Turns out you CAN trust some people on the internet

CuddleDuncanCuddleDuncan Mod
in General

I had an interesting experience recently. Nothing to do with cuddling but I thought it worth telling you, as a counterpoint to some of the more common topics.

I have bought a car. "Used", "pre-loved" or, as I prefer to say, "second hand". I was very particular about the model I wanted, and it turned out that there was only one suitable vehicle for sale and that was at the other end of the country. It's on ebay thinks I, I'll have the various ebay payment protections such as they are.

But it turns out that ebay doesn't do a payments thing for cars. The guy was really nice, and helpful, and we chatted about what to do. In the end I just sent the funds to his bank account. That's right people, I gave a total stranger on the internet a properly big lump of money. And no, I wasn't being foolish, I was careful, and thoughtful, and well aware of the risks. There were a number of mitigating factors: for example he had provided photographic proof of address. (No photo of him though! In that context it would have been weird.)

Anyway, the car arrived as arranged a few days later. Exactly as described. The lovely man had even left some Puffin Poo in the boot. (Perhaps I should explain that Puffin Poo is a delicious confection .... it's Puffin Poo, not puffin poo.)

Anyway, in amongst all these posts about being scammed and people being horrible, I thought it would be nice to have one about how trusting people works out sometimes.

Comments

  • MonkeyNeedsAHugMonkeyNeedsAHug

    Congrats on the new car. Enjoy!

  • JohnR1972JohnR1972

    @CuddleDuncan - Thank you for sharing. That is a great counterpoint for some of the hypothetical threads on this forum.

    A relatively small percentage of people are scammers but they are very active and they have done tremendous damage to our world by making people afraid to trust each other.

  • CuddleHugs01234CuddleHugs01234

    @CuddleDuncan I’m glad it worked out well. Enjoy the car! :)

  • PinkMalloPinkMallo

    I appreciate the snack clarification. Lol!!! Congrats on the new (to you) car!

  • EztevezEztevez

    (Car) pics or it didn't happen! Lol

  • CuddleDuncanCuddleDuncan Mod
    edited August 2024

    Pics or it didn't happen? Seems like a strange thing to want proof of, but ok.

    I should be clear that this is a reconstruction of the moment in question, a bit like the famous photo of the flag raising on Iwo Jima.


    Oh, alright then. 🙄


    Alfa Romeo Brera 3.2 JTS V6 S

  • Katelyn_BKatelyn_B

    That is a great story, and nice ride. 🙂

  • CuddlesofcuddleCuddlesofcuddle

    Wow. You're bold and brave. Congrats.
    For anyone else who reads,... I work fraud prevention.
    Please 🙏
    If you're suddenly interested in using ebay for purchase of a vehicle that is awesome, just know that you should always be able to contact ebay and confirm the item number in the listing is legitimate. And do not click on any links in the description until you confirmed the listing.
    Ebay motors is a target for scammers. They'll make the site look like it's ebay then one wrong click and boom. Compromised. Please use caution ⚠️

  • SunsetSnugglesSunsetSnuggles

    @CuddleDuncan posted: "this is a reconstruction of the moment in question"

    😂 Adorable.

    "I was careful, and thoughtful"

    Any tips you'd like to share?

    ~ Sunset Snuggles

    🫂 Enthusiast 🌄 Travel Fiend 🐄 Animal Lover

  • Jack62Jack62

    A relatively small percentage of people are scammers but they are very active and they have done tremendous damage to our world by making people afraid to trust each other. JohnR that's exactly correct !! 99.9% of people are good people, unfortunately that .01% are the one's you refer to.......and then there's the ones who are not trying to scam you for money, but they just get their jollies from screwing with people....emotional scamming
    WOW, what a cool car.....was it delivered on a flat bed? Mostly Ebay is a very safe place !

  • CuddleHugs01234CuddleHugs01234

    @CuddleDuncan Glad she wanted proof because I was interested in seeing the car. Question though, is that a hidden compartment on the car, or just the way it opens up each time? In one of my mom’s cars, there was a little security area in which I found some brand new artwork. Thankfully I saw it before it was sold. Nothing priceless but it was cute, and I liked how she used the secret area.

  • jillyainjillyain

    Love the Alfa Romeo!! The story is a good one too,

  • TeddyCuddle45TeddyCuddle45

    Love the story and the alfa, but as a Belgian I hate these companies saying Belgian chocolate, unless you bought the chocolate used in it direct from Belgium its not Belgian chocolate, it's Belgian style chocolate, same with these places offering Belgian waffles they are not even close to what a Belgian waffles is, sorry for the rant. But that is one thing that drives me nuts.

