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Ugly feedback: myself

brancron

Gold Member
Feedback: 206 / 0 / 0
Joined
Dec 14, 2011
Messages
3,023
I found out that sometime in late September, my account had been hacked and used to scam a user here. The sales post was deleted before I got a chance to see it, but apparently it was for a Benchmade 940 for the low price of $80, and of course payment was requested via PayPal friends and family. (Today I sent that user a sharp token of apology in the mail.)

Luckily, my account was quickly banned so no one else got scammed, and after contacting Spark I got my account reinstated yesterday.

My lesson learned: work on your password game! I had a fairly weak password that was used on a few other websites, and my password was likely leaked during a summer data breach that affected a bunch of sites (not this one). More info here: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/hacked-accounts.1806493/. I now have a very strong, completely unique password for Blade Forums, so hopefully this never occurs again. That was my mistake!

Lesson for the community: be leery of prices that are too good to be true, and more importantly, turn around and don't look back as soon as someone asks you for payment via PayPal F&F! Because you never know, even with a user such as myself (with 173 positive feedback), whether the account may have been compromised. For my part, I will never request F&F, and my real PayPal email will remain this username. Yet my sales prices will continue to be too good AND be true! :cool:
 
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Glad you are reinstated!

I have seen several F&F sales threads lately. Some are listed as a G&S price or a F&F price. Others only list F&F.
 
I kinda have a problem with that. I'm sorry your weak password was hacked - really I am. I started off with a very weak password also when I joined BF like 15 years ago. I had enough sense to change it. I look at this community and have met and continue to meet some amazing people. I TRUST them even though I've never really met them. I have sent a $2000 knife into the abyss on a trade several times - all based on TRUST. And I have yet to be burned. What a great feeling to TRUST and be rewarded when the deal goes as planned. Talk to these people, share your passion with them and TRUST in the fact that everything will be OK. That's the beauty of a community like this. I'm super-glad to hear you made things right with the person who was scammed. You're good. But to bash PP F&F when there's a decent sized thread on PP 1099s, as a result of G&S transactions, I'm not too sure. A slippery slope indeed.
 
I kinda have a problem with that. I'm sorry your weak password was hacked - really I am. I started off with a very weak password also when I joined BF like 15 years ago. I had enough sense to change it. I look at this community and have met and continue to meet some amazing people. I TRUST them even though I've never really met them. I have sent a $2000 knife into the abyss on a trade several times - all based on TRUST. And I have yet to be burned. What a great feeling to TRUST and be rewarded when the deal goes as planned. Talk to these people, share your passion with them and TRUST in the fact that everything will be OK. That's the beauty of a community like this. I'm super-glad to hear you made things right with the person who was scammed. You're good. But to bash PP F&F when there's a decent sized thread on PP 1099s, as a result of G&S transactions, I'm not too sure. A slippery slope indeed.

That’s a fair perspective, and I totally understand. I also agree with you that there are plenty of people here whom I trust and would trust with all sorts of different payment methods. Take Gary Graley for example—you’ve got to send him a check in the mail!

But the experience getting hacked has just made me a bit skittish about it. You can’t ever be entirely sure who’s on the the other side of that internet transaction!
 
I agree. I like the check thing - take your time, let it clear - whatever is good for you. It has worked both ways. If I really want a knife, I may beg the dude to hold it for me - you know how the buy/sell game goes, or if someone asks me to hold it, or recently split a Zelle over 3 payments, yeah sure, no problem. If you look at the custom knives for sale section, it's already happening. People wanting applepay or cashapp. Shit, I'd call them on the phone and get a feeling for where they're at. Life is truly about taking risks I think, but I want to believe that we have a solid community here. Man, I'd send you a F&F right now if you had a knife I wanted - hands down, wouldn't even think twice. ;)
 
Not much to the topic of the OP but the PayPal f&f part. I didn’t like it, for a long long time until recently seeing and reading the PayPal 1099 thread. I am afraid going forward we’ll see more and more folks ask for it and pay through it (myself included). We just need to be more careful and selective, or significantly reduce the number of sales and purchases.
 
Good on you brancron brancron for making things right and starting this thread so others may learn from your lesson.

I agree. I like the check thing - take your time, let it clear - whatever is good for you. It has worked both ways. If I really want a knife, I may beg the dude to hold it for me - you know how the buy/sell game goes, or if someone asks me to hold it, or recently split a Zelle over 3 payments, yeah sure, no problem. If you look at the custom knives for sale section, it's already happening. People wanting applepay or cashapp. Shit, I'd call them on the phone and get a feeling for where they're at. Life is truly about taking risks I think, but I want to believe that we have a solid community here. Man, I'd send you a F&F right now if you had a knife I wanted - hands down, wouldn't even think twice. ;)

Not much to the topic of the OP but the PayPal f&f part. I didn’t like it, for a long long time until recently seeing and reading the PayPal 1099 thread. I am afraid going forward we’ll see more and more folks ask for it and pay through it (myself included). We just need to be more careful and selective, or significantly reduce the number of sales and purchases.

I'll still stir clear of paypal F&F because it is a red flag. And yes, it appears that paypal isn't flagging F&F payments for tax purposes, for now. So that said, nothing is stopping the gov, in concert with paypal, or any other financial institution, from selling you out for tax purposes! They can and are doing it retroactively as well. So, in my mind, as a seller the answer isn't F&F and as a buyer, the excuse for a seller to request F&F shouldn't be the tax man cometh. We need to slow down our hobby transactions and use other peyment methods more akin to a hobby. That, or keep the records required to prove we aren't making money on the volume of dollars going through our hands.

All that to say, F&F is still a no.
 
As has been pointed out numerous times, using F&F to purchase an item is cheating PayPal…no matter how trustworthy and nice you think a person is, cheating is cheating!….add the extra cost to the price of your knife or request a check…I deal with a maker who only takes checks and I will get my third knife from him soon…if I see any seller requesting F&F or Net, I put them on ignore…
 
I'm not sure doing a F&F is "cheating PayPal" as they still get their fee regardless. Those of us who are collectors differ vastly from people who do this for a living. They have the tax ID and all else set up for retail transactions, whereas the collectors do not. I'm good with checks all day and have no problem with that - the way it used to be. F&F is risky if you don't know the person or haven't dealt with them in the past, there's no doubt. I suppose it's ultimately about one's own level of comfort doing something risky. I'm the kind of person who who get on a plane to find a person who scammed me, and I tell people that. But with scammers out there everywhere, using F&F will be a crapshoot for as long as it's available as a payment option. 😒
 
Another F&F fan.

"How much does it cost to use? Friends and Family payments can be made to anyone in the U.S. for free (from your bank account or PayPal). If you are sending money internationally, you may be charged a transaction fee equal to 5% of the send amount (up to $4.99 USD)."
 
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I recently ordered $200 of merchandise from a well know, well trusted long-term BF member and paid w/paypal goods and services. Sometime after I paid, but before he shipped he had some devastating life events and ultimately went silent. I simply told Paypal the story, they notified the seller (who remained silent), and they refunded my money in a week or two. No hard feelings on either side.

-Phil
 
Just to clarify:



Is there a fee for PayPal friends and family?


Fees: Sending money domestically to friends and family via a PayPal balance or linked bank account is free. Sending to friends and family, also domestically, via a credit card, debit card or PayPal credit is subject to a charge of 2.9% of the amount sent through this method, plus a fixed fee of $0.30.
 
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