Kinda my point, my money is still sitting in the drawer that I just gave them, give me money back.

I'm never going to part with money unless I am able to my hands on the goods and take home. Sorry, there are A holes like this out there. It's sad, he only has to do a few of these a month to make a good living. You know he isn't reporting his income, so it's tax free as well.

Pull a Hoax Hotel on him.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnNlJNSRxa3PF8XrKHOEPug

Call the cops, see if they will set something up.

i cannot believe a phone call to Chase Bank, which the money went to, can't help figure out where the money went to and to who.. especially if it as a fraudulent activity. I would suggest call Chase, tell them what happened, and open up an investigation

You can report the email address to Google:

https://support.google.com/mail/contact/abuse?hl=en

This is a great idea

Very sad to hear something like this and it's great you are sharing this to help others. Most people would be to embarrassed to warn others. Good for you and it could happen to anyone. The fever of getting a game will make you over look a lot sometimes.

Really? are they are going to answer some random call and provide that info? Nope, you need to start an investigation with the bank and police to get that going. Then they tell you what account they wired it to and the cycle goes on for a while until it goes offshore then it ends.

Yes they should pursue it with the police, but it is unlikely going to find the money. Hopefully they can use some of the info to catch the guy down the road.

That's why crooks use bank wires.

It is really good that you posted this OP. I guarantee that this thread will save someone on Pinside from getting scammed in the future. Should be required reading for anyone joining this site. Thank you for posting.

I did the same. Yep it's for sale. AND been handled with care.

IMG_3430 (resized).PNG

This is terrible.

Everyone that thinks the OP can just go knock on a door and have a word with the seller is mos likely wrong.

There is probably a very high chance they aren't even in the country.

For future reference, the real tell is the actual game ready to ship. It doesn't appear to be a WPC game at all. Hell, I'm not sure what it is. Take a look at the head.

Anyway, sorry for your loss and I hope some restitution is in your future.

Thanks for the heads up

Soulrider911 thanks for speaking up and letting us know about this douche (who is still actively douching!).

I bet it was hard to speak up as some people would want to just crawl in a hole and die after experiencing this. Took courage.

Cops don't do stuff like that.

They have kids to bust for smoking pot, or selling sex toys in Texas.

They don't have time to set up a sting for a guy that lives outside of the USA.

Easy lessons are lessons not well learned.... Sux, but im sure you will be more carful going forward

leads (resized).jpg

"leads. ahahaha"

If thats the case you should alert Mr Pinball ASAP

Oh that just sux! Sorry man I hate to hear stuff like this. I will say the shipping pallet looks a little to good to be true. Not many would go to this far to strap it down. And one of the photographs it almost looks like the side art it's kind of shining through which would not match that game. Anyway, sorry buddy but thanks for the heads-up.

Interestingly, he entered the name "Danny" as his last name (or surname) and the name "Barnes" as his first name (or given name).

If you look at the bottom of the passport, there are two lines of characters, which are used for automatic passport reader machines. There are never spaces used. Whoever owned this passport has an eight character name, but it was reduced to "Barnes" and there is a space before the B and after the S. Any spaces on a real passport are represented by the character "<"

And, I agree with some other posts that the font used for the name does not match the rest of the passport.

passport (resized).jpg

Sorry to hear this happened to you. I'm new to pinside and I'm afraid to buy things from someone across the country I've never met. I try to buy local, but for a rare game you have to search

Thanks for alerting on a scammer, so sorry for your loss!

This is why Pinside works so well in tandem with pinball shows. I've met SO many Pinsiders at different pinball shows that when I'm looking for a machine, I have the option to either buy from somebody I've met, or from somebody that somebody I've met can vouch for. Meeting other pinheads, networking and getting to know people...that's what gives you an "in" to building a killer collection with confidence that you won't get ripped off.

also, his initials aren't on the leader board of "his" own machine. so, he just completely sucks.

So the thing is that Mr Pinball is just teaming with scammers. I have posted wanted ads for parts and every single damn time I get some scammer from somewhere claiming they have the part. Ask for photos and inevitably the photos are from the internet easily found by a google search. It would be nice if google actually scanned emails for images already on the web and posted a warning about that. Would save all of us alot of time. I would not be surprised if Danny Barnes is the new alias for one of the well know blacklisted names on Mr Pinball. They will take down ads if reported, but its like swatting flies. Kill one and another 10 keep buzzing around you. Its too bad you cant trace that number to an actual locale and get the guy arrested. Though as others have said may not even be in the US

Googled that phone # looks like he was trying to sell a Tron in TX also.

