mx5cartalk.com

Recently i've had a flood of users complain about a few sellers on the forum.

If you are buying an item off the forum please pick it up and pay in person, that way you can be assured that the items is as described and all financial transactions are complete.

Buying sight unseen has an applied risk, you can potentially reduce the risk by only buying off well known forum members who have a good reputation to maintain but there are no guarantees.

NEVER buy from a new forum user with little or no posts or whose "friend" has the part to sell unless you are buying the part in person and have the required knowledge to know the part is legit and in working order.

Yes, even here!

We have had a pattern of rip-off artists/scammers/general low life using this site to target users, usually through WTB ads.

First up - CAVEAT EMPTOR (aka buyer beware). If you want to make a donation to a good cause, donate to the Sallies/Vinnies/etc. Don't throw good money at thieves.

Do your homework before parting with money (aka due diligence). When did they register? Their post history? Are they referring you to a third party? Can you source them to a real address, and can you find it on g**gle maps? Can you do reverse image search on the photo of the item?

Be careful ALWAYS - we have had one instance (that I know about) where a user's account was hacked, so dealing with (what seems like) a longstanding active user is no guarantee.

There are few certainties in this life, and buying goods over the net is not one of them. Just because we (apparently) share a common interest does not mean we are all honest, as a search on here for 'scam' or 'scammer' will show. Here endeth sermon - please heed it.

Finally, if you have your suspicions, report it using the report button (the exclamation mark). That gets it immediately on the radar of the mods.

Having purchased (and sold) a great deal of items for my various 5's through some great members here over the past decade I've been a member, it's quite sad seeing this happening almost everywhere online these days. Even though this was less prevalent in the past, I've always done my homework as greenMachine mentioned to ensure the seller was genuine, but now every purchase online anywhere needs so much more due diligence.

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