Hijacked Member Account Posting Classified To Scam

[lazylathe]

Modnote: 8 posts moved from the Negative feedback thread. This turned out to be a case of a hijacked fc member's account being used to scam.

Be cautious of deals that appear too good to be true. Check the seller's recent account activity. Ask for a unique identifier to be included in the product photo.

Using the friends and family option in paypal makes it difficult if not impossible to get a refund even if you get ripped off. Be very careful if a seller insists that you pay using f&f.

Scammed by our old user that I thought could be trusted...
Apparently $85 USD is a lot of money these days.
It's not really the money aspect but to be scammed by @Bravesst who is a manufacturer here...

He posted a Supreme V3.5 for sale today and i replied first, within a few minutes of him posting.
I have a soft spot for these vapes and grab them at every opportunity.
Guess I should have read him a bit better as you will see from our conversations...
Stupidly I sent it F&F as requested by @Bravesst and thought I could trust this 5 year member...

Sent the money and the ad is deleted and he is not replying.
Not cool brother and here is the proof... And by the way, I have been out of work for 4 months now with zero income, so thanks!

If you decide to respond I will modify this post but your haste in requesting the money makes me doubt it.

Here is the email I received from FC alerting me to the sale, now deleted as you can see from the Oops....its missing pic!

And our convo...nothing to hide on my side.

Offer to throw a bit more in to cover shipping as well...

Proof I sent the money...

Sent my address

Excellent start to the week!

 

[iDRINKBLEACH]

@lazylathe i got gotten also. I disputed already and reported as an issue that I sent the wrong amount to the wrong account, hoping I get back since he can’t touch until the 10th for some reason?
It was a steal of a deal and I too got fooled by the membership time. I responded to him @ 4:24 central time paid pretty quick talked to a friend right after who also purchased it lmao and then I messaged mods to have taken down right away.
Crappy deal p.s. I will never ask for friends and family.

 

[lazylathe]

@lazylathe i got gotten also. I disputed already and reported as an issue that I sent the wrong amount to the wrong account, hoping I get back since he can’t touch until the 10th for some reason?
It was a steal of a deal and I too got fooled by the membership time. I responded to him @ 4:24 central time paid pretty quick talked to a friend right after who also purchased it lmao and then I messaged mods to have taken down right away.
Crappy deal p.s. I will never ask for friends and family.

Someone hacked his account I would say... Friend, family or foe, who knows.

 

[Shit Snacks]

Someone hacked his account I would say... Friend, family or foe, who knows.

Oh yeah that is definitely a hack job phishing, language barrier type dialogue, I know someone else had gotten hacked and bunch of items were posted for sale, fishing for funds the same way, that's why they didn't care about shipping money etc, this sucks though and I hope you get it all back soon!!

 

[lazylathe]

Oh yeah that is definitely a hack job phishing, language barrier type dialogue, I know someone else had gotten hacked and bunch of items were posted for sale, fishing for funds the same way, that's why they didn't care about shipping money etc, this sucks though and I hope you get it all back soon!!

F&F means we are FU*$+D & F$CK#D!

Do not pass go and collect $100, go straight into more debt.

 

[Shit Snacks]

F&F means we are FU*$+D & F$CK#D!

Do not pass go and collect $100, go straight into more debt.

I know maybe this needs its own thread, because we're getting off topic perhaps, but I would tell them, them being your credit card or bank or whatever, that your friend was hacked?? It's clearly a hacker just looking at the wording...?

 

[Cheesequake]

Just a heads up @Sinclue is ONLY accepting F&F for his classified listings, and the prices are too good to be true. I even offered to pay for the fees and he still would only accept F&F through "his friend's paypal." Just a heads up - I would avoid.

 

[vtac]

@lazylathe. I deleted the thread shortly after it was posted after seeing a report that the account may have been hijacked.

I edited the post to reflect the issue and was in contact with @iDRINKBLEACH regarding it. In my haste I forgot to undelete the thread. It's visible again now.

If any specific assistance is needed please pm me. I'll be moving these posts out of the Negative Feedback thread and into a new thread in community discussion since it wasn't a legit member posting the classified.

