Hey everyone! I thought that it was necessary for me to start this thread because I want to warn my fellow modelers. Here's the scoop... I have been actively seeking a new jet so I have been back and forth between the market here on RC Universe and ebay. Yesterday I noticed someone selling a BVM Kingcat with p-120 brand new RTF fully assembled on ebay and decided to bid on it. I kept bidding higher and higher to try and hit the reserve price. When I finally hit $1,500.00 the reserve was met and immediately emailed the seller to try and see what he was really looking to get for it. I thought I may get lucky and find someone just trying to dump it for quick cash. Anyway the seller agreed to sell it to me for 2K!! What a bargain! I told him he had a deal and asked him to end the auction because I will fly up to see and pick it up in person. For 2K it was worth the plane ticket from Orlando and the rental to go and see it with my own 2 eyes. He had no feedback so I wantred to be a bit careful, however it's hard to imagine there are crooks like that in our hobby. I also asked him to call me in person so we can go over details. Well, about 10 minutes ago he finally responded and told me he cancelled the auction and had already given the package to a freight company (http://interfreight-co.us) and gave me tracking number "6422174110562222118"with shipping date (10182006) enter the date like that. He totally disregarded the fact I wanted to come in person and never called me as well. He told me the shipping company was waiting on payment of $1,000.00 and I could send him the other grand when I got the package. I know this is a long post but here is the email from the freight company:

Dear Michael Garofano, *We have a package in our possesion with the following details: ----------------------------------------------- Label: King Cat BVM (RTF) P-120 Tracking #: 6422174110562222118 Date of shipping: 10182006 Total amount to pay: US $1,000.00 ----------------------------------------------- *The service we have provided for this tracking number requires us to inspect the merchandise first and than require the payment for the shipped parcel as a deposit to our local agent. The payment will not be delivered to the Exporter unless we have your writen confirmation that the package is what you have expected. *The transfer details will be safeguarded until you will confirm us that the parcel is received and inspected. In case the merchandise doesn't match the Exporters description we will provide a full refund in 3 days. *The payment method is chosen by the Exporter and in this case Western Union Transfer payment is required. The agent details for your transaction are complete, as it follows: Head-Office Representative: First name: Alexander Last name: Gegrois City: Miami Beach, FL Country: United States Please use these details to complete the deposit with WesternUnion Money Transfer and confirm it within our website. In order to do this confirmation please e-mail us a scanned copy of the payment receipt and the following details from the payment receipt: - MTCN - 10 digits number from the payment receipt - Sender Name and Address - Receiver Name - Amount *the total amount stated on the shipping notice As soon as we receive your confirmation and we verify your payment we will release to ship the parcel with the tracking #6422174110562222118. Thank you, InterFreight-co.us. Customer Care

I am supposed to send Western Union to a guy Alexander Gegrois in Miami.
Now I like to think I have more brains in my head than to send this guy 1,000 cash. Anyway I told him the transaction would have to go through ebay and payment via paypal so I am protected because you have no feedback history. He has not responded to me yet. It truly saddens me to see that such evil people exist even in our beloved hobby. I mean this guy had to have knowledge because he knew things only a hobbyist would know. He even sent me pics of the plane. It was even painted in Edwards scheme. Man he had me going.

I just hope no one falls for crap like this because it truly would be sad. Once again sorry for such a long post but if I save one person from getting scammed from this guy it was worth it. BTW I ended up buying a skymaster f-18E super hornet from someone very reputable here on RC Universe market place yesterday! I cant wait to fly it. Thanks for reading this post. Your thoughts and opinions are welcomed!

Report him to Ebay.

good idea i will

Tony Montana should pay him a visit.

As the old saying goes"You get what you pay for" Deals like this don't exist.

say hello to my little friend! I cant believe this guy just sits at home collecting money from western union screwing people. What a job! I told him to forget it and he told me he was relisting it on ebay. If it goes back up I'll give you the item number.

