogon scams are a real problem, especially for international guys like me. I have prided myself over the years of being a honest buyer and seller. That scammers can come in and take over someone's identity and goodwill is not good.
Nowadays I see more and more US sellers not wanting to do business, even for low risk items like cables.
I see today Maxx3's from Germany for 20k, now it is gone.
If I sell something now, I will not even list international money transfer as an option - otherwise I will be a scammer.
Surely audiogon can do something more to protect their business and their customers, otherwise they will not have one.
BTW Stian - really sorry about your misfortune, I really hope you can get your money back somehow.
As far as I understand Paypal will not protect you on international sales. It has to be within the US. If you use a credit card through Paypal maybe the CC company will still protect you?
That is reason enough for me to avoid buying used merchandise from other countries. I like to error on the side of caution especially with high dollar items. It's just not worth it.
Contact the federal authorities, including the FBI. I posted a link above to the US Dep't of Justice website (see earlier in this thread) which has some contact information. What country are you located in Stian?
Thanks, I will check it out. I am located in Norway.
I have already contacted the Norwegian police, so I hope they can contact the german police and check out all the bank accounts the hacker used.
The daily audiogon scams are a real problem, especially for international guys like me. I have prided myself over the years of being a honest buyer and seller. That scammers can come in and take over someone's identity and goodwill is not good.
Nowadays I see more and more US sellers not wanting to do business, even for low risk items like cables.
I see today Maxx3's from Germany for 20k, now it is gone.
If I sell something now, I will not even list international money transfer as an option - otherwise I will be a scammer.
Surely audiogon can do something more to protect their business and their customers, otherwise they will not have one.
BTW Stian - really sorry about your misfortune, I really hope you can get your money back somehow.
They are in the US of A , they will not take this seriously until you have an Attorney contact them , do not take this sitting down , have an attorney contact them , you can prove negligence on their part , best to get with others who have also been scammed , AG has the information you seek and I'm sure they collected fees from these transactions ....
