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lmilhanjr Offline • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #1 · Scammer alert, beware of member / seller bluegecko Has anyone interacted with member "bluegecko" within the last 5 days? The reason I am asking is because he posted a Canon 50mm 1.4 lens for sale, as seen here: bluegecko - Canon 50mm 1.4 lens for sale I contacted him through PM, and told him I wanted to purchase the Lens. He provided me with his Paypal address, and I sent him Payment on July 12th. Soon after, he marked the Lens as "sold". Despite attempting to contact him through PMs and Email a few times since then asking for shipping status and a tracking number, I haven't heard anything at all back from him. It has now been 6 days since I sent him Paypal payment, and I am starting to become concerned. To add even further to my concern, another member contacted me through PM, telling me that he too purchased a Lens from "bluegecko", and hasn't heard back from him since sending the Paypal payment I feel I have given "bluegecko" an ample amount of time to respond to my Email and PM messages. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Thank you. Larry Edited on Jul 19, 2012 at 11:59 AM · View previous versions Jul 18, 2012 at 12:36 PM

dcains Offline • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #2 · Scammer alert, beware of member / seller bluegecko Obviously, contact PayPal ASAP. Jul 18, 2012 at 12:58 PM

anthonysemone Offline • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #3 · Scammer alert, beware of member / seller bluegecko Give Fred Miranda a head's up as well. Checking his profile it looks as though he has indeed sold another, but different Canon lens; further, it appears as though he has made a number of forum contributions and is not just another B&S member, and that he is from Canada. +1 to dcains' comment about getting hold of PP ASAP. 6 days is certainly long enough to have given you some sort of response, unless of course he's in the farther regions of Norther Quebec and uses carrier pigeon for his internet provider . HTH, tony Jul 18, 2012 at 01:22 PM

lmilhanjr Offline • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #4 · Scammer alert, beware of member / seller bluegecko Thank you for the suggestions! I have indeed filed a Paypal claim, and I also sent a PM to Mr. Miranda. I am new to this message board, and the world of DSLR photography. Since joining the message board, I have purchased a few lenses, tripod head and a flash - and all of those transactions went smoothly. The "bluegecko" lens is the only transaction that hasn't gone smoothly thus far... I guess shame on me for not being more leery of "bluegecko" for not having any FM feedback. I will of course post again in this thread IF I hear back from "bluegecko" and receive the Lens that I paid for in order to clear his name. At any rate, it's a bummer I had to introduce myself to the community in a thread like this... but such is life! Hello everyone, nice to meet ya! Take care. Larry Jul 18, 2012 at 01:25 PM

anthonysemone Offline • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #5 · Scammer alert, beware of member / seller bluegecko Larry, we are all glad to help out however we can. FWIW, I PM'd this guy telling him to get off his ass. He has not (yet) read my PM. If he reads it, I'll post it here to let you know. tony Jul 18, 2012 at 01:56 PM

omarlyn Offline • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #6 · Scammer alert, beware of member / seller bluegecko lmilhanjr wrote: Has anyone interacted with member ...? ...To add even further to my concern, another member contacted me through PM, telling me that he too purchased a Lens from "bluegecko", and hasn't heard back from him since sending the Paypal payment Thank you. Larry Hello there Larry...let me just say that I don't know anything about the seller in question...perhaps he's a scammer...perhaps he met an unfortunate/untimely doom...or perhaps he's just 'flakey' and is not very reliable to respond and ship. HOWEVER, let me also add that you purchased from a new member with only a handful of posts & no feedback! Now, that's NOT to say the seller is a 'scammer' because all of us had to start with zero posts & zero feedback at some point (you yourself have only one feedback and even less posts than the seller)...but you as the purchaser also have the responsibility to 'check-out' the seller and decide if you are 'comfortable' sending money to someone you don't know. I (as a general rule) will not buy (or even sell) to someone with such limited history here...but of course there are exceptions. If the amount in question is small enough...or if the buyer or seller has some other highly visible presense on the web that I can authenticate, then I might go ahead with a transaction...but as a general rule, I wouldn't purchase from either of you both and I would only sell items of low value until you have alot more history here. I try to take a look at BOTH a member's B&S feedback AND their forum posting history...sometimes a seller has limited posting history but has many, many B&S feedbacks (including selling high value items)...sometimes it's the reverse. In any case, you have to decide if your are comfortable with a potential seller (or buyer)...if not, move on, there will always be another oppurtunity down the road. Hopefully, the seller is just a little slow to respond but you'll get your item as promised. HTH & Good Luck, Omar Jul 18, 2012 at 02:52 PM

lmilhanjr Offline • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #7 · Scammer alert, beware of member / seller bluegecko Thanks for your comments. I couldn't agree more with you. I took a calculated risk since he had no feedback here. And I agree... maybe something unfortunate has happened to him, I will most definitely clear his name if/when I hear from him, and receive the Lens. Take care. Larry omarlyn wrote: lmilhanjr wrote: Has anyone interacted with member ...? ...To add even further to my concern, another member contacted me through PM, telling me that he too purchased a Lens from "bluegecko", and hasn't heard back from him since sending the Paypal payment Thank you. Larry Hello there Larry...let me just say that I don't know anything about the seller in question...perhaps he's a scammer...perhaps he met an unfortunate/untimely doom...or perhaps he's just 'flakey' and is not very reliable to respond and ship. HOWEVER, let me also add that you purchased from a new member with only a handful of posts & no feedback! Now, that's NOT to say the seller is a 'scammer' because all of us had to start with zero posts & zero feedback at some point (you yourself have only one feedback and even less posts than the seller)...but you as the purchaser also have the responsibility to 'check-out' the seller and decide if you are 'comfortable' sending money to someone you don't know. I (as a general rule) will not buy (or even sell) to someone with such limited history here...but of course there are exceptions. If the amount in question is small enough...or if the buyer or seller has some other highly visible presense on the web that I can authenticate, then I might go ahead with a transaction...but as a general rule, I wouldn't purchase from either of you both and I would only sell items of low value until you have alot more history here. I try to take a look at BOTH a member's B&S feedback AND their forum posting history...sometimes a seller has limited posting history but has many, many B&S feedbacks (including selling high value items)...sometimes it's the reverse. In any case, you have to decide if your are comfortable with a potential seller (or buyer)...if not, move on, there will always be another oppurtunity down the road. Hopefully, the seller is just a little slow to respond but you'll get your item as promised. HTH & Good Luck, Omar Jul 18, 2012 at 03:30 PM

