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Individual International Seller Scam

I recently became a victim of a scam. A parasite advertised the sale of  Dali Euphonia MS 5 speakers located in Denmark. I offered him his asking price and in our communications reminded him to formally accept the offer through Audiogon. He committed to the offer in our conversations and we agreed on wire transfer to his HSBC Bank in London. Once the money cleared he sent me an email the speakers were being shipped but that turn out to be a lie. It was the last communication I had with him. he did not respond to several followup email.

The parasite's login is pedersenh62. I have notified Audiogon support and they quickly suspended his account. Audiogon has also been very helpful with what to do. I have filed a report with my Bank, FBI internet Fraud online both locally and the Denmark office based on the address the scam artist provided.

I hope no other members have been duped by the same guy.

My advise is not to deal with INDIVIDUAL international seller unless it is  agreed  that only COD,credit card or some form of escrow is in place and such escrow only released upon confirmation of delivery.

Audiogon may also want to review the policy on individual international sellers. It verifies dealers but maybe it should consider that only sellers who agree to above payments will be allowed to advertise or for that matter demand that such sellers deposit equivalent money for sale with Audiogon.

Thank you for opportunity to share my experience and I hope else gets defrauded.

Taiye
taiye
sevs
301 posts
 
Agreed:
1) No bank wires
2) Use PayPal but with CC, no PayPal balance or linked bank account. CC payments thru PayPal gives extra level of protection
3) If the amount is high enough to be painful to lose (this example here would be in the "extremely painful" category for me!!) then use Escrow service.
I just wish I followed these simple rules myself, as it is I am certified "fool" according to my fellow a-goner  ;-(
tecknik
483 posts
 
Sorry for your loss Taiye, I have dealt with a couple of International sellers and thou I didn't get scammed one wanted me to wire the funds to his account after Paypall rejected the transaction several times for fraud warning, needless to say I didn't wire the funds because ,
1, Audiogon has a warning about wiring funds to personal accounts and keeping all communications thru Audiogon.
2. Paypall rejected the transaction as fraud do to a linked account. Im not saying there was any intentional fraud on his side and I don't believe there was.

Another transaction that didn't go thru with a verified seller refunded my funds which was done with my CC.

Wiring funds to a personal account I would never do, there is absolutely no protection for you vs CC and PayPall in which you have a little more recourse if something goes sour.

Tammy at Audiogon has been very helpful with me on both transaction.
taiye OP
12 posts
 
Thanks tecknik for your kind words. I learned my lesson
cdk84's avatar
cdk84
70 posts
 
Hello Taiye,

I am sad that you experienced this miserable scam.

Personally, I don't feel Czarivey's comments display much understanding, compassion or maturity. I wouldn't give his comments any credibility.

I hope you can recover and not blame yourself. These things happen to many of us; it's happened to me, too.

Best Wishes

taiye OP
12 posts
 

Thanks cdk84. "Everybody plays the fool sometime" I do blame myself for not being careful but I am over it. My goal was to remind others of my plight which I am sure is not new, I am happy that my post got people talking and all opinions have been welcomed but grateful for the empathy.

Thanks to all. I am signing off.

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