I Caught This Scammer Red-Handed! 

"Sir" or "Ma'am" is taught to scammers to seem polite and respectful so they can scam you more efficiently. Mainly Indian scam call centers practice this technique.

Any time you see the word Sir like that just assume it is an International Scammer, report, and move on!

Good work James, your diligence has helped us all. Mind you, while Ebay also has protections in place, they are so tilted towards the buyer that it's easy for a scammer to claim that the item was never received if sent without tracking and they get both comic and refund.

Honestly when people call me sir in internet conversation or in person it gives me red flags too idk why glad you got your money back!

Glad you got your $ back at least, can never be to careful online!

Thanks for today’s lesson Professor Mint-Hunter! Good to know!

Al Capone had a sign on his desk "Nothin's Legit". I live my life with that motto. I am happy you weren't scammed.

Always do PayPal Goods & Services when purchasing anything from a seller that you don’t know. Good job, James.

That’s crazy bro! I’m glad to hear that you went with your gut and used G&S. I use that all the time and in the couple of instances when things went south, I was able to get my $$ back. As buyers and sellers, we have to do our best to protect ourselves from getting taken advantage of by nefarious actors! All the best my guy!

What I hate is when people on IG and YT only want F&F. Like I think of fill in blank as a internet friend but we have never met or even spoken to each other outside of the comments section so why would anyone think im gonna do no protection with my money just because "he seems nice". Besides if that small percent piece of mind is keeping you from a profit then you are selling comics wrong.

Good and Service all the time, even when selling coins. Cheers from Canada!

I always think it's a red flag that (via eBay from a seller's perspective) a buyer will contact me, they write clear and coherent sentences, and once they make a purchase, they start inserting "Dude" with botched spelling in subsequent messages, which suddenly lack punctuation, capitalizing the first word of a sentence, etc. I've gone 4/4 with these types in the past year. They're the type to start complaining that they didn't receive their package yet (even though they're at least a week early in complaining), angling for some kind of refund or what not. I also don't like the "Sir" stuff, but that's more to do with when I have a fair complaint against a bigger company/corporation, and I'm contacting them through live chat and such (all live chat sucks in '23). "Sir" in that case means that they're letting you know that the answer is no, or you're out of luck, and they're preemptively taking the high road.

Glad you got your money back, it's a darn shame there are so many scammers out there.

Can’t tell you how many “deals” I have simply walked away from because folks would not do a meet up before I paid them. If it ain’t local, I just don’t do it.

The old saying "if its too good to be true. It probably is." Good catch! Enjoy the video's! Thank you!

Blossom Flower Delivery is a scam. Lots of website scams out there DONT DO IT!!!!

Wow you’ve been scammed ten times! I remember hearing about the scarecrow book you got ripped off on but I’d love to hear about the other times. Would be an interesting video. I’m sure it would be pretty depressing for you to make though😂

Facebook marketplace is a horrible sespool of scammers.

Great advice! Goods and services for the win!

James sorry to hear about this. Happy it turned out OK.

Nice to see someone pass along valuable info for issues like these. Great video Sir!

Happy it worked out for You. Thanks for sharing Your passion and adventures from Toronto Ontario Canada 😀 👍 ❤️ 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 ♥️ 💯

Try doing google image searches in the future as well. Maybe the photos were pulled from some other source and Google may show you where. That would be rock solid proof of a scam before you get scammed.

I had the same thing happen to me. Happened just the same way you stated happened to you. Sounds like it was the same person. He was in NJ as well. and was at a friends house and had to use his account to try to send funds to. I did get my Money back from my credit card company. Sad to thing there are people out there who do this.

Screw scammers!

This is why I’m scared of buying from eBay and other similar places.

Excellent tip there man,thanks. Glad you secured your money, I f'kn despise scammers

The "sir" would've been a HUGE red flag for me. Anyone who is too nice or too polite is not to be trusted.

The fact that his location was one that was first local and then not local is a red flag. It means that he didn't have the items and didn't want you to try to see the non existing books.

The first time I got scammed online, I never looked back - have not bought anything online from ebay or instagram or any other kind of consumer-to-consumer online platform since. If online, it's legit comics dealers or people I know personally ONLY. Everything else is in-person or not at all. A friend who buys big boy books always uses a comic dealer as a clearing house to hold the book and verify existence and condition BEFORE the funds are wired.

Saw the same scam. If I remember correctly his fb account was brand new, which was a big flag for me, and once he said he wasn’t in Jersey I just moved on

Paying an extra 3% to the buyer for peace of mind is well worth it!

Congratulations on your wedding!! My FIRST time on Instagram buying comics I went to buy a spiderman omnibus just to read and he wanted 50 for it, we made the deal then a few hours later he said another guy gave him a better price so he’d send me my money back, which I never got back and got blocked.

Thank you for posting lessons learned like this. Not too many do.

I'd be a walking Red Flag to you lol. Being from the south sir and maam is beat into us lol

How long did it take from when you started the claim until you received a refund?

This is why I hate not buying through ebay or in person. I don't use whatnot so those are my only options. Just can't trust people these days

Great job my man

I love when a Facebook user is selling in 2 different locations (Michigan and Connecticut) at the same time... Such a scam

Some very true and valuable advice

Thx for the story. Good information.

You took his head and grapes his woman before his blood was even cold!

copped an attempted scam. Paid using PayPal G&S so got resolution in my favour when they failed to provide a tracking number, then tried to get me pay western union or paypal donation lol. Wasn't even an amazing deal, just a solid book for a fair price. Always be vigilant!

I'm in my 30s and I'm just really getting in to comic books as investing and flipping don't get !e wrong I love super hero movies and art and stuff does anyone have any good tips for safety and not to get screwed

Damn that sucks

Hello good sir! Do you have Catwoman number 1? 😂

Always go with Paypal goods and services when in doubt, got it!

The honeymoon is over!

Sir you have a great show….😂🤣😂

Hey man can you post his information in the comments. I live in Michigan and I'm always checking out Facebook. I want to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to me.

Oh James James James 😅. Your description from the beginning dude made this pretty obvious it was a scam. The difference in location alone should have been enough of a red flag to just not waste your time. If your gut is telling you something feels wrong, stick with your gut 👍. And yeah the “sir” thing was very weird to.

In my experience anyone using the term "agent" like that is scamming.

Post this guys information....what are you waiting for!?!!

Whatnot is trustworthy????Bwhahahahaha!!!!

I saw that he got kicked off groups

Great video question how do you get your information about your books like 1st appearances and so on

Do you still have to pay the G&S fee if you open a case and get a refund or do you get that fee back as well?

Seems like you knew upfront that this was a scam but you perhaps let greed get the better of you and went through with it? Had this person actually shipped you a box with a couple of rocks in it you might have had a more difficult time or outcome with Paypal. As others have said, the fraudulent seller was probably overseas so shipping you a box was not practical.

Any story that starts with "so, I was on facebook marketplace" is obviously a scam

Indian scammers always over-use "sir". They know english, but not conversationally so they use weird words like that

😂😂😅😅

Sad you fell for this

Just avoid these posts in general. There’s like a 0.01% chance that it’s real, and that ain’t worth your time or money for the potential profit.

First

What if the guy sent you a box of newspaper with a tracking number? I don't think PayPal would have your back then.

James, I had almost the same thing happen to me last week. I will send you a link to my video about it on IG

3% for PayPal G&S is a MUST and such a small investment to eliminate any problems. Even with people who are vouched for - Always G&S!!!

Sorry you got scammed but happy my boy got his money back 🫡