I have had to ban the user "bg123" this morning, who was found to be operating a shill account and leaving feedback for themselves, while trying to trade high value items on the forum. I do not know if the trades that bg123 were advertising were legitimate or not, however the shill account being operated is in clear breach of forum rules, and it was being used to conduct "feedback fraud". If any members are currently trading with this individual, I suggest extreme caution be exercised. I would like to thank the member (who shall remain nameless for their own privacy) who smelt a rat and alerted me to the issue.
Oh well looks like I may have been done. Did a trade with him a few days ago so I wont hold my breath on his part of the deal arriving
I also would like to thank a member that smelt the same rat. Sometimes it pays to ask others their feelings before making a trade. BIG Thank you
quick update - after reading this post I emailed bg123 expecting to never get a response as you would expect from a scammer but to my surprise within a few minutes I got the following response - "yes. I am an honest man. They get their 1 gram gold bullion from me. Made a mistake and have given me a valuation but otherwise would never buy someone something. But without sales and purchases, I can not build up my collection and there is no point in the forum. Thank you that they write to me. I need to have their address can no longer access my massage. Thanks, Manfred" So it seems like he may have made a mistake in trying to artificially increase his feedback to get some more sales/trades, will just have to sit back now and see if my item arrives. Only a small trade so not the end of the world but its the feeling of getting scammed is worse than the loss sometimes.
There have been members on the forum who have tried to convince me that i traded with them and to leave them feedback when this has not occurred. When i queried it further they disappeared.
They're not. He calls himself "Manfred" and goes under different aliases on different forums trying to scam people. He once tried to sell a $6000 Panda to 5 different people at once on another forum and wanted Western Union/Bank Wire :lol:. The pictures he uses are usually obtained from other people and not his own. For members if there is ever doubt about the seller actually having the item, ask them to put the item next to a current day newspaper and give you a picture. Also avoid overseas sellers who won't do escrow/Paypal without a good reason. For future reference I have seen this guy use the following aliases: Silver10 ( http://china-mint.info/forum/index.php?topic=5283.0 ) bgeh99 Had my suspicions but wasn't sure and forgot about it... Good catch GP
I almost traded with him, But he kept insisting that I send the item to him first and then he would send his!! WTF..
That is why we have the feedback system to weed out fraudsters and crooks as there is no point building feedback on legit deals to throw it all away by scamming a few buyers, it amazes me how people can be so trusting in a site that moves at least hundreds if not thousands of $$$ to some guy on the net w little or no reference.
Well well well why am I not surprised. SS is susceptible as any other, some of you know of my many rants from past. However, I applaud the Detective work and Constable action. Again; SS is working out fine and dandy. Good one guys and gals. Hopefully others will second guess others. It pays to be vigilant. It pays to scrutinize.
That was a suspicious 2nd post from kronerwitter. In post 1, his English is fine, but his expression is terse, but clear. In post 2, its like, "hey, english is my second language, and I'm having problems understanding you (Ag)"; and hence I'm also having a problem in expressing myself. Raised suspicions immediately.
just to update, never received my item which is no great surprise. After searching Google for the name "bgeh123" I came up with following result - http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?t=605197 So it looks like he's off trying to scam elsewhere, I have registered for the site to post a warning but waiting for them to approve my new account.
Markj113, Why not post his ADDRESS / BANK ACCOUNT here? the address / bank account where he gets his victims to send their precious metals / money. This way, if he still uses the same address / bank account and calls himself "Sally", people will know its the fraudster. So long as his address / bank account remains a secret, known only to his victims, he can happily continue his crime spree unabated.
Just noticed he's using 2 different addresses - Manfred Habich 20 Gogol ul. 1504 Sofia Manfred Habich Diana Bl.2 an.51 et.1 8600 Yambol Bulgaria Postbank Bulgaria 14 Tsar Osvoboditel Bld. 1048 Sofia IBAN : BG73 BPBI 7934 1436 3481 01 BIC : BPBIBGSF
he steals from military forum members as well: http://forum.germandaggers.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&topic=22833&gonew=1 Its clear from this germandagger forum, that manfred has been stealing for years. It makes him happy. It fills his heart with gladness, stealing from others. And because no-one has been willing to mete out justice, he is free to continue his stealing campaign without hindrance. Presumably he hasn't stolen from any street wise dutchmen, otherwise he'd see the inside of a prison cell. He's playing with fire.
surely he can be reported to authorities somewhere who can investigate this guy - This crook needs to be put away!
