[MortonH]

I just fell victim to a scam by a supposed IIS member. The person has now been banned from the site. I won't go into all the details but the general outline might be useful for others to protect themselves. I'm aware of at least one other person that has also been affected.

The "seller" sent me a PM in response to my wanted ad for a Takahashi refractor. Their profile indicated they had been a member since 2014 although they hadn't posted until recently (a warning flag in hindsight).

There were a number of PM's and emails exchanged before payment where the seller seemed to be knowledgeable about the scope. They used "proper" English, pictures were provided and the price was what you'd expect, i.e. not "too good to be true".

They also sent me a Paypal invoice for payment, which gave a level of comfort that the sale was genuine, or at least I'd be protected.

Once payment was made the communication continued for a few days. Here there were some delaying tactics although it seemed innocuous at the time. There was a doctor's appointment that meant the scope hadn't been sent that day. The next day there was an email saying a courier had been arranged for the following day. On the following day they said the scope had been shipped, but as no tracking number was provided I got concerned.

I made multiple attempts to contact the seller over the next couple of days but got no response. That's when it dawned on me what had happened.

As I said, in hindsight there were some warnings but the seller's communication seemed genuine, nothing like those dodgy emails in broken English we've seen before. I don't know if the person was a real member of IIS or was fake from the outset. As I said, their profile showed they joined IIS in 2014. Have they waited all that time to carry out these scams? Has a genuine member been hacked or had their identity stolen? I don't know.

Be on your guard.