Beware!!! "ciaca", "Giordano Mancini"

[Pianoman91]

Dear TRF,

Let me start this post off with a bit of back story. I have been searching for a 114060 for quite some time, as none of the ADs in my vicinity are willing to accept new entries on their waiting lists. I stumbled on a posting on Watchnet for a LNIB 2017 114060 for €5,750.00, which is €1,200.00 less than comparable offers.

Though the offer seemed too good to be true, I reached out to the seller, a Mr. “Giordano Mancini”, based in Siena Italy. He promptly obliged to my request for additional pictures with date / name verification and also provided a list of six references from past deals. I contacted every one of the references, each of which replied within a couple of days confirming the trustworthiness of this seller. Mr. Mancini offered to settle the transaction in person, by Paypal, or by wire transfer.
My fears somewhat assuaged by the references, I nonetheless kept searching in the most common forums for experiences with this seller. The first red flag, in hindsight, was the fact that I could not find any mention of Mr. Mancini. One day before I would have transferred the funds, however, a person commented on the post above, saying that they are still waiting for a watch they had paid for in October 2018. I immediately contacted this person who verified that he had been scammed:

"He said he received my money and gave me a shipping number. When i actually got the package it was a small and very light package. I was confused and had a bad feeling about it. Opened it up and it was a tiny cup from a gift shop in Europe. I e-mailed him and he communicated with me for a while about trying to get my money back and he seemed very confused about the whole situation. He acted as if he was working with me to get me a refund through "insurance". The whole time all the details were fishy. I started to call him out on it because I was getting pissed and he eventually just stopped responding to my e-mails."

So, to sum up:

1. Always be sceptical, as scammers have adopted sophisticated techniques. The emails I received from the references were varied and were all formulated differently – there was no way to know that these were probably all email addresses linked to “Mancini”.

2. Only enter into deals with people who have multiple references on WUS / TRF, etc

3. If it seems too good to be true, run the other way!