SCAMMER ALERT!! Have you ever been scammed by someone in the hobby?

bsr2430 · Mar 3, 2020

ZAN KHAN said:
I had a reefer "friend" and i fronted him a bunch of high end equipment and told him i'd accept a few payment installments, we agreed on $1K for the whole set up and i only ever received 250 before he Houdini'd himself lol

Crazy the people that take advantage of the nice/good people.

bsr2430 · Mar 3, 2020

BobbyCline said:
Scammer and 2 TIME SEX OFFENDER....you should have left his information visible. What a dirtbag.

Or pm this to everyone. Can’t stand that.

vetteguy53081 · Mar 3, 2020

A COMMENT I CAN MAKE:
It is tax season and it is both impulse time as well as scammer time whereas scammers are aware that many will have extra funds between now and May and with tools such as photoshop and editors, will make a pencil look like a high colored acro.
Know who you are buying from and especially look for a history of selling, feedback and delivery. If you are going to pour out $250, $500 or more for a coral order and not look into what you are about to buy- you have scammed YOURSELF.

ALSO, ANY SELLER THAT ASKS QUESTIONS ABOUT YOU FAMILY, JOB STATUS, ETC IS NOT FOCUSING ON CORAL AND RAISES SUSPICION.
I'm seeing suddenly lots of coral packs showing up which have an unusual low pricing and it would be my hopes that they are legit, but I have been reluctant to buy any !

DHill6 · Mar 3, 2020

I had just sold a radion to someone here on r2r who paid as friends through PayPal. I refunded his money and asked that he pay as goods and services, said he still wanted it and said he paid as goods and services, I explained it multiple ways to him that he paid as friends. He didn’t reply so I relisted it at a lower price, answered all questions and resold the following day.

Zan's Aquatica · Mar 3, 2020

bsr2430 said:
Crazy the people that take advantage of the nice/good people.

Yes! And if i wanted to i would have Houdini'd that set up right out of his living room, lol, but-- i don't have the desire to play with people like that... The thing is people like this usually get away because they think they are so slick and untouchable, what they don't understand is we just want them gone so we can do better and don't want to waste more precious time on them.

bsr2430 · Mar 3, 2020

ZAN KHAN said:
Yes! And if i wanted to i would have Houdini'd that set up right out of his living room, lol, but-- i don't have the desire to play with people like that... The thing is people like this usually get away because they think they are so slick and untouchable, what they don't understand is we just want them gone so we can do better and don't want to waste more precious time on them.

100% with you! And with them doing crap like that, it makes their name spread around quicker! Karma might not get him today, but it will one day!

rogersb · Mar 3, 2020

An LFS owner told me years ago never to trade anyone for anything in this hobby. He said everyone thinks their coral/equipment/etc is worth 10x yours. It's true and not only that, they have no shame trading you a turd for your awesome piece.

One time a guy took a pic of a beautiful chalice he had and we arranged a trade for a bleeding apple bowerbanki. I took pics of my actual piece and he sent me pics of his colony, the piece he brought was off the back that got shaded and wacked by a torch. We swapped at a frag swap where I had a set up and we just handed pieces off, I didn't realize I had been had until I got home. His only reply was that he gave me a bigger piece than usual because of the terrible condition of the piece. Thanks bud. This sort of thing has happened a couple more times since and I no longer do trades without seeing the piece ahead of time in person.

LA Reef Addict · Mar 3, 2020

vetteguy53081 said:
I'm seeing suddenly lots of coral packs showing up which have an unusual low pricing and it would be my hopes that they are legit, but I have been reluctant to buy any !

That's just completely sad that we have come to this point in society when someone offers a nice pack of corals for an unusually low price and others see that as "suspect" or alarming (my words not yours of course) The truth is that some of us that have been in the hobby for a very long time still remember when reefers were kind and generous to each other and would either give lots of freebies with each purchase or instead reasonably price corals in a pack to share the love and wealth.

I for one make packs and don't charge an arm and a leg for the reasons that I stated above as well as I figure that I would rather have a quick and easy transaction without having to deal with too many of the tire kicking types. The person I sell to gets a good deal and my rep stays in tact of being someone "coo" to deal with ; )

Mical · Mar 3, 2020

ZAN KHAN said:
I had a reefer "friend" and i fronted him a bunch of high end equipment and told him i'd accept a few payment installments, we agreed on $1K for the whole set up and i only ever received 250 before he Houdini'd himself lol

Two types of folks you don't loan money to friends & family (I know it depends on the situation) but if it's not an emergency - Don't Do It! Reason is - friends & family don't take it as seriously as they would if they borrowed from a bank or loan outfit. In the beginning it's all well & fine, then if they get behind they figure "we're family/friends they'll let me slide". Seen it a million times. "The bank & I have an agreement, they loan money, I don't"

blstravler · Mar 3, 2020

I got nailed recently on R2R. Paid and was never sent the corals. After a week and no answer I took action on R2R and PayPal. Won’t answer on here and still hasn’t answered PayPal. I escalated to PayPal so hopefully they step in soon. The randomly he sends me a text and asks if I got a refund yet? lol - of course I didn’t because you didn’t issue one on PayPal! So frustrating.

