Scammers still lurking

[lr172]

Originally Posted by vinzer

That's a good idea by the way, however some people may not be willing to provide personal info (license, address) not because they are scammers but because they have no idea how secure you will store/delete this information.
eBay has sort of a reputation feedback system where you can not only see a feedback rating (0% to 100%) but also read feedbacks from customers/sellers. Maybe it is a time to implement such system in here - that will give at least more confidence when dealing with someone you do not know and who has no posts on forum.

not sure that helps, as it appears the last two scams involved hacking into the VAF accounts of respected members.

Larry

[KPmarc]

Avoid using Zelle as well. I got scammed (another SL 30 for sale) and Zelle was utterly, completely useless. "It's in our terms of service that we won't protect you," they said (paraphrasing here), "so, tough luck."

[Secondwind]

Originally Posted by smt6

That’s a low assumption. I was “the real seller in the deal,” and I can unequivocally say that I had nothing to do with this. As a long time member, supporter of VAF and builder, these types of comments are reckless and have no business here. I’ve bought and sold a lot here and this slander isn’t warranted.

I mean no disrespect to an honest seller and you have my sincere apologies if I have offended you.

There are a lot of cases where scammers will have other people involved to make it seem more legit. I have been taken on that myself for about a grand.

[boearl]

Hacking “respected”members. Welp, that leaves me out! .

[gap]

Many years ago I sold a DC headset to someone who insisted on using an escrow service. He sent the money to the service, who then notified me it was received. I sent the headset directly to him, then he told the service to release the funds.

I wonder if such a service still exists?

Edited to add: yup, here's one such service:
https://www.escrow.com/what-is-escrow

Example fee from their fee calculator: Selling a $1000 general merchandise item, buyer paying with check. Escrow fee is $32.50.

[vgb]

That would be worth it as long as it worked. Looks like it would.

[coenraad123]

Use Steinair, steinair.com, as a middle man, as soon as you mention that to anyone selling avionics they will either jump in or run for the hills.
Protect yourself out there, these $astards are cowards and scum!

[Snowflake]

Originally Posted by gap

I wonder if such a service still exists?

Steinair has offered this service in other threads, and if I understand correctly, does not charge for the service. The buyers/sellers pay for the shipping costs, but Steinair confirms the payments and the products protecting both buyers and sellers. I have not used them, but have read many positive comments from people who have.

[SteinAir]

Originally Posted by Snowflake

Steinair has offered this service in other threads, and if I understand correctly, does not charge for the service. The buyers/sellers pay for the shipping costs, but Steinair confirms the payments and the products protecting both buyers and sellers. I have not used them, but have read many positive comments from people who have.

We still do this - a whole lot (we're in the middle of some transactions for customers right now).

I'm afraid, however do not do it for free (well...sometimes we do, if it's an existing customer with a device they had purchased from us to begin with or is upgrading, then we'll sometimes provide that service for free, but not as a general practice). We charge a percent of the transaction (with a max cap) as well as any charges we incur such as fees, shipping, bench testing, software updating, etc..

FYI, an airport a couple cities away from us had several planes broken into a couple weeks ago, the thieves stole a bunch of avionics - which will inevitably show up on some website at some very discounted price...and will be worthless to the buyer ones it's discovered they purchased stolen avionics.

I don't have a lot to add as there has been much advice offered above. I will however, offer these points to help you to try and sort out the obvious scams:

1) If the items is priced significantly lower than standard market price, then it's likely a scam.
2) Insist on a phone conversation and get the sellers physical address. You can cross compare on the internet the ph# and address to see if they at least are in the same area code. If it's a PO box or a random office, then NO GO.
3) If the seller wants you to use any non standard type of payment service then it's likely a scam.
4) If there is a photo, do an "image search" on Google. You'd be surprised how many times they just pull a pic from someone else's posting or a stock image.
5) Insist on a photo with the seller themselves holding a dated piece of paper or a word/code you give them to write down, a newspaper with current date, handwritten date stamp, or some other identifiable way to differentiate the photo from previously mentioned stolen images.
6) Ask them where/when they got the unit - this trips up a lot of scam sellers because they won't know or won't be able to make something up quickly enough...especially if you ask them for that person/businesses name/number.
7) Simply ask them for their "N Number" of the plane they own, have built, or are building. Many scammers are unable to replicate this accurately.
8) Ask them for their pilot license number also works great (and it's public info you can compare via the FAA website).
9) Ask them for a photo of their drivers license (and then compare addresses, etc..).
10) If the seller changes the email, money payment address, service or anything from the original post, it's highly suspect.
11) Ask the seller to send the device to reputable shop for a for a checkout (on your dime after a shop receives it) to which you'll pay after the unit has been checked. This will remove 99% of scam sales.
12) See #1 - if it looks to good to be true, it almost always is!

[rv8ch]

Originally Posted by SteinAir

...

FYI, an airport a couple cities away from us had several planes broken into a couple weeks ago, the thieves stole a bunch of avionics - which will inevitably show up on some website at some very discounted price...and will be worthless to the buyer ones it's discovered they purchased stolen avionics.
...

I read some thieves were stealing devices from two aircraft, moving device A to aircraft B, and then selling device B. The owner of aircraft B would not be aware that they now have a stolen device, and of course would not report their device stolen, since they have one in the panel. Take care out there - the scammers are tricky.