Beware of FULLYWOUND - Kostas - Folkestone, UK

M'Bob

These two remind me of a film:

STANDY

Ok cats are used for a few things
1) not enough pictures may as well look at cats. Post a cat picture
2) thread has drifted way of topic, we will be talking about cats soon. Post a cat picture
3) Members are fighting. Post a cat picture

But there are rules
No cats to page 3 of said thread.
Albino wildlife, trumps cat pictures. (Search Albino wombats 😉)
Once a cat is posted there are no rules.

Steve9pm

I don’t understand this cat thing. I’ve seen a few people do it here and there. What does it mean?

V Vasigan

I really did not want to publicly talk about my nightmare experience with Kostas of Fullywound, but if I can prevent somebody else being conned by him then this is time well spent.

I sent numerous watches to Kostas to sell on my behalf. He gave a great spiel about his presence on eBay and his "fantastic record" of achieving high prices on eBay and on his website.

To shorten a very long story, I found out that his whole business model is based on selling his clients watches on eBay and his own website, deducting costs (most of the time without presenting any support information), and using the proceeds from sales for his own use and using a period of 30 working days from date of sale period to sell other watches to cover-up his fraud. A Ponzi scheme if you like but with luxury watches.

Everything unravelled for Kostas and Fullywound in March 2020 when sales slacked off a bit and he was exposed. When I requested that all my watches be returned to me and he knew the game was over, he attempted to sell my watches on eBay to support his elaborate Ponzi scheme. Unfortunately, there were two watches that he sold without my permission (he effectively stole these). The Rolex 5513 meters first he listed for auction on Ebay, and even though I sent messages to him and eBay to halt/stop the auction it went ahead and I was forced to bid on my own watch and won the auction. Kostas then proceeded to contact the runner-up bidder on eBay and sold it quickly to this individual before I could recover my watch. The other watch which was a white waffle dial Rolex OP he claims to have sold privately. If this matter ends up in the courts, I may have to try and legally recover the 5513 and waffle dial - meaning the buyers who unknowingly purchased stoled watches will be dragged into this unpleasant affair.

Kostas stopped taking calls and ignored all requests to return my watches. I was then forced to use a private investigator to attend to Kostas and recover my watches. Regarding outstanding payments - I sent Kostas a schedule of all the watches he sold and for which he did not transfer the nett sale proceeds. Kostas then issued an elementary school schedule of costs the majority of which were ridiculous as he wanted compensation for "lost sales commission and his time" for the watches which I had to recover to protect myself. As another example, straighforward service costs that were originally 150 pounds for a manual wind watch became 400 pounds, 400 pounds for a chronograph watch became 850 pounds. I requested backup information for all costs but these have of course not been forthcoming from Kostas.

He owes me a substantial amount of money and there is no indication that he will voluntarily be paying up. He sent me a watsapp message stating that he will pay me "when he feels like it" and when I stop asking him to pay-up overdue amounts.

Please guys - don't get conned by Kostas as he is really a despicable and unscrupulous individual.

STANDY

Albino wildlife, trumps cat pictures. (Search Albino wombats 😉)

Uniqez

Crazy story. Hopefully you'll be able to recover all your watches/funds. What makes it crazy, that these scammers are always underestimate how strong watch community is. Karma is a bitch too - he'll get what he deserves. Thanks for letting us know.

M'Bob

Friggin’ brilliant.

rob#1

Indeed.

Perhaps there could be a sticky thread where these types of warnings about unscrupulous dealers could be stored for future reference, along with links to threads outing some of OF’s more colourfully dodgy characters from over the years...

rob#1

Indeed.

Perhaps there could be a sticky thread where these types of warnings about unscrupulous dealers could be stored for future reference, along with links to threads outing some of OF’s more colourfully dodgy characters from over the years...

efauser

Don't need a sticky. There's already a thread for Seller Profiles and Reviews in the sales section. That's where this belonged.