p.5 #1 · Canada Bank Transfer (EMT) Scam. Warning!
james2441139 wrote:
Scary stuff. I am a newbie here, registered couple months ago. The first transaction I did was with PayPal gift because it was well over $1,000 and PayPal fee would have cost a hefty much. I trusted the person and sent him PayPal gift because he had quite a number reviews, all "great". I recieived the system is very good condition, so all good. But if somebody hacks into a reputable FMer's account and uses his ID to fraud, how can the tracking system be trusted anymore?
I hope Fred is working on a good verification system.
What you can do is ask for a name and phone number. Later, ask for the PayPal email, and then when sending via PayPal, before the confirm button (after you enter in the email), confirm that it's the same name. Various methods to trip scammers if you're really diligent and careful. Or say that you'll only ship to their PayPal verified address (some people ship to relatives nearby [I do]). In the case that it is requested to be shipped elsewhere, request that the buyer have other sellers (who have posted in his feedback already) confirm the buyer's cell # and alternate address.
Can also check area code of provided number against their address. Best to pay via payment and not via gift function, unless it's an amount you don't mind risking.
Just be very diligent. Of course, someone could always just put the right weight of rocks in a box, or a scammer can be very detail-oriented, but the more cautious you are, the more likely the scammer will make a mistake and/or leave you alone because they sense that you're meticulous. It's worked so far for me.
p.5 #2 · Canada Bank Transfer (EMT) Scam. Warning!
kwokfusing wrote:
RCMP rejected to help as they see this as a 'civil disagreement/dishonouring' or something, whatever. they rejected to do further investigation. in other words, they are useless
i can go through a lawyer and through small claim court to get my money back, i guess, but that will cost me more than what i have lost, am i correct? i have lost $2700 here my friend...
you can fight this without hiring a lawyer actually with small claim court
p.5 #3 · Canada Bank Transfer (EMT) Scam. Warning!
snapsy wrote:
My biggest fear is what appears to have transpired in this transaction - a well-established FM member with 40+ feedback either went rogue or had his account hijacked. The latter is the scariest because it compromises the integrity and usefulness of the feedback system. To combat this it would be useful to have some type of verification system to confirm the original FM'er is in possession of his own account. Not sure what the implementation would look like but I'm thinking along the lines of how gmail detects suspicious account logins and uses a secondary means to verify the account holder, such as a text message with verification code to the registered phone number....Show more →
This could be done with "device registration" where if the site does not recognize your IP addr as being used used/registered it will prompt you to register that device by entering a security code that would be emailed to your email on file
p.5 #5 · Canada Bank Transfer (EMT) Scam. Warning!
james2441139 wrote:
Scary stuff. I am a newbie here, registered couple months ago. The first transaction I did was with PayPal gift because it was well over $1,000 and PayPal fee would have cost a hefty much. I trusted the person and sent him PayPal gift because he had quite a number reviews, all "great". I recieived the system is very good condition, so all good. But if somebody hacks into a reputable FMer's account and uses his ID to fraud, how can the tracking system be trusted anymore?
I hope Fred is working on a good verification system.
Just add the 3% onto the total. You are still paying it via gift as a fee. Also, request they send you an invoice. The more paper chain you have the better if something goes wrong.
p.5 #7 · Canada Bank Transfer (EMT) Scam. Warning!
That's too bad that EMT is being abused by sellers. I've found it to be a much easier and cheaper way to transfer money, also saves a lot for the buyer and/or seller. I've never had any issues in 100's of transactions on eBay, FM, etc.
Guess I'll switch to only taking/sending paypal payments for online sales.
p.5 #8 · Canada Bank Transfer (EMT) Scam. Warning!
Asimo wrote:
unless that person has no income, no assets ,
You obviously have not tried to collect a judgement from a BC building contractor. I will even quote what a Small Claims Court judge said to me: "Congratulations on winning your case. Good luck collecting your money."
That was a strata case against a very well-known contractor and the money was never collected.
p.5 #9 · Canada Bank Transfer (EMT) Scam. Warning!
seriously what is up with our canadian friend lately. I just ran into one today. Below are the pm that he tried to convince me to use paypal gift.
