Scam Alert

[ProCarpenterRVA]

Heads up.

Just a friendly reminder that if someone contacts you and offers you tool for $450 that's worth say $1,200 such as a Vac Sys, most likely this person does not have the tool in question, in fact they are just looking to get your $450 and then disappear into the ether.

If it sounds too good to be true it probably is...

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

 

[TwelvebyTwenty]

And if anyone couldn’t have worked this out for themselves - without the warning - you also shouldn’t eat yellow snow! You’re welcome.

 

[Birdhunter]

Thanks for the reminder.

 

[Bernmc]

Scammers actively monitor sale forums - including this one. They particularly like responding to 'wanted' ads. I've had a few offers from dubious buggers here. Often they don't know much about the tool in question, so a few pointed or misleading questions can expose them.

They're not all completely dumb though. I had a scammer who once had a business selling the bits I was after. He went bust, but found that people kept ordering and paying, so he kept taking the money. Ended up getting caught and acquired a criminal record. However, when he got short of cash again, he started the scam up again. He knew his products, and his prices were just slightly on the too good to be true side. I got lucky and purely by chance ended up speaking to a police officer who recognised the scam, and put me in touch with a couple of detectives in his area that were already investigating him, and trying to build a case. He ended up making a plea deal and paying back everything he'd scammed (over a year though) to avoid going back to being someone's rent boy in the slammer.

Unless the buyer or seller has a decent active history here (or on any forum you frequent), just don't take the chance.

 

[ear3]

At least with Festools, remember one can always ask for the serial number, and tyhen run a check with Festool to  verify date of purchase (or purchase at all).

 

[sg1011]

Should we report suspected scammers on the board?  I was contacted regarding a Walko workbench and it was very fishy.

 

[sancho57]

At least with Festools, remember one can always ask for the serial number, and tyhen run a check with Festool to  verify date of purchase (or purchase at all).

+1

 

[ryanjg117]

If you get any suspicious messages or PMs, always check the postcount. I just got a message the other day from someone mentioning an item for sale, which initially got me mixed up because I was actually purchasing some items from the Classifieds section. But as soon as you check their postcount it's pretty obviously a lure:

 

[deepcreek]

I once purchased a stolen Festool from a guy on Craigslist that I had bought from before.  Everything seemed on the up and up.  He didn't have the systainer as he said he worked in a shop and sold it when he first bought the tool.

As it happens, some tools were stolen from a local Festool dealer several months prior.  They grabbed the display models but didn't bother with the systainers.  A few weeks later, I ended up buying the empty systainers for storage of other tools.

I thought it was fortuitous that I already had a systainer to fit the tool I bought on Craigslist.  Imagine my shock when I noticed the serial number on the tool matched the serial number on the systainer label.

I immediately took them to my Festool dealer and asked what he wanted me to do.  He told me to just keep it as insurance had already been paid and it was a closed case.  In hindsight, perhaps I should have gone to the police at that point to see if they had an interest in pursuing the seller.

Anyway, I contacted Festool and they did not show anything for that serial number.  I registered it and eventually sold it to someone else on Craigslist as it turned out to be one of those tools that I hardly ever used.  Yes, I told the new buyer the story.  And no, I never dealt with the thief on Craigslist again.