Beware online Scams

[wild-light-xpan]

Hello all,

Just a friendly reminder that there seems to be a hell of a lot of scamming going on at the moment on the hasselblads.
I have tried to by 3 XCD lenses this week and each one has been a scammer trying to con me out of thousands.

2 on Ebay and 1 on the Fred Miranda selling boards.

One so convincing that I was extremely close to sending my money. And I consider myself quite aware of scamming If it looks too good to be true then it probably is.

Please be careful.

[spb-ch]

Thanks for the warning not that I would ever buy from anywhere other than a dealer or other place where I can manhandle the lens and see its state in person.

[Stefan Prasser]

Hello all,

Just a friendly reminder that there seems to be a hell of a lot of scamming going on at the moment on the hasselblads.
I have tried to by 3 XCD lenses this week and each one has been a scammer trying to con me out of thousands.

2 on Ebay and 1 on the Fred Miranda selling boards.

One so convincing that I was extremely close to sending my money. And I consider myself quite aware of scamming If it looks too good to be true then it probably is.

Please be careful.

Same here in Germany, I found my (!) XCD 90 lens that I bought from PPL couple of days back on eBay's ad portal (Kleinanzeigen). Blocked the user obviously.

[SeanRL]

2 on Ebay and 1 on the Fred Miranda selling boards.

FM boards? That's not good. Don't expect you to tell who on here, but can you say if it was someone with a reputable history of FM sales?

Thanks,
Sean

[NickT]

Just FYI
We have never had a spammer try and sell on here to the best of my knowledge, one of the reasons new members are vetted.

Cheers

Nick-T

[stefantotev]

What are the best practices to make an online sell via the forum? Perhaps some kind of a contract agreement with both parties data? What do you guys think?


I have listed my XCD 45 here in the sales forum and was wondering if the potential buyer will be willing to pay in advance before I send the lens. This is the natural way to do it, but lots of folks (even when I sell domestically) don't want to pay in advance... Like if you want something from the store you first tell them to ship it to you and after that you will pay


I think it will be good to know for everyone - both buyers and sellers.

[glaiben]

Look for someone who has been on the forum for a considerable length of time and also scrutinize their past postings.  Much can be gleaned from how others respond to them.  If possible, cross reference them between sites.  Many folks post on other forums and have an eBay handle.  Trust your gut - if you get a bad feeling, walk away.

A couple of red flags are if it's their first time posting and they are selling a big ticket item, or if their eBay history is inconsistent with the present item (eg, they've sold lots of sunglasses for 99 cents each and now they are offering an X1D with an Alpa frame and Rodenstock lens for a seemingly bargain price).  Another tip I've used on eBay is to query a seller about the item and see how they answer.  Do they sound knowledgable about the item or is the response totally off-base?

I have been buying (and occasionally) selling photo and audio equipment from eBay, Audiogon and other forums for nearly 25 years and have never been burned.  Not to say it won't happen in the future, but folks are generally honest.  I have never asked for someone to ship an item to me before payment.

...gregg

[Photon42]

What are the best practices to make an online sell via the forum? Perhaps some kind of a contract agreement with both parties data? What do you guys think?


I have listed my XCD 45 here in the sales forum and was wondering if the potential buyer will be willing to pay in advance before I send the lens. This is the natural way to do it, but lots of folks (even when I sell domestically) don't want to pay in advance... Like if you want something from the store you first tell them to ship it to you and after that you will pay


I think it will be good to know for everyone - both buyers and sellers.

Well ... in my country we pay in advance mostly. For big ticket items anyways. Today that is made easy enough with Credit Cards and instant money transfer. Switzerland however is so small that for a lot of more fancy stuff there is no real market, so I mainly buy but also sell sometimes a fair bit internationally. Never had a problem since more than 15 years. Paypal has some protection in place - I only used it once and it turned out the shop owner was out for a week and did not care about orders coming in ... That was my worst experience so far. I have always send money before obtaining the item - transactions in person are of course different.