Thank you so much to all the members who reported these suspicious classifieds threads.

Edit: @The Stray Fox let me know that he took the pictures that @Sinclue's hijacked account used in their classifieds posts. The @Sinclue account is now deactivated as well.

It seems that someone may be targeting member accounts that haven't been used in a while. It's possible that the accounts used passwords that were leaked in data breaches around the web.

This is a good time to remind everyone to use a strong, unique password. 2 factor authentication is a great tool if you're serious about securing your account. You can change your password and/or enable 2 factor authentication in the password and security section of your user account settings. You can check if your passwords were in any data breaches here: https://passwords.google.com/checkup/start?ep=1&pr=sa

 

[The Stray Fox]

That felt sketchy. Really feel bad for y’all. I’m definitely taking your advice @vtac

 

[namasteIII]

ouch I hate scammers. Sorry y'all.

 

[invertedisdead]

They even hacked mine a few months back and posted a P80 and Orion heater - neither of which I’ve ever owned.

 

[oddjobold]

Never ever ever pay for anything on the internet F&F.

 

[Abysmal Vapor]

Modnote: 8 posts moved from the Negative feedback thread. This turned out to be a case of a hijacked fc member's account being used to scam.

Scammed by our old user that I thought could be trusted...
Apparently $85 USD is a lot of money these days.
It's not really the money aspect but to be scammed by @Bravesst who is a manufacturer here...

He posted a Supreme V3.5 for sale today and i replied first, within a few minutes of him posting.
I have a soft spot for these vapes and grab them at every opportunity.
Guess I should have read him a bit better as you will see from our conversations...
Stupidly I sent it F&F as requested by @Bravesst and thought I could trust this 5 year member...

Isnt that the same guy who took people's money and then ghosted them. After some time he started selling furniture on his site ... I'd say hacked account is second version.

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Discontinued - Lil' Bud by Vapwood

So I picked up a second hand lil bud Classic not long ago, and have been spending a bit of time getting to grips with it and I am somewhat enjoying it. However, I cannot seem to get the abv to a "dark coffee brown" colour like I can on other convection devices, and i dont think i could combust...

fuckcombustion.com

So he is a known scammer. Now it seems some other scammer highjacked the scammer's account..., even if it is so, he should have been banned long ago.

 

[kel]

Second post I have read today about disgusting human behaviour!

I am sorry this has happened

Never forget...

Most of the people, most of the time anyway, there are some lovely eggs out there too!

 

[Cl4ud3]

@lazylathe Sorry to hear about this happening. Contact PayPal and tell them you don't recognise the transaction and you are worried your account has been hacked. They can refund in some circumstances and will advise you to change your passwords. I don't know if it will work for you but I have had to do this in the past and was refunded. Hope this helps.

 

[Aryeah]

I had someone try to scam me on reddit. The best part was the 'Sup Bro" message...lol. His handle was created that day with 0 karma. he told me to go to telegram and text some random person. I googled the persons name from telegram, and the first thing that came up was a Nigerian Prince with the same name..haha.

I know the lure of VAS and when something is a really good deal, I try and jump on it also. Just remember, if the price is too good to be true, or the seller askes to send anything F&F just decline and always use G&S. Most scammers will reject your purchase if you use G&S on Paypal, which is a big red flag..

Sorry this happened to you guys..

 

[Vape_Or_Die420]

This is not good publicity for the items i am trying to sell in the classifieds...

It is a good reminder that not everyone is honest on here though. I have done many transactions in the classifieds (bought and sold) with no issues and might have got too comfortable.

Sorry for the ones that got screwed by this scammer!

 

[oddjobold]

My suggestion:

Ban F&F payments on the classifieds. Only allow paypal G&S.

Put a banner or sticky on the classifieds stating the above.

 

[kel]

I don't know about that, I have been buying and selling for years using F&F and not had any trouble.

You can't control what people do outside of the classifieds.

I think it is a matter of due diligence and taking sensible precautions.

Also... while G&S does afford you *some* protection as a buyer, this opens up all sorts of avenues for abusive crap for sellers...

I think treating everyone as a criminal by default is a bad vibes move, seriously problematic and a mirror of the poisoned society in which we live - we have to fight this BS every step of the way and protect our ability to trust by being good to one another!

