Feeling let down.
Just thought I needed to share in case he scams someone else.
Bought and sold plenty of gear over the last ten years.
Saw an add in the free kite section on 1/02/19
2018 Naish Slash 8m
new never used.$750
Contacted seller a chap
Stephen Jacobs he says from Cape York area.
He had a phone number but no response.
So only emails.
No photos on free adds so I got him to send photos.
Recieved two photos of the kite and bar.
Ok moved forward with the sale got his assistants Nab deposit details .??
Alarm bells rang?
Emailed This Chap Stephen Jacobs are you a scammer.?
His story
I need an assistant because I had an accident at work and was injured.
ok I thought that's fair.
Assistants name-
Thumpale Sarathchandra
And NAB bank deposit details.
Then asked me when I deposit not to put a reference name on My Cba deposit details.
But put Slash as a reference on my deposit transfer.
More alarm bells.
I know feeling stupid idiot.
So he assured me was all ok and when my payment was cleared he would post.
Wanted my full name address for postage and would email me tracking details.
Now it's the 18 /02/2019
Feeling totally scammed.
Should I be worried.?
Contacted Seabreeze
They asked for his name and email address
Also gave his assistant name.
So as of now 18/02/2019 over two weeks of sending emails and waiting anxiously for details of postage.
Got zero.
Will contact My cba Bank see if they can track the transfer.
But I think I have been done.
Should have trusted my gut feeling at first.
Arrrrrrrrh pissed offffff.

Leigh,
**** that's a crap situation, mate.
Hope it all turns out well.
Horey

That sucks. This is why I insist on using Paypal. At least if something goes wrong there is insurance. Hope it works out.

Go to your bank.
Sometimes they can recover / insure the funds if you used their service

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1st alarm bell ... email only
2nd alarm bell... distanced them selves by giving you their assistants details not their own.
3rd alarm bell ......wouldnt answer phone.
4th alarm bell...no reference on transaction...

Hope you get a package in the post soon.


A transaction should be smooth.
Like when i bought some mako fins
off you from memory.

Had your details...you answered txt message and seabreeze inbox.

I paid and you sent promptly.

If it dont feel right .....dont do it.

Im pretty sure comm bank can help you get you cash back...you may have to wait a bit and jump some hoops.
Good luck.

I've bought off you and it all went smoothly so sorry to hear the karma didn't flow back to you. But yeah plenty of warning signs there eh

leigh, so sorry to hear that mate, as you don t deserve to be treated in such a way, received your board ( remember the magic doooooooor ) end of last summer, very promptly, good postage and carefully protected, thanks for that, been using it a fair bit as the season start to ease down over here , hope you get your 8m naish pretty soon anyway, or your bank insurance can step in, many thanks again MONSIEUR LEIGH rv

That's not cool mate.
Everybody needs to be alert to scams in this day and age, I got a call from scammers last week pretending to be the ATO...they were very professional it took a while till I even considered it was a scam.
You can recover from losing $750, consider it a nice little learning curve.

S77t bro,that sucks heaps. Banks these days are awesome though. They will probably cover you but you need to get on to them strait away.

If anyone has seen him :

Sorry to hear that, maybe sometimes you gotta trust your gut if you smell a rat, and were the photos pinched from google. I would be tracking this guy down, he would have to have a legit name to open an aussie bank account, and pull out all stops to get bank to recover.

What is it with old guys always getting ripped off online?

Geez that sucks mate. I must admit I have handed money over like you before but got lucky I guess. Cheers for having the balls to share. Lessons learnt for me now.

Really appreciate the support.
Reckon there was quite a few alarm bells.
I have picked them in the past that were more obvious and reported them to Seabreeze .
He seemed to be less obvious and new the right things to say to assure me.
Sucked in hey.
Have since contacted my CBA bank with a fraud investigation underway.
They have his name and bank account details.
If I had off held of longer be less chance of recovering the transfer.
Paypal is available to use in the future.
In the last 10 years have only had to use it on rare occasions.
Must be old fashion just like to trust people.
Generally works for me.
But in this case I was not switched on enough to not follow through with my gut feelings.
Lesson learnt.

I hope you get your money back (don't give up) and they nail the swindler (that's unlikely).

