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Can a moderator please contact me, possible SCAMMED

52K views 222 replies 120 participants last post by  Vioviv 
#1 ·
Before I start throwing the seller under the bus.

Short story.
Watch was on the sales section here.
Agreed to buy the watch on the 15th.
Wired the money on the 16th.
Haven't heard from the seller in 2 days.
I've sent several emails, phone calls, and messages. I saw today he even read 1 of my WhatsApp messages.

I will start a new thread if I don't here back with all the details tomorrow if I don't here from him.

What are the proper steps I should take here as I am new to all this as you can see with my post count.

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#2 ·
Before I start throwing the seller under the bus.

Short story.
Watch was on the sales section here.
Agreed to buy the watch on the 15th.
Wired the money on the 16th.
Haven't heard from the seller in 2 days.
I've sent several emails, phone calls, and messages. I saw today he even read 1 of my WhatsApp messages.

I will start a new thread if I don't here back with all the details tomorrow if I don't here from him.

What are the proper steps I should take here as I am new to all this as you can see with my post count.

Sent from my SM-G975W using Tapatalk
Im sorry to hear that. Hope this all works out for you. Just a question, did you do your research on the seller? Generally, you should buy the seller not the watch.

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#3 · (Edited)
I am guessing the moderators will help you or give you their thoughts on the situation as best they can but they would likely have some limitations too as they are not partied to the actual transaction, have you sent a message to the mods directly? Did the seller have okay feedback / a lot of posts? Life happens, there might be a reasonable explanation on the seller side. Hope it works okay.

When you say wired, was it a bank transfer or paypal? Not sure, but i think the latter potentially has some protections that might help but not sure about former.
 
#211 ·
When you say wired, was it a bank transfer or paypal? Not sure, but i think the latter potentially has some protections that might help but not sure about former.
The standard PayPal service (EG where the seller is charged 2.9%) has protections for the buyer, the Friends and Family option (Where no fees are charged) does not offer buyer protection.
Bank transfers have potential for fraud on both sides of the equation (YouTuber Paul Thorpe covers this well). FWIW, I am a former contractor for eBay (When they still owned PayPal). I've only used the PayPal Friends and Family option once for one seller, a YouTube watch reviewer with over 30,000 subscribers.
 
#4 ·
I can understand the anxiety but maybe there’s a reason he/she hasn’t responded? Maybe he was busy at work? Maybe he’s trying to get the watch in a box, packing it etc.?

Was it an expensive watch? You can tell us some details about the seller like how long he’s been here, post count, feedback or sales history without naming him/her.
 
#5 ·
It was a wire transfer from bank to bank.

Seller had over 200 posts on here and a few references. I emailed the references and they got back to me saying I can trust the seller. I emailed the references today again and haven't heard back, more red flags.

I hope I'm over reacting but the seller responded in minutes when buying the watch and crickets for the past few days.

What's the best way to reach the moderators?

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#8 ·
I know that I've delayed response to a buyer message for 2-3 days when I'm super busy. Some jobs you never know when crunch time is. Usually I try to get a note out but I have forgotten to do that at least once in the past.

If he has references, it's most likely just some time consuming stuff on his end. But keep everything documented just in case.
 
#9 ·
Let's hope so but what does it take to write a 10 second email or text. He knows now that I'm scared of this being a scam.

At what point should I make everything public? How long do you give someone, I feel the longer I wait the worst my chances are of doing anything about the issue.

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#10 · (Edited)
Come to think of it, I am actually not sure how to contact the mods directly as never done it. Found this page, there is a form, I think it might
be a route for contact... https://www.watchuseek.com/contact/

Its hard to say, but if it were me i would not be so worried about a couple days. Might be an issue, might not, tough to say. There might be a reasonable explanation. Perhaps they will be more responsive over the weekend. Hope it works out okay.

I generally prefer paypal, not sure how transfers work if there actually ends up being issue.
 
#121 ·
In the future never wire money. It's gone and you have no recourse. Use PayPal goods and services for some protection.

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I've noticed a few very reputable sellers here will only take bank wire and I understand why. Accepting G&S as a seller is just as risky as sending a bank transfer as a buyer. Paypal will give a buyer their money back for almost any reason, legitimate or not.
 
#13 ·
I might contact the bank you wired the money to to see if there has been any suspicious activity, if they will tell you, like the account being closed. That would be a trigger something is wrong.
As others have said, never wire money to a stranger. Always use a third party like PayPal.



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#15 ·
I might contact the bank you wired the money to to see if there has been any suspicious activity, if they will tell you, like the account being closed. That would be a trigger something is wrong.
As others have said, never wire money to a stranger. Always use a third party like PayPal.

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I would still do it but swap personal information (and only for *very* established members) before the transfer.

Still, it's only been two days. I'd wait for maybe 1-2 more days, and then post his information and see what the mods can do (or ask now, but it's a bit of a overreaction).
 
#14 ·
I'm not sure what the mods can do other than to perhaps ban the account(s). All sales here are private. Definitely not helpful for you now (I know) but 200 post count seems kinda low to me.. esp if you look at their post content and see that they were all sorta throwaway shallow posts. With a wire transfer, your remedies are unfortunately very limited (if not non-existent). You could go to your local police and file a report. But I cant say I've heard that has come with much success.

