I have never in my life as being on a truck or car forum had this happen to me but it has and I am very upset. I put on the forum that I needed a seat for a 52 F1 Ford pickup and a couple of days later I get an e-mail from a guy that says he has one for sale. I asked him to send me a picture and he does which it looked real nice and all. So my son made a payment to him and still has not seen the seat. By the way he is from the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1:country-region><st1lace>UK</st1lace></st1:country-region> and I don’t know if he is on the Ford forum or not but how else would he have known we needed a seat. I trust people to do what they say they will do but I have to say we got caught up in a scam. He sent me the shipping number which I ended up calling the shipper he said he used and there was no such shipping number and further more I called his phone number and it has been disconnected. I don’t know what recourse if any I can do except to warn other people on the forum not to do business with him (the crook). His name is Herbert Lorenzo as so he addressed himself. I have bought many things off the people here and have had always good luck but this puts a sour note in my trust. I guess we have learned our lesson the hard way.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>

 

Man, that sucks. I've wondered what I'd do in a similar situation. Any time you send a private party some money there isn't a guarantee you'll get what you paid for.

 

The thing I don't get is if he isn't on the forum how did he get my request for a seat. The only way he could of did that is to belong to the forum right? I mean you have to belong to the forum to get to see the messages on here right. So be for warned watch out for him and his scams.

 

Your post most likely came up on a google search where he found it, not necessarily from any forum.....

 

That guy has been ripping off HAMB members for a couple of years.

 

Sorry to hear about you getting burned but there are some ways to protect yourself.

#1 rule, never, ever buy anything from a person in a foreign country, which I am assuming because of the UK you listed in his name. Maybe if you're looking for a part for a foreign car, maybe, but there's a pretty good supply of foreign parts in this country.

I know, some might be legit but the way I figure it is that there are a lot of European guys scarfing up all of the classic American cars they can find. Just check out the forums and see how many European that are posting, most have bought their vehicles within the last five years. Almost every one of them start posting after they have received their vehicle looking for parts. There main problem is they can't find parts in their home countries and it costs a fortune to shipped parts in from the US. Why in the world would you find a better deal from a guy in a foreign country than you would find in this country?

Second even if the guy sends pictures, no matter foreign or domestic, don't use them as your only way to verify that the guy is legit. I can find a picture of anything in less than 5 minutes using Google, eBay is also another great source for detailed pictures. When I've contacted by buyers or sellers of items I have or want I always ask for a phone number to I can call the guy in person. This may not be 100% fool proof but it will weed out at least 90% of the crooks. These guys never want to talk to you and will either give you every excuse for not giving you a number or they'll stop emailing you.

 

Probably the same one reported on oldihc, too. Sorry to hear, man.

 

Karma is a bitch! He'll get his one day.

 

Well guys you were right as you always are. All I had to do is google for a 52 ford pickup seat and there is the ford thread right there. I opened it up and low and behold there was my request from the forum right in front of me. I will be a lot more careful on what and where I ask for parts through a PM or something.

Thanks as always you all have opened my eyes once again.
Larry

 

You can always ask for an address ant tell them that one of your friens will be over to look at it before you buy it - When the excuses or disappearence happen you know to back out.

 

The ONLY way to never get burned online is to simply not buy anything on line.

Their are millions of scumbags out there just waiting for somebody to rip off.

We are getting to the point that cash money and human interaction are all but gone. Almost everything now is paid by a credit card of some sort, and customer service has been turned into a recording that requires you to press *2* for english. We have become a "I want it now" world.

Try to do as much research on a seller as possible. Phone number, website, referalls from other members, and of course if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probally is.

 

You know you could use that knowledge about google searches to your advantage. Pick out just about any thread title on this forum and type in the subject to google (it doesn't have to be exact, just relatively close). You'll see that the FTE threads are almost always at the top of the results list. It would be a shame if the title of your thread got edited so that the name of the scammer got added to it. Then when his next potential victim did a google search, they might get a nice warning.

 

Man that sucks, sorry about your bad luck.

I deal with this a lot as I have to import almost everything for my cars. The quickest way to weed out the scams is request more pics from a very specific angle. Something like "I know the frames on these seats rust from the back right hand side, can you send me a picture of that bit?" The scammers will always send some excuse about their camera being broken, their internet not letting it upload etc. Unless the photo turns up, walk away.

I recently put an ad on another forum looking for a distributor for my 1929 Pontiac, a bloke in Scotland answered me saying yes he had one. I asked for a photo of the inside of the cap, he told me he couldn't but it would definitely fit a 1929 Pontiac V6 engine. Yeah right.

Oh, and if they insist the transfer be by Western Union, it's probably a scam as well.

 

I've dealt with a few of these scum bags when I posted stuff on CL. I've played with a few and gotten a few really ticked off.

I had one send payment to my local police station. I didn't think he'd do it but he did. When he got really upset-he use big, all cap letters- I called the police and found out they did in deed receive the bogus check. I apologized to them and they asked me to send all the correspondence to them. The next email I got from them I told them to talk to police, never heard from them again.

Another guy wanted to buy a truck I was trying to sell. He said he lived in IA, he wanted to send me a check, of course with extra money for added expenses that I could send back to him. I offered to deliver the truck since "I had relatives in IA that I was going to visit". He refused to give me his specific location. I asked for his phone number but he couldn't receive any phone calls because his wife was in a hospital and he couldn't receive phone call there. After he sent his check, which was written on a NY travel agency's account, he started demanding his extra money. I put him off for some time until he emailed saying his was involved in a "fatal" accident and needed surgery and he needed the money to pay for it or she'd die. I told him to tell his wife to "Hang in there" and I'll get him the money next week.

My favorite was when I was looking for a truck for my son. There was a very reasonably priced truck nearby by. When I inquired about it the seller told me he had to move to SC, taking the truck with him. He told me the city so I looked for the goofiest sounding city nearby and told him I had relative living there that could check out the truck for me. I asked him for a phone number so I could contact him to arrange for my relatives to come look at the truck. He informed he didn't have a phone because everyone in his family, unfortunately, was born completely deaf. I emailed him that my cousin was also born deaf and could easily communicate with him in person. I even offered him $100 over his asking price if he'd allow my relatives to come over. Never hear from him again.

One more give away that the guy is a crook, every single scammer that has emailed me used a gmail account. Not saying all gmail accounts are scammers, I got one recently when I bought a new phone, but it's certainly a red flag.

 

That definitely works. I did that on CL with a car that was obviously a scam but always the type thats always on there (slow day at work at the time..) and once I found out it wasn't local which was no surprise, I told the guy that my friend just happens to live in the area and within 2 more emails he quit responding. He bowed out gracefully and that was it. I really hate scammers! Especially when the ruin it for the legit people