Paypal is expensive, but sometimes worth it, recently sold $2k worth of gear to a guy, it cost nearly extra $50 in fees, but I think he wanted to use credit card anyway.

Have bought and sold heaps of gear here with no issues (even bought from you), most buyers are happy to use direct transfer. There is a lot of trust and scammers are trying to exploit it.

Also worth checking their profile on seabreeze (regular posts etc).

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theDoctor said..
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I have used Aus Post COD when selling, at least the buyer has the goods in their hands before the pay.

hope you get it sorted.

Yep I've used COD a couple of times there are fees but the buyer can't get your gear until they pay up.

I've bought COD before, the product was trash and I was stuck with it.

The old saying ... If it's to good to be true it probably is..
Like the kite I bought saying brand new from someone that nearly every kiter has heard about, cause he's so good at repairs and been around the longest. Only to realize it's not new when it arrived.
Professional balony artist from the tweed smoking too much weed!

I've been scammed too mate.

Has left a bad taste in my guts.
We kite and play down at our local NPWS beach.
My car and mates van broken windows after our session with gear and valuables stolen early last year.
After a session on the foil at nearby Npws Shark bay nsw,went back to Frasers to check and report how big the surf was.
Chatting to a mate on MB on the track.
Turned to come back saw a guy walking fast back to the car park.
Realised he hadn't passed me at the beach end.
Then it hit me.Arrrh f...
He was seeing if I was in the water so he had more time to break in.
So bolted back to my car and he was parked hard in on opposite side of my car drivers side.
No other vehicles around.
JHe was reversing out when I confronted him ,what the f!!!
Backed out in a rush.
Old car ,scruffy looking c.....
After the kite scam I was feeling pretty f...... towy.
So having one of those weeks.
F...... hate thieves.

Hang in there Leigh deep breath and count to 10 karma will get them soon enough

In 1987 I sent cash to an address in New Jersey to buy a $2 diamond ring for my girlfriend (the ad said it was "guaranteed real diamond", so not some fake zirconium thing). Still hasn't arrived, but that may be because I have moved several times since then.

i'm amazed that people are still falling for that **** . Tough lesson learnt .

Yes it's amazing dusta when people or scammers put adds on Seabreeze that aren't what they say they are.
And there's old f..... like me that get sucked in by these c.....
I put this up in case it stops some vulnerable buyers as myself getting stitched up buy these arse holes.
Lesson learnt the hard way.

Hey dude thanks for posting, ive become pretty careless after buying heaps of stuff on sb and only having really good experiences. If it makes you feel any better I bought a perfect 2 yo evo with bar on here for 500$ once and it was not a scam, so don't beat youself up it really is just bad luck sometimes (if that kite had been a scam everyone would have laughed at me and told me it was to good to be true).

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awkward customer said..
Hey dude thanks for posting, ive become pretty careless after buying heaps of stuff on sb and only having really good experiences. If it makes you feel any better I bought a perfect 2 yo evo with bar on here for 500$ once and it was not a scam, so don't beat youself up it really is just bad luck sometimes (if that kite had been a scam everyone would have laughed at me and told me it was to good to be true).

Thanks mate,
I am sort of over it but beat myself up about being sucked in.
I ignored the obvious warning signs as mentioned in my original post.
live and learn.

yeh thanks for that Leigh, always good to be reminded of what can happened and what to watch for.

As always, 99% of the crew doing the right thing with hundreds of successful transactions occurring daily probably, but a small % of bad eggs gets our attention.

I've had nothing but great commerce experiences through the breeze, but that doesn't mean my turn to be rammed won't come one day!

I always check out the persons profile beforehand and number of posts they have made.

If it is a name I am not familiar with and/or they have made little or no posts, then the trust is not there.

It takes some cajones to publicly out yourself for being scammed-so good on ya'. Gives us all a bit of a reminder that not everyone out there is to be trusted, but most are and that's what the scammers take advantage of. Thanks for posting mate!

sellers beware too

attempted scammer tried to "buy" my knee board

"work on a rig, will organise a pick up etc etc"

then asked me to use this PayPal acct with a link provided.. passed on that

Ms Sherry Evans was the name