I suspect I've been scammed by rlawall

[gmorat]

While I see that rlawall got 100% feedback from a number of purchases he made on the forum, I think I have been scammed by him. I hope he proves me wrong!

My experience…..

I was looking for a Grand Seiko SBGA211 “Snowflake” and came across his ad on the Non-rolex section of the forum on Monday 5/20.

https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=947459

I reached out via the email provided and we discussed and came to a deal on the watch he had for sale. I paid him promptly the next morning via Zelle as he requested and from that point on communication slowed and then ceased altogether.

He took a number of hours to acknowledge that I had made the payment but assured me that the watch would be shipped out that day via next day UPS.

He emailed me later to say that he was sorry to not have contacted me, he thought he had. He said that he had missed UPS’s cutoff that evening and that the watch was with UPS but wouldn’t go out until the next day. He did provide a UPS tracking number but it continues to say that it will provide the information as soon as it’s available. When you click for more details it says that the label has been created but that the package has not been received.

Anyway, the strange part of his behavior happened around 3pm of that same day according to the forums date/time stamp and this is when I started to suspect that everything was not kosher.

At 3:17 pm he lowered the price of the watch on the ad on TRF to what we had agreed upon as if it was still for sale. I emailed him to ask why he didn’t mark the watch as sold and now the next day I am still waiting for an answer. He may have had a perfectly good reason to do so, I just can’t imagine what it is and he hasn’t reached out to clarify.

Over the course of 24hrs I emailed him for clarity about the shipping and the listing 3 times and he has never responded. I have seen that he was online on the forums from time to time and I have tried to DM him as well as sent emails to all the addresses I have for him to no avail. I saw he was online just now and DM'd him again but still nada.

I assume I’m not actually getting the watch. He hasn’t done anything to convince me I haven’t been scammed.

I am posting this review early because it may help somebody to potentially not get scammed for the same watch which is still for sale by him.

I have all emails as well as screenshots of the ads in case it was deleted for some reason to show that everything I have said is accurate. I will update this feedback whether the watch shows up or not or if this is all some crazy misunderstanding I will apologize profusely and amend this review as necessary. Regardless of the outcome, the lack of communication from him across every means available to me is unacceptable.

As it stand, I foresee a lot of 'I told you so's!' from my better/smarter half.

Here is all the info I have on him/her/they/them if that helps anyone avoid this in the future.....

Username: rlawall

unclebrick@myyahoo.com

kaptivatinn@gmail.com

Primary Acct. holder: Chidera Kelly
Secondary Acct. holder: Rick Kelly
Acct. Type: Checking
Acct. No: 523850835
WIRE ONLY Routing No.: 071000013
ACH ONLY Routing No.: 021000021

Bank address:
20801 LaGrange Rd, Frankfort, IL 60423

The address on the account is:
7837 Farmhouse Road
Frankfort, IL 60423
United States

[1watchaholic]

DEFINITELY a scam!! We both have been sold the same watch! This members account needs to be frozen immediately!
Provided a phone number which is not being picked up of: (815) 764-6067

[0nly5iv3Digits]

Oh no... terribly sorry to both of you... Best to file police reports (both of you) and call up the bank accounts' home branch and ask to speak to the branch manager, citing fraud associated with the account.

Again, terribly sorry. I got scammed many years ago for a GMT master II... still stings!

Best of luck. Good on you, OP for coming forward.

[HaydenJobe]

Same thing happened to me, please let me know what comes of it for you guys and if I there is anything I’m able to do to recover my funds (cashapp)

[1watchaholic]

Originally Posted by HaydenJobe

Same thing happened to me, please let me know what comes of it for you guys and if I there is anything I’m able to do to recover my funds (cashapp)

Same guy same watch?

[HaydenJobe]

Originally Posted by 1watchaholic

Same guy same watch?

Unfortunately, yes. I was looking for my first real watch for my wedding in June.

[1watchaholic]

Frankfort Police Department
Address: 20602 Lincolnway Ln, Frankfort, IL 60423
Phone: (815) 469-9435

[raf1919]

Yikes I was also in conversation with him as well. But gave me bad vibe when talking w/ him.

