Good morning fellow BP-ers,

Not sure if this is the correct location to drop this topic but feel free to relocate when required. I saw an add yesterday on www.tweedehands.be for the following sets: Star Wars 10188 10198 10225 75054 75055. Total price 500 Euro. Too good to be true but I wanted to investigate further. When emailing back and forth he removed the add, strange as we didn't agreed yet. He lived in Belgium but moved recently to the north of The Netherlands and secured shipping was no issue. To pick up the sets was also ok (easy to say when living in the far corner of The Netherlands). His reason to post the add on a Belgium site was because the sets were bought in Belgium and could still be returned to the shop in case of irregularities (??). I proposed he should ship 1 set first and I would pay 1/5th upon receipt, this was rejected. He was pushing to perform secured shipping and he provided his id card and address. The story became worse and worse. On facebook I found the name listed on that ID card, a regular page with family pics and recent posts. So I told him, I will send a friendship invitation and when you accept this then I trust you to make a deal (uhuh). But he said that FB account was not in use anymore so he could not accept me. Sure........ However, the guy shown on the ID card accepted my request on FB this morning and I asked about the situation. He told me the guy who placed the add at www.tweedehands.be uses his ID to scam people. Every scam is around hundreds of euros per person. He provided his ID in the past when making a regular deal with this scammer, not knowing his ID would be used for criminal activities. Many people have already been scammed through his ID and there is not much progress on the side of the police. Not only the people who paid and never got any items are victims but also the person of the ID is a victim.

Many of you know already to be careful when buying online and when a proposal looks too good to be true, well...in many cases it is. I post this topic to warn you in advance, watch out for such strange adds on www.tweedehands.be. But another fact which needs attention, be careful with sending your ID's, especially when it just doesn't feel right or if it sounds too good to be true.

Decided to make some fun with the scammer, he will be receiving some strange newsletters the upcoming period

 

 

One thing I always do is call the bank and ask them if the account number provided is indeed of the person.

The bank can not give you the real name/address on the account, but they are allowed to say yes or no if you provide a name and address.

 

This is the downside of buying at these types of websites (craigslist style). You can get good deals sometimes, but you have to be very careful, because there is pretty much zero buyer protection. I sometimes use 2dehands, kapaza or marktplaats but there are a ton of scammers out there.

As I mentioned in another topic recently I always ask for pictures and run them through google image search. That filters out most of the filthy scammers. If the seller pushes too much to buy the item, I never buy either.

Off topic: I also collect synthesizers and there are always extremely valuable synthesizers popping up around Brussels for silly prices (e.g. 1000€ for a Roland Jupiter 8). Like you said: if it seems too good to be true, it usually is.

 

Meh

2 hours ago, Brenner said:

Good morning fellow BP-ers,

Not sure if this is the correct location to drop this topic but feel free to relocate when required. I saw an add yesterday on www.tweedehands.be for the following sets: Star Wars 10188 10198 10225 75054 75055. Total price 500 Euro. Too good to be true but I wanted to investigate further. When emailing back and forth he removed the add, strange as we didn't agreed yet. He lived in Belgium but moved recently to the north of The Netherlands and secured shipping was no issue. To pick up the sets was also ok (easy to say when living in the far corner of The Netherlands). His reason to post the add on a Belgium site was because the sets were bought in Belgium and could still be returned to the shop in case of irregularities (??). I proposed he should ship 1 set first and I would pay 1/5th upon receipt, this was rejected. He was pushing to perform secured shipping and he provided his id card and address. The story became worse and worse. On facebook I found the name listed on that ID card, a regular page with family pics and recent posts. So I told him, I will send a friendship invitation and when you accept this then I trust you to make a deal (uhuh). But he said that FB account was not in use anymore so he could not accept me. Sure........ However, the guy shown on the ID card accepted my request on FB this morning and I asked about the situation. He told me the guy who placed the add at www.tweedehands.be uses his ID to scam people. Every scam is around hundreds of euros per person. He provided his ID in the past when making a regular deal with this scammer, not knowing his ID would be used for criminal activities. Many people have already been scammed through his ID and there is not much progress on the side of the police. Not only the people who paid and never got any items are victims but also the person of the ID is a victim.

Many of you know already to be careful when buying online and when a proposal looks too good to be true, well...in many cases it is. I post this topic to warn you in advance, watch out for such strange adds on www.tweedehands.be. But another fact which needs attention, be careful with sending your ID's, especially when it just doesn't feel right or if it sounds too good to be true.

Decided to make some fun with the scammer, he will be receiving some strange newsletters the upcoming period

 

 

This guy has been active for years. I warned the site & the police, but they seem to ignore it. As if thieving on the internet is 'ok'.

Scary how loose the authorities are with this kind of criminality. Good of you to remind everybody about the quality of 2dehands.be (which has been bought by Ebay...)

As you said, if it's too good to be true, be suspicious or move on.

But anyway thanks for the reminder, never hurts.

Guys like these suck, I've sold quite a few things lego and non-lego on 2dehands but I did start noticing people were getting more suspicious when buying. 

Gamebreakers. 

I have seen the same but with a female name yesterday on 2ehands. Exact same story...

Really sad (and unfortunately true from my own experience) that the police won't act on fraude on the internet. It seems like criminals have more or less free play when it comes to ripping off buyers online unless they provide solid information about themselves, which of course they never do.

Unfortunately this affects us all when trying to sell through these channels. Thanks to anyone who has made efforts to report this person.

2 hours ago, Eric83 said:

Really sad (and unfortunately true from my own experience) that the police won't act on fraude on the internet. It seems like criminals have more or less free play when it comes to ripping off buyers online unless they provide solid information about themselves, which of course they never do.

Unfortunately this affects us all when trying to sell through these channels. Thanks to anyone who has made efforts to report this person.

True, same here. "Bought" two vinyl records (Queen & Phil Collins) on marktplaats a year ago. Never saw those records. Police never made a case of it....despite several people got scammed of the same person.

Only thing we can do is warn each other.

Ps, bought those records anyway on vinyl, rock on!

 

Same here. In my case it was a video game. Unfortunately the signs aren't always clear as day and they are getting smarter with each "mistake" they make. Sometimes you really can't tell if they are legitimate sellers or not, especially in case of hijacked accounts. Always ask for more information when in doubt. (that was my mistake) 

p.s. I bought the game as well at a discount a few weeks after the incident

It's been a while since I've been on that site but there used to be a scammer who claimed he got his sets abroad but "no problem because the instructions are in English".
Another seller always claimed that the sets were "still in the original shrink-wrap".

I was always tempted to send them a message and tell them how retarded they look when they write stuff like that but I decided against it. This way at least it's clear that it's a fraud. Once they know there are no languages or shrink-wrap involved, it becomes harder to spot the fake adds.

I also once saw an add for a Friends Cafe Corner MOC. The seller claimed the set was MISB