I don't think this is the first time it's been up on ebay.... http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_31...tm.htm#3153294

I have reported this guy selling the same Kingcat twice in the last 4 months. I have lost faith in E-bay and don't use them anymore. My account has been compromised two times and it is like an act of congess to get it repaired. E-bay needs to fix these security problems or their stock is going to suffer.

your right. That was the same picture he sent me. Man everyone had better be careful about buying stuff on ebay. I was bidding on the Raptor listed not and someone emailed me :

Dear michael110101,
My name is Robero, the seller of the item you have Brand New Jet Skymaster F22 Raptor RTF Jet Turbine Item number: 110043021747.
Because i have some problems and i have to leave town i will have to stop the auction.
I am ready to sell the item to you at your bid price US $2,000.00.
If you agree please respond to this email as soon as posible so we can make the deal.
Wait to hear from you

Michael (Me) to him: Would I be able to pick up the item from you directly?


Email from him back to me

Thank you! Hi again,
Because right now i'm in UK with some business the deal will be close only thru ebay.
So the deal will go strictly according to eBay's rules and policy regarding to this offer and to start the official transaction, I need to know a few details about you :
-your full name
-your full shipping address
As soon as I have this information, I'll start the official procedure, and eBay will notify you about this through an invoice that you will receive after i will forward them the information asked before. You'll also receive important guidelines + instructions from eBay regarding our transaction (please go through them exactly). I'll handle the shipping, so this will be free of charge for you .
Looking forward to hear from you and feel free to mail me with questions,if you have.Thank you in advance, and please let me know when you receive the notice from ebay.
I will wait for your email with the details i`ve requested,
have a nice day

When I got the first email, the f-22 raptor was already going for over 2,000.00 Look at item number 110043021747 to see what I am talking about.
That means people attempted to scam me twice within one day. Unbelieveable. Hammer, I agree with you. Someone is also selling a p-120 but there in Indonesia. Feedback is good but I would still be nervous.

Question from rcjetmodels

Activity with rcjetmodels (last 90 days):
- I have bid on 1 items from rcjetmodels

rcjetmodels ( 5 )
Positive feedback: 100.0%
Member since: Apr-19-02
Location: FL, United States
Registered on: www.ebay.com

Hello michael110101 ,

Regarding my auction:
Brand New Jet Skymaster F22 Raptor RTF Jet Turbine
Item number: 110043021747

I'm willing to speed the sale process, so please contact me A.S.A.P. via e-mail at: [email protected] and I'll provide you with further details about this.

Thank you,
rcjetmodels

The auction just ended for the Skymaster Raptor and I did not win it however I just got this email. It looks like an official question from the seller with ebay's logos all over the email. It is obviously not the original seller because:

1) I did not win the auction
2) They are trying to make me contact the at [email protected] and not through ebay. GMAIL I believe is an anonymous email service.

Ok, Ok I am sure everyone who reads this gets the picture. I dont mean to get fanatical about it. I just think it's unbelievable how much scamming is out there. I am getting slammed by Matchstick Men!

Don't count on paypal saving you. I just lost $425 thru paypal to a guy here on RCU.. Use your credit card or something that you can file against!

Get ready for your thread to be pulled also as it's not allowed on rcu...

I LOST 800 BUCKS THROUGH PAYPAL, they will not help you.

I always use my credit card when dealing with PayPal. PayPal would not help me last year, but MasterCard came through for me when an R/C U guy tried to scame me. I could have lost $600 - $700, but it worked out fine (just took a while).

dont forget the "Second Chance Offer" scams. I get one everytime I bid.. and the first time I asked for a phone number I got this:

You should be able to dispute any transaction with paypal. As far as disputes(chargebacks) are concerned, you have the right to dispute any transaction bought with a credit card (visa, mc, discover, amex) for up to 6 months after the transaction date. It may not be fair to legitimate merchants like me but it's true. Sometimes my business gets a chargeback 5 months after the sale and it turns up it's because someone is just trying to get their money back.

