Play with your Food

I really hate scammers.

I recently bid on an item of interest on ebay. It was a normal lens for my digital camera. I have a normal lens but it is manual focus. I like to use it because it is so fast and that makes it easier to focus manually. The 18-55 zoom that came with the body is really nice at 18mm, but at 55 it is a horrible F5.6 and it looks like mud when you look through it. The problem with my normal lens is that you get no meter or anything when you use it, so you have to use it in full manual and guess at the exposure. An AF 50mm F1.4 is relatively inexpensive and would at least give me some through the lens metering. With a film camera no meter would be death. You'd have to use a handheld meter like it was the 20's. With digital at least you can guess, look at the LCD and adjust accordingly. But an AF lens would make life easier.

So I put a bid out on a lens via ebay. I like used lenses because I'm fairly rough on my camera equipment and if I'm going to beat it up anyway I like the discount of pre-beat up equipment.

I put in a fair bid and got sniped at the last minute, which is pretty much how ebay works these days. Snipers will pay anything for the satisfaction of screwing someone at the last minute.

The next day I got an email from the seller saying the buyer backed out and he would sell the the lens as a second chance for $100, and he would pay the shipping.

Wow what a deal! I bid $175 on a lens and get outbid by $2.50, now I can get it for $100 and the seller suddenly decides that he doesn't want $20 for shipping anymore? It's my lucky day!

I replied immediately and asked for his paypal address. He replies from yet another gmail address and says he is in Romania and his real name is saleh ali.

Okay, lets count the warning signs here.

Unsolicited email selling something...check
Sent to my email address not associated with my ebay account...check
Way underpriced item, deal waaaay too good to be true...check
using multiple email addresses with fake headers saying they are from ebay...check
operating out of a foreign country, even though the original seller was in Minneapolis...check
Won't accept normal safe forms of payment...check
Email name Kevin, real name saleh ali...check

I contacted the ACTUAL seller and verified that this guy was a scammer. Then I got "Kevin" in a gmail chat.

me: Does this work on a lot of people?
I contacted the seller, you're not him
there's about 50 suspicious things about you
Kevin: what do you mean
?
me: I guess you're not a scammer because you're smart
10:01 AM If you were smart you'd have a job or something
Kevin: yes i`m a job
me: Why do you use the name Kevin?
Kevin: because i the email at my friend
me: ah, of course
10:02 AM your friend's email is about to get shut down
He will be very mad at you
Kevin: sir
you want to make the deal with me yes or no
?
if you not i find another buyer
me: You're NOT the seller!
I talked with the seller
Kevin: go hard
me: and you're NOT HIM
Kevin: go away
and lett me
10:03 AM bye
and have a good day
me: I hope you go to hell for scamming people
Kevin: thanks
:*
me: I hope you die tomorrow so it is soon
in a painful way
slow firey death
10:04 AM or an animal slowly eating your flesh
Kevin: good bye
me: maggots feasting on your scammer body
Kevin: bye bey bey
10:05 AM me: you don't like it when people find out about you?
everyone knows about you
one day someone will track you down for this and kill you in your sleep
it must be tough to sleep knowing people are looking for you to kill you

Indeed, you are a job saleh.

If you're searching the internet for email addresses to see if someone is a scammer and you come across this page, here are some that this guy uses:
gtdddsa2@gmail.com
costinnia19@gmail.com
djesits33@gmail.com
nicolae_arapu@hotmail.com
narcissrf@gmail.com
srfnarcis83@hotmail.com
ionclaudiu.dragusin@gmail.com