Just Got Scammed….

[hl0m4n]

User bob78h was selling a 6900 jubilee bracelet in the sale section (now removed). Wondering if mods can reactivate post so I can take a screen shot. Had a few references in the who’s who section and it seemed all checked out.

Few days after I sent wire of $2,300, stopped comms and I see he is now banned.

User: bob78h
Primary Account Holder: Mady Ndao
Secondary Account Holder: Bob Ndao
Account Routing Number: 271070801
Account Number: 929933936
Bank: Citi Bank Federal Savings Bank
Account Address: 4215 St Charles Rd Bellwood IL 60104

Will call citi to open a case, is there anything else I can do? I know the chances of getting anything back is very slim but I’m just frustrated. You would think given how everything is tracked nowadays, one could track where the money got transferred to and get the scammer.

Any further advice much appreciated.

[4reRlxGuy]

Oh no - didn't he also have an Ap royal oak 41mm also for sale?

[Carguy87]

So sorry man this really sucks! Hopefully the police can get him and get your money back.

[alex.cicollo]

Bloody scammers. I feel for you

[Gerardus]

I feel very sorry for you. Hope they catch this low-life earthworm.

[Amadd]

Dang that sucks. I was trying to buy this aswell. Seemed like a legit guy. Not much references. He wouldn’t send me the pics I wanted to check if it’s real.

He did seem like a real seller though cause when I said I would send money today he said it was already sold. So idk. Here is the post.


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[Amadd]

This guy vouched for him but when I asked a few more questions felling fishy no response. Could be fake profile idk.


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[Amadd]

Message from him talking about him flying red eyes 2 times a week and mainly is on email not this app. I was just skeptical as all his other listing were in Cali but he said he is in Illinois now.




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[Amadd]

Possible Scam: Chrome168
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/top...ink_source=app

Look at this thread on here. Just found this when searching the address on google.

Also address is a hair shop…


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[Tzachi]

Really sucks.
Sorry to hear that.

[joli160]

Very smooth that guy, I could have easily fallen for that.

[JPizzzle]

Sorry to hear. Have you contacted any legal authorities to open an investigation?

[travisb]

Very sorry to hear.

[10splaya]

There is the FBI website you can check into and alert them of the scam

Not sure how that helps…but give it a try

Also try contacting your bank to reverse the payments sometimes theyll do that if you provide them with your info

Worth a shot?

[Duey]

I got scammed too with this one!!

I'm am always so careful but this time ....... This guy was smooth

" Originally Posted by Duey
Can you do $2250. ?



If so I'll take it.



I can do you a wire. It takes an extra day from here in Hawaii.



Regards,

Duey"

He replied -"Hey Duey,



Thanks for the message, currently got a buyer interested in purchasing at my asking price.



If it falls through, I will message you back."

" Originally Posted by Duey
Just let me know if he backs out.



I'll take it





Regards,

Duey"


" Hey Duey,



Buyer turned out to be international and was unwilling to cover shipping costs, so its still available.

If your offer at $2250 shipped still stands here are my transfer details below:



Primary Account Holder: Mady Ndao

Secondary Account Holder: Bob Ndao

Account Routing Number: 271070801

Account Number: 929933936

Bank: Citi Bank Federal Savings Bank

Account Address: 4215 St Charles Rd Bellwood IL 60104



Once the wire clears on my side, I will have it packed and shipped out via UPS Air Saver.

Please provide your shipping address so I can finalize everything. Let me know if you need any additional information as well.



Thanks!"

"Hey Duey,

Just got the label ready, will print and pack after work.

Tracking: 1ZB8C753YW66955079"

Started feeling uneasy so I googled "Mady nado" (not a normal name) and I saw this - https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?p=13421772
and I knew I was screwed And I notified TRF and Steve Banned him fast


Now comes the fun times with the bank

[derklink]

Sorry to hear OP. I saw that ad and wondered why the price was so low. Typically, Jubilees are offered for well over $3k here but thought maybe that has changed since folks are able to buy them from ADs again.

I got scammed on car parts last year and I’m very cautious now with online deals. Hope you get your money back. Also hope there is a special place in hell for scammers.

[tike71]

Looks like at least one person did their due diligence and avoided being scammed. Always compare old and new listings to see what's been changed.

[Amadd]

Originally Posted by tike71

Looks like at least one person did their due diligence and avoided being scammed. Always compare old and new listings to see what's been changed.

You know it. Seen to many scams out there.

Sucks others got scammed. Hopefully these people can get their money back.


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[BNA/LION]

Damn Scamming Scumbags! Sorry you have to deal with this. I hope you get your money back.

