What a story! Glad there was a satisfactory ending after probably a huge amount of stress and sleepless nights. I've been watching these scammers and fakers pop up for some time now..hotspots that I'm personally mega wary of: Ukraine, Poland, Chile, Peru, Argentina. Hotspots where redialing and Frankens seem to prevail: Hong Kong, S Korea, India. I'm not saying all who operate in these countries are dodgy, but you gotta be prepared. I bought a 30T2 movement from Buenos Aires last month and am very happy with it.... Even with PayPal , credit cards etc, you should only risk what you can afford to lose...I sweated buckets last spring over a "mere" 1200 UK pounds purchase as it was the first time I'd ever paypalled so much. I'm not sure I would do it so quickly again even though the transaction was smooth and the item was exactly as described......
If you're going spend that kind of high, best to buy from within the forum I'd say...you might not get the mega cheapest deal (as sadly everyone knows the market value 😀 ) but you will get what you paid for and anyone trying to be economic with the truth will feel the full force of the forum upon them very quickly.
