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WTB SCAM WARNING!!!

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Darksoft

Darksoft

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There are some bastards scamming users from this forum and probably operate in several others places as well. They use the same technique. They look for people with WTB posts in this section and then tell you to contact them via mail. They offer you unusually good prices and ask to pay as Friends. As soon as the payment is done, you don't hear back from them. Obviously they know very well what they are doing and it's very difficult to trace them, although we are working on some angles that they may have missed. If we find them, we will expose them and ask you to report them to the Police.

As a general rule:
  • If it's too cheap to be true, probably isn't
  • Always ask for pictures of the PCB and make sure that they seller is not using some stock pictures from google. ASK FOR RECENT PICTURES.
  • Do not send payment via PayPal as Friends unless it's a trusted seller with a long history in this forum. Even in that case, they may have hacked the account of the seller, so if you are going to pay as Friends from a trusted seller, make sure that you are contacting the real person and get suspicious if someone tells you to contact some friend to his email address.

Here below some examples of the messages that they used:

Screenshot_20250226_233945_Chrome.jpg



Here you have some experiences with details here:
N

WTB Post in thread 'CPS1 - A Board 10mhz Non-Dash'

SCAM WARNING!!!
Hey folks, just to post a warning to all here. I've been scammed on a cps1 a-board and a Superman pcb. I received a direct message from a user called @ScottMGQ (screenshot attached) seemingly reaching out being a good citizen recommending some guy called Mark at the email address : mgbmgacorp@gmail.com as he specialized in such things. Anyway, unfortunately I was stupidly trusting based on the fact he was recommended by a user here and agreed to do a transaction for $140 (a-board) through zelle to include an invoice number. I was also looking for a taito...
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Please post here and DM us as well every time that you see one.
 
I’ve seen this actually on a pachislo forum also where I was looking for a part, literally came up as the same message saying email this person bla bla at repair factory
 
I think a while back when I was looking *and still am* looking for a CPS3 metal housing I got a message saying email so and so, I did email and it just seemed phishy, ill see if i can find the message and screen cap it. notice how when i say i'll be sending goods and services he says oh no that won't work but i'll lower the price. i've been dealing with buying stuff on the internet for 30 years so i wasn't falling for that bs. but hopefully this helps.
 

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Keep posting here if they approach you. We all want to be safe and understand how they work.

Thanks.
 
2FA only helps protect legit accounts from takeovers, it's not like scammers can't turn it on when they sign up for their scams.

Turning off private messaging until you've posted a few messages feels reasonable to me. Yes, it will impact some legit users. But my personal feeling is that this is a community, and not just a marketplace, and it's not a big ask to say "hey, be a member and present here if you want to make deals". Saying hi, making couple appreciative comments of someone's purchase or game room, boom, you're in.

Scammers can do it too but it's higher effort and every time they're banned they have to start over.
 
NeoFreak said:
No, unfortunately not. I've contacted the seller on ebay and he confirmed it was his image and board. He's in Bradford.


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That's getting a bit crazy. The access looks legit. The guy even contacted me via ArcadeOtaku asking for reinstatement of his account....
Ask for a picture of the PCB and let's see where this goes...
please let's not pollute this thread and continue here.
 
Darksoft said:
That's getting a bit crazy. The access looks legit. The guy even contacted me via ArcadeOtaku asking for reinstatement of his account....
Ask for a picture of the PCB and let's see where this goes...
please let's not pollute this thread and continue here.
Click to expand...
Ok, I can do, but he never responded to my last message.
 
Darksoft said:
That's getting a bit crazy. The access looks legit. The guy even contacted me via ArcadeOtaku asking for reinstatement of his account....
Ask for a picture of the PCB and let's see where this goes...
please let's not pollute this thread and continue here.
Click to expand...
I've sent a DM to Mr_Karate requesting a pic with date and username. But not sure if he'll receive it if his access has been revoked?
 
NeoFreak said:
No, unfortunately not. I've contacted the seller on ebay and he confirmed it was his image and board in that photo. He's in Bradford. I also challenged on that fact and included the ebay listing, and got zero response. Of course, I'd love to be wrong and say they were sharing photos, but I doubt it.


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