Play the game or take the loss?

By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics and access other forums reserved for members. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today by clicking here.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 12 Dec 2012 Posts: 4

Very fun community you have here, I will enjoy helping/playing in the future!

This is what brought me here though. I picked up a hard drive on eBay full of emulators. The user had wonderful feedback and people commented on how well the drives were setup so I was comfortable enough to order with this guy. I got the drive and everything ran great and it was well worth the investment! Then the drive crashed the next day. No fault of the sellers, just a bad drive I had hoped. Since then eBay closed the seller down due to selling copyrighted material. I was able to find this guys email address and I emailed him explaining the situation and asking for a new drive. He charged me for the drive, but not the files since I had already paid for them. Since eBay and Paypal closed his account I SUGGESTED sending the money to him through Western Union. At this point I knew it was a gamble and I was willing to take the risk. I put too much time into this project to be without the main part that I needed. So I went ahead and sent him the funds. I realize today that I lost the gamble and he is probably going to screw me.

I have the guys name and home address and after further research I have found his phone number and a number of websites with his whois info on them. But since I sent him the transfer he has my home address as well.

At this point what do you think I should do? Take the loss and go on from here helping stop the other scammers, or pursue this guy and see if I can get anything back.

Again I was/am prepared to take the loss knowing what I was getting into. Just figured I would ask the advice of the pros first.

Thanks!

Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 5:51 pm

Step 2. Kindly ask him where the HD is, since you have been waiting for so long. Do not try to play games with him, since he has your info.
Step 3. If you still don't get the drive, suffer your loss.

Step 1. I think the dude is going to send you the new HD. Just wait for a while before going for step 2.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 12 Dec 2012 Posts: 4

Thanks for the reply BadKarma. I hope you're right, but I don't have much faith at this point. As of last night he didn't pick the funds up. I emailed him last night and told him the drive may be recovering and to hold off on picking up the funds. I figured that would be the true tale to see if he was legit. This morning the cash was picked up (in the UK) but I never got a reply from the guy.

I replied with an "I assume I will be getting screwed this holiday season" and still didn't get an answer.

At this point I guess I will take the loss and try to make up for it by helping you guys with the other baiters.

Thanks again for the reply!

Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 6:27 pm

Sorry to hear that. On the bright side, you didn't lose thousands of dineros and you've probably learned your lesson.

Personally, I'd wait for a few days for an answer and then file a police report (which no doubt would be a futile attempt to get any refund or justice). But then again, that's just me...

Anyway, warm welcome to eater!

Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 6:44 pm

Although sometimes filing a report helps:

A friend of mine, who is living roughly 8800km away from me, got scammed.
My friend sent numerous emails to this scammer asking for the money he owed her. The scammer refused to pay.
She sent me the information of this dude, who was living in the same country as I am. I went and filed a report on my friends behalf.

After a while the scammer, a small-time-loser, got mail from the police stating that they won't press charges (probably because the amount of money was so small). He then emailed my friend that he'd got some mail from the police and after that the money he owed to my friend miraculously appeared in the bank account of my friend's company.

So, sometimes filing a report can help. This time the scammer was a petty criminal, known from this kind of activities etc etc...

Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 6:57 pm

Welcome to eater Scumbaiting,

If you file a police report on this one, there is a chance (albeit a slim one) that the police will arrest you and charge you with theft. (The copyrighted material)

We (for obvious reasons) can't condone that, and I'm sure that you bought it in good faith - so I am sorry for your loss, but glad you came here.

As we always say, read the stickies on the forums, grab a mentor HERE, and have fun Laughing

Elite Baiter Joined: 19 Jan 2009 Posts: 1440

If what you bought is not really legal, then forget about contacting the police. Doctrine of clean hands and all that..

LOVE your username! "Scumbaiting" may well replace "Scambaiting". It's just so perfectly descriptive.

Welcome to the forum. Very Happy

Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2012 2:48 am

I have a question for SB, as what was the product? Music, Karaoke tacks, Movies?

Perhaps an answer can assist..

Or not.. Rolling Eyes

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 12 Dec 2012 Posts: 4

Thanks again all for the replies. As I said I am a gambling man, but not a stupid man. I figured another $200 is worth the gamble, if it was more then $300 I don't think I would have gone down the trusting route with that much cash. This particular risk was worth the reward.

That being said I actually received a reply from the guy this morning. I guess he didn't get my e-mails until later? He did reply stating that he was having car issues and the buses were not reliable so he was not able to ship the drive out yesterday. He claims he is shipping it out today and will provide a tracking number later. We will see. The GOOD news is I was able to recover the bad drive using some recovery software. So I will have a working drive when all is said and done. If the guy is legit I will just use the new drive as a backup drive.

The drive is full of emulators for games. There are NO ROMS (games) included on the drive as stated in the eBay listing so the drive should not be illegal. But it is a gray area. Emulators are not copy-written material, but the ROMs/Games are (which again according to the eBay listing were not included on this drive).

Thanks again for the help and compliments. I am looking forward to helping protect other people with this forum.

Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 6:58 pm

WU isn't just used by scammers and on this occasion, it was you who initiated payment this way.
I would give the vendor the benefit of the doubt for now (you've no choice really) he may be genuine.

Welcome to 'Eater. Very Happy

Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 7:42 pm

Sale of goods issues aside I wouldn't use a collapsing drive for anything, far more trouble then it's worth. Bin it and use the good one Wink

Play the game or take the loss?	View next topic View previous topic