3% upcharges can suck for paypal but at least it buys you some protection.

---
anyway, keep the faith for now. maybe the seller just got busy.
 
#17 ·
Ouch! Sorry to hear about that.
I’d never buy a watch from a member with just over 200 posts, let alone a Submariner and wire transfer the money. In my opinion, the 100 posts requirement before selling is way too low.
 
#20 ·
People telling you to wait and that sometimes sellers get distracted... it's easy for them because it's not their money.

There's zero excuse to be incommunicado like this, especially given the assumed amount paid for a Submariner. The seller has your money. It's their responsibility to keep in contact as they ship the watch, send you tracking info, etc. If they got held up by work, the least you can expect is a quick note, "Sorry, overwhelmed right now but I'll get the watch out within the next XX hours."

Anything else is poor communication, possible negligence or worse.

I hope everything works out for you.
 
#21 ·
People telling you to wait and that sometimes sellers get distracted... it's easy for them because it's not their money.

There's zero excuse to be incommunicado like this, especially given the assumed amount paid for a Submariner. The seller has your money. It's their responsibility to keep in contact as they ship the watch, send you tracking info, etc. If they got held up by work, the least you can expect is a quick note, "Sorry, overwhelmed right now but I'll get the watch out within the next XX hours."

Anything else is poor communication, possible negligence or worse.

I hope everything works out for you.
He's not a seller. He's a scammer. Especially if he already acknowledged that he's received the money from you and then went silent.

It was an international money transfer with zero recourse. That money is gone. It was not a smart decision on the scammees part unfortunately.

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#24 ·
A mod can't do much but get in touch with the administrator. An administrator can, in theory, dig up the accounts posting's IP and any other info the site is able to track and give to the authorities for official police report.

That said, scamming for 10,000, they would most likely have a VPN and would be near impossible to track.
 
#26 ·
Call your bank right now. Tell them that it was a scamming wire payment situation and that you need a countermand request put in immediately for the wire (used to work for a payment company here in Canada). Forget telling people here what they think and waiting, you need to act on it. If you were wrong and the seller was good for it, remedy it afterwards and give him/her a nice tip for their trouble and your peace of mind.

More likely than not, the seller has moved the funds out of the account by now, but you might be lucky as international wire funds take a day or two to clear. If so, the countermand will pull the funds back to you from the receiving account before its swept from the seller.

Submariner, low count seller, crickets from references, and wire payment? Seriously, this isn't a "I'm really busy at work" seller, you are being too kind. You got scammed and need to start acting on it. The sooner you do, the significantly higher your chancing of recouping some funds. Truly, good luck and really hope you can get something out of this one!



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#27 ·
Call your bank right now. Tell them that it was a scamming wire payment situation and that you need a countermand request put in immediately for the wire (used to work for a payment company here in Canada). Forget telling people here what they think and waiting, you need to act on it. If you were wrong and the seller was good for it, remedy it afterwards and give him/her a nice tip for their trouble and your peace of mind.

More likely than not, the seller has moved the funds out of the account by now, but you might be lucky as international wire funds take a day or two to clear. If so, the countermand will pull the funds back to you from the receiving account before its swept from the seller.

Submariner, low count seller, crickets from references, and wire payment? Seriously, this isn't a "I'm really busy at work" seller, you are being too kind. You got scammed and need to start acting on it. The sooner you do, the significantly higher your chancing of recouping some funds. Truly, good luck and really hope you can get something out of this one!

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Sound, helpful advice.

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#28 ·
What others are saying is starting to make some sense I think too. Not sure, but it smells a bit fishy. Getting in touch with the bank especially seems logical.

Just a thought, would it make sense for him to try to get a hold of both his own and the recipients bank?
 
#33 ·
Unfortunate in this case, but for security reasons the recipient bank will never respond to a recipient trying to access information about a payment/account about their customer (and for good reason). OP will need to rely on his bank to work to get these funds clawed back if its possible.

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#29 ·
I have had to contact mods directly before. I tried the e-form contact mentioned above to no avail. I finally got a quick response by sending a pm. Here’s exactly what you need to do : 1) Go to the initial Public Forum page and at the top there is a list of the moderators. 2) Send one or two of the moderators a private message. Best of luck with everything, judg69
 
#31 ·
Scammers are the worst of the worst man, I hate seeing stories like this. I truly hope this works out for you OP.
 
#36 ·
It would be helpful for the OP to share the sales post, PM wording and anything else that might help the rest of us understand and recognize the scammer’s MO when he pops up again. His name would be helpful, even tough he’s probably long gone, as reading his non sales posts might help us recognize him.
 
#37 ·
It would be helpful for the OP to share the sales post, PM wording and anything else that might help the rest of us understand and recognize the scammer's MO when he pops up again. His name would be helpful, even tough he's probably long gone, as reading his non sales posts might help us recognize him.
and the alleged references!
 
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#42 ·
Darn, a Sub is very different - I assumed it was something like $1,000 (which is still not a small number, of course). But that's a big sale and I would expect a prompt response.

$10k and two days without contact? That's very, very weird and I agree with the other members about linking the original sale post.
 
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