Not sure if the dude can spoof email addys, but skanthedj at gmail pulled up this: https://www.skanthedj.com/

First, sorry this happened to you my pinball brother, but I can tell you this... the way I found Pinside was when I decided to get back into the hobby!! I was very trusting. Found two machines I wanted from the same Pinsider, didn’t know squat about buying used machines and got taken.

Yes I did end up with both machines, but man did I over pay. Totally my own fault for trusting someone. Grrrrrrrrr.

I later sold both machines at auction for about half of what I paid for each one. But hey I learned and in the process found a great group of people in the hobby!!

So I chalked it up to an expensive lesson learned.

Hopefully you can get some $ back out of all this.

Good luck.

Probably suggested before. It would be nice if when a new account is opened that selling games is not allowed for x number of months and or topic posts etc.
This way we can get a track record of who were dealing with. Heck why not tiered selling ? This would be after new account is opened they can sell anything under 100.00. After x number of successful transactions or 1 year on pinside they can sell $1k items. Upon positive feedback on completed transactions it goes to 1500 etc.

If Pinside is still Robin's full time meal ticket, it would be difficult for him to turn away legit higher selling fees for the honest new sellers.

I’ve suggested this countless times on this site.

Without action from the powers that be, it’s quite obvious this lack of action is out of penny wise and pound foolish greed.

In theory limiting the people that can post FS ads limits the revenue the site can generate. Of course 99% of these new member FS posts are scams so it’s not going to translate to revenue anyways (but only the users can realize this).

Meanwhile people like me who actually donate to this site and post legit FS ads get frustrated and jaded by the lack of action to combat spammers and scammers, and as a result question whether our next games will be posted here, which is an ACTUAL stream of revenue this site has... but is gambling to lose.

someone already posted the information

It is easy to spoof an email address to send email, to be able to receive email and correspond back and forth is a level of skill that would not be used by someone to scam a few grand.

Sorry you got scammed. That's a really hard and expensive lesson.

Looks like you can add reviews to his Facebook page and his Google business listing....

LOL. If you're willing to give away 4 grand I call bullshit. People sending tough guys don't give advance warning just quietly. You're only making them laugh more. And what is a PINSODE Purchase?

Well I got to say it after reading all this post I see nowhere where the guy who claims he got ripped off has contacted PayPal in any way shape or form so my question is has even contacted them and if so what did he find out if he hasn't contacted PayPal the only person he's got to blame as himself just because you paid with friends and family doesn't mean he can't contact PayPal for some help so has he contacted them or hasn't it be nice to know

That really sucks. Have you tried calling your credit card bank and dispute the charge?

Yeah the guy gets on here and complains and complains but he doesn't say about anything about what he's doing about it call your credit card company contact PayPal come on what are you doing don't just come here bitching about it

He did state it was from cash, not CC.
Agreed that he should call Paypal even if it was friends/family payment. They should have some kind of record of who the person is.

You're only seeing one small aspect of the situation.

We have had several legitimate first-time sellers who joined the site to sell a game. Sometimes they sell and then leave, and sometimes they stay and continue with the hobby. I'm sure you've seen a few ads where a seller has inherited a game, or gotten a game from a friend, or was selling a house, or several other scenarios. Not everyone who is a new member is a scammer. Around maybe 1 in 300 new members might actually be a scammer that successfully slips through.

No, it's not about the funds that the ads generate. It's about being welcoming for someone joining the community and not having too many road blocks in place to deter new members from joining or participating. There are several restrictions in place and several hoops that new members have to jump through, but unfortunately, some scammers are clever and can find ways around them. Scammers are also patient. They will also wait for all the timed restrictions to expire, then go active with their scams.

Additionally, not all scammers post ads. Some just send PMs.

So, if some scammers can get around the restrictions and verification/authentication methods in place, what exactly do you propose? Just adding more and more restrictions just impedes new users from participating. The current restrictions already turn away a lot of new members as it is.

Additionally, there are several warning messages displayed on new accounts about being cautious concerning new members, both in the marketplace and within PMs. It's up to the buyer to take those warnings into account when participating in a potential transaction.

We are also very responsive when members report possible scams. Unfortunately, not all members are proactive in reporting them--sometimes they just hit delete and move on, and sometimes they are just embarrassed about falling for a scam. So if you suspect something, please make sure to tell us about it to help protect other members.

There is quite a lot that happens behind the scenes that you don't see in order to try to deter them as much as possible. For obvious reasons, we won't go into details in a public post that scammers can also read.

Scams are by no means unique to pinball, but they are a little bit newer to pinball since scammers figured out how to make it profitable for them, especially with the rapid influx of people who are new to the hobby. Scammers are tricky and tend to change up their tactics when people start catching on. It's a cat and mouse game.

So, yes, it's very unfortunate that scammers try to infiltrate the hobby, but thankfully, they are the exception and not the rule.

Paypal accounts can be hacked. Scammers can sometimes take over legitimate & authenticated accounts, run their scams through them, transfer the money out, and then they're gone and onto the next hacked account.

Maybe if you sell a machine through Pinside, Robin can set up some kind of escrow account and do it all from here. And collect a fee....

The idea has been brought up before, but that is a whole other can of worms. Lots of liabilities, insurance, regulations, compliance, etc. It's much easier said than done.

Got ya!

I got burned by a seller who is a large distributor that still posts on here to this day.

I saw an advertisement for a LOTR about 8 years ago. The seller brought the game to a show for me to buy. I trusted him as he said the cabinet was a 10/10 and the playfield a 9/10. I was only a year or two into buying pins, trusted the seller and didn't check the game when I got it at the show.

Well, the cabinet was touched up in several places, especially around the flippers. The major issue though was the playfield had a gouge in it down to the wood where the Balrog swivels back and forth. I contacted the seller about it and he acted like it was no big deal and told me to just fill and paint it...

When I sold the game I took pictures of the area I attempted to repair and told the new buyer about it.

C'mon Panzer....he didn't take $6000 of yer money and run/no machine. That sucks for ya, no doubt, but atleast you had a machine.
OP was the first person to contact me about my ACDC and I've been putting off tellin him that I can't accept PayPal. Sorry man, not from a new guy. I REALLY wish we woulda had this conversation now. I feel like maybe I coulda steered you clear of this bullshit. Sorry bud.
Please let us know how this turns out. Either way, these mf's need STOMPED.
On the ACDC,...you were 1st. I always honor my word. But I do have a couple local guys that don't even want pics.
Best of luck bro.

Note to self: don't tell people they're first anymore.

This sucks. I have always been a cash on glass buyer knowing there are so many scams out there.

Why not use escrow.com? You could make your payment using paypal. Fees are probably around $200?

I will drive up to eight hours for the right pin. Shipping involves dangers in getting ripped off via money and quality. It also runs the risk of shipping damage. Watch some of the forklift drivers in warehouses. That should help you change your mind.

Lastly, you get to meet new pinheads. I've had great conversations that last hours! They also may give you good access to high demand games in the future. My advice to everyone is to stick to CASH ON GLASS. Too many benefits.

ForceFlow: I wonder if it might make sense to have a prominent "new buyers click here" link with buying advice. (In my mind: escrow! and a link to vid's guide).

Vid's guide is a stickied tread, but I'm sure not every first timer digs around on the forums too much.

Some sort of welcome message could be an interesting idea.

So you were a victim of identity theft, they hacked your account and sent funds to their accounts . Yep that sounds like something the police should handle, along with Paypal once you have a copy of the police report in hand to send them.

Pinball isn't the only game you can play......

file a false police report is your advice?