I am not in the US but in Canada so shipping is about tripple lol.
as for paypal gift, if you pay me with personal paypal might not protect but you always have the protection of your creditcard , paypals protection is not very good to begin with I read up alot and alot of the times at worse cases you end up doing a creditcard charge back anyways and let the credit company deal with paypal so the personal/gift is unfair to say you dont have protection because you still have the stronger protection out of both of us which is your creditcard card
hope you understand also just to mention that new paypal policy actually holds the payment until the item is shipped and I really dont want to ship an item before having the funds available to me because that way I dont have any protection if I was to ship an item before I actually have the payment in full ready so thats another good reason id like a paypal gift plus it saves alot of fee's and like I said you still have the full protection of your credit card...Show more →
p.5 #10 · Canada Bank Transfer (EMT) Scam. Warning!
Bubble wrote:
seriously what is up with our canadian friend lately. I just ran into one today. Below are the pm that he tried to convince me to use paypal gift.
brand new member just joint the forum.
When this happens, shoot me a PM right away so I can investigate and take the appropriate action.
Fred
p.5 #11 · Canada Bank Transfer (EMT) Scam. Warning!
Imagemaster wrote: You obviously have not tried to collect a judgement from a BC building contractor. I will even quote what a Small Claims Court judge said to me: "Congratulations on winning your case. Good luck collecting your money."
That was a strata case against a very well-known contractor and the money was never collected.
I have done that also with a commercial lease tenant , but was able to get my money back . stupid law, you can't force someone to pay you haha
p.5 #12 · Canada Bank Transfer (EMT) Scam. Warning!
diamondroad wrote:
Well, I'm out the $1400. The local police here said "we'll do what we can, but it's VERY unlikely you'll get your money back" and my brother is a cop.
That being said, I'd like to thank Fred Miranda for all his help. The second I brought this to his attention he put a lock on Mikeitis account. Fred Miranda did nothing wrong...I DID. I was the fool who believed this guy. I had never bought anything off this site before, when I asked Mikeitis how we go about buying stuff off this site he said "just use e-transfer" at which point I said I never heard of it and he assured me that it was secure. The only reason I agreed to this was because the fucker had a 39 positive feedback so I thought he was being honest and a good person to buy from.
Now, looks like I'll have to save up another $1400 to buy the lens again. I just don't know if I can trust this site anymore which is sad because "professional photographers" seem to take better care of their equipment than ebay user do. I'll likely end up spending an extra few hundred dollars and buying from Amazon.
Again, I want to thank Fred Miranda for all this help. The night this happened I must have sent him a dozen emails and he quickly replied to them all.
Off to set up a charity for the idiot Canadian who basically emailed a complete stranger $1400. What the f-ck was I thinking? I was just that excited over a stupid lens.
I am Canadian and very surprise our RCMP / local police didn't take the case. I was a victim in 2008 and lose $830 wire transfer to scammer in USA. Total 12+ people got scam at that time by the same person. Thank you to Nikonian.org website moderator bring the case to the state police. We was lucky that New York State Police took the case and caught the scammer and put him in jail for 6 months. They sold his house to pay back our money. This is the last email I received from the Probation Officer.
"
Mr. XXXX,
Mr. ZZZZ was sentenced on 9/16/08 to 6 months in jail and 5 years probation supervision, including the full payment of restitution to all his victims. He was ordered to pay you $830.00. I was informed today that his home was sold and you should be receiving your restitution payment shortly. Any further questions please feel free to email or call me at 845-xxx-xxx.
XXXXX
Probation Officer
Dutchess County Probation, New York
"
Probation Officer called me 2 more times to re-assured me that they could recovered my money. I received my money two months after the last email.
p.5 #13 · Canada Bank Transfer (EMT) Scam. Warning!
This is a bit misleading. When you talk of a 'bank transfer' are you talking about a wire transfer or Interac E-Mail Money transfer.
Interac Email Money Transfer can only be done between CANADIAN banks, and yes, it's uninsured, but a very quick, easy and fee-less payment method, very popular here in Canada.
I have used this method when dealing with most of my fellow Canadians, and have not had issues. You should be carefuy when the seller is a newbie with no feedback, but someone with lots of feedback, I would not worry about. Again, I'm referring to Interac Email Money transfer between a buyer and seller, both in Canada.
p.5 #14 · Canada Bank Transfer (EMT) Scam. Warning!
keithf wrote:
Sound like our police are really useless.
