Two weeks ago I picked up a BK in need of some love: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/nerdygrrl-gets-knighted

I posted an ad in the pinball classifieds looking for a BG, plastics and possibly a PF. I had several leads, a few of them promising. One guy reached out and stated he was taking in a BK that was in very nice shape and would have a BG and PF available for sale this week.

He quoted me a couple of prices, the BG was a little more than I would want to spend, but the PF seemed reasonably priced. I asked for some pics and two days later he sent them over.

As you can imagine my jaw dropped, but my spidey senses also tingled. This appeared too good to be true. I looked closer at the two pics, the underside and top side seemed to be taken in two different areas, and the pics were grainy.This jut screamed of stolen internet pics. I dropped the images into my search bar and nothing popped. I followed up with the seller to see if the price quoted was for the populated PF and what shipping would be to my zip. A few hours later he responded with a crated shipping quote from a reputable, west coast shipping company.

I told him I could live with the price, just tell me where to send the money.......

Edit Added Email addy's
Source Addy: NorCal Paintball - [email protected]
PayPal request addy: [email protected]

unnamed-12 (resized).jpgunnamed-9 (resized).jpg unnamed-7 (resized).jpg

I spent most of yesterday just waiting by my laptop for the seller to send me the payment info. It took me back to my high school days waiting by the phone to be asked to prom..waiting, waiting, waiting...

o-girl-waiting-by-phone-facebook-1 (resized).jpg

Finally this morning I woke up and sure enough the seller had replied...with a western union request !@#!

Good day Melissa, Below is money-gram/Western union details for payment

Receiver's Name: xxxxx x. xxxxx
State: Florida
City: Crawfordville
Zip code: 32327.

Let me know once payment is made.

maxresdefault (resized).jpg

Nobody, I mean nobody does nerdygrrl like that. Do you know who I am? I sit in an office by myself for eight hours a day stuck in front of a computer. I spent the 2016 tracking and mapping fake social media accounts.

what-i-do-have-are-a-very-particular-set-of-skills-skills-i-have-acquired-over-a-long-career (resized).jpg

My Googlefu is strong son and I am coming for you.

angela-bassett-waiting(1) (resized).jpg

Thirty seconds of googling I get a pop, the recipient appears to be an older woman late 60’s to early 70’s and has two different websites under her name. One for her translation business, which boasts and award for service and the other is a website where she hocks a line of cosmetics. She was also mentioned on her town’s Chamber of Commerce page and had two ads for a book launch and women’s gathering. 


Jesus, first I get scammed by a guy selling the pin claiming to be the son of an electrical engineer and now some grandma in FL has some elaborate scheme going on with a guy from Northern CA to take me for all of my pinball loot. What is this world coming to?!

 The town she resides in is relatively small with a population of 3,700. Someone there must know this Scam-ma, I figured a call to the local PD or even the Chamber of Commerce might get me the info I sought so I flipped a coin and the Chamber of Commerce won.

The woman that I spoke to at the Chamber knew the woman in question. She used to be on the board in. She tried to assure me the woman was not a crook and was kind enough to provide me her cell phone number. Being concerned for the woman I gave her a call, and mentioned that someone had provided me her info and had wanted me to send her money. Her being old, she didn’t quite follow, she was also ate the “doctor’s office” (a likely story) and would need to call me back, but stated she was expecting some money Western Union today.

The plot thickens...
hqdefault (resized).jpg

A few hours later I get a call back from the woman. We had a brief convo, I told her my story and how the person asked me to wire her several hundred dollars. She told me she had recently been scammed by a fellow that was allegedly in TX and that he had promised to wire her some money by the end of the month. She thought that maybe he had some come to Jesus moment. Sadly it seems like it is just another scam, but a weird one at that. I mentioned that whoever was behind this gave me enough info to track her down and that she should be careful about any wired funds as she might end up with the police knocking on her door one day. I offered to giver her and her police any of the info I had and forwarded along the payment request from the seller.

I wrote the seller back as soon as I saw the wire request and stated that I don't wire funds, that I would be happy to pay through PayPal, but not western union and that I would need more info.

To be continued.....

.........and the seller just responded with a paypal email addy different than the email we have been corresponding through.....

Alright.. Below is the PayPal address.

[email protected]

let me know once done.

It's just so weird, to request money to be sent to this woman. I can't tell if they were trying to pay her back by scamming me, if this was legit, etc.

The parts are allegedly in CA, they were going to use Bax to ship. They were using a NorCal email handle.

Oh def, but I am curious. Now seller is stating he is in FL and not CA and not using Bax just called a buddy for a quote.

Thanks, but this is totally a scam, but an interesting one at that.

I didn't get any hits when I tossed them in-got an email server for each. Derp didn't even think to look at IPDB because I thought it would have popped. Perhaps my Googlefu is not as strong I thought

Even though Grandma seemed legit, I mean she has a mary kay type webpage and the Chamber of Commerce vouched for her, I decided to alert the local pd.

Hahaha, I am so embarrassed that my Googlefu missed the images. MY image search just came up with a server.

Anyway, LEO called, report filed. A little concerned as they asked for my shipping addy to get a ship quote. I hope I don't end up with a knock at my door over some Western Union transfer.

It's crazy the lengths they will go to. I was going to string him along some more, but then had actual work to do. All in all made the morning more entertaining than watching cat vids.

I feel like I have done what I can, I alerted the authorities and the recipient in case she was not in on it and reported the email addy's to Mr Pinball. I probably won't bother with them again as it has just gotten too out of control there.

Yeah, that stuff really irks me. I was raised by my grandparents and great aunts/uncles. I now look after my 88 year old landlords. It’s a special kind of filth that prey on the elderly.

A few folks have asked me for the email addy's and other info. While I was going to post some screenshots of grandma's websites and headshots in my post because they are hysterical, I don't believe she is in on this and would rather leave her be.

As per the seller his original email had come in looking like a legit business email until you clicked on it and saw it was a toss away Gmail account. There is a business called NorCal Paintball, and splitting NorCal up like that shows some knowledge and understanding of English language, US culture- especially Northern CA. It's enough to get one's guard down.

Source Addy: NorCal Paintball - [email protected]
PayPal request addy: [email protected]