Torches! Og Bounce! Local pick up or shipping

[Snoider]

I live in the Akron area, he is a huge scammer here locally. There has been multiple posts on local fb forms accusing him of scamming. I’ve even dealt with him trying to buy a light from me and he just flaked.

 

[bhinkle50]

I just want to thank @jessezm for his outstanding work on this. I was taken for more than he was by this guy, but I am letting the Venmo refund protection process play out. I am supplying them this thread and all the information gathered to date and hopefully they will find this guy and help get our money back.

Question for the local guys - do you believe that this Jim/James Bayles that was shown on facebook is the actual scammer?

 

[bhinkle50]

I received this in a message from someone who requested pics from him and this is what he sent. It's a different name, but it might help:

 

[bmbpka]

I received this in a message from someone who requested pics from him and this is what he sent. It's a different name, but it might help:

dont see a photo?

 

[bhinkle50]

dont see a photo?

Fixed it.

 

[bmbpka]

Erik is a well known respected person. He is actually in charge of a private club locally. Those are photos of coral he was selling locally last week. So if this scammer sent those photos, it was def a scam.

 

[bhinkle50]

Erik is a well known respected person. He is actually in charge of a private club locally. Those are photos of coral he was selling locally last week. So if this scammer sent those photos, it was def a scam.

Thank you for the clarification. I will pull this picture down.

 

[jessezm]

Hey guys and gals, sorry for the hiatus this morning. Covid may have me working from home but that does imply working LOL.

Quick update to answer one question clearly: I just got off video chat with Jim Bayles. I can confirm that he is NOT the person with the 216 area code phone number who I spoke with yesterday, and who I now believe is the actual scammer here.

Jim is at work and we are going to pick up the conversation later today. There are a multitude of possibilities still but at least I can say for certain that Jim is not the person I spoke with on the phone yesterday.

I think what would be MOST helpful at this point would be any evidence that identifies the name, email, and IP address of the person who created and/or is using @Og_Reef's account. I have reached out to the mods about this. I'm not sure what the policy is there, or how much info they have from that account, but I do believe that would get us closer to the individual.

More later.

 

[jessezm]

And in a FASCINATING turn of events, people... The Scammer on Venmo has changed their profile name from @Ogreefer to jim bayles (@bayles81)

This wouldn't make a lot of sense if it was Jim, but it would make a lot more sense if it was someone (doing a really bad job) trying to shift attention to him.



What really fascinates me is that this account still exists. Venmo informed me that they "addressed the issue with the account user." What does that mean exactly? did they give him a high-five?

 

[Luke Schnabel]

Just remember. The funds had to go somewhere. He had to access the account from some device. In which a forensic investigator can easily track down ip addresses. Paper trails are everywhere.

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

With that 216 number is there a chance someone was using one of those double phone apps that let you call and text as a different number.

 

[bmbpka]

It’s definitely someone who knows he has done this previously. Therefore it’s someone who is a member on one of our local forms. I’ll have to go through his post on R2R and see if anything rings a bell with something I’ve seen local.

 

[bmbpka]

It’s definitely someone who knows he has done this previously. Therefore it’s someone who is a member on one of our local forms. I’ll have to go through his post on R2R and see if anything rings a bell with something I’ve seen local.

he hasn’t been on this site since Saturday. So he definitely saw the post about this made on the local FB group. Assuming that’s why he changed his name on Venmo b

 

[nickkohrn]

he hasn’t been on this site since Saturday. So he definitely saw the post about this made on the local FB group. Assuming that’s why he changed his name on Venmo b

Yeah, I made that post to warn others since people seem to fall for his crap every week. This is quite a confusing situation.

 

[bmbpka]

So after some detective work..... the Elijah guy that was mentioned. I went to his FB page. His friends list is blocked. HOWEVER!! His girlfriends isn’t. She just so happens to be friends with James Vernon who has a Venmo transaction with the Venmo account that was shown for og_reef now Jim Bayles. @jessezm

 

[jessezm]

Oh WOW! well there we go, that's a good lead, sir! I've been tracking those other venmo friends down on FB too, with some success...

 

[bmbpka]

Oh WOW! well there we go, that's a good lead, sir! I've been tracking those other venmo friends down on FB too, with some success...

go to that James Vernons FB page and he has stuff with Elijah and... photos of them playing poker. Which was your thoughts on the Venmo stuff. Something to do with gambling. I think we have our scammer......

 

[jessezm]

So after some detective work..... the Elijah guy that was mentioned. I went to his FB page. His friends list is blocked. HOWEVER!! His girlfriends isn’t. She just so happens to be friends with James Vernon who has a Venmo transaction with the Venmo account that was shown for og_reef now Jim Bayles. @jessezm

And there is a clear picture on James Vernon's FB page with him and Elijah... The plot thickens.

 

[jessezm]

Oh yep! great minds...

 

[Jamesrup0411]

That’s the guy that’s all over our local Facebook groups in Ohio. Sadly, many hobbyists in my area have lost money to him. I see his stupid face in posts almost weekly regarding scams.

Now what ????