BTW that number is a VOIP number (Skype, google voice, etc). Not tied to a real location probably.

step 1) notice red flag
step 2) notice red flag
step 3) notice red flag
step 4) send payment

what?!?! sorry, but that's totally on you.

THIS is hilarious. Look what the reverse lookup says. Umm nope !

Danny Barnes (resized).jpeg

Jesus give the guy a break. We've all done stupid things that in hindsight were clearly stupid. He's trying to help us all out, not claiming that this was totally and completely unexpected. I think the problem is that people feel if its on pinside or they are contacted by pinsider its all good. Its not all good. Scams happen on pinside all the time and I have in the last month helped identify multiple instances of fraudulent marketplace listings.

Hell I've even tried to take things down on ebay where they were using images FROM PINSIDE no less. Even contact Ebay directly and their response was that they encourage people to post images from the internet when listing product. Yes ... that was their actual response. They wanted me to prove it was fraud, not the other way around.

We all live in a world where people are trying to scam us all the time and we will all at some point fall victim to it and realize there was some step here or there that could have prevented it. If this just raises all our warning flags up a little its all good by me

The one I am really looking forward to reading is "Vid's Guide to Getting Even with Scammers [or anyone else who deserves it]"

Per the Kuleks' insistence that Pinside is an "adult website," there's no reason for vid1900 to pull any punches describing the proper technique.

Thanks for sharing Op. Sorry it happened. It's not easy admitting you were taken advantage of but in doing so you may possibly save others in the future.

He's sending me the exact same ones. He is sure getting a lot of miles with those pictures.

IMG_3431 (resized).PNG

Oops - didn't read enough about how guy contacted you.

Besides all the issues on the passport photo, seeing Poland as the birthplace should have stopped you right there.

Wow, this story really pisses me off. I'm so sorry that you got scammed. Ugh.

I tried buying with paypal here from people, and everyone said they didn't want to. I am starting to see why. I guess you can never be too careful.

Holy cow!!!! WHAT A DICK HEAD! Is there some way you can scam him back, or are you gonna blow the whistle on this turd right away?

The end.
Hope you find some recourse. You almost make me forgive my ex tenants that owe me a g. Nope.

This guy is a pro, and I am aware of another guy who used to be here on pinside but got kicked off for being a troll with several names. he could get away with multiple ipo address because he was a pilot and in hotels all of the time. Anyway. what I am saying is these guys go to way more work than just getting a job. they get off on it and they are sociopaths .

Thank you for posting, even though it is humilating. Thank you for showing the pics of the shipping, and other key ingredients. This will stop someone else from getting burned I bet.
I have been collecting since 1984 but in the last leke 14 years I have been burned so good many times. back when the depression was goin on people were using neighborhood forclosed houses as addresses. anyway Thanks again

It dosent matter now, but I cant blow up the pics but the pics of the wrapped game has art work on the head that dosent look like t2?

"But I trust people on Pinside."

Yep, thats how i stupidly lost $5k on Predator. TRUST NO ONE.

Thanks for sharing OP. I've had my share of being burned via an out of town transaction as well, albeit in a different way. It sucks, and actually made me not want to look at my games for about 6 months, because I was so discouraged with the hobby after my incident. In any case, keep your head up. You'll get past this.

Just my 2 cents...and I skimped reading the total thread. I guess you have to FaceTime...real time with the person with verifiable ID and landmarks, and then the transaction. This is so sad amongst pinside people that should be able to trust each other. I guess, don't take offense to someone taking extra care, asking extra questions if you're selling something not in person.

Earlier in the thread in the page I linked to where the images were stolen from, it was a Gottlieb Volcano.

One thing I will never understand is why people even send pictures of suposed ID's or passports. Like they mean anything at all. Only certain way to confirm the condition of a game and not get taken from a complete stranger is to pick it up in person.

Of course he's a dickhead. But he most likely resides in Poland, so there is nothing that can be done other than to waste his time stringing him along with other questions and emails.

The sad part is, no one cares, nothing will ever be done. When I say no one cares, I mean the police, FBI, banks, or whatever. The only way they can be made to pay for their criminality is via the efforts of people like the 419eaters. They do awesome work but note that you should not try to scam the scammers with any of your real personal info. The 419eaters use burner cell phones, fake identities, fake documents etc to lay down smack on scammers. Some of their work is unbelievable in how much pain they put the scammers through.