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  #21  
Old 21-01-2016, 03:37 PM
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MortonH
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hotspur View Post
Sad to read Morton,I hope you get the money back.

Always a difficult time in a situation like this,did you speak with the seller
of the item over the phone at all? I always seem to end up talking on the phone when buying an expensive item second hand like a scope/rifle/camera gear,I can generally pick up on whether the seller has a good knowledge on the item being sold,and if he has had dealings in other ways with other people in the same field and so on-like if they have been to such and such star party or got something mounted at this or that taxidermist,if something seems a miss,I'll pass but never had that issue when directly talking with the person.The only time I ever made the mistake was not having any contact on the phone when buying an item I got the run-around

Best wishes to you Morton.

Yeah, I should have gotten their phone number and insisted on talking to them. I read their profile and their posts and they seemed to know about astronomy. Using Paypal seemed like a "guarantee". Duh.

Now of course I can imagine that they just Googled the topic, found an suitable comment that had been posted elsewhere and basically copied it here, perhaps with a slight change of wording.
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  #22  
Old 21-01-2016, 04:59 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dimithri86 View Post
I was under the impression paypal held the money till the receiver confirmed they got the product.

Paypal will freeze the seller's account when a dispute is raised, but in this case the money would have been withdrawn before I did that.
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  #23  
Old 21-01-2016, 05:28 PM
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So sorry for you Morton.
The real loss to be avoided is the constant dwelling upon the event. It takes so much out of our enjoyement of the day.
Vent it here and then bury it.
All the best alex
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  #24  
Old 21-01-2016, 05:33 PM
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Originally Posted by xelasnave View Post
The real loss to be avoided is the constant dwelling upon the event. It takes so much out of our enjoyement of the day.
Or in this case it takes so much out of our enjoyment of the night

Feeling fairly philosophical about it at the moment. After all, who needs a Tak, really?
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  #25  
Old 21-01-2016, 06:02 PM
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You will get another.
Hang in there.
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  #26  
Old 21-01-2016, 10:07 PM
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csb (Craig)
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Saddened to hear people in our community getting ripped off.

Thanks for letting us know the details. Also some good tips posted.
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  #27  
Old 22-01-2016, 06:41 AM
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Pinwheel (Doug)
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Not that this helps now, But when ever I deal with unknowns on the net I Google their names, id's, phone numbers & email addresses. If their a scammer & have a past history it pops up real fast.
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  #28  
Old 22-01-2016, 07:04 AM
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The Cops should find that thief & put him in jail.

The whole story is outrageous.
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  #29  
Old 22-01-2016, 08:24 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Pinwheel View Post
Not that this helps now, But when ever I deal with unknowns on the net I Google their names, id's, phone numbers & email addresses. If their a scammer & have a past history it pops up real fast.

I did that before paying. Nothing came up.
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  #30  
Old 22-01-2016, 08:57 AM
ariefm71 (Arief)
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Really sorry to hear about this Morton...
I don't know if the IIS website administrator keeps the log of IP addresses of people accessing this site. It can be used to track down this scumbag.
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  #31  
Old 22-01-2016, 09:30 AM
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Really upset that iis is susceptible to scam.
I remember when you sold me a canon (which I still use) it was my first Internet purchase and I was tentative at best.
Of course I was delighted to receive a beaut new camera as advertised. ..
Thanks xox jenny
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  #32  
Old 22-01-2016, 09:37 AM
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I've had a few PMs from other members saying they've had suspicious approaches recently. Perhaps IIS is being targeted at the moment.

Suggest everyone is extra careful about buying or selling.
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  #33  
Old 22-01-2016, 09:46 AM
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RB (Andrew)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ariefm71 View Post
Really sorry to hear about this Morton...
I don't know if the IIS website administrator keeps the log of IP addresses of people accessing this site. It can be used to track down this scumbag.
They've been banned.
Please be aware though that scammers do try and join constantly.
There isn't a week that goes by that we don't ban numerous suspect new members before they're even allowed to post.
I also check suspect posts all the time and ban anyone that looks sus immediately.

Just a warning to all, there is the odd one that gets through.
If you suspect anything PLEASE report it to us immediately using the little Red Cross on the top of that post or send me, Al or Mike a PM with your concerns.
We will immediately investigate.
Even though we do our very best to get them before they join or post their first post, some still evade us so be on your guard and if a deal or offer sounds too good to be true, well you know..

RB
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  #34  
Old 22-01-2016, 09:50 AM
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Originally Posted by MortonH View Post
Perhaps IIS is being targeted at the moment.

Suggest everyone is extra careful about buying or selling.
Just on that note guys, IIS is no different to any other forum.
There's always a constant attempt by spammers to join up.
We usually get them immediately.
You would be surprised at the amount of bans we hand out on a weekly basis.

There are times though that they don't look like spammers, can't help that.

I know we don't always look like we're there but we're constantly checking everything in the background and for me personally, I use invisible mode all the time so that spammers don't know I'm online.

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  #35  
Old 22-01-2016, 10:07 AM
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All forum software have the abililty to track and report IP addresses. Maybe Mike should consider an option to list the IP address of someone who PM's you. This would at least give you a location, unless they use VPN.
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  #36  
Old 22-01-2016, 11:50 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RB View Post
Just on that note guys, IIS is no different to any other forum.
There's always a constant attempt by spammers to join up.
We usually get them immediately.
You would be surprised at the amount of bans we hand out on a weekly basis.

There are times though that they don't look like spammers, can't help that.

I know we don't always look like we're there but we're constantly checking everything in the background and for me personally, I use invisible mode all the time so that spammers don't know I'm online.


That's interesting, comforting and worrying all at the same. We probably consider astronomy as such a specialised hobby that no-one would pay much attention to it. I guess this shows that scammers are smart enough to target any place where expensive equipment is changing hands.
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  #37  
Old 22-01-2016, 12:10 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MortonH View Post
I did that before paying. Nothing came up.
Sorry to hear this, I guess it really means you were targeted & watched for a while before the sting.
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  #38  
Old 22-01-2016, 12:19 PM
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From some of the PMs I've received it seems that the scammer has lain dormant for some time since joining in 2014 then recently they've targeted a number of us who had posted a Wanted ad. Fortunately they weren't successful with all of them.
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  #39  
Old 22-01-2016, 12:39 PM
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FlashDrive (Poppy)
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Morton .... please let us all know what the final outcome is ..... if you want to..

Col....

Last edited by FlashDrive; 22-01-2016 at 08:03 PM.
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  #40  
Old 22-01-2016, 07:51 PM
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Regulus (Trevor)
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Sad to here this Morton.
I am surprised that they continued to message you with excuses, but then realized that it takes paypal 3 days to pass the money on.

Sorry for you loss mate - Trevor
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