Have I Been Scammed? Facebook Marketplace Sold Item, Came to My House & PayID Was Done Whilst I Watched! UPDATED: 28 August

poczynek77 on 24/08/2023 - 08:52
Last edited 13/09/2023 - 07:12

Bit of a weird one and I am thinking i have been scammed but it seems different to all the ones that i have seen.

Details:

  • advertised on Facebook Marketplace on Sunday to sell my Apple Studio Display monitor
  • get a Facebook message from someone saying he would like to buy but asks for best price - i knock off $100 - and he agrees to the price
  • he says he will pick it up and asks best way to pay - i tell him direct bank deposit please - he says ok
  • he turns up on Tuesday this week and is a nice guy - we have a long chat about Teslas and him working for Star City Casino as a Supervisor there
  • tells me he lives in Homebush
  • well dressed etc (not sure that means anything but still)
  • he shows me his CBA app and him paying me by Payid and then he sends me the receipt right away by text where it shows his CBA bsb and account number. It is the EXACT receipt screen shot for a Payid payment - i literally saw him do it on his CBA app
  • the money doesn't go through straight away but the receipt does say it takes 24 hours to go through for accounts that are not known - i am ok with that
  • we chat more - he tells me about his brother and about his computers etc
  • he leaves with my Apple Studio Display
  • he texts me a few hours later asking if i can send him the receipt for when i bought the display - i say no problems and send it
  • i then contact him after 24 hours and tell him i haven't received the payment - he texts back saying it is 'pending' on his side
  • however since yesterday afternoon he is now uncontactable - if i ring his number it is always engaged and no text messages back since yesterday lunchtime and no money in my account
  • his Facebook profile i now cannot see - he may have blocked me maybe?

Is this a scam? It just seems different to the ones where it is me having to pay money etc. And it also seems strange he would come to my house and show me his CBA app and the receipt with his account details. What about if he got to my house and i didn't sell it because the money didn't get through straight away? There just seems so many ways this could have gone wrong for him if it is indeed a scam which seems like it probably is.

So i guess it is a scam?

EDIT:

This is the Payid CBA receipt i got:

https://ibb.co/jVhVD1Z

UPDATE 28 August:

Another poster was scammed the same way using the same type of receipt by the mysterious 'Deon Hong' on Saturday.

This guy … I wonder how many others he has scammed?

This is the Payid receipt that the other poster got:

https://ibb.co/cCcS6L8

These are the receipts side by side:

https://ibb.co/gZXxf7c

Mine is on the right

What we do know now:

-somehow he makes up the Payid on the spot which is pretty good for him to do that! Bravo Deon!!
-the other poster got his rego
-the other poster went to cops - I will go to cops tomorrow
-it could just be high end Mac goods?
-goes by Deon Hong on FB
-uses a photo of squid game actor

Questions now are:

-are even his account details correct as per those Payid screenshots? If he is creating the Payid receipts then why would you put your own account details?
-is his mobile number correct? REMOVED
-his rego number is possibly the only actual identifier of this person

UPDATE 30 AUGUST

We're closing in!

Third victim now who has video footage.

Deon - we are coming for you!

UPDATE 13 SEPT

We got him!

'Deon' was charged and arrested yesterday. Bail refused.

Thanks to all the victims who provided valuable identifying information to the police.

Podcast and Netflix doco to come…

General Discussion

Comments

    • Thrawn on 13/09/2023 - 14:39
      +3

      Police often refuses bail. But the suspect generally puts a bail application to court straight away and it's heard within a day or two. Courts makes final decision based on seriousness of the offence (relatively low in this instance), chance of interfering with witnesses (unlikely), flight risk and chance of committing offences whilst on bail.

  • Lanushi on 14/09/2023 - 17:54
    +3

    Glad to see a bit of light at the end of a dark tunnel. Congratulations! I hope they can retrieve your belongings. Unfortunately some of us are still dreaming for this day to happen. I know you're out there, scammer who got my $400…

  • valdracool on 14/09/2023 - 18:03
    +1

    Is this news legit of him getting caught ?
    I have reported him to the Police .
    And his real name was Dong Heon ? and definitely not Deon Hong .

    • werdplaya58 on 14/09/2023 - 19:30
      +3

      Yes it's legit from OP.

      Did you give OP your case number? If so the cops will have your report linked up with the others.

      Pretty sure the poster above was joking about Dong Heon LOL. Not sure what his actual name is.

      • valdracool on 14/09/2023 - 20:38
        +1

        Yes did mentioned the case number :) and everything possible.

