UROOJ scammed me for $13k!

[apart1972]

Dear TRF community,

Well, it is a sad day for me. I have finally been the victim of a scam. This scam was perpetrated by TRF username Urooj. Urooj posted a Rolex SD4k for sale. The post was still up as of tonight, if you search under username Urooj.

Even though he wasn't a known secondary dealer, he has been a member since 2013 and had no negative feedback on the forums. I also requested references. He sent me three email references which I checked. Turns out they must have been fake accounts. Anyway, I sent him the wire payment for $13.3k for the sea dweller. After acknowledging receipt of funds over the weekend (which was to Newbridge Unlimited, LLC) he promised to ship the watch Monday. Monday came and he then promised to ship it after work. Since then, no contact from Urooj, no shipping/tracking info. It really is too bad, because I have had many excellent transactions with folks on this forum and others. People like Urooj now make it likely that I will never do another transaction with a private seller that has zero transaction feedback again. It is just too risky. These forums can really lull you into a sense of false security, as most of the people you interact with are honest people.

Anyway, my only recourse now is to pursue whatever legal actions I can against him in civil court. I don't know if he used his real name in the emails (likely not), but I do have the LLC name, address and bank account info. I don't know what other possible actions to take. I will most likely just have to accept it as a loss and a painful lesson learned.

Best,

[mrlube1151001]

I don’t understand why people want to learn in the hard way. There are trusted sellers in the forum. pay a bit more and receive an authentic watch and peace of mind.

[Mercutio]

Originally Posted by mrlube1151001

I don’t understand why people want to learn in the hard way. There are trusted sellers in the forum. pay a bit more and receive an authentic watch and peace of mind.

And I don’t understand why people feel constantly compelled to add insult to injury in these threads. OP already feels bad about his financial loss and the subsequent hassles - to what end do you believe a wise, or, as I read it, condescending comment such as the above is of any help?

To OP: a truly very unfortunate incident, I very much hope that authorities will be able to assist - with these values, I’d expect much more action to come down on very costly fraud!

[messikens]

Originally Posted by Mercutio

And I don’t understand why people feel constantly compelled to add insult to injury in these threads. OP already feels bad about his financial loss and the subsequent hassles - to what end do you believe a wise, or, as I read it, condescending comment such as the above is of any help?

To OP: a truly very unfortunate incident, I very much hope that authorities will be able to assist - with these values, I’d expect much more action to come down on very costly fraud!

Right on! If someone is a member for 10+y and seems to provide references, there's no immediate red flags... Plus there's many members here also trying to sell their watches...

OP : hope you can pursue some legal action and get your money back... Good luck and keep us posted!

[canuckistan]

Originally Posted by apart1972

Dear TRF community,

Well, it is a sad day for me. I have finally been the victim of a scam. This scam was perpetrated by TRF username Urooj. Urooj posted a Rolex SD4k for sale. The post was still up as of tonight, if you search under username Urooj.

Even though he wasn't a known secondary dealer, he has been a member since 2013 and had no negative feedback on the forums. I also requested references. He sent me three email references which I checked. Turns out they must have been fake accounts. Anyway, I sent him the wire payment for $13.3k for the sea dweller. After acknowledging receipt of funds over the weekend (which was to Newbridge Unlimited, LLC) he promised to ship the watch Monday. Monday came and he then promised to ship it after work. Since then, no contact from Urooj, no shipping/tracking info. It really is too bad, because I have had many excellent transactions with folks on this forum and others. People like Urooj now make it likely that I will never do another transaction with a private seller that has zero transaction feedback again. It is just too risky. These forums can really lull you into a sense of false security, as most of the people you interact with are honest people.

Anyway, my only recourse now is to pursue whatever legal actions I can against him in civil court. I don't know if he used his real name in the emails (likely not), but I do have the LLC name, address and bank account info. I don't know what other possible actions to take. I will most likely just have to accept it as a loss and a painful lesson learned.

Best,

Depending on the state the llc was registered in you can pull up their secretary of state website and do a business lookup that will tell you the address of the owners as well as name and phone numbers. File a police report asap.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[TunaTuna]

Originally Posted by apart1972

Dear TRF community,

Well, it is a sad day for me. I have finally been the victim of a scam. This scam was perpetrated by TRF username Urooj. Urooj posted a Rolex SD4k for sale. The post was still up as of tonight, if you search under username Urooj.

Even though he wasn't a known secondary dealer, he has been a member since 2013 and had no negative feedback on the forums. I also requested references. He sent me three email references which I checked. Turns out they must have been fake accounts. Anyway, I sent him the wire payment for $13.3k for the sea dweller. After acknowledging receipt of funds over the weekend (which was to Newbridge Unlimited, LLC) he promised to ship the watch Monday. Monday came and he then promised to ship it after work. Since then, no contact from Urooj, no shipping/tracking info. It really is too bad, because I have had many excellent transactions with folks on this forum and others. People like Urooj now make it likely that I will never do another transaction with a private seller that has zero transaction feedback again. It is just too risky. These forums can really lull you into a sense of false security, as most of the people you interact with are honest people.

Anyway, my only recourse now is to pursue whatever legal actions I can against him in civil court. I don't know if he used his real name in the emails (likely not), but I do have the LLC name, address and bank account info. I don't know what other possible actions to take. I will most likely just have to accept it as a loss and a painful lesson learned.

Best,

Sorry that happened. Yea it's possible to let our guard down with a long time member. I hope you can resolve it somehow.

Originally Posted by mrlube1151001

I don’t understand why people want to learn in the hard way. There are trusted sellers in the forum. pay a bit more and receive an authentic watch and peace of mind.

This is just rude

[tike71]

https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_fl/L20000016104
Try to contact the owner. Let him know what happened and hopefully he wires the money back. There's a chance he could be an unsuspecting mule, or in on the scam.

[alwayshere]

Message the Mods here. I suspect the seller has his / her account hacked.

There has been a spate of these where the crooks find dormant accounts, hack them, become a pledge member to look more legitimate and then scam members. Often these accounts have legit transaction history, just not under the new guise.

[apart1972]

I will look into any legal actions I can take, but realistically, there's not much you can do as an individual, as opposed to law enforcement officials. I suspect these folks are not new at this and so have hidden any easily identifiable information. For instance, I don't know what state the LLC is registered in, and if I did, at most they would have a registered agent listed. In civil court, assuming I get a default judgment, at best I could get an injunction on their bank account, but I doubt they leave money in their accounts and I'm sure they have more than one. I have no real names. It would also cost quite a bit of money to pay investigators to find them, and even if they could, the chances I could collect my payment back are slim. Ultimately, I am at fault. I didn't do enough homework on the seller, and I was too trusting because of the many, many honest transactions I've previously had on this forum and others. Lesson learned - painfully.

[NewMalto]

OP, your money is gone. The scammer who allegedly hacked a legacy account made you wire it to a strawman bank account. Your money has already been invested into crypto via some sleazy broker from the bahamas.

Try to get Interpol involved since this is a crime which needs to be investigated internationally. The chances for getting reimbursed are rather slim though.

[ArtNouveau]

Originally Posted by alwayshere

Message the Mods here. I suspect the seller has his / her account hacked.

There has been a spate of these where the crooks find dormant accounts, hack them, become a pledge member to look more legitimate and then scam members. Often these accounts have legit transaction history, just not under the new guise.

They don’t hack them, the phish for the user to log in to a fake link. They now have their log in and will quickly post fake ads with that established username. There’s two threads on the main page for them going around NOW.