Here's the letter that i just received after loosing $425 thru paypal to a guy here on rcu..





Dear Jon Koppisch,

We have concluded our investigation into your case and have decided in your
favor.

We were able to recover $3.22 USD and this amount has been credited to you.
Please allow five business days for this adjustment to be posted.

If you are due any additional funds, we will make our best effort to
recover the balance from the seller.


If the seller's account has insufficient funds to complete the refund owed
to you, please be assured that we will take appropriate action against the
seller's account, which may include limitation of the seller's account
privileges.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.

Sincerely,
*****
Protection Services Department
PayPal, an eBay Company

you know what, i bet the transaction was cash based. wow, that stinks. lets start a class action!

Hi guys, I'm sorry to hear those things are happening on ebay. It has happened to me twice for this auction, I'm the owner of rcjetmodels.com, since I have posted the F22 for auction, I have received a lot of scam reports. I tried to warn the auction bidders, by posting an answer for the bidders on my auction page, with my phone number. So that the bidders could talk to me, some of them did and we tried to track this guy, Robero, without success. The same guy even tried to offer a second chance to the bidders. I have informed ebay about this and they are trying to get those scammers.
I hope none of you guys had bought this plane because it was sold to a legitimate ebayer.
Another scam that had happen to me, the first time that I started the F22 auction I was bombarded with 8 similar auctions with the same pictures and same ad from 8 different ebay users, from china with zero feedback. They gave me a hard time because I had to report them one by one to ebay, lost a lot of time but as far as I know we could terminate their auction in time so nobody got hurt.
We have to be careful with the scammer in ebay so that no one can get ripped off for their money. If you guys have trouble again with scammers using my auctions page please inform me, my phone number is (305) 926-0049. Thank You and Be careful…
I'm still on ebay auctioning a F-15C.

_______________________________

Wagner Machado
http://rcjetmodels.com
"The Need for Speed"

Well i think its the best thing for you to be listing your number on the original auctions. good luck with your auctions.

Regarding the P120 from Indonesia for sale on E-Bay.

I bought a brand new in the box P160 from a guy in Indonesia through E-Bay about 2 months ago. I think his E-Bay name was Zona Mera.

I had doubts about the deal, but his feedback was 100% on about 80 deals. The nice new P160 arrived about 2 weeks later. Cost $2,500.

Regards

Jim

Either the same guy, or another guy, from Indonesia, was trading under a different name some time back, selling a bunch of P-80s for $1500 NIB. Same excellent feedback, and the P-80s were actually some of the CHEAPER items he was selling. He had full scale aircraft electronics, Swarovski binoculars, all sorts of good stuff that cost more.
He definitely delivers what is promised.
BUT...where does he get it?
I suspect the stuff is stolen. Pirated out of a container or something like that.
What happens when you call jetcat and run the serial number? What do they say?
I have been dying to know.

That letter is just so painful to read.
Paypal...what a sham.
Use a credit card, and do a chargeback if need be. Let Paypal eat it. In case you have not noticed, there have been a bunch of BILLIONAIRES made off of paypal, and they have a huge cash flow...but they will screw you for $400 without blinking an eye. The bottom line is THEY WILL NOT EAT IT. They will only give you your money back if they can get the money from someone ELSE. They talk an awful lot about "buyer protecton" and such, but when push comes to shove, THEY won't pay out a dime. Chargeback works, though! Use a CC with paypal.

You're definately right!!! I'll be using the CC next time for sure!!!!
[:@]

Funny thing is that you will even consider using paypal again, after this.
I got burned by paypal, but hard, early on. No paypal for me anymore.

Hi ET. I had suspicions about my P160, so I gave Jetcat the serial number & it checked out ok. I also had Jetcat upgrade the V5 ECU to the latest specs when I was at the Jetpower show in Germany. I cannot understand how these turbines are so cheap.
Maybe Jetcat is offloading spare capacity as far as possible from Germany???
The instructions were in German.

Regards

Jim