Scammer pretending to sell an 114060

[RolexWombat]

I have been on the hunt for a Sub C ND for the last few months and while I have indeed finally found one and had a completely straightforward and honest transaction with the guy I bought it from I wanted to share here what I'm personally convinced is a scammer that I was considering buying from until I noticed some things that I consider serious red flags.

The ad is not on this forum, but the forum it's on won't let me post on the for sale or for feedback (because I don't have enough posts there) and flagging the post in question or even sending a message to the admins there did absolutely nothing. But since I know people like me looking to buy a Sub C may also look in this forums and maybe see this post and hopefully not get scammed.

I can't post a link to the post in question (don't have enough posts here it seems) at watchfreeks forums but just do a search for an 114060 for sale on that forum and it's easy to find the post (by jeffhurit)

I suspect the scammer somehow got access to the guy's account in the forums and took it over a few months ago (you can see he starts posting again a few months ago after a 2 year gap without any posts).

Here are the things I consider red flags, some of you here may have more experience than me uncovering scammers so please let me know if I'm just being paranoid here or if really it does look like a scammer. Here are the signs I uncovered:

- looking at post history, the guy was active and posting for a while then a gap of 2 years without posts then starts posting again a few months ago (probably to get the post count up) but those posts are just meaningless one-liners like "looking good" or "wear in good health". Ok, that's not really bad so far but a bit strange

- The post says contact me at this Email (rather than reply to me by PM on the forums). Also in itself not really bad but a bit strange

- So I send an Email message to the address stating I may be interested in the watch. I send the Email around midnight PST, the guy answers very quickly and asks me where I am (strange first question to ask), I say CA he says he's in FL. So he's answering my Email at 4:00am (supposedly), again in itself not really bad but a bit strange.

- According to his forum handle (also used on another watch forum) the guy's name is Jeff Hurit but the Email has a signature at the end of "JH Sales, Jeff Washburn", now that is strange.

- And finally, looking at the headers of the Email (I'm a computer networking professional, so I know how to interpret them) I can tell they are being sent from an IP address what when looked up for location comes back as being in.... Lagos, Nigeria. Now at that is a definite red flag (at least to me :)), so at this point I'm convinced the guy is a scammer.

- At this point I decide to send another Email but just to try to get more info on him that I could pass to the authorities, give him the address of the local FBI office as my street address and ask for his banking details: they are for a savings account at Wells Fargo in Naples, FL for a "Janet M Washburn" (yet more red flag, at this point we're like 2 degrees away from the original post's Jeff Huit)

Would you guys agree this is a scam?

Since I happen to be a Well Fargo customer I called them to try to report possible fraud, but since I never actually sent $ they told me they can't or won't do anything and maybe try to contact the police. I then filed a report on the form at IC3, but absolutely nothing came out of that.

Basically means that if you detect a scammer but don't give them any $, you can report all you want, absolutely nothing will happen to them and they will continue to try and scam with complete impunity...

[MonBK]

Sure sounds like a scammer.

[tamiya]

But it crime ain't committed until $$ is stolen & nothing received in return; current law don't yet prosecute "PREcrimes" yet, do we?

Organise a F2F to inspect

[RolexWombat]

Originally Posted by tamiya

But it crime ain't committed until $$ is stolen & nothing received in return; current law don't yet prosecute "PREcrimes" yet, do we?



Organise a F2F to inspect

Feel like sending the guy $ so that you can have a legal reason to send the law enforcement after him when you do get scammed?

The ad is still up and I’m sure the guy is still eager to answer emails from prospective targets (well maybe not from my email address anymore ;)).

His email is (Deleted by mod. Don't use TRF as a recruiting ground for your personal vendettas. We got enough scammers to deal with already.) you guys feel free to toy around with him and report here about it ;).

I suspect the reason why the first thing he asked me about in his first email back to me was where I was located is so that he could prevent being from a place far away enough that face to face is not an option.