  • Jimothy Wongingtons on 15/09/2023 - 13:04
    +2

    yo OP and others who got scammed, glad it all came together and hoping to see this scumbag behind bars.

    what a wild af ride!

  • [Deactivated] on 16/09/2023 - 16:31
    -3

    So let me get this straight, this subhuman germ gets to drive around in a Mercedes-Benz AMG GT S from stealing innocent peoples belongings? Deport the oxygen thief back to the shithole he came from. Scumbag.

    • eddyah on 16/09/2023 - 22:09
      -1

      Yeah, deport that scum human back to Earth where he belongs!

      • [Deactivated] on 16/09/2023 - 22:23
        -2

        I understand, my comment was based on the assumption that he was not born in Australia but that does not excuse the fact that his father should have worn a condom.

        • mrkorrupt on 29/09/2023 - 13:25
          -2

          are you aboriginal? if not, you also are from somewhere else

  • cupcake on 18/09/2023 - 10:28
    +2

    Was his home raided?
    Can you update us and let us know if you got your items back.
    Great work, guys. So good to hear the Police got him!

    • pecanpie on 19/09/2023 - 15:29
      +4

      They did but unfortunately our stuff was not at his house.

      • cupcake on 20/09/2023 - 10:50
        +1

        Sorry to hear.
        He must have sold them on asap.
        Very unfortunate.

      • valdracool on 22/09/2023 - 00:07
        +1

        Where did you find these information.
        I got a case number and asked the officer for updated … didn’t get a confirmation that he got arrested. I have even linked other case numbers with my report

      • [Deactivated] on 27/09/2023 - 22:27

        So did cops say anything about you getting anything back? Someone scammed me several years ago selling gift cards and got caught. She tried to get her underage sister to say she had done it using the older sister's ebay password. But the judge wasn't having it and made her pay everyone back within a certain time or else face gaol time.

        • tajid on 22/10/2023 - 09:14

          Did she pay? I was in similar situation, the guy got caught and all but hasn't paid a dime but instead continues to scam others…

          • [Deactivated] on 27/10/2023 - 03:58
            +2

            @tajid: Oh she paid alright otherwise she would have been locked up. She scammed several people by selling non-existent $500 gift cards on ebay. One of the other victims tricked her somehow into obtaining her ebay AND her email passwords, lol. He then read all her recent emails, contacted all her victims, and asked if we'd help him take her down. Then he went to police with printouts of our replies.

            I'm in NSW. The other guy and the thief were in VIC. Police phoned all the victims and asked if we'd be prepared to make statements at our local police stations so she (the police Sargent) could present them to the judge, as she was more likely to get a conviction and get our money back that way. Once she had those she went to court, the judge told the thief to pay everyone back, and the cop directed the guy to return her access to her own ebay/email account (again - LOL - I don't know HOW he got away with that without getting in trouble himself!).

            The judge had told her to repay everyone within a certain number of days or else. I guess it might have been partway through the trial, before her next appearance date!? But anyway he warned her if police didn't give him confirmation she'd repaid everyone, she might not like her new decor.

            The VIC police sargent phoned me to ask if it was ok for her to give my phone number to the scammer so she could arrange to repay me. I wasn't giving her bank details so she had to send me a cheque or money order (I forget which one now).

            Months before that Paypal had already given me a partial refund due to their policies at the time. This may have also helped the judge know she was guilty, gave weight to his decision!? Anyway she knew about that Paypal amount somehow (I guess Paypal were chasing her too, trying to get that amount back from her as well, because that one guy was relaying information between us all - so they all probably obtained partial Paypal refunds too.)

            The scammer phoned, asked how much I got from Paypal so she could repay the difference. The cop phoned me again to check she'd actually repaid everyone. I forget exactly how it happened now, but I wound up coming out about $10 ahead.

  • danny81 on 19/09/2023 - 16:48
    -1

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-03/tas-22yo-charged-over…

    any chance this is the same guy?

    • Quarter Pounder on 19/09/2023 - 16:48

      I doubt it with OP and other victims being located in Sydney.

    • ashdays on 19/09/2023 - 17:20
      -1

      Nice find.
      The article claims the person is from Tasmania. Other than that everything else fits the MO.

      Could it be that the person travelled to Sydney, hired expensive rental cars for show and then scammed people? Just a thought!

      • bamzero on 19/09/2023 - 17:28

        That article is a year old btw.

        • ashdays on 19/09/2023 - 17:32
          -1

          D'oh didn't read that bit. ha ha

        • danny81 on 20/09/2023 - 16:37
          +4

          It never said whether he was convicted or went to jail or anything. Seeing that it was a year ago, i just wondered if he managed to get off lightly in tassie, and decided that a bigger city would be easier to have another crack at the same thing.

