Scammed by Member TheRedwingOnly

[km165]

WARNING! Off-site contact information posted. We do not investigate disputes if you communicate off-site.

Information
######################
Purchase Date: 2020-06-08
Date the problem begain: 2020-06-08
Method of Contact Used (chat progam): Discord
Instant Messenger username of the person you're accusing: Pala4#4875

Other information:


DISPUTE Information
######################
Link of transaction thread (URL, Epicnpc thread): https://www.epicnpc.com/threads/na-meseta-ship-1-3-1m-big-stock.1633745/
He deleted it but it consisted of

"
EpicNPC Marketplace
Selling - [NA] Meseta Ship 1 (3$/1m) Big Stock
[NA] Meseta Ship 1 20m - 60 USD 35m - 100 USD 55m - 150 USD 75m - 200 USD 100m - 250 USD PayPal/Skrill/!BTC,ETH = DISCOUNT 10%!!! Discord: Pala4#4875
"

Approximate value of property: $112.50 USD in Etherum
Was Trade Guardian used? No
If yes, what is the Trade Guardian ID? No

What is the dispute about? Suspiciously after my post of wanting to purchase meseta in PSO2 (edited with 200M needs), two users simultaneously PMed me. One goes by alex, saying he will go first if I was trusted and he showed some screenshots of sally shop with russian text in background; And this guy which had 14 positive feedback. I took it to discord after receiving a private message from TheRedwingOnly and loaded up my etherum and forced him to split it into four transactions. He kept urging me larger transactions, and kept saying his boss would not let him do 'small deals'.. also changing his narrative to reselling meseta from a seller on VK or other russian social networks that he knows in real life from meeting once at lucrative rates but him also refusing to do 'small' deals yet the etherum wallet that I sent money to clearly shows transactions below 200 USD. Regardless of his stories of 'suddenly' not having meseta available to sell because he advanced a $200 promise deal in purchases of meseta, and not even playing the game himself, he never gave me a refund through paypal or etherum as stated once. He kept making sob stories; I can confirm he did sell one of the accounts for $8 in one of his other threads and other things which do line up, but other inconsistencies arose. The fear tactic of scamming by instilling hope but simultaneously demanding money by being cooperative did not sit well with me, and I did not advance any further payment. This is the second time I got scammed...

Other details / notes:

 

[Angel]

@TheRedwingOnly notified

 

[TheRedwingOnly]

WARNING! Off-site contact information posted. We do not investigate disputes if you communicate off-site.

Damn, I hate my life. I know that nobody would believe me, but, at least I will write it down.
3 days ago this person, known as Pala4#4875 in Discord wrote me a message, "would you like to post my thread's, in exchange I will give you 5-10$, I can't do it myself bc I'm using vpn, that's against the rules of the community" he's asked for PSO2 Meseta gold and Chips for some kind of Poker game (which post I will delete immidiatly rn) and I'm stupidly said "yes, why not"
The most interesting thing that, sometimes he wrote me some messages like "dm this person to add me on discord", I did all of those stupid things that he said, believing that he won't scam me, but in the end, I end up getting scammed, blocked on discord, and on epic.npc either soon as I see...
I have so many good review's about me selling SAO MD acc's, I would not scam any person in the world....

 

[kittycat3]

Wow I just dodged a bullet after seeing this. He messaged me after I posting on another thread about buying Meseta and has been very persistent and spamming my messages to pay right away. Definitely some red flags, glad I waited and not paid!!! I’m sorry to hear u got scammed!

 

[Angel]

@TheRedwingOnly please post a full conversation image with scammer

 

[TheRedwingOnly]

WARNING! Off-site contact information posted. We do not investigate disputes if you communicate off-site.

@TheRedwingOnly please post a full conversation image with scammer

is there any way to restore history of discord?....bc in the rage I have deleted the dialog.....
btw he's Russian too, in a short period of time I realize that, and we started to talk with each other in Russian language

 

[Angel]

WARNING! Off-site contact information posted. We do not investigate disputes if you communicate off-site.

Only staff can view this content.

 

[Seneshal]

WARNING! Off-site contact information posted. Most scams occur off-site. Please contact members directly via EpicNPC chat. We do not investigate disputes if you communicate off-site.

