What to do when you get jacked on the For Sale Forum?

Professor

Professor

Gold Member
Joined
Apr 6, 1999
Messages
3,432
Man alive am I having bad luck lately with knife trasactions. Almost had a sweet, pearl-handled Benchmade 350 off Ebay until someone fraudulently sent me an email, posing as the seller, telling me he'd broken the tip off the knife at the last minute.

And two weeks ago, here on the For Sale Forums...

I'm approaching this as Defcon 1 at this point, not releasing the name or knife since there are jacka$$es out there who just send stuff two weeks after they're supposed to. And to the defense of some, the U.S. Mail can occasionally make some goofs, but I don't think it was the case here.

I sent a money order to a fella on July 7, 2000 who lives in New York. He emailed me to say he'd sent the knife on the same day as I'd sent the money order since he "trusted me." Well, here it is, the 19th of July, and nothing. No package, no response to two emails inquiring as to what the heck is going on, nothing. I've received packages sent the slowest routes of snail mail from New York in five days max in the past since I'm in Richmond, and at least those guys would correspond with me via email in the meantime. I've been quite diplomatic about it thus far IMHO, but God save the Queen when I reach Defcon 2.

So, any similar experiences? I've bought approximately 35 knives off the For Sale Forum with no problems in the past. Can you "cancel" a money order? What actions can I take if I need to? Am I screwed?
As always, thank you gentlemen for your responses to my query.

Professor.
 
Sorry to hear of your bad transactions, especially on this forum. If you look at the fine print on a money order, you will see that you can cancel a money order, but there is a moderate fee and a long waiting period. However, chances are, the money order was probably already cashed. In this case, I think its already too late.
frown.gif
Maybe this belongs in the Good, Bad and the Ugly.
 
First, I would try to cancel the money order. If you can't, then without being antagonistic (on the outside chance that this person has some legit reason for being late and intends to send you your goods) I would let them know that you have the number of the money order and you will be sending it, their name, and the circumstances to the IRS if you don't hear from them in a certain amount of time. Then, if you don't hear, I would do exactly that. Chances are they have some other "unreportable income" that the feds would love to know about. My mom worked for them for several years and they do have their good points when it comes to chasing down money crooks. Best of luck. By the way, the fella whom you tried to buy the benchmade from on ebay now has a big message stating the situation you ran into and not to listen to any email that doesn't come from him.

Again, best of luck and let us know how it turns out.

"Corporal, take us to defcon 2"
 
You might want to contact your local Postmaster, and find out if this might qualify as "mail-fraud", since you used a US Postal Money Order, and also used the US Mail Delivery System.
smile.gif
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Dann Fassnacht
Aberdeen, WA
glockman99@hotmail.com
ICQ# 53675663
 
I had a similar experience with the U.S. Mail. Did a deal with NC Blades to purchase a couple of knives, sent him the money order and he put the knives in the mail (Priority w/insurance). It took the knives almost three weeks to reach me but they were postmarked on the day NC Blades said he mailed them (no reflection on NC Blades who answered my e-mails and was as concerned as me that I had not received the knives, a gentleman for sure). I hope this works out for you and hopefully the knife is just "delayed", otherwise I would do as others have said and talk to your postmaster about mail fraud charges, etc. Good luck!

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"But if we took out all the bones it would'nt be a crunchy frog."
 
Originally posted by Hoss:
I had a similar experience with the U.S. Mail. Did a deal with NC Blades to purchase a couple of knives, sent him the money order and he put the knives in the mail (Priority w/insurance). It took the knives almost three weeks to reach me but they were postmarked on the day NC Blades said he mailed them (no reflection on NC Blades who answered my e-mails and was as concerned as me that I had not received the knives, a gentleman for sure). I hope this works out for you and hopefully the knife is just "delayed", otherwise I would do as others have said and talk to your postmaster about mail fraud charges, etc. Good luck!
Click to expand...

I did a deal with NCblades too and it turned out well. No problems from Oahu, Hawaii.
 
Hope this works out for you.
But if not be sure to post on the good, bad&ugly forum to let us all know.

Greetings
red
 
Hey Professor, I got jacked on eBay for a non-knife item once. I sent in a MO payment and never got the item OR a response to my many, many emails. 3 months later I FINALLY got a response, but only AFTER contacting eBay, and sending a CERTIFIED LETTER to the seller demanding payment. I threatened to pursue the matter with the seller's local law enforcement agency if a refund was not sent. I got a response, and 2 months after that I finally have a check in hand (even though I requested a MO!) We'll see if it is made of rubber or not...My refund came 7 months after I sent in my payment! Needless to say, the seller is banned from eBay... I hope your situation works out.

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"They sicken of the calm, who know the storm."
RFrost5746@excite.com

My Knives
 
King Tut. That's amazing. I've report credit card fraud to at least 50 different police departments and never had the slightest bit of interest from any of them.


Professor, if you're sure that you've been fleeced, I wouldn't hesitate to contact the operators of this forum to let them know. At least they could prevent the individual from posting here again. Take care.

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Fred
Knife Outlet
http://www.knifeoutlet.com
 
I've got a shot out to Mike right now (email). He's probably been busy, and gets about a zillion emails daily. I'll keep everyone posted. Thanks again guys.

Professor.
 
The package in question was finally received today. Thanks to all who responded.

Professor.
 
Did he mail it on the day he said he was going to mail it? What was the postmark on the package? Was this just another USPS "delay"?

"I gots to know, I just gots to know"
 
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