Community Stories

So... I Got Scammed

StudebakerHawk
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janice&fred janice&fred
Reminds me of the late-great Steve Mulholland. People worshipped the ground he walked on. Janice and I met up with him at a cafe in Beverly Hills one afternoon when he was out there for "business". She and him were chatting about body art and when I spotted the swastika tatt I knew it was only a matter of time.
I'm lost.... I even googled Steve Mulholland.... still no clue...

He isn't Hindi?
 
Shabbaz
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I was recently also scammed. I renovated my house and I paid EUR 8,400 for a glass front. It was then never delivered. I never heard from the seller again. Eventually had all his accounts seized. But there was no money in it. In short, no glass and money gone. But we are still in good health. : )

Good luck! And keep the faith in mankind! Most people are good. I hope. 😉
 
Duracuir1
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StudebakerHawk StudebakerHawk
I'm lost.... I even googled Steve Mulholland.... still no clue...

He isn't Hindi?
Same here but gave @janice&fred a like because of all the things they have done all over the World. The name may be off a bit. Maybe Fred is a gifted prankster with this one. I may have to declare that “I just got scammed”.
 
RevZMan123
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janice&fred janice&fred
Reminds me of the late-great Steve Mulholland. People worshipped the ground he walked on. Janice and I met up with him at a cafe in Beverly Hills one afternoon when he was out there for "business". She and him were chatting about body art and when I spotted the swastika tatt I knew it was only a matter of time.

I hadn't heard about this SM situation and spent like an hour down the rabbithole. thanks!
 
janice&fred
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Steve was the darling of TRF and for a while VRF until everything went pear-shaped.
 
StudebakerHawk
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janice&fred janice&fred
Steve was the darling of TRF and for a while VRF until everything went pear-shaped.
Virtual Routing and Forwarding?

Im even more lost...
 
Bill Sohne
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Hi everyone.....

Crazy stuff all the time going on....

someone just sent a payment request to me via paypal....

see below.... nice.. I went to another computer to log in directly to PP and saw the same money request so they did an actual request but added the note from Carolyn " We have ....." DONT call the number in the message !

I then canceled the request.

I know it was off topic but just saw this and could not help myself.

Stay Safe
Bill


Screen Shot 2022-11-30 at 11.59.06 AM.png
 
Transitus
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Vintage Rolex Forum? I guess it's big news in a small world sort of thing.
 
janice&fred
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Transitus Transitus
Vintage Rolex Forum? I guess it's big news in a small world sort of thing.

It was huge stuff throughout the watch world when it went down. Maybe vintage Rolexes is small potatoes to you, or you're new to the hobby. VRF is where the big boys and girls played, IF you were approved as a member.
 
nqtri
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Thank you all. In hindsight, it's writings on the wall all over. Here are the two of the red flags my gut was telling me:

1/ There is another account from Indonesia called @jawatch_retro (https://www.instagram.com/jawatch_retro/) that I've actually been following but recently just realized that it is also a scam account as the account reposted watches from a known dealer in Vietnam. Funny thing is, they use the same DHL + customers' feedback chat screenshots as @times.curator.

This is where I should have pulled the plug. I actually asked @times.curator about this and they claimed they don't know the account and they're aware of the same screenshots. Why did I take their words for it? I honestly had no idea. I guess the fact that I knew @jawatch_retro is a scam account that reposts other people's photos made me think that they also did the same to @times.curator. Now, I honestly believe they are the same people. Sigh!

Screen Shot 2022-11-30 at 12.28.13 PM.png


2/ Secondly, the first bank account they gave me for the Wise transfer was actually not allowed by Wise. Here, I actually wish Wise was more clear on the reasons they don't allow a certain account but from what I read, they can't for private reasons. Some Googling only leads me to believe that is because certain banks don't support Wise. Fair enough! But now, I think it is because some other victims reported this account before and Wise blocked it.

Screen Shot 2022-11-28 at 11.00.03 AM.png



I should have called it off. I was naive and did not. Oh well, now I know.
 
Albe100
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"After some back and forth I wired $500 through Wise to his account. I had to admit that there were some red flags that raised my suspicion but again, I was too excited about my second vintage Omega so I still proceeded. Everything looked good, they even notified me they got the money and asked for my shipping info and said the watch would be shipped the next day."

Reported, sorry to hear you were scammed. Luckily the damage wasn't too high as you say. Thanks for sharing this with us.
 
nqtri
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watchlovr watchlovr
Nothing posted above proves to me that you’ve been scammed. There could be several reasons you can’t view the IG account. Not enough information.
What sort of time period are we talking about?
Were you given shipping details?
You must have contact details through Wise?
GuiltunderGlass GuiltunderGlass
I can still see the account as well. They have almost 9K followers, but almost zero engagement on posts...
Would be curious for timeline and details of the transaction as well.
If you were scammed, $500 is definitely on the lower end of the spectrum, I've had more expensive lessons learned, if that is any consolation.

It's been dead silent from them with no shipping details whatsoever. I also texted the number associated to the bank account, yet nothing came back.

I think the way it works is that after the scam, they block the victims so no victims can voice it out and continue business as normal. They even update the posts to SOLD and mark the destination those watches are going to like a real deals to fool others. Should have noticed zero comments on their posts. I'm pretty sure any comments that call them out are deleted.
 
BlackTalon
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any way you can reach out to their bank?
 
Kev161
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janice&fred janice&fred
Gee you think? 😁
Yeah, I see what you did there 😉
but FR a page with almost 9k followers and not a single comment on their posts looks suspicious.
 
rspace
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The first thing i look for on an instagram dealer's page is how many seasoned collectors that i am following are following, liking and commenting on his/her posts. Not foolproof but i think its has worked for me so far. Sorry to hear about your loss. But i think that lesson is worth $500 😀
 
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