  • schwinn on 24/09/2023 - 23:09
    +1

    Hey OP, any update? Or is it that you can’t comment due to the case being actively investigated/prosecuted?

    • Joda on 25/09/2023 - 13:28
      +4

      OP, to assist other potential victims (who come across this forum post) in reporting/recovering their goods - can you provide details of the police station coordinating this and a police report number?

      • werdplaya58 on 26/09/2023 - 08:21
        +3

        OP provided the relevant details to victims who contacted him via private message and also collated their info for police.

        • Joda on 26/09/2023 - 11:48
          +2

          It's great the OP coordinated and collated all this information for the victims and the police - a credit to the OzB community…

          But what about other potential victims that might eventually Google some of the details and find this forum post (in a week, in a year)?
          - Do they keep privately contacting the OP (expecting the OP to continue coordinating victim details and collating case information for the police)
          - Or do they contact the police directly?

          The following information will best help other victims as well as the police in managing this:
          1. Name of the police station managing this case
          2. An existing Police Case Number

          • runamuck on 26/09/2023 - 13:02
            +5

            @Joda: Might add, the real name of the scammer and details of how the scam works. Is it a fake cba app? All these details still unknown.

  • [Deactivated] on 27/09/2023 - 22:22
    -8

    We got him!

    Good. I hate thieves. Lowlife dogs! It's certain someone has caught his scam before. Such a shame they didn't "teach him a lesson he'll never forget" at the time.

    'Deon' was charged and arrested yesterday. Bail refused.

    Poor diddums won't be flying home to get a new ID any time soon only to fly back and start again then. Hope the invasion of his rear doorway by a big nasty dude called Bubba for the 12-18 months was worth it.

    Thanks to all the victims who provided valuable identifying information to the police.

    So were all victims from Ozbargain!?

  • capslock janitor on 29/09/2023 - 17:04
    +4

    Thread of the year

  • Moneyinthebank on 09/10/2023 - 03:30
    +10

    Any new update

  • Gimbleguy on 10/10/2023 - 14:59
    -7

    Cash is always King

    • RobotWizard on 20/10/2023 - 16:17

      There was another one in Syd couple of years ago https://www.9news.com.au/national/abdul-karaali-found-guilty…

      I actually got scammed myself and bought fake airpods, worse part is the kid selling is would have been only 14-15 years old, it was not worth for me to stress over it or take any action, but everyone is not the same.

      • bamzero on 20/10/2023 - 16:30

        The kid didn't deserve to die for scamming some fake airpods, but I hope the story made some other kids think twice about it and not just think it's easy money with no repercussions…

        • jlogic on 25/10/2023 - 19:31

          Kid most probably learnt how to do this from those TikTok influencers that shove this drivel to kids as a way to make easy money while the kid is earning them commission for buying it using their affiliate link.

          I had to report a dozen FB Marketplace ads for selling fake AirPods.

    • Cave Fire on 23/10/2023 - 01:07
      +1

      Yeah, they basically admitted to kidnapping the "thief" and driving him around for ??? might be a bigger crime till they stomped the window.

  • Joda on 25/10/2023 - 13:53
    +2

    It's great so many victims were helped by OP and the OzB community.

    As per prior comments - a few simple details will help other potential victims who might stumble across this forum post in the coming weeks/months:

    1. The Police station/department coordinating this case
    2. An existing Police Case Number
  • werdplaya58 on 25/10/2023 - 23:51
    +1

    Any update @poczynek77 ? Feels like it's been awhile. Are the wheels of justice still turning?

  • Cave Fire on 28/10/2023 - 02:10
    +2

    ok, an eBay was listed earlier. seems to have listings that are in a similar order to what was reported as stolen here earlier. Only thing that sold was a 2022 M2 MacBook listed on 29th Sept. Might have been sold to someone unsuspecting. https://www.ebay.com.au/str/ebcomm

    • Joda on 15/11/2023 - 12:40
      +1

      Given the serious allegations on this forum - if they are true - why hasn't this eBay account been closed down?

      OP, were these eBay allegations reported to the police or eBay?
      What were their findings?

  • CyberMurning on 12/12/2023 - 19:19
    +2

    so how did the scammer pulls the trick? how did he do that? doing in front of seller, and get the sms right away?

    • asdfasdfasdfasdf on 14/12/2023 - 09:43
      +1

      I'm still curious about this too :(

    • PissLUR on 21/12/2023 - 13:56
      +1

      fake cba app.

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