Just wanted to add my $.02, FWIW! There are no hard and fast rules for success with these type of transactions. For ex. I just bought a Canon 300 F4 non-IS (didn't know there was such an animal until I questioned the seller as to why it wasn't mentioned) on eBay. I ALWAYS send the seller a question about anything, hopefully to get a dialog going. I don't like one word answers. Makes me nervous. Turns out this guy was a pro photographer with a web site. That made me feel a little better. Traded a few emails, scratched my head for a few days (did I NEED IS?) and decided to go through with it by using his Buy-it-Now price. Paid for it with a CC through PayPal, the lens showed up a couple days later from UPS and it was clean as a whistle and I was a happy camper! Oh, did I mention that this seller had a feedback rating of ZERO (0)! Yep, I was his first customer. That bothered me a little bit. But it reminds me of when I was a kid and I used to hear "don't you go in that water until you learn to swim!" Somebody's gotta be the first! But do your homework, and then at some point, hold your nose, jump in, and hope for the best.
Gene
Jul 03, 2003 at 11:45 AM
Roger Whitehead Offline • • • • • Upload & Sell: Off
Fred, I would like to also say that taking this board down would be a shame. I have purchased a BG-ED3 and a Angle Finder C from this board. Both without a hitch. To take it down because of one fools misuse of trust to steal from a Forum member is the wrong action to take. The disclaimer is sufficient action on your part. The fact that you have an IP address for the thief could be very helpful in tracking that creep down. Thanks for taking the time to listen to my viewpoint.
Fred please son't terminate the buy/sell board. I am not a frequent poster but I do find the buy/sell valuable. I am looking for some used equipment to buy and I may want to sell some. This forum has an excellent reputation and I would feel comfortable selling or buying here- after asking other members for their opinions of course.
Thanks for a great site.
I think it is unfortunate that some people are so dishonest. However, it is not the board operator who is responsible. He is providing a free service for which most of the time goes off without a hitch. Fred has suggested that folks be careful of who they deal with. He is not responsible and I think removing this board would be a mistake.
I'm sorry to hear of your troubles with this guy. For what it's worth, I've bought quite a few things using eBay (or Photo.net) and have always asked for references (name, address, phone number and workplace contact info) before paying up large amounts. People have always supplied me the info and I usually call the workplace before sending my money. No problems, so far...
Fred, I hope you don't remove the buy & sell board. One bad apple should not be able to kill the spirit of an area I know many of us enjoy looking at. Maybe a sticky note at the top just warning everyone they are on their own and use good judgement would be sufficient?
Hello,
I am one of the people that got scammed by "Tony Bacon". I am asking for help to find ways to track this person down. Any info would be great on how to go about finding this crook. Please email me at [email protected]. Thanks for your time.
Jacob Bongiovanni
P.S.
If anyone feels bad about what happened and would like to donate any money or old equipment for the parties that were scammed, please email me. Any help, even a buck or two would be appriated.
Creator
It was a side note. Someone on the other post mention it. I am a college student and am trying to get into photography. I was just posting an idea because it would be nice, not neccessary. I do not blame anyone for this. I have tons of proof that this "Tony Bacon" scammed me. I am not the only person, there were two other that got scammed as well. I just hope that I can get this guy.
Jacob Bongiovanni
Since joining here I have bought and sold in the proximity of $10,000 on this board. Never a bad experience (3 tripods, flash brackets, 550EX, 300/4 IS, 300/2.8 IS 85/1.2...etc..).
Over 400 eBay transactions and ONE big $6,000 rip-off. Did it hurt ? Yes. Was I mad ? Extremely. Did I catch the guy ? Yes....he declared bancrupt and that was the end. eBay nor PayPal have ever offered real protection. Just try to talk to someone there.
In comparison, this board has a lot more intrinsic references. Look at past posts, get an idea of the level of knowledge, ask what other members have bought or sold.
eBay references don't mean a whole lot either. My identity has been hacked, and using my impeccable 300+ feedback, over $30,000 of merchandise was sold before eBay even agreed to lock my account.
Fraud is there and constitutes only a small percentage of all transactions. Unfortunately, getting burned hurts. One bad experience should not halt a good thing. For any item over $500 I send no payment untill I have a verifiable name, address, and phone number (yellow pages). But again, as I experienced, even that will not stop a crook.
With sympathy,
This is a good resource...I hope it stays!
You need to pay by credit card & they will help retrieve your funds. I am in the middle of one right now....cc refunded the money but seller still claims he sent the camera...he has no proof that it was received! I saved all emails and sent them to the cc company(it is good proof!). I think the cc comp is on my side!
Good luck finding the scam artist!
I have been a menber of this forum for quite awhile and have bought and sold several items here. It is an invaluable resource that I don't want to lose, BUT using the number of posts as an indicator can also be misleading. Due to log in problems that I still haven't figured out, I had to ask Fred to delete my profile and start again, thus, I only show a few posts when I have actually made many.
Please don't discount a potential seller only because of the number of posts his statistics show.
Fred and Friends........If you have recieved email correspondence from this thief, you can track him down via the header, and contacting the ISP will begin action in tracking him down.......Fred, you might also be able to retrieve his IP Address and then a trace can be put on him.....I had someone do a different matter but thought he couldn't get caught because he used Hotmail well to his surprise the DA showed up at his door and this was through a board simular to this but on another topic........If you need more assistance contact me at [email protected] will gladly help............Walt
When I had my internet store, (sold collectibles and display cases) someone was scamming credit card numbers. To my surprise the FBI was very much interested in finding these guys.
You can go to their website http://www1.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp and report a scam. Give it a go, you never know, they may already have a file on him.
