BUYER: Basher42

Purchased the above rifle from Basher42 along with some ammo. He refuses to send me the rifle or ammo. He is a scammer

What is the whole story?

Basher42 has positive feedback from established members.
My guess is someone posed as Basher and scammed LHP.

The same person scammed another member recently as outlined in a different thread.

I'm guessing there's another member with a similar username as mine, but I sold this rifle locally and have had no contact with LHPanther directly. He posted on my profile, but I didn't have a chance to reply first. He did post his phone number openly on my profile, so I'm assuming some scammer saw that, reached out, and scammed him. Awful if true, but the attached photo is the total extent of any contact I've had with this member. I've covered part of his number in an attempt to limit further exposure of his number.

I'll add that my reply in the photo was made prior to me looking at his profile and seeing this post. I figured he was just upset that he didn't get the rifle, but I can totally understand why he'd be frustrated.

To LHPanther, did this other individual contact you on the forums at all, or only via your phone number? I see no PMs from you, only the profile page posts shown above. I'm sorry if you were scammed, but it wasn't by me.

So I just attempted a member search to see if there are any other members with a username similar to mine. I tried several combinations but nothing pulled up an option other than my own actual username.

I will again state that I believe LHPanther's publicly posted phone number was the weak link here, I'm afraid. I'm a long-time member on several other forums including SnipersHide, and it's a common problem for someone to say "I'll take it" in a thread, and a scammer will then reach out to the prospective buyer before the real seller does. To combat this, it's become common practice for the buyer to initiate contact with the seller via PM first, THEN post in the ad. That, or buyers should only trust communication from the seller in a PM chain that THEY initiated.

It may be that LHP doesn't have enough forum activity to have access to PMs, which would aggravate this issue, but putting your phone number out in public invites these kinds of problems. I'm not sure what I'd need to do to clear my name, but I'm happy to do whatever is needed. Maybe Len or another mod could PM us both. I could provide my phone number and would be happy to have a phone call (or even video chat, as my face will match my avatar), and then they could ask LHP what phone number the scammer used to see if they match? I don't know. All I know is my word and reputation mean everything to me online as that's what my ability to buy/sell rides on.

Man the scamming on this website is getting bad.

Basher42 said:

I will again state that I believe LHPanther's publicly posted phone number was the weak link here

Click to expand...

Absolutely. That's just asking for trouble.
You don't have a lot of trader feedback but it's all good and you've been on here for 5 years so I doubt you were just waiting for the right time to scam someone.
I agree about using the PM for initial communication and you should never post your email or phone number on a public forum especially when replying to a add.
Maybe try to give him a call since you have his number ? I'm sure he's pi**** off but he's mad at the wrong person.

birddog 68 said:

Absolutely. That's just asking for trouble.
You don't have a lot of trader feedback but it's all good and you've been on here for 5 years so I doubt you were just waiting for the right time to scam someone.
I agree about using the PM for initial communication and you should never post your email or phone number on a public forum especially when replying to a add.
Maybe try to give him a call since you have his number ? I'm sure he's pi**** off but he's mad at the wrong person.

Click to expand...

When I see someone post their phone number online, I always assume they're over 70 and the internet is still a new thing to them.

The posted phone number 100% was the problem. Nothing on you at all.

I'll admit I am a little "green" when posting on classifieds. Guess I have been lucky so far. Sorry LHP you have had trouble and B42 thanks for explaining the situation. This will be a help in the future for me. Sorry for all you involved and hope you can catch that as......!!

So, great points. Basher42 never posted or offered to ship the user any product, but @LHPanther posted their phone number publicly, which is discouraged, as you SHOULD NEVER deal with a user using methods outside of the site and untrackable payment methods.

Hope you get this resolved.....

So, LHPanther has posted on Basher42's profile "yeah, sorry about all that", but hasn't posted anything on this thread for all to see and clear Basher42's name?

Lame.