    I've always seen alfa's in red an I gotta say the black is much better
    Purple would be sweet too :D.
    Good to know there are still good people left in the world.

  • CuddleDuncanCuddleDuncan Mod
    edited August 2024

    Thank you everybody for the lovely words. It is a beautiful car, and a special model created just for the UK. They made fewer than 250 with that big engine.

    @Cuddlesofcuddle I was very careful, and I checked that I really was on ebay. The seller had good feedback going back a while, although it was just for buying. That is, the account looked pretty much like my own: just a guy who uses ebay once in a while.

    @SunsetSnuggles tips .... well, I had previously seen the same car advertised in a different, reputable place, which I hadn't spotted but the seller pointed it out and that gave me comfort. The number plate checked out, and I bought an online car details check. The advert included details which required specialist knowledge of this type of car. The price was very cheap, but that was accounted for by the location of the vehicle on an island, which would put most people off buying it.

    The seller was open, pleasant and straightforward. I chatted to him for a couple of weeks before committing, and nothing changed in a way that it shouldn't. I made a number of reasonable requests - fresh photos of the car, photo of documents - all of which he did straightaway. The conversation revealed that we knew places in common. The money was sent to a bank account with a name that matched the documents. (The personal banking system here in the UK checks that all the details match a real account before sending the money.) There was nothing suspicious, unusual or 'off'; no sales talk or attempts at emotional bonding or anything like that, and the whole thing just oozed genuineness.

    I've been buying things off the internet since buying things off the internet was invented, so I've had plenty of practice. And I'm very conscious of the Golden Rule - if in doubt, don't. I wasn't in doubt, although I will admit to certain amount of anxiety until I saw the right car coming off the transporter!

    @Jack62

    but they just get their jollies from screwing with people....emotional scamming

    Yep, I've come across those. Hasn't happened to me but it's happened to friends. And it happens all the time in the professional cuddling world. Clients who never have any intention of turning up, etc.

    It was delivered by one of these huge, two-decker car transporter lorries with about eight cars on it. It hadn't come all the way on that, it was a multi-legged journey including a ferry trip.

    @CuddleHugs01234 no secret compartments, at least not that I've found, that was just the boot.

  • AMFAMF

    Congratulations on the car and thank you for sharing the story!

  • HoodiesnugglesHoodiesnuggles

    I absolutely love this. Thank you for sharing.

  • CaptainChaosCaptainChaos

    I sold a used 22 Sea Ray Sundancer on Ebay about 16 years ago. Was watching the bidding, dropped the reserve and it didn't go. Had a message come thru after inquiring if it was still avail. Buyer called me- a lawyer from San Antonio TX - I think. We spent roughly 2 hours or so on the phone. I went over what worked/didn't work, what was in good shape and what would need attention soon.
    He was going to fly into Atlanta, see his parents, grab their truck and drive 2.5 hrs to get it. Sue, no problem- I'll have it ready. A couple of days later it's "I'll send you a check from the company acct because you sound honest", "Ok, but it doesn't leave until it's cleared". Check arrives, clears and he arranges transportation back to TX. Truck shows up and off it went. It arrived there a couple of days later and into the water it went, he called to say it absolutely as described, wife and kids love it and if I'm down his way to get in touch.

    That's how to do business.

  • achetocuddleachetocuddle

    I really like this story Duncan. I am probably overthinking, but why did he leave the Puffin Poo in the trunk instead of on the seat I wonder? I just realized maybe he was afraid it would get stolen. All I was thinking about is candy doesn't need to be in a hot trunk.

    I saw an emerald green Mercedes at the grocery store today and I have been coveting it ever since, lol.

    @jack62 I think scammers have made the average person too afraid in general. I know people that lock their car in their driveway when they are going in the house for just a few minutes. Stuff like that. Some people are astonished that I hardly ever lock my car anywhere (I have a garage). I tell them it is ok if I don't lock my car because I know how to calculate risk. They say "Don't you lock it when you have purchases in the car?" I said yes but I don't lock it before I go in a store. They were speechless. I could not live like that. I can't go around being that scared.

    Also it helps if you don't go anywhere much at night (like me) and you avoid the lakes (due to the "lake element" as one of my friends would say). I realize in other places the waterways may be safer.

  • CuddleDuncanCuddleDuncan Mod

    @achetocuddle the Puffin Poo was in the boot because it's a little more secure. People were driving the car on and off transporters and a ferry during its journey, and the seat or even the glovebox leave the risk of temptation.

