Fraud on Audiogon

dminches

Well-Known Member
Oct 22, 2011
3,409
2,794
1,410
Audiogon support got back to me.

?I heard back from him and he apologized and removed the photo.
Still that does not make this okay.
His account has been flagged for this violation.
Can I help you with anything else
?



pathetic. The ad is still showing, but with no photo. It's clear he is not in possession of the Thales tonearm. No idea why it has not been removed. I have asked.

The seller has now blocked me. LOL. As if I was ever going to do business with that fraud.

How do you know that he doesn’t have the arm and he was just lazy and used your picture?
 

XV-1

Well-Known Member
May 24, 2010
3,591
2,576
1,860
Sydney
How do you know that he doesn’t have the arm and he was just lazy and used your picture?

He used two pictures from the internet. mine, then some other shot from 2016. Now there is NO photo.

It literally takes 30 seconds to take a photo and upload. Is he that lazy for a tonearm he is supposedly selling for 5k?

Audiogon said they will remove the listing if he does not add a photo within 24hours.
 

mr-particle

Well-Known Member
Dec 20, 2012
53
39
925
Germany

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mr-particle

Well-Known Member
Dec 20, 2012
53
39
925
Germany
Just a short update.
After sending a note the admin of audiog.com about the potential fake, the seller responded claiming that he had no pictures at hand.
In the meantime the pictures showing my item were removed.
But I still guess, that the advertisement is not real - just my feeling!
 

Phillyb

Well-Known Member
May 31, 2012
152
112
948
The bad thing about gon is if your taking for a ride, they will do nothing to help you. They take the money for the ads but it ends there. You are on your own. I know a few people taken one was for an Esoteric K03 another a Mark Levinson. All Gon did was a ban that user, but then one came back under a different name. I never sell unless they are a long time user with good feedback. Too bad Gon will not let you speak with a seller or buyer until you purchase. I can understand why, but it makes it hard, folks in the early days took advantage of Gon, so now they are very tight in what they allow. You have no recourse, UPS or Fed-X can only do so much, if you in another state or country it's almost impossible to get the product back or money, even PayPal is hard to help you.
 

Mike Lavigne

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
Apr 25, 2010
12,471
11,368
4,410
you do have to protect yourself. but it's not that hard to protect yourself on Audiogon, just look at feedback, or search for their discussion posts. if there is nothing there, or it's light, then don't proceed. worst case ask them for a reference. it's a hobby so a natural thing to discuss. ask them who they bought it from. check with that place or person. with a serial number a manufacturer can help typically if you are patient.

if you are dealing with 'out-of-country' buyers or sellers then just raise the bar to a very high level for other points of reference or pass. if it does not pass the smell test then it doesn't.

just common sense. most buyers or sellers i deal with know me or we have common acquaintances. some people i've sold to on Audiogon have become good long term friends. been dealing on Audiogon for over 20 years with zero issues. admittedly seldom in the last few years.
 

BruceD

VIP/Donor
Dec 13, 2013
1,509
576
540
I too am in my 20th year with the Gon--and touch wood have had 99% great transactions/etc--Yes I hate the damn PP must use bit as private seller --but I do think they are more approachable today--I've found Tammy to be on the ball promptly with a couple of niggly dudes and all was sorted to my satisfaction.

Whether we like them or not they still command the biggest audience in our field.

I will mention though I do NOT recommend Audiomarket de- after my ONLY(and LAST!) interaction -I lost €1600 to a ratbag in Poland and his Rogue Krakow Bank--I'd strongly avoid dealings with the aforementioned.

BruceD
 

Lagonda

VIP/Donor
Feb 3, 2014
3,424
4,681
1,255
Denmark
Never had a problem on Audiogon, but a couple of month after i purchase and recieved a 10k item from a American dealer he was outed for swindling a few buyers and his account closed down :oops: I got lucky ! Audiomarkt is tricky, a lot of fraud by organized people with home pages and feedback, but a lot of great gear from good people too. I try to go in person and pick up gear, but have never gotten burned when i take a chance and send money.I never send money to Eastern Europe, but have driven to Poland and picked up gear at great prices, probably because most don't want to take the chance. I have personally exposed and reported 5 different fraudsters trying to sell MBL gear on Audiomarkt :rolleyes:
 
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shakti

Well-Known Member
May 9, 2015
1,437
2,383
480
Cologne, Germany
at the moment a kind of Mafia is placing fraud adverts.
Typical start is, that they contact someone with a real advert, asking for more pictures, a video and pdf copies of the original invoice. Than they advertised the gear in another part of the world with all the information they got.

I am receiving regular question from those kind of people, asking for pictures of my gear in ebay or audiomarkt.

Since I use a "post it tag" on every picture with written date, audiomarkt or ebay plus the name of potential buyer
(like : Picture done on 1.11.20 for Joe Miller / Audiomarkt) they stop after the first picture sent to ask for more details.

I found my pictures before in many hifi portals. Sometimes easy to find, using Hifi Shark.
 

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