[gmorat]

Sorry to hear that I am not alone! I'm assuming that nobody ever got any money back, no charges were ever filed against that lowlife and no action was taken by the bank for the account being used for nefarious purposes so I will probably not peruse this any further.

It would be great if TRF banned the account for what little that will do, I'm sure he has other identities within the forums.

Anyway, I don't want to dwell but lesson learned for sure! I'm just thankful it was on a relatively low priced watch compared to some of the items for sale on the forum. Hopefully my wife will forget to ask me about the whereabouts of the watch I said I had intended to buy! :)

[1watchaholic]

No, I have not gotten any money back but I'm not throwing in the towel. If I can't get my money back, I hope I get satisfaction by knowing the culprits get jailed. I have filed an IC3 Complaint with the FBI's Cyber Crime division. The local Frankfort PD wants me to file locally a complaint before they take action which is crazy to me! Focusing this AM on this issue before I focus back to my daily responsibilities. Twenty plus years of this hobby and finally a victim. I have not been buying and selling for a while and got caught napping. This event has officially ended by buying and selling days. What's in my collection will be it!

[HaydenJobe]

I've filed claims with both CashApp and my debit card company, not sure if either one will do anything. I plan on calling the police as well. Very little hope of recovering anything but its all worth a shot.

[gmorat]

Originally Posted by 1watchaholic

This event has officially ended by buying and selling days. What's in my collection will be it!

You are a smarter man than I!

[bewithabob]

Unfortunately, I was deceived by the same person a few months ago through a different profile.

After some investigation, I discovered that it's a group of people running this scheme using stolen identities to set up online bank accounts and defraud users. They use reputable accounts that have been inactive for a while.

"Chidera Kelly" is one of the identity theft victims, and I doubt he knows his information is being used for scams. It's disheartening that people engage in such deceitful activities, but that's the reality we face.

[gmorat]

Originally Posted by bewithabob

Unfortunately, I was deceived by the same person a few months ago through a different profile.

After some investigation, I discovered that it's a group of people running this scheme using stolen identities to set up online bank accounts and defraud users. They use reputable accounts that have been inactive for a while.

"Chidera Kelly" is one of the identity theft victims, and I doubt he knows his information is being used for scams. It's disheartening that people engage in such deceitful activities, but that's the reality we face.

There's a lot of money floating around the forum and high demand and low supply make a environment where people make mistakes. My new rule, if they don't have 20k posts then escrow or punt!

[1watchaholic]

Well, I've done all I can do for now. Local police, FBI, Zelle, sending and receiving banks have been notified. This is a hard lesson to learn but praying the 1% probability of my getting my money back actually happens.

[ZOOK]

I'm really sorry to read this. I hope you all are able to recover your money.

I suspect this 'rlawall' is a hacked/phished TRF account.

Did any of you contact some of the TRF members that have left positive references to make sure you were dealing with the person that created the TRF account? Or did the scammer direct you to fake references.


Everyone reading this thread should enable 2 Factor Authentication on their TRF account to prevent it being used to scam others.

[0nly5iv3Digits]

Originally Posted by ZOOK

I'm really sorry to read this. I hope you all are able to recover your money.

I suspect this 'rlawall' is a hacked/phished TRF account.

Did any of you contact some of the TRF members that have left positive references to make sure you were dealing with the person that created the TRF account? Or did the scammer direct you to fake references.


Everyone reading this thread should enable 2 Factor Authentication on their TRF account to prevent it being used to scam others.

100%, Dave. 2FA is the way, gentlemen.

Stay safe out there.

[1watchaholic]

I checked on watchuseek to see if the same guy was doing the same scam over there and give warning. Here are some comments from one of the watchuseek moderators...

"Thank you for that Gary, I'm sorry to hear of your ordeal over on TRF. That thread should be in their 'Watch Out' area.

Has anyone contacted the site management team over there to determine if the account was hacked? It's easy for them to check login IP locations. The member's IPs here all come from the northeast US and his account email here is different from the two that were posted on TRF."

Hi TRF Moderators, do you have some insight that might help us with rlawall's IP or clarify if the account was a hacked account or if he just went rogue. Thank you. And I do agree...can this thread be copied into the "Watch Out" area. Thank you

[CMSgt Bo]

Don't count on a Mod happening across this thread...you should contact them directly using the 'Contact Us' link at the bottom of each page.

