Source
r/mechmarket•
Astrasa

[META] Scammer - /u/dyaga017

META

We've gotten a few reports within the last day about u/dyaga017 who is scamming users across multiple subreddits. Their username seems to be taken from this profile, https://www.heatware.com/u/50003/to although this profile has no recent activity and the reddit account is quite new. They are banned through hardwareswap and are already on the USL (Universal Scammer List). They are asking users to pay F&F because G&S takes too long to clear in their account and they need the money immediately.

Here's some pointers from our last scammer post that you should definitely heed:

  1. If you get contacted by another user which have not commented on your mechmarket submission, ask them to do so. As mods we cannot ban users from messaging other users, but we can ban them from making comments on the subreddit. Hence banned users cannot comment on your submission. If an user states that they are only "temporarily suspended", then ask them for why, how long and put off the trade until their suspension is over. If you feel suspicious you can also make a search on https://universalscammerlist.com/search.php, but remember that mechmarket only subscribes to #scammer bans (i.e. not #troll or #sketchy bans).
  2. Paypal "Friends and Family or F&F” is for friends and family. I.e. always pay with Goods and Services except if you really know the user, especially if the seller makes odd claims such as they need you to pay by F&F as they need to withdraw the money ASAP.
  3. If the user links their heatware in a PM, make sure the account is linked to the reddit account that you got the message from. If it's not then ask them to link their account or in any other way prove ownership of the heatware account, other than just having the same username. (For an example of how it looks when the account are linked look under my username on https://www.heatware.com/u/103792/to to see the text"✓ soilheart on Reddit" EDIT: Looks like you need to register an account to see the full profile... I guess that's another reason to be careful about heatware links).
  4. If you feel like the timestamps look off in any way, never hesitate to ask for another timestamp. Ask them to write or draw an additional thing to verify that the timestamp is real. Timestamps should always be given willingly and asking for more timestamps is always acceptable, no matter the reason.

A good tool to use is hardwareswap's reddit scam labeler. The USL banned users will not be able to comment in mechmarket but you can view their profile to see if they have any tags.

TL;DR Never pay F&F regardless of excuses and always get them to comment on your post.

Also stumblebum1 is still an active scammer don’t interact with them

EDIT: As of 10/11/20 dyaga017 is still an active scammer pming users directly.

Posted Sep 9, 2020, 10:30 PM UTC · edited

48880
DarthJAYder21•

Yeah I got scammed $305 from this prick

41
AlternateSkyBox•

If PayPal won’t help you, open a claim with your bank. Depending on your provider, they will reimburse you via a chargeback after an investigation.

7
Drakenocas•

I know nothing may come out of it, but it would be worth trying charge their username/ID in a small claims court in your state, if you are in the US. It's something that we've been attempting to advocate some legislation for in the last few years so that the legal system one day can go after a person's lost from online scams in these situations. Best of luck. Sorry this happened to you.

4
DarthJAYder21•

Im in Australia :( I have tried everything but got no where. It's so shit how easy it is to scam and steal from people and get away with it

5
mdelint•

That sucks man. Are there any actions u can take to get ur money back?

2
BleedinSkull•

Unfortunately, not much.

You can try to argue an "unauthorized transaction" and maybe if they're feeling resentful, they'll give you a single pass and return your cash.

But in most case scenarios: They'll tell you "friends and family payment is for friends and family only" mostly because they do not like people using it for goods and services as a way to bypass their fee. And... they deserve the fee anyways, they are being your middleman after all. They may also tell you "We can email the person you sent the funds to and ask them kindly to give the money back" and like bloody hell a scumbag filthy scamming piece of trash is going to return stolen cash.

4
DarthJAYder21•

Tried PayPal and my bank and got declined :( so easy to just scam people and walk away clean

1
VaeVictis88•

Anyone asking you to use Friends and Family instead of invoicing you should immediately be considered a possible scammer. Everyone who isn't new to PayPal knows that Friends and Family doesn't have buyer protection.