Conmen are good at what they do. They are really good at saying what we want/need to hear then you don't get whatever they are selling.

[JSCP]

So sorry fire you, but I personally would never buy from sellers posting here as not really vetted.

Hope u get your $ back

[Kashmo1]

Originally Posted by 4reRlxGuy

Oh no - didn't he also have an Ap royal oak 41mm also for sale?

Holy crap! I dodged a bullet! I made offer but requested a F2F deal since he was supposedly from SF but he kindly declined. I even went up in price and then I was ghosted, no more replies. I really hope no one was scammed for
35k+.

[joe100]

I needed a link for a 126710 and posted a WTB advertisement. It was easily sorted here but the number of zero post accounts that messaged me about it had to be close to 10. Maybe they were legitimate, maybe they weren’t but I wasn’t going to find out. Bracelets and parts seems to be the new scam lately.

[hl0m4n]

Unfortunately this has been happing during a family vacation, which I am still on. Been hard juggling with this and time with the family.

So after being on hold for 2 hours and countless transfers to fraud department, was able to file in a claim.

My bank, will reach out to the scammers bank (citi) and do their investigation. It takes between 30-90 days for final response.

I find it surprising it took that long to reach a rep at the bank which is ridiculous and 30-90 days of investigation of course the money is long gone by then.

The name didn’t bother me, sounded Vietnamese. What struck me at first though was the address showing up as a wanky hair shop in Chicago. I should have went with the gut and called it there but nowadays you can’t be too judgmental right?

Honestly I’m likely out of luck in the end but fingers crossed for some positive outcome. Taking it as a lesson learned and moving on, what else can I do. Will keep posted on outcome.

[brandrea]

Please keep us updated.

This really sucks, sorry to hear this.

[Jake Sully]

Originally Posted by JSCP

So sorry fire you, but I personally would never buy from sellers posting here as not really vetted.

Hope u get your $ back

I am with you way too much of that going on here. I will stick with in person visits to my favorite Trusted seller here. Been working out well the last 15 years.

[bob78h-real]

Hello all,
I haven't checked the forum for several months and when I tried to log in yesterday, I found my account was banned. Did a little googling and found this thread. It appears that a scammer has hacked my account. I created this new account just to reply to this thread because I feel absolutely awful that this has happened.

hl0m4n, I just want to say how terrible I feel for you, I'm absolutely gutted. I was scammed the first time I bought a watch, ironically, also by a user on TRF (you can seen my thread on this from many years ago). So I understand exactly what you're going through.

As far as advice - when it happened to me, I filed a police report but they didn't do much. Definitely recommend going through the bank. Time is of the essence. The bank will try to delay things so you need to be the squeaky wheel and keep following up. Unfortunately I think chances are slim that you'll get money back, but I have heard of some people who were able to get the wire reversed due to fraud.

It may be easier if you are also an account holder at the scammer's bank. In my case I was not, so the bank wasn't keen to talk to me. I guess they only care about fraud if it is a larger amount. But I hope you have better luck than I did.

To anyone else who is reading. In this case it seems the scammer took over my account but didn't change the email address or password, because I didn't receive any suspicious emails indicating my account was being used.

I'm pretty sure I did not click on a phishing email so I believe what has happened is that I reused a password for this account that was exposed in a data breach elsewhere (amateur mistake). If you use a password keeper, most of them will warn if your passwords have been leaked. I should have been more proactive about changing them, but I never thought something like this would happen to me.

It seems that scammers are looking at dormant accounts with longer post history, then cross checking some list of hacked passwords and trying their luck. So make sure you are using a strong password.

The other thing that may have caused this is I tried to change my 2 factor auth settings several months ago. I was unable to turn on 2FA again because the service is no longer working (I believe the admin has made a thread about this), so my account was left without 2FA enabled. I believe this made it easier for the scammer to log in.

I don't want to sow distrust among members here as I've had several good deals with TRF members, but I encourage everyone to go through trusted sellers and do their due diligence on private deals. Be very skeptical and keep an eye out for red flags.

I think asking to video call provides an added level of security since this is harder to fake. It seems that most scammers refuse/make some excuse. This is because they can lie convincingly over the phone or text stolen pictures, but they can't fake actually having the watch in person. Obviously not fool proof, but I think most of the scammers are international and using stolen pictures/accounts, it is much rarer that someone actually has the watch and just refuses to hold up their end of the deal.

Once again, OP I am so sorry you have to go through this. Hopefully you are able to get your money back, and I hope everyone else uses this as a reminder to double check their own account security.