[1watchaholic]

Originally Posted by CMSgt Bo

Don't count on a Mod happening across this thread...you should contact them directly using the 'Contact Us' link at the bottom of each page.

I did Bo thank you. They also read and moved this thread here.

[uncleb]

Guys, really sorry to hear this. That account has been hacked. I just found out via a message from 1watchaholic (thanks!) on another forum. Those details posted are not mine, and are the scammers. Please do not interact/purchase from anyone claiming to be rlawall. I have been a longtime member (2008) of this forum and this breaks my heart. Not sure how they got my account access, I got no emails about password changes and didn't interact with anything.

[SAP7]

Everyone’s passwords are on the dark web. Hackers get a breach and gather the info from one compromised website.
Most people use the same password across multiple sites.

It’s easy to scam when you can buy lists of info. Just a question of trying and trying until you hit on a win.

[Cshull]

I fell for the same watch on Sunday, with exactly the same story as the OP! Lost $3600- I wonder how many people “bought” this snowflake. Funny enough, I’m almost more sad about not getting the watch than losing the money. Glad it wasn’t more


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[gmorat]

I know this is probably not the general consensus but I think this taught me a valuable lesson. It’s all water under the bridge for me.

I’m really thankful to Vipereaper and how well my first transaction for a Rolex went cos if I’d gotten burned there I think I’d be a ‘none and done!’.

Anyway, hope all the scammers and cons catch leprosy!

[ZOOK]

Originally Posted by uncleb

Guys, really sorry to hear this. That account has been hacked. I just found out via a message from 1watchaholic (thanks!) on another forum. Those details posted are not mine, and are the scammers. Please do not interact/purchase from anyone claiming to be rlawall. I have been a longtime member (2008) of this forum and this breaks my heart. Not sure how they got my account access, I got no emails about password changes and didn't interact with anything.

Originally Posted by SAP7

Everyone’s passwords are on the dark web. Hackers get a breach and gather the info from one compromised website.
Most people use the same password across multiple sites.

It’s easy to scam when you can buy lists of info. Just a question of trying and trying until you hit on a win.

I'm going to add another suggestion that everyone reading this thread should enable 2 Factor Authentication on their TRF account.

2 Factor Authentication



This is one more protection to prevent your account being used to trick someone out of their money.

[Cshull]

Originally Posted by gmorat

I know this is probably not the general consensus but I think this taught me a valuable lesson. It’s all water under the bridge for me.

I’m really thankful to Vipereaper and how well my first transaction for a Rolex went cos if I’d gotten burned there I think I’d be a ‘none and done!’.

Anyway, hope all the scammers and cons catch leprosy!

Agreed. I am pretending he is trying to fund his wife’s badly needed liver transplant rather than spending it on wine, women and song


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[gmorat]

Originally Posted by Cshull

I fell for the same watch on Sunday, with exactly the same story as the OP! Lost $3600- I wonder how many people “bought” this snowflake. Funny enough, I’m almost more sad about not getting the watch than losing the money. Glad it wasn’t more

I’m still looking for one! Scammer please PM me with the deets!

[CMSgt Bo]

Originally Posted by uncleb

Guys, really sorry to hear this. That account has been hacked. I just found out via a message from 1watchaholic (thanks!) on another forum. Those details posted are not mine, and are the scammers. Please do not interact/purchase from anyone claiming to be rlawall. I have been a longtime member (2008) of this forum and this breaks my heart. Not sure how they got my account access, I got no emails about password changes and didn't interact with anything.

Did you just change your password and enable two-step verification on WatchUSeek within the past hour?

[GGGMT]

Wait wait wait. Who buys from a rando ‘rlawall’ with a few good reviews? Why not takuya? Did you think about DavidSW? An AD? How about OCwatch. Why not Sohais? What about JustRolexes? Did you consider Nashville watch? If not why not? Sorry No sympathy here. These are self inflicted losses in my view. Takes 2 for a scam: the scammer and a buyer who doesn’t care enough to be super careful or is trying to chase the nonexistent ‘good deal’.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[uncleb]

Originally Posted by CMSgt Bo

Did you just change your password and enable two-step verification on WatchUSeek within the past hour?

Yup.