29
kemba_sitter•

The proper rule is to never use F&F unless you know the person extensively (i.e. you are long time "friends" on discord, etc), and the person is someone whom you would also ask to use F&F with. Don't know em, or know em a little bit? Use goods and services payment.

9
VaeVictis88•

Agreed. The only times I've used F&F was with a local game store that I would attend MTG tourneys 2 or 3 times a week for 5+ years. I spent thousands over the years and was close friends with the owners.

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

5
kookiekurls•

I’ve literally done hundreds of transactions through F&F for half a decade in various hobbies. It’s done to avoid the transaction fees, not scam people.

3
Spooknik•

As someone who's sold a lot of stuff on this sub, I am willing to accept the fees in order to assure a good and safe deal. To ensure trust with someone I'm doing a deal with, it's a small price to pay to make everything go smoothly. With someone I know I'd probably use F&F as the name suggests.

9
WhosAfraidOf_138•

He contacted me to, and he was able to verify his Heatware account via a DM. But what tipped me off was him appearing on the scammers list + asking for F&F. Reported him immediately.

Thanks for the quick action mods!

24
Rhaekaryn•

I’m new here, what’s F&F stands for?

5
AstrasaOPModerator•

Friends and Family payment option on Paypal

14
WhosAfraidOf_138•

F&F payment on PayPal. Check sidebar on why that's a bad idea and why you should use G&S.

7
Rhaekaryn•

Ohh i see, thank you all!

2
Tylernd•

Friends and family

7
Zygardias•

While I get that, man do I wish the fee with G&S was smaller/nonexistent

14
LightningXI•

2.9% for local and 4.4% for international really isn't that bad for the security it offers.

20
Zygardias•

When you're broke, anything above 2% is too high lol, Covid hasn't made it much better

-22
ImPrampo•

When you are at the point that 2% of your purchase makes the difference because you are broke, you should not buy keyboards on reddit and save money

79
gminso•

i think hes broke and selling cause hes broke lol. the fees paid by the sellers

15
cbbplanet•

Just want to add my 2 cent on friend and family. From selling perspective, I’m also wary of new buyers on med-large purchase amounts. Buyers can also scam by filing claim against PayPal stating item never received. (PayPal usually on buyer side even if there is tracking). This can be avoided by getting signature AND insurance which can be quite expensive. So in the past, I’ve definitely asked buyers with 0 trades/post/comment to send f&f or would not sell otherwise. It doesn’t make sense to spend $20 on shipping for $100 of goods but also don’t want to get scammed $100.

11
monkaOMEGA•

Yes +1 for this. There is no seller protection on paypal or mechmarket.

7
Zasheushttps://www.heatware.com/u/111050/to•

Yeah I just had that happen to me, PayPal sided with them. Luckily they wanted them to send back the keyboard before giving them the money back so they never replied.

2
cbbplanet•

Definitely send modmail and report that buyer because thats a red flag and at least they have record of that user.

4
IcyMelon•

PayPal by default will try side with the buyer, it’s pretty easy to fuck over a seller unfortunately

3
NetworkMick•

Thanks for the heads-up. Serious question, what legal actions can be taken to have this/these types of scumbags from ripping off innocent people? No such thing as a smart theif and there's always a way to track down the SOB.

10
ViktorVaughnLickupon•

Wire Fraud I guess. But that also depends on your state and the amount, way of scamming etc.

4
[deleted]•

[deleted]

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

11
limpymcforskin•

I would make the argument that friends and family is equally as bad for sellers as it is for buyers. All it takes is a simple chargeback via a credit card and the money is gone. Paypal will not help you and they will suck the money out of your paypal account if it's in there and if it isn't they will make you pay it back unless you want to abandon the account I guess but either way it's not a good idea for either party nefarious intent or not.

10
TwizzerTV•

So, I use to work for a company that did stuff for PayPal. We learned the easiest way that people fraud using PayPal is to create a new account, attach a vanilla visa or re-loadable debit-card with $5 scam, withdrawal the money or spend it and then start over again simple $5 investment each time. Easy to do when all the info is fake and not checked, and you allow vcc/reloadables on your platform. These people are scum. Never pay F&F, if you paid F&F call your bank.

