New Scam Going On

[MylesBAstor]

You wonder how they get pictures and serial number for "fake" products for sale on Audiogon and other sites?

This is obviously one way found out by the Avid people. What will they think of next?

** SCAM BEWARE **

Seems our partners in Indonesia have had visitors claiming to be customers only to take pictures and post the products on line for sale.

Send your payment and you'll never receive the goods.

You can always check with AVID directly about any product which is for sale. Provide us with the serial number and we'll confirm its history and validity.

Obviously if your interested in purchasing or listening to our products and your located in Indonesia, our partner will be happy to show you...just no pictures now !!!

[atmasphere]

There's been a lot of ebay activity that must use this same tactic. Sheesh.

[Kingrex]

Audiogon cost money, but I feel a whole lot safer doing business there, and I use Paypal to transact. I only purchase if the person is in the USA. The Audiogon purchase should be real gear too, not just a couple $50 transactions. I was looking at some Kharma speaker from Italy, but I was able to find the store on Google, call it and verify they were posting the add. Did not purchase them. Of course, the last few pieces I have bought have been from a dealer/manufacturer or reference. Ebay needs to have verifiable history and seller from the USA. Ebay should return your money if you use paypal and don't get the goods.

[cpp]

Same here. US only, PAYPAL a must, the person must have 99 or 100% rating and have a real address not a post office box. I can find a person with a real address.

[david k]

I've seen ads from rare Micro Seiki tables originating in Indonesia with multiple listings in typical scam European sites to entire websites mirroring legitimate businesse sites. They're pretty sophisticated these days fishing for your credit card info.

david

[cpp]

If there is a way to cheat someone out of some money , people will find a way and there will always be a "customer" or two to fall for the scam.

Just like those emails you get that say, you have been selected to receive by the country of whatyacallit $1 million dollars if you contact them and send them money, scams everywhere these days thanks to the fabulous Internet

[cpp]

If the seller only wants a check or wired cash something is fishy to me. NOt to mention if I'm spending big sums of cash like you noted, I'm going to talk to the person eye to eye for a transfer of that much money and review the goods. I don't buy cars sight unseen and I buy lots of cars all over the US. If it seems to good to be true, 99% of the time its a fraud.

[mep]

PayPal is no guarantee that you will get your money back either. PayPal will put you through holy hell before you see a dime and Audiogon will stand behind you, but very, very, far behind you.

[Beaur]

Just offer to pay upon pick-up. That weeds out plenty of scammers. Doesn't matter if you are actually going to do it in the end, it's the reaction you are looking for. I've completed one Paypal transaction in the sellers kitchen before. If on a different continent just say a friend is going to pick it up. Also when you get scammed don't give up on getting your money back especially if you used a wire transfer with a major bank. I found that the banks help more than they advertise, and I actually had a transfer reversed when the scammer shut down the website a little too fast.

[Kingrex]

I did not know Audiogon had been hijacked. I have reported numerous fradulent accounts on USAudiomart.
There is a company pretending to be Quickbooks. They are actually very helpful, but given the chance will tell you level 3 support is needed and charge you $400 for work you don't need. I did not pay and called Intuit customer sales to complain about a product I bought. They set me strait with the correct customer support number. Its all over.

[Marcus]

PayPal is regularly abused too. I know a few cases. Two of my buddies were selling their equipment and were paid via PayPal. Then after some time buyer claimed he didn't receive goods or it was not what he ordered and raised a dispute. Got his money back but "forgot" to return the equipment worth several thousands of dollars and disappeared. Both sold their stuff to Asia.

Pay PayPal is good for buying but definitely NOT a guarantee for safe selling. That's why I accept (or pay with) PayPal for small amounts ONLY ($200 max)!

Hijacking identities is a big problem too. I'm selling my Karan KAM 2000 amps and recently one person "from UK" was "interested" and demanded more infos and photos (he even demanded that I take a photo of my amps and me holding a piece of paper with his email address) but after some time these these same photos were used in two fake ads on Audioasylum and Audiomart. Seller was from Hong Kong. I informed owners and fraudulent ads were immediately removed but I can only hope nobody was scammed.

[MylesBAstor]

Wow!

[MylesBAstor]

Another scam that still goes on is the "buy" to listen. You sell your gear and the buyer decides they don't like it and come up with a phony excuse to negate the sale. Or like Marcus said too.

[Rob]

when audiogon was experiencing growing pains just after the ownership change they left the door open for all the scammers to set up dummy accounts. I was suckered in and bought a rare/collectable cartridge at an unbelievable price. I know, if its too good to be true...anyways, paypal took 4 weeks or so to resolve the matter and get my money back. the perpetrators kept posting on audiogon for at least a year before they were blocked. this theft ring (allegedly from Greece/Cypress) were doing the same thing on US Audiomart but were shut down much sooner.