They are. I similarly lost about 800 dollars by buying something on kijiji from another city (yes I was that stupid)...Used interac money transfer... the police aren't going to do anything about that...
p.5 #15 · Canada Bank Transfer (EMT) Scam. Warning!
Bubble wrote:
seriously what is up with our canadian friend lately. I just ran into one today. Below are the pm that he tried to convince me to use paypal gift.
brand new member just joint the forum.
This is a very good example of scam. They know that for a gift payment everyone use a bank account instead of Credit Card. Because when you use CC for a gift payment there is still 2.9% charge.
Again, Fred has absolutely right use a secure way of payment if you are not sure about the seller... 2.9% isn't that much compare to thousand of dollars. I went through lots of PayPal cases as a buyer and regular paypal in 100% cases gave me my money back. No question ask !!!!! Be smart and you will not be a victim. Use PP gift, bank transfers, checks, wire transfer or any other unsecured way of payment ONLY if you are able to verify the seller, otherwise you take a risk. Also many Credit Cards gives you 1% cash back, so you really pay 1.9% extra.... for this 1.9% you are getting piece of mind and also you'r getting protection against item not as described. Think about it.
p.5 #16 · Canada Bank Transfer (EMT) Scam. Warning!
najibs wrote:
This is a bit misleading. When you talk of a 'bank transfer' are you talking about a wire transfer or Interac E-Mail Money transfer.
Interac Email Money Transfer can only be done between CANADIAN banks, and yes, it's uninsured, but a very quick, easy and fee-less payment method, very popular here in Canada.
I have used this method when dealing with most of my fellow Canadians, and have not had issues. You should be carefuy when the seller is a newbie with no feedback, but someone with lots of feedback, I would not worry about. Again, I'm referring to Interac Email Money transfer between a buyer and seller, both in Canada.
najibs, apparently the issue is that you don't know who's behind the account now
scammers can hack into accounts with lots of feedback to scam people. this happened a lot lately here on FM
you should watch out my friend...
p.5 #18 · Canada Bank Transfer (EMT) Scam. Warning!
Asimo wrote:
you can fight this without hiring a lawyer actually with small claim court
my apology, it was Vancouver Police that i called, not RCMP. same difference
their advice was to contact a lawyer to sue the dude
small claim court will rule i win, probably, but whether the other party will pay or not is another story. small claim court has no control over that. this i consulted with local notaries
p.5 #19 · Canada Bank Transfer (EMT) Scam. Warning!
No system is "game proof" to hackers/con artists and you're just a likely to be gamed by someone in the next county/province as from someone 3000 miles away. Closer MAY make it easier to collect., but that's often a false confidence. Just take precautions:
- Don't reply to emails re: pswd changes, etc.
- You get such an email - report it.
- Change your pswd periodically.
- Keep an eye on your own posts (posts made using your username)
- Trust but verify as they say re: buyer/seller is who they say they are
- No payment system is perfect, but at least use one that gives you some hope of recourse should it go pear-shaped.
- If you're gut instinct starts to get ticklish, pull the plug - but don't be a paranoid ****** - they're horrible to deal with.
p.5 #20 · Canada Bank Transfer (EMT) Scam. Warning!
I agree with many of you that no system is foolproof. Everywhere you have B&S deals, you'll eventually have issue like this. But, personally, I think people are generally good and FM is the best place to find those people. You can't expect FM to be absolutely perfect with no issue whatsoever.
But, still, every time I make a deal, I always make sure whom I'm dealing with. And I'm pretty good on researching the other party. In the process, to me, there are always clues that give away potential scam.
On the other hand, the best sign that assures the other party is not a scammer is if they're worried that you'll scam them. I believe I have a really good feedback here, but some people are still worried, especially new members. And I feel that's a good thing and I don't feel offended by it.
And I agree about Paypal. I think it kinda give some false sense of security to some degree. I've heard bad stories for both sellers and buyers. So, the best way to make a deal is to know the other party--check who they are, where they live, where they work, get their number and so on. That has been working for me so far.
You obviously have not tried to collect a judgement from a BC building contractor. I will even quote what a Small Claims Court judge said to me: "Congratulations on winning your case. Good luck collecting your money."