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Fred Miranda Offline Admin Upload & Sell: On p.1 #8 · Scammer alert, beware of member / seller bluegecko I just got this info by PM. The seller's account is now banned. Please contact Paypal asap and file a claim. I will still try to contact this seller to investigate what happened. Fred Jul 18, 2012 at 03:41 PM

lmilhanjr Offline • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #9 · Scammer alert, beware of member / seller bluegecko Thank you very much. Fred Miranda wrote: I just got this info by PM. The seller's account is now banned. Please contact Paypal asap and file a claim. I will still try to contact this seller to investigate what happened. Fred Jul 18, 2012 at 04:58 PM

lmilhanjr Offline • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #10 · Scammer alert, beware of member / seller bluegecko Update: Well, it has been 11 days since I sent Paypal Payment to bluegecko, and I have not yet received the item I paid for in the mail, nor has bluegecko responded to the Paypal dispute I filed. So it looks like he road off into the sunset with my money. My only hope now is that Paypal does the right thing, and refunds my money. If not, then I suppose I will call my credit card company, and dispute the charge there... This isn't my first time to this internet buying transaction rodeo, I'll get my money back, it's just a big hassle to do so since Paypal drags their feet for so long when a dispute like this is filed. Although another member here was also scammed by bluegecko, it appears he has not come forward to report it to the community for some reason. But I assure you, I have been in contact with the other member who has been scammed (for even more money than I was scammed for), and he too is trying to figure out how to get his money back, especially since it appears he paid by a different means than Paypal. Oh well, lesson learned. I took a calculated $260 risk buying from a member here with no feedback. Of the several hundreds of purchases I have made through Paypal, someone eventually was bound to try to scam me. Things could always be worse - I can see in another scammer thread here at FM forums, where some other poor member may have been robbed or scammed out of $4,000+ dollars. Ouch. I will update this thread again once everything has been settled, and report what the outcome was. Jul 24, 2012 at 12:21 PM

Binh Ly Online • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #11 · Scammer alert, beware of member / seller bluegecko If you paid by credit card, Paypal will refund you. $260 for a lens that sells ~$300 on average from a no feedback seller who just joined less than a month ago. What did you think was gonna happen? Anyway, good luck! Jul 24, 2012 at 12:37 PM

anthonysemone Offline • • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #12 · Scammer alert, beware of member / seller bluegecko Did you ever get a real name for this guy? His PayPal address, hopefully a verified one? How was it listed when you used PayPal? I ask this because while his account was locked by Fred, if you were to post here that information, it would help perhaps keeping track of this turkey by looking for just newly established B&S accounts here, offering similar items at similar prices and, of course, with no feedback at all. Good luck in your efforts, and sure would be nice if the other guy who got scammed posted his info here: $4000, whew. tony Jul 24, 2012 at 02:12 PM

lmilhanjr Offline • Upload & Sell: Off p.1 #13 · Scammer alert, beware of member / seller bluegecko Although rare, this lens HAS sold for $260 (or less) here on the message boards, but to be fair, at that price they normally have faulty USMs. We've already determined (ad nauseum) that I took a calculated risk for buying from a seller with no feedback here, so shame on me. We are well beyond that point now. At this point I am keeping the community appraised of my situation, as a friendly warning and heads up. Thanks. Binh Ly wrote: If you paid by credit card, Paypal will refund you. $260 for a lens that sells ~$300 on average from a no feedback seller who just joined less than a month ago. What did you think was gonna happen? Anyway, good luck! Jul 24, 2012 at 02:20 PM

Mike1.6 Offline • • • Upload & Sell: On p.1 #14 · Scammer alert, beware of member / seller bluegecko Larry - We appreciate you giving yourself up like this so that others can benefit from your experience. Hopefully you can recover your money from your credit card company or PayPal. I'd like to add to Omar's suggestions by saying that I've purchased from new board members with zero feedback and little presence on the forums. In those cases, I've asked that the seller ship the item before receiving payment. If the seller isn't comfortable with that arrangement I usually don't buy. Sometimes I miss a bargain but I'm okay with that. Good luck. lmilhanjr wrote: Although rare, this lens HAS sold for $260 (or less) here on the message boards, but to be fair, at that price they normally have faulty USMs. We've already determined (ad nauseum) that I took a calculated risk for buying from a seller with no feedback here, so shame on me. We are well beyond that point now. At this point I am keeping the community appraised of my situation, as a friendly warning and heads up. Thanks. Binh Ly wrote: If you paid by credit card, Paypal will refund you. $260 for a lens that sells ~$300 on average from a no feedback seller who just joined less than a month ago. What did you think was gonna happen? Anyway, good luck! Jul 24, 2012 at 03:10 PM

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