 

[Shit Snacks]

My suggestion:

Ban F&F payments on the classifieds. Only allow paypal G&S.

Put a banner or sticky on the classifieds stating the above.

Yeah there is no actual way to control that, thankfully! Buyer always be PayPal aware

 

[Abysmal Vapor]

I don't know about that, I have been buying and selling for years using F&F and not had any trouble.

You can't control what people do outside of the classifieds.

I think it is a matter of due diligence and taking sensible precautions.

Also... while G&S does afford you *some* protection as a buyer, this opens up all sorts of avenues for abusive crap for sellers...

I think treating everyone as a criminal by default is a bad vibes move, seriously problematic and a mirror of the poisoned society in which we live - we have to fight this BS every step of the way and protect our ability to trust by being good to one another!

+1 I would never do a comercial transaction ,cause local laws require to declare it as an income and i get taxed extra. I've done F&F both ways and never been fucked . Minimum wage here is 311 euro, medium wage 750 euro, it is not hard to get in next taxation category .

 

[kel]

+1 I would never do a comercial transaction ,cause local laws require to declare it as an income and i get taxed extra. I've done F&F both ways and never been fucked .

Yeah same here... although I could probably argue it out, it's just easier not to.

When I say I have never had any trouble, I have also politely declined things that I got a bad feeling about or if something just didn't sit right.

The number one thing to do, as far as I know, is a photo of the item from the seller with the username of the buyer and a date on a hand written note. It is a decent way to at least validate the existence of the item being sold and no one who is genuine will mind doing this in the slightest.

Second, just talk to each other, if the people involved are genuine this will also be cool!

Whatever you do, at some point you do just have to trust other people.

 

[Tranquility]

+1 I would never do a comercial transaction ,cause local laws require to declare it as an income and i get taxed extra. I've done F&F both ways and never been fucked . Minimum wage here is 311 euro, medium wage 750 euro, it is not hard to get in next taxation category .

What do you mean by this? I know taxation is different between countries, but, the basic theory of income should be much the same. In the U.S., while a person has to report all the profit he makes, he also gets to deduct the costs to "earn" that profit. The only real difference between personal and commercial is that with personal, you don't get to deduct losses.

For example, say I have an old widget sitting in my garage. It cost me $100 many years ago and I sell it for $50 today. What is my profit/loss?

Just on the facts and without the side issues of advertising, delivery and whatnot; I could say that while I got revenue of $50, it cost me $100 to get. I actually lost $50. This is how almost all personal sales of used equipment in the U.S. is not taxable; the seller paid more for the item than he got when sold. Because you can't deduct that "personal" loss, nothing need be reported. This changes when I'm in the business of selling widgets. There, I have a $50 loss that can be netted against other income.

Unless you have a craft vape people are willing to pay a premium for, I'm not sure it should affect taxation rates for you at all. (Let alone cause a bracket jump that could hurt you.) I get that the amount you received might be reported to the government. It's just that, in the U.S. you wouldn't be taxed on it if you filled out the forms correctly at tax time. How is is different with our EU brothers? Is it some VAT issue?

 

[oddjobold]

My suggestion:

Ban F&F payments on the classifieds. Only allow paypal G&S.

Put a banner or sticky on the classifieds stating the above.

This is what they do on entexchange. Due to the amount of scamming on the site.

 

[kel]

Anyone want to sell me something G&S??

I promise to show you how brutally I can rip you off for your gear AND your money!

Not really... of course!!!

...but G&S is far worse for sellers, many of whom are selling because they are struggling!

I think it's a bad idea unless you are an actual shop with turnover and margins to cover credit card chargebacks, fraudulent claims etc.

Much, much better to establish trust and reliability and do your due diligence... for both buyer and seller.

Edit: To be absolutely clear:

In any dispute for goods bought G&S and sent through the post like this the buyer very nearly ALWAYS wins. All they have to do is...

Hmm, well perhaps I should not say here as I don't want to encourage bad behaviour, but trust me! G&S is heavily weighted in favour of the buyer and can leave the seller high and dry if there is fraudulent activity.