  • SunsetSnugglesSunsetSnuggles

    @CuddleDuncan
    Sweet, it sounds like you got something similar to a CarFax report, and that's awesome how the banking system works, over there. I don't know enough about buying cars to be getting them from private sellers, but I'm an expert on negotiating for toy ponies on Ebay. 😛

    @achetocuddle
    I click the button to lock my car everywhere because that's just how I was raised. For me it's not living in fear, it's just automatic, like putting the car in Park.

    I think stuff like this largely depends on when and where people were raised. My mom grew up sleeping with all the doors and windows open/unlocked, in the 60's. 🪟 I pretty much do the same here, living so rural in a place with no crime (except the door is locked...but anyone could get in the screen door, or multiple open windows).

    I could likely leave my car running unlocked in complete safety when I go inside the post office, but that just seems so unwarranted. 🤭 I will leave it running sometimes in extreme temperatures, but still lock it.

    Back in Colorado, it's illegal to leave an empty vehicle running, because they get stolen so often (like in winter when people are warming them up). At the airport, locked trucks are hot wired every week and driven straight through the parking barrier. In New York City, an unlocked door would probably result in robbery or rape.

    I really enjoy living in a safe, quiet place for now, where the only crime is dudes trying to sneak fallen elk antlers before the season is open. 😄 But it's definitely not like this everywhere, alas.

    ~ Sunset Snuggles

    🫂 Enthusiast 🌄 Travel Fiend 🐄 Animal Lover

  • JubalJubal
    edited August 2024

    @CuddleDuncan Over the years I've bought and sold quite a few high-dollars items using places like Craigslist, Ebay, etc. While I get quite a few scam attempt messages, they're easy to spot. I've only had two true scams attempted on me - one was an in-person meet that was supposed to be in the lobby of my local bank (so I could have them make out the cashiers check to the seller). I was in the lobby waiting, and the seller texted to tell me that he couldn't come inside. My answer was "well now I can't come outside".

    The other was on Ebay where the seller on a $2k purchase shipped an empty box to my ZIP code. It was really an ingenious scam attempt - he located a vacant home for sale on realtor.com and used the USPS self-service kiosk to print a shipping label with a handwritten address. So when he uploaded the tracking number to Ebay, it only showed the ZIP code, which matched mine. I had to pull up the tracking history, found the address it was shipped to, and fortunately the real estate agent had picked up the box and gave it to me, so I was able to get my money back.

    Anyways, my point is that even with these kind of lowlifes in the world, the vast majority of people are decent and honest. Society wouldn't function otherwise - life would look like a Mad Max movie.

  • BearBear

    @CuddleDuncan I’m glad you got a good deal on a nice car. I’m also glad you clarified what puffin poo is , lol.

    I’ve been getting stuff off the Internet for years From eBay and such. The only time I’ve ever got scammed was from a private seller, and I forgot where they were from.

  • IneedahugortwoIneedahugortwo

    @CuddleDuncan Congratulations on your car and the Puffin Poo. It's refreshing hearing stories like that. We often only hear the bad in society, especially on the internet. So, your story brings back hope to what my son would call, a paranoid person like me. =)

  • sofasharersofasharer

    Congrats on the car!... I think in reality scams happen a fraction of the time as we are always buying and selling online, however we only hear the horror stories so our opinions are slanted in one direction. It's nice to hear some balance with a success story.

  • TxTomTxTom

    It may appear that the Alfa Romeo came with a bag of Puffin Poo, but we should seriously consider the possibility that the bag of Puffin Poo came with an Alfa Romeo.

  • SunsetSnugglesSunsetSnuggles

    Actually, I saw that poor man on Instagram the other night...he's been searching his whole island for his lost box of Puffin Poo. It was a rare special edition box that he paid €1,243 for on Ebay, bless 'im. He hid the Puffin Poo in the boot, AKA trunk, of the car, to avoid his wife finding it. Seems he's been promising her for over 14 years to get help for his bidding addiction, but this most recent purchase resulted in a public brawl between the couple - caught on livestream by a local teenager. The man is now single. His wife is rumored to be listing a large quantity of rare biscuits, crisps, and other expired food goods on Ebay, soon. 😬

    😁

    ~ Sunset Snuggles

    🫂 Enthusiast 🌄 Travel Fiend 🐄 Animal Lover.

  • FalcoFalco

    Only three words: thanks for sharing!

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