Mical · Mar 3, 2020

blstravler said:
I got nailed recently on R2R. Paid and was never sent the corals. After a week and no answer I took action on R2R and PayPal. Won’t answer on here and still hasn’t answered PayPal. I escalated to PayPal so hopefully they step in soon. The randomly he sends me a text and asks if I got a refund yet? lol - of course I didn’t because you didn’t issue one on PayPal! So frustrating.

Send a copy of his text to PayPal - see what he says then

Zan's Aquatica · Mar 3, 2020

Mical said:
Two types of folks you don't loan money to friends & family (I know it depends on the situation) but if it's not an emergency - Don't Do It! Reason is - friends & family don't take it as seriously as they would if they borrowed from a bank or loan outfit. In the beginning it's all well & fine, then if they get behind they figure "we're family/friends they'll let me slide". Seen it a million times. "The bank & I have an agreement, they loan money, I don't"

you know... my wise friend once told me “if you ever decide to loan money to a friend or family, just gift it to them, you’ll save your relationship.”...

codycolina707 · Mar 3, 2020

Reeferbob420 said:
Ive only been in the hobby 1 year but i noticed the people in this hobby are very honest people and try to help each other out

Some are had a member even a supporter of reef2reef try to scam me last week for a 500 dollar light

mfinn · Mar 3, 2020

Back in 2014 I bought some strawberry wine zoanthids ( my all time favorites ) from someone here on R2R.
When the box came I was shocked. It was not a insulated box and some tiny frags were just packed in some foam peanuts.
I contacted the guy and he promised to re-send the order, which took weeks. He promised he would use a insulated box.
When it finally came the second time the, the first thing I noted was the styrofoam box was a packing box you would see that had some sort of small electronics in. Nothing you would use to try and maintain temperature.
The second thing was 2 of the bags had leaked. One of the bags had come open and a frag was rolling around in the box.
I contacted the guy again and just demanded a refund. He said he would.
I waited a few days and sent him another message.
After a few days he said he would do it soon.
This went on for a couple months.
My BIG mistake was sending the money as family and friends.
I had no backing from paypal.
My second big mistake was not starting and thread about him here.
I guess I was still holding out hope that a mutual agreement could be made.

This is why I think we need Feedback scores next to out names or under our avatar like we used to.
Feedback front and center.

LOVEROCK · Mar 3, 2020

Someone one here sold me a apex classic but was a apex lite

CavalierReef · Mar 3, 2020

Reefhack said:
Hmmm. 2 posts a year—- I’ll be at 100 in 2070

Your point?

bsr2430 · Mar 3, 2020

mfinn said:
Back in 2014 I bought some strawberry wine zoanthids ( my all time favorites ) from someone here on R2R.
When the box came I was shocked. It was not a insulated box and some tiny frags were just packed in some foam peanuts.
I contacted the guy and he promised to re-send the order, which took weeks. He promised he would use a insulated box.
When it finally came the second time the, the first thing I noted was the styrofoam box was a packing box you would see that had some sort of small electronics in. Nothing you would use to try and maintain temperature.
The second thing was 2 of the bags had leaked. One of the bags had come open and a frag was rolling around in the box.
I contacted the guy again and just demanded a refund. He said he would.
I waited a few days and sent him another message.
After a few days he said he would do it soon.
This went on for a couple months.
My BIG mistake was sending the money as family and friends.
I had no backing from paypal.
My second big mistake was not starting and thread about him here.
I guess I was still holding out hope that a mutual agreement could be made.

This is why I think we need Feedback scores next to out names or under our avatar like we used to.
Feedback front and center.

That’s a very good point! Why can’t we add this? It can easily be done! I’m sure they have a few coders that are mods! I vote second for this!

mfinn · Mar 3, 2020

bsr2430 said:
That’s a very good point! Why can’t we add this? It can easily be done! I’m sure they have a few coders that are mods! I vote second for this!

I've been pushing for this every chance I can.
We used to have feedback score.
It used to be very easy to find.