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Caution! Scammer

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FeelingEdgy

FeelingEdgy

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Friends,

Just a heads up, I have seen this happen a 3 times in the last few days. Someone is emailing members soon after they agree to buy a knife from the exchange asking for funds to PayPal,

The email is johnreno19800@gmail.com

This person will pose as the seller, even using their Bladeforums name, asking for funds to a different email and PayPal account. As the Moderators have stated, communicate through PM’s and don’t post your personal email.
This may be the wrong place for this and may get moved, but be aware and stay safe!
 
FeelingEdgy said:
Friends,

Just a heads up, I have seen this happen a 3 times in the last few days. Someone is emailing members soon after they agree to buy a knife from the exchange asking for funds to PayPal,

The email is johnreno19800@gmail.com

This person will pose as the seller, even using their Bladeforums name, asking for funds to a different email and PayPal account. As the Moderators have stated, communicate through PM’s and don’t post your personal email.
This may be the wrong place for this and may get moved, but be aware and stay safe!
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Thanks for the heads up and looking out for everyone !!!
 
No this is a great place to post this. Hopefully people use some common sense, heed the warnings and take a moment before sending $s
 
hhmoore said:
Be smart if buyers didn't jump on it
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I was burned once on a PPFF deal that was hijacked by a scammer, even after making several purchases prior via PPFF, and have passed on 20+ knives requiring PPFF since. Even when I offer to pay more than asking price to cover PPGS fees, only one seller took me up on my offer. Sellers know eventually that someone will pay with PPFF.

I am still pretty new to this forum. With the newness comes excitement in our highly contagious hobby to add to our collections. Naivety can make a newbie put caution to the wind and make poor trust judgement. We are not complete dummies just because we were scammed like most who have not sort of imply. You, too, were once a newbie and I assume could have been easily fooled like so many others trying to acclimate themselves with the forum. The scammers are sly and there isn't an obvious beacon flashing when they reach out that people have purposely ignoring. If not for most of the victims bringing this issue to light - causing implementation of warnings that scammers are prevalent and not to use PPFF - there would be countless more members unexpectedly scammed.

PPFF should only be used with people you KNOW, yet most sellers require it from people who are not familiar with them. It's not just us newbies being scammed, but ALLOT of seasoned forum members have also been scammed. It's a friggen shame that this awesome forum has been infiltrated by a few idiots giving a black eye to the honest members.
 
DennisM said:
I was burned once on a PPFF deal that was hijacked by a scammer, even after making several purchases prior via PPFF, and have passed on 20+ knives requiring PPFF since.
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That is being smart
DennisM said:
Sellers know eventually that someone will pay with PPFF.
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Because it has been demonstrated repeatedly over the years that there are many whose want overrides judgement. They aren't willing to potentially lose that item by making a stand.
DennisM said:
Naivety can make a newbie put caution to the wind and make poor trust judgement. We are not complete dummies just because we were scammed like most who have not sort of imply.
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Nobody is saying complete dummies. Exercise poor judgement - yes. Naivety isn't a good excuse - these scams have been posted about repeatedly & staff have posted warnings. Those get ignored and the scams continue to work.
DennisM said:
You, too, were once a newbie and I assume could have been easily fooled like so many others trying to acclimate themselves with the forum.
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You know what they say about assuming...
I have disliked the practice of posting claims in threads since before I joined this site. I used the site email system (that was a thing back then), and when it proved unreliable I became a paying member specifically for PM privileges. I have also never paid via F&F. (FWIW, I also refunded F&F payments when people made them.)

*Keeping transactions private eliminates this particular scam entirely. I don't care if people purchase a paid membership; but making the choice not to do so puts the onus on them to conduct transactions in a manner that protects them.
 
hhmoore hhmoore - I agree with the majority of what you said. :thumbsup:

I learned my lesson and am finished with PPFF on this forum or any other unless I know the person. Since not all of us can be fortunate enough to never make a mistake, I will be helpful to new members and/or those not so new that I observe posting personal info making them easy targets like I was. I'll just leave it at that. :)
 
DennisM DennisM spreading the word is good thing. Unfortunately, these threads aren't seen by the ones most likely to become victims. They rarely venture away from the Exchange unless they have a question to ask.
Still, one can hope that they see the comments some are leaving in their ads & at least recognize the warning.

