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Probably the most stupid question of the year (just before year-end)....

Faz
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Kargol Kargol
Posting vintage is OK. Don’t post your brand new expensive watch though.. it’s happened in the past scammers using photos and serials and then disappearing with wired money transfers. The original owners had to prove that the watch was theirs when they brought the watch for service...
Ok...so proving the watch is legitimately yours shouldn't be a problem no? A quick check with a dealer or service center prior to service will tell you if for some odd reason, some scammer hijacked your serial number.
Edited:
 
Faz
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My rule. The first red flag of any watch transaction, is a request to wire cash. Not that this is a deal breaker, most of my dealings, buy and sell, involved a wire transfer, you just need to do very meticulous homework before sending money into a dark hole from which it will never come back.

I still wonder, why would anybody wire money without making all the verifications of credentials of the seller. Check the pictures, call references, google addresses and phone numbers. Never wire money to anybody you don't know or hasn't been vetted by somebody you trust 100%. If you can't do that, don't wire any $$$. Blacking out a serial number won't change anything.
 
Kargol
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Faz Faz
Ok...so proving the watch is legitimately yours shouldn't be a problem no? A quick check with a dealer or service center prior to service will tell you if for some odd reason, some scammer hijacked your serial number.
The serial number of the watch that the scammer used was declared to the police for scam. The police will immediately inform the ADs of this serial number. As soon as someone goes to Rolex for example for service with this watch they would have to prove to Rolex and the police that they are not the scammers. And they will be asked for official invoice and others proofs... I think this is a very serious topic and should be addressed carefully.
 
Faz
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Easy to prove if you check before no? If the watch is yours and you bought it legitimately, you have the bona fides.
 
eugeneandresson
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I would rather spend the 15s it takes to blur the last few digits out, per pic (in a set describing a watch), then waste minutes/hours worth of my (or the new owners) time and negative energy of having to deal with any form of scammer BS. ‘Prevention is better than cure’ to flog the cliche.
 
Archer
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For the most part, people do it because they see others dong it. The rest is irrational fear of the serial number boogeyman coming to get their watches.
 
STANDY
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Kargol Kargol
The police will immediately inform the ADs of this serial number.

So which ADs everyone in the world. What about Boutiques.

This doesn’t happen, maybe in the movies or on the internet but not in real life
 
janice&fred
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Archer Archer
For the most part, people do it because they see others dong it. The rest is irrational fear of the serial number boogeyman coming to get their watches.

the whole notion of a scammer glomming a serial number posted in an online forum or sales site and successfully convincing someone the watch is in fact theirs rather than the legitimate owner is beyond far fetched. once one posts pics of a watch serial number online it is in fact a time stamp that would precede anything the scammer could come up with to challenge ownership. whatever the scammer could come up with could easily be proven false. he has no predated evidence of the watch being his.
 
Mac5
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Watch protection program......
sparviero400_home.jpg
 
Kargol
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STANDY STANDY
So which ADs everyone in the world. What about Boutiques.

This doesn’t happen, maybe in the movies or on the internet but not in real life
I am not taking about simple watches man. If a watch worth 10000 or more is stolen, and especially if it is insured, then of course the specific serial number is stored in a kind of database of declared luxury items
and may be easily retrieved
 
Archer
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Kargol Kargol
I am not taking about simple watches man. If a watch worth 10000 or more is stolen, and especially if it is insured, then of course the specific serial number is stored in a kind of database of declared luxury items
and may be easily retrieved

Who’s database?
 
Dan S
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Kargol Kargol
I am not taking about simple watches man. If a watch worth 10000 or more is stolen, and especially if it is insured, then of course the specific serial number is stored in a kind of database of declared luxury items
and may be easily retrieved

😕

Any watch worth more than 10k? I've never heard of this in general, although I have heard of a database for stolen Rolex watches. My sense is that it is maintained by a third party.

I wonder if this is a generational thing, where young people just assume that all data are globally stored and available.
 
STANDY
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Archer Archer
Who’s database?

That cloud thing maybe

You get all these police alerts being a watchmaker don't you Al 😉
 
STANDY
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Kargol Kargol
I am not taking about simple watches man. If a watch worth 10000 or more is stolen, and especially if it is insured, then of course the specific serial number is stored in a kind of database of declared luxury items
and may be easily retrieved

So under $10K it's a simple watch. 🤦

🍿
 
Kargol
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I am not a native English speaker, so maybe I should not bother replying and not being completely understood . Of course everything under 10 k is not simple. I don’t mean that . And yes , there IS a Rolex database, and of course there is also an Omega database.

Anyway... I am trying to just give some comments for discussion and all I get is irony.l from some of you . thank you people
Edited:
 
mr_smith
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Kargol Kargol
I am not a native English speaker, so maybe I should not bother replying and not being completely understood . Of course everything under 10 k is not simple. I don’t mean that . And yes , there IS a Rolex database, and of course there is also an Omega database.

Anyway... I am trying to just give some comments for discussion and all I get is irony.l from some of you . thank you people

I'm glad you posted, and I think those responding are just trying to fully understand your point of view and questions. You're asking a question (re covering the S/N) I've wondered about too and some of the replies have made me rethink my stance on it. What IS really to stop a scammer from posting the same covered S/N photo? How would it be any different than a full S/N photo? And the lengths they might go to... a scammer asking the actual seller for a photo of a set-time, only to be passed on to the person being scammed. Never thought of that (and no, I don't mean I'll use that scam myself, haha! I'll poke fun at my own wording 😀). I've seen this topic come up a few times but I'm glad for the discussion!
 
eugeneandresson
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mr_smith mr_smith
What IS really to stop a scammer from posting the same covered S/N photo?

Nothing.

mr_smith mr_smith
How would it be any different than a full S/N photo?

He would have incomplete information, that he would not be able to provide (which could expose the scam), or that he could use in ways that we are not 'clever' enough (in a bad way) to figure out yet. People who have lived their cushy lives in the safe first world may claim this to be 'paranoia', but ignorance is bliss when your biggest life problems are e.g. squirrels or watches.

mr_smith mr_smith
And the lengths they might go to...

Bingo. From some decades living in a corrupt society (being a victim annually, and sometimes more), the levels of creativity that people go to to do bad things (like steal, embezzle and deceive) is beyond imagination and when one learns of the mechanisms thought out, it is simply breathtaking (and what I can't fathom is why these people can't tap that same level of creativity to do good or clever things, I guess cos there is no monetary gain for them in it, but don't want to derail the thread). Its no different with valuable watches. Wherever there is money, there is greed, and nefarious intent.

To me it boils down to this: no matter what anybody here says, or how many likes their opinion gets, it is your property, you do as you please and see fit. To that end : the thing this thread has made me realize, is, I having been doing it wrong all along. From now on, this is how I do it :

IMG_0264.jpg


😀
 
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