2
cbbplanet•

If buyer paid f&f with credit card.. there’s also a fee incurred on buyer side and if buyer file chargeback, the hit is on PayPal, it will not affect seller because it wasn’t g&s. credit card company will actually ask for proof from PayPal and won’t approve the chargeback for unauthorized charges sending to your friend/family unless it was one time thing where card stolen.

2
limpymcforskin•

Dude I'm saying this from experience since I was scammed in this exact way. Sold a phone. I accepted friends and family so I didn't have to pay fees. Sent the phone and even got a positive feedback on xda. Then a month or so later I get a message from PayPal about a charge back notification I log into my account and the balance was marked in red numbers. I never got anything from the persons cc company to fight the charge back and when I contacted PayPal they wouldn't do anything since it was friends and family.

There is also no fees for using credit cards as funding sources. I fund everything with my credit card as a buyer. I'm not charged anything extra.

2
cbbplanet•

that is interesting.. safest method for seller is venmo then

1
AstrasaOPModerator•

Except that sometimes (I'm not sure on the details) buyers can still pull their funds after the transaction. Venmo isn't supposed to be used for the purchase or sale of a good or service and venmo will lock your account if they catch you.

1
BleedinSkull•

You know Venmo's parent company is PayPal, right?

Never tried Venmo so not too sure if their policies are different or the same.

1
w34ksaUcehttps://www.heatware.com/u/122640/to•

You can still get charge backed through venmo

1
javiofranks•

Thanks I just got messaged by them.

9
RonHGeneral•

"Never pay F&F regardless of excuses and always get them to comment on your post."

Paypal can only help you with a dispute if you use Goods and Services and make the transaction as legit as possible. Maybe you've traded with someone before or you think you can trust them because they have a lot of trades, but you can never be too sure. Maybe the package gets lost in transit or there's some issue with the item you receive, it's always nice to have some insurance just in case. I've bought many things on reddit and have never had any issues (people tend to be really nice actually) but I've always used G&S when not buying local.

9
deadnerd51•

As a general thing, you should never pay for anything using F&F on paypal unless it you are using it exactly for that. Paypal will only provide buyer protection on payments made for G&S.

Always use best practice when making online transactions, as doing otherwise leaves you as the one responsible.

8
[deleted]•

[deleted]

2
Do_You_Even_Repost•

if you already using heatwave, you've already lost

7
mytommy•

care to elaborate? im new to this

1
ciforia•

this guy just dm'd me asking for 500 for a sealed 2080 Ti. Was suspicious at first and asked for additional timestamp but to no avail. Glad I also found this thread which confirmed my suspicion.

7
49_61_6e•

yeah, this guy took my money, feels bad. glad he is on blast, i should have seen it coming but still, it sucks to see that he got others.

6
Silvermonkey457•

Sad boi hour :( We have such a good community mostly

2
lolbryandanielson•

Thank you for weeding out the scum. Good work as always!

4
shoxiiii•

Thank you! Nearly brought from him so glad I didn’t

4
Mr_Frooty•

exposed!

3
12ebral•

Goodbye and good riddance!

3
alrez97•

That's crazy

3
Sophie912•

Thanks for the heads up. Also good to know for PayPal purchases going forward...won’t do F&F!

3
gepriester•

I see a lot of user prefering to receive PMs instead of using the chat window. Whats the difference? The UI of the chat is actually nicer imo.

3
JasonMAKOMAN•

For me at least, PMs have a subject I can refer to when looking back at messages

9
AstrasaOPModerator•

Personally on desktop the chat box is annoying and I don't want to have it in a popped out window. I use the revamped inbox which has better UI and the ability to search for key words in old messages.

7
keypcb•

I use a third party reddit app on my phone (Slide) which can't access the chat feature.

2
gepriester•

This is weird. The official reddit app surpresses the pm feature and somehow wants you to use the chat feature.

1