I've recently emailed a few of the people that I've seen posting their emails, just to warn them. None of them expressed any awareness of the scams...and one told me he received an email requesting PPFF payment right after reading mine.
 
I understand the concern with PP FF, but I think you have to look at the underlying reasons people prefer it. The fact that most sellers prefer PPFF revolves around the fact that it is an income tax free option - no 1099-K is required nor sent to the IRS, by the payment apps like PayPal, and online marketplaces, also called third party settlement organizations, for transactions between friends and family (the IRS literally say this on their website -> "Payments you got from family and friends should not be reported on Form 1099-K").

As required by law, beginning this year, sellers who make more than $600 a year through selling goods and services via PayPal, Reverb, eBay, etc. will have a 1099-K sent to the IRS whether they like it or not. I asked my tax person about this recently, and she said that you have to report it and it is potentially taxable whether you are operating at a loss or not.

And take a look at PayPal's terms of service -- I have heard that things like automatic knives, for example, are prohibited purchases using PP, and if that is the case, PP G&S is not going to help you recover anything if it is determined that the purchased item violates their terms of service.

I do not know what the full solution is, but as long as you have an open system like we have here on BF you are going to have the low life scammers taking advantage of folks.
 
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Never been burned with PPFF and never burned anyone either. Uhhhh, don’t do bid-nizz with OBVIOUS possible crooks. Crooks feast on (fill in the blank).
 
tantox said:
I understand the concern with PP FF, but I think you have to look at the underlying reasons people prefer it. The fact that most sellers prefer PPFF revolves around the fact that it is an income tax free option - no 1099-K is required nor sent to the IRS, by the payment apps like PayPal, and online marketplaces, also called third party settlement organizations, for transactions between friends and family (the IRS literally say this on their website -> "Payments you got from family and friends should not be reported on Form 1099-K").

As required by law, beginning this year, sellers who make more than $600 a year through selling goods and services via PayPal, Reverb, eBay, etc. will have a 1099-K sent to the IRS whether they like it or not. I asked my tax person about this recently, and she said that you have to report it and it is potentially taxable whether you are operating at a loss or not.

And take a look at PayPal's terms of service -- I have heard that things like automatic knives, for example, are prohibited purchases using PP, and if that is the case, PP G&S is not going to help you recover anything if it is determined that the purchased item violates their terms of service.

I do not know what the full solution is, but as long as you have an open system like we have here on BF you are going to have the low life scammers taking advantage of folks.
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IRS 1099K Amount for 2024 is $5000, not $600. FYI.
 
If you query 1099-K on google, you'll come up with numerous links from the IRS and other sources indicating that the level for 2024 is $5000.00
 
tantox said:
As required by law, beginning this year, sellers who make more than $600 a year through selling goods and services via PayPal, Reverb, eBay, etc. will have a 1099-K sent to the IRS whether they like it or not. I asked my tax person about this recently, and she said that you have to report it and it is potentially taxable whether you are operating at a loss or not.
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This has been discussed before. You are only taxed on the portion that you make as a profit (income). If you don't have receipts for your purchases, you can use the market value. I get that a lot of people don't want to deal with it at all, but as a buyer, that shouldn't be your issue.

$600 in knife sales does not equate to $600 in profit.
 
toker said:
This has been discussed before. You are only taxed on the portion that you make as a profit (income). If you don't have receipts for your purchases, you can use the market value. I get that a lot of people don't want to deal with it at all, but as a buyer, that shouldn't be your issue.

$600 in knife sales does not equate to $600 in profit.
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Two different things.

I believe the reporting kicks in at $5k / yr. The tax you pay is based on the profit made immaterial of how much you got via PP (above the $5k threshold, of course).

I agree with the rest though. This is stupid simple to do on your tax return. If you've sold on ebay then you've already done this most likely.
 
Blues said:
If you query 1099-K on google, you'll come up with numerous links from the IRS and other sources indicating that the level for 2024 is $5000.00
Click to expand...

That seems a lot more reasonable, excellent news.
 
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