Ya this guy scammed me today for 240 usd I am guilty for being to nice trying to help someone out who was claiming they made a mistake. That is what you get when you try to be reasonable. I ll post discord and money transfers.

 

[TheRedwingOnly]

That guy asked me to dm those personas

 

[TheRedwingOnly]

WARNING! Off-site contact information posted. We do not investigate disputes if you communicate off-site.

I'm so dumb that I have deleted conversation with him on Discord, now I will have this "Warning" banner permanently?

 

[TheRedwingOnly]

Wow I just dodged a bullet after seeing this. He messaged me after I posting on another thread about buying Meseta and has been very persistent and spamming my messages to pay right away. Definitely some red flags, glad I waited and not paid!!! I’m sorry to hear u got scammed!

Can you pls screenshot this and attach it to this conversation? Maybe I would have a chance to get this banner gone...

 

[TheRedwingOnly]

Found screenshots about that Pala4 scammer that asked me help

 

[TheRedwingOnly]

Can attach more screenshots, but they are in Russian...

 

[Angel]

Thanks, you have confirmed your story.

Moving this on the offsite scammer's forum

 

[TheRedwingOnly]

Thanks, you have confirmed your story.

Moving this on the offsite scammer's forum

Thank you so much...I'm so sorry for those people....

 

[km165]

Can there be some extra layer of protection like linked paypal or linked wallets to epicnpc accounts so there is no middle-in-the-man spoof attack using someone's elses reputation?
It does now make sense considering the times that this scammer is active and TheRedWingOnly was online differed significantly whenever I checked his profile. And I never saw Zekkel mentioned, nor has TRW has any past history of playing PSO2 or even selling meseta once.

 

[Seneshal]

WARNING! Off-site contact information posted. Most scams occur off-site. Please contact members directly via EpicNPC chat. We do not investigate disputes if you communicate off-site.

My problem was I though I was talking to TheRedwinOnly because he pmed me here to talk to who I though was him on discord.I just now realize he was more of front man for the scammer.

 

[Gaiaperson5555]

O wow thanks for posting this, he messaged me saying he can sell me gold

 

[Gaiaperson5555]

Thanks, you have confirmed your story.

Moving this on the offsite scammer's forum

So is he a scammer?

 

[Adoxia]

If people ask you to sell items for them because they are banned on here never accept it. Personally never sell items for anyone period unless you absolutely trust them. You risk your own account if they turn out to be a scammer. We have VPN policies in place to make it were scammers can’t access the website as easily and scam other members.

 

[TheRedwingOnly]

If people ask you to sell items for them because they are banned on here never accept it. Personally never sell items for anyone period unless you absolutely trust them. You risk your own account if they turn out to be a scammer. We have VPN policies in place to make it were scammers can’t access the website as easily and scam other members.

Ok, i'll never do it again...i'm so sorry

 

[km165]

The problem is that the users were socially engineered into doing actions for them [posting threads, solicitating people and deleting threads]. These actions could of been mitigated (even if someone did not read these forum advisories) if there is an escrow system where only after certain transaction amounts have been done successfully, they can advance to the next tier - or like taobao where someone has to deposit 100 dollars, or just simply linking a paypal or wallet directly to epicnpc so when you make payments it is never to a user outside of the forum and it is required in order to receive money. Integration with payment system would of greatly aided.

If people ask you to sell items for them because they are banned on here never accept it. Personally never sell items for anyone period unless you absolutely trust them. You risk your own account if they turn out to be a scammer. We have VPN policies in place to make it were scammers can’t access the website as easily and scam other members.

 

[Adoxia]

The problem is that the users were socially engineered into doing actions for them [posting threads, solicitating people and deleting threads]. These actions could of been mitigated (even if someone did not read these forum advisories) if there is an escrow system where only after certain transaction amounts have been done successfully, they can advance to the next tier - or like taobao where someone has to deposit 100 dollars, or just simply linking a paypal or wallet directly to epicnpc so when you make payments it is never to a user outside of the forum and it is required in order to receive money. Integration with payment system would of greatly aided.

Restricting a website that much would lose tons of traffic. We also have two services that can be used to avoid situations like this. Both the escrow service & MM service would have made this a non issue. https://www.epicnpc.com/tradeguardian/