Some tips for those who chose to purchase online
1. Whenever someone claiming to be someone from LYN sms/msn/ym you that he has something that you wanted to buy, always ask the person to PM you via the nick he claimed to be in LYN. (This is to avoid scam where usually a conman try to impersonate as a high rank / trusted forummer to convince you, IF he gives you lotsa nonsense excuse that he cant PM you via his nick, 99% most likely he's conman. Common sense, if he really wanted to deal with you, it won't take him long to send you a short PM for verification when he can browse around the Trade Zone before bumping into your WTB thread and proceed to msn \ ym \ sms you)

2. Check his Successful Trade List, do PM those who've dealt with him to get some feedbacks. (This will give you some idea of his dealing way before actually dealing with him cause sometimes there are rotten deals where the victim chose to keep quiet rather than reporting the seller due to personal reason e.g. busy, too small matter)
***Feedbacks can be false sometimes, you might not know whether the previous claimed-to-be-buyer of his is actually a duplicate account of himself to give false feedback. I caught lot of conman giving false feedbacks to their sales thread / indirect bump their threads via their duplicate account to gain confidence from potential victims.

3. Get as much info as possible of the seller and do google his details to check in case whether those details are related to con case. (I.C, Contact Number, Banking Details, Full Name, MSN \ YM address )
***Most of the time you'll get a Full Name and Banking Details. Try to get their I.C saying that you need that to bank in money to them. Get their MSN \ YM saying that it's for the Bank to send email notification of successful transfer.

4. Perform a search on his details in the Official Black List & Minor Offenders List's thread here (In case there are not listed in google)

5. Do not buy in rush, doing so will only put yourself in danger. Always be skeptical and check around even if you really in need of that particular thing. Conman will always rush you so with some lame excuses (e.g. urgent sale, else he gonna sell to others) so that you don't have much time to bump into thread like this to hit some sense into you and you ended up bank in to them blindly.

6. Do a "Find member's topics" search on the seller, I noticed quite a number of conmen like to create a few threads selling popular items in one day to increase the chance of conning you guys. If you noticed that all his threads are selling items at too-good-to-be-true price, watch out! Don't be greedy. it'll bring you more harm than good. Usually conman will try to sell their stuff at very cheap price BUT cant COD or COD places are far away e.g. sabah / sarawak. Nevertheless , there are still some conmen who sold their items at market rate to avoid suspicion.

7. If possible, try not to deal via 'Bank In - Postage' with new-joiners. One of the common conman's pattern is posting lots of new sales threads right after they join in to try their luck. If you are in doubt, just sleep over the deal, rather than having sleepless night later on.

8. PM one of the Trade Enforcer / Mods should you feel that the seller is a potential conman. Do provide us the full story and tell us the reason you suspect him to assist our investigation.

9. After you've discussed with the Mods / Trade Enforcers, create a thread in Trade Zone Dispute Corner, provide all the details you have of the seller to alert others. Your fast action might save others from being conned. Help to make LYN a better place to trade.

10. and of course, THE BEST WAY to minimize the risk of being conned is JUST COD.

11. If you need an item badly and unable to COD with the seller at the place or time the seller requested, you might wanna GET HELP FROM TRUSTED / RELIABLE SENIOR MEMBERS who are from that area to help you to COD and then only post or COD with you. Some of them might charge you some reasonable fees to cover their expenses / time / transportation to COD for you, don't be stingy and consider that small "fee" as insurance for you item. It's always better to have someone trustworthy to COD for you rather than risking your hard earned money for the sake of saving that small "fee".



For those who are interested to read more about real life con cases, click the links given below
* Conman trying to impersonate another forummer- Handphone seller's case and E-Gold seller's case and Impersonate as forum VIP member
* Conman joined, build his reputation with duplicate account before organizing a big bulk to scam others - Shahrilwan's case and Kawasaki_kips's
* Too cheap to be true deals - here

p/s: will update more from time to time. Lastly, Happy Dealing in LYN'z Trade Zone

Regards
VK

Updates:
13/1/2008 - Added tips 11.

This post has been edited by vikingw2k: Jan 13 2008, 02:19 PM

You should close or lock this thread.

I'm leaving this thread open for suggestions, opinions or perhaps some fruitful discussions.

U should explain/advise too about sellers (or maybe conman) ask to bank in for COD (Cash on Delivery).

This post has been edited by St.Daring: Jan 13 2008, 01:58 PM

IMO, the very first step should do when banking in is... call/SMS (call is better) the seller about you're about to banking-in some money (as agreed earlier), confirming with account number and account holder name, should the seller did not asnwer or reply the message, better wait it out until got the confirmation about the banking details... that's what i do everytime i wanted to bank in some money to other party

... and please keep those messages (PM, YM/MSN logs, SMSes) for future reference

thank for the advise ................

This should do big help to newbie beginning trade around here

some advice,
for those who faced COD problem with some seller,
dont COD in rush,do check the item carefully and even though it takes time,but it gives you some insurance of the item.
if the seller is unhappy for the mess and fuss,it sounds fishy as if the item is as mentioned perfect condition,he/she is not goign to arfaid of anything.
i remembered this point due to some of forumer did face the problem like that,when cod never check carefully and blame the seller for the sold item,but if this happened,u shall not blame him but blame yourself of not check the item carefully when cod.

at least give urself 15 minutes to check and do ask from seller that u might need 15 minutes to check the item on the spot,if he/she not argee,DONT DEAL,most of the cod item,no warranty will be given since u satisfy only u paid.

just ym advice,hope that it helps u.

***
if anyone who need to buy anything from Penang,i willing to provide COD services and take some of the service charges

maybe we can use REPORT button.....?

___

1 more thing.....

why don't you make the topic red in color / striking color... so ppl will notice this thread...

This post has been edited by syazwanreno: Jan 13 2008, 07:30 PM

I think the REPORT button is for more serious case gua... Since it's recommended that you don't rush while buying stuff...

Agreed

I guess it's sufficient by pinning it up here

This post has been edited by vikingw2k: Jan 13 2008, 09:05 PM

not sure it's relevant or not, but bank in to the trader's account name only

i mean if the trader's name is ABC and the he ask you to bank into his wife's account number using a different number, that might be conman's job as wel.

anyway, the point is that should follow back to the details in PM.

Buyer need to make sure that all form of contacts provided by the seller is indeed the same person.

Not really, some of the genuine sellers would ask me to bank in money to account which doesn't belong to them. E.g. their wife / friends because they don't have Maybank account.

ya i know that, what if someone just sms you and claimed that he's the seller and he's with his wife and ask you to bank into his wife's account since he doesnt have maybank account.

" Sorry, my phone got low bat, i'm vikingw2k using my wife's phone
btw, please bank in into my wife's number at XXXXXXX "

got what i mean ?

I'll ask him to PM me via his account in LYN. If he failed to do so, I'll just call off the deal.

This post has been edited by vikingw2k: Jan 13 2008, 10:28 PM

Gud advice n

I use my father's bank account

This post has been edited by Silverfire: Jan 14 2008, 09:14 PM

Yes...gud advice.