Just a friendly public service reminder, be careful with your money. Watch out for scammers. Do not use PayPal friends and family for people you do not know.

There was reportedly another victim of a scammer on Facebook. This one allegedly sent $5,100 via PayPal friends and family and has lost it. The person who allegedly scammed them had a US phone number, reportedly fake Facebook account, and photos of the machine they baited their alleged victim with.

Be careful everyone, the scammers smell blood in the water in our hobby and they believe we pinheads are good targets. They will only increase their efforts and focus to try and deprive you of your money. They will start sounding more and more sophisticated as they learn the ins and outs of our hobby more. Do not trust people you meet online. Be a prudent steward of your money.

One thing I recommend is if you are buying a game across the country, ask a Pinsider who lives in the area where the game is being sold to go check it out for you. It helps you learn more about the condition and you know the seller actually has the game. If the Pinsider gets weird vibes from him he can let you know.

Of course, nothing is perfect and you could always get scooped by the guy who goes and looks at the game for you. That would suck...

So, the scammers (or scammer, I’m not sure if it isn’t just one guy who has learned the ins and outs of our hobby) are growing more sophisticated. They now know our hobby specific vocabulary.

Remember, threads like this one that ear mark what they (or he) are doing wrong help them (or him) to improve as scammers.

I’m not sure what the answer is gang. Be careful, don’t trust people you don’t know, protect yourself, report suspicious activity...

Agreed. Part of the problem here guys is we believe it’s possible there is only one person or a very small group of scammers targeting our hobby (sure there are general scammers that respond to anything for sale anyway, but we feel we have a wolf out there with his full focus on u pinball enthusiasts). They are educating themselves based on what we are saying on the internet about their scams to be more effective. The scammer has already learned a lot of our hobby specific lingo...he’s getting more sophisticated quickly.