Potential Fraudster Alert, Jack Harrison AKA "jack438"

[bigsciota]

[Posted with Admin permission. - Mod]

I want to warn others here of a possible scammer on the board, going by the username Jack438.

"Jack Harrison" emailed me about a WTB post i had made. We agreed on a price for the whistle, and he sent me a phone number to use for Venmo. This Venmo account was under an entirely different name, "Jack" had no photos of the whistle in question, and while the phone number was a Western PA phone number (registered to the person whose name is on the Venmo account), "Jack" seemed to be emailing from somewhere in the GMT time zone based on the time stamps.

Anyway, I didn't figure some of this stuff out until after I sent money, after which he went incommunicado. This was very dumb on my part, although in my defense they played the part pretty well up to that point (even answered a couple questions which I figure they just looked up online). It's been a week and I have not had either word from him or a whistle show up at my door, so I'm fairly certain it's a scammer. The user here does not seem to have posted at all, but because they're registered they have access to our contact information.

One thing to keep in mind is that many money transfer services (Venmo, Zelle, Cashapp, etc.) do not have the same, or in many cases any of the buyer protection/money-back guarantees that Paypal has. I specifically use my credit card for things like this to get their fraud protection and chargeback ability, but if you don't, you're SOL.

Luckily, I'll get my money back, and I have lodged a complaint that will hopefully get the account suspended from Venmo. But I figured I'd warn people here, because I can't be the only target.

[glacier]

Thanks so much for the timely heads up. I also have a WTB that I'd recently posted, and just now received an email from jackharrison438@gmail about it. A poor cut and paste job at that- he'd just copied my WTB headline listing and so midway thru the email, the font/font size suddenly changed.

[RoberTunes]

Not a comment on that particular account name, but fraud in general is alive and well. Always use maximum confirmation of IDs, products, purchase/sales data needed, and payment methods, and always do things in the proper sequence to assure security. Legitimate buyers and sellers EXPECT such scrutiny! There are gazillions of legitimate sellers and buyers out there, there's no need to bypass a single step or to get things out of order. I've only had one experience with a fraud account and a sales, but luckily I had time, and when finding out the fraud going on, due to my own time spent reverse-tracing data in emails and payment systems, I ran right back to the courier office and grabbed the musical instrument before they shipped it. I then emailed the account with all that I had found out, stating the contradictions in the information that red-flagged the deal, and of course they did not respond. Always refuse a deal if people are trying to persuade you to do anything a little or a lot differently. Fraudsters can be very friendly when they're trying to trick you, pouring on their "story".

[Narzog]

I was also contacted by him when I had a WTB low C/ low F post. He actually turned down my initial offer and tried to ask for more. But I figured out it was a scam pretty quick and just blocked him. He said he cant use paypal but can use his friends because I said paypal only. Instant red flag. I googled his email address and found someone on another forum talking about him trying to scam selling a saxophone mouthpiece or something. So he lurks on other forums aswell. Which sucks because everyone else I've dealt with on this forum has been good. Hes obvious not a real member. It just shows that you really should always use buying protection on paypal. I've bought and sold many whistles and most of the time have gifted the money so they dont get any fee's. But in cases liek this that could end really badly.

I would say to only trade with people who haev actual posting activity but there is a lot of members who just read and dont post so that would still be limiting. So there's always a risk in buying used if its not from a reputable member. but I've saved a lot of money going used so its still worth the risk haha.