Scammer Alert

[N519AT]

Not sure what forum to put this in, but recently I made a post in the Private TDI Items For Sale section looking for some fenders and a front bumper cover: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=502511


I received a PM from tdiwizzy7 (http://forums.tdiclub.com/member.php?u=565898) on October 16th saying:

Holliday in Pennsylvania has a Front Fenders, Bumper Cover he wants to part with.Here's his email holli2580@gmail.com

Reached out to the guy, he sent me some pics of fenders but it turned out they were the wrong shade of blue that I needed.


On 11/5 I received a PM from chopbar88 (http://forums.tdiclub.com/member.php?u=566520) saying:

Check out Christopher in PA via Chrisjh365@gmail.com,he has a 2003 Jetta fenders and a bumper cover he wants to part with.

Interesting, this Christopher Holliday guy must deal a lot with part out Jettas, I thought. Reached out again, and finally he has some in my color. Things start to not add up when it came to payment. He wanted to be paid via the Cash app, Zelle or Venmo. When I offered Paypal he said he didn't have the time to set it up. I asked if he could write on a piece of paper in front of the fender with today's date and a specific phrase. Gave me some BS excuse and then said the deal was off he was going to sell locally. I offered again just to pay via Venmo to get some more information. Here is everything I have on him. Obviously most of this is fake info, but if you come across any of this similar stuff, it's time to rip the ejection handle. When you google the number, it appears he tried to scam someone on a Model T forum: https://mtfca.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=7101&p=53401&hilit=gene




Chris Holliday
5413578718
541-357-8718


Holliday J Christopher
(Address removed)


Venmo acct (claimed it was his wife's account): Jas-jj



Picture of his license he sent me, probably stolen as well:

(Removed)



Bottom line: keep a careful eye out for people offering to "help" you by giving someone elses contact info. Both of those accounts that PM'd me were created that day and have no posts associated with them.

 

[Chuck78]

Christopher Holliday in PA

Well this was not good news when I found this... I suspected I had been scammed by this Christopher Holliday fellow...
So I searched his phone number.
This was the first thing that came up of noteworthiness.


the message I received from a different forum member on a different forum, was the exact same as yours someone referring you to someone else for parts...
rodney330
Registered User
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 0
1995+ Toyota V6 Bellhousing 5VZFE R150
Check out Holiday in Pennsylvania via holli2580 @gmail.com,he has a 1995+ Toyota V6 Bellhousing 5VZFE R150 he wants to part with.


This was on the Pirate4x4.com forum
exact same scenario, same message, different parts in question, a Toyota V6 truck bellhousing to mate to my TDI adapter.
And he said he would not use PayPal, I sent him $130 or so using the Zelle app, allegedly to his wife's email - Terrencehowardgirl50 @yah**.com
(I conversed with the person at this email address who may or may not have been the scammer, and who was going along with the story that the scammer had hacked into their email to use it to sign up for a Zelle banking transfer account)

I got burned. I went back and checked the user that referred me, who had a whopping 0 posts on that forum, and had just joined in July. I sent Christopher Holliday the money on November 17th, and heard nothing from him since...


I've never ever been burned like this in my life, and only twice did I receive parts that were not in the condition they were stated to be in. This is in over 21 years of buying and selling stuff on the internet! I want to trust people, but obviously there are wolves out there that rely on people having a sense of community trust...

 

[Chuck78]

Well he is at at all over the place, going from the first page of search listings for that phone number...
https://www.cadillacforums.com/thre...ds-please-report-suspicious-activity.1090412/


https://forums.pelicanparts.com/por...046498-scam-aware-prof676-hollychris1972.html

 

[Chuck78]

Well the phone number has now been disconnected, so he is likely long gone with these credentials at least. On to prey on victims in other forums...

It is unlikely that I will be able to recover the $130 or so I sent him, but I will look into this through Zelle Quick Pay...
PayPal, PayPal, PayPal!!!! Exclusively from now on, if not in person...

Via those other scam alert links:
He also goes by Randy Rawlinson or Wendell (other forums he has scammed on by Googling his phone # 541-357-8718). His Paypal email is theblackangel_thedarkminister@yahoo.com and he also uses genem365@gmail.com

Hollychris1972@gmail.com
larrysteven9h@gmail.com
Chrisjh365@gmail.com
hollifield
benedicthilary007
Prof676
rodney330

 

[Chuck78]

Picture of his license he sent me, probably stolen as well:

The original poster, it was pointed out to me on another forum what I basically already had known, but I was still in shock from being ripped off and finding all this info... That this person's ID is legit, and that is not the person who was trying to scam you, just an identity that this scammer was using. This Christopher holiday fellow is not the person scamming you, and the person whose driver's license that is likely has no idea their license photo is on the internet, as well as their address!

https://www.beenverified.com/people/christopher-holliday/pa/

I'll text message him & then call him if no reply, to let him know a scammer has his drivers license...

You should probably take down his address and that drivers license picture ASAP, please. That could happen to any of us. That guy on the Pennsylvania driver's license is more of a victim of this scammer than you are in this scenario.

 

[N519AT]

I went ahead and removed his address and DL photo.

I agree, I’ve always had good luck buying things through forums. Never had an issue until his guy. Seems like he’s only attacking want to buy (WTB) ads.

My clue to this scam was that he wouldn’t work with me on a payment method. When I sell something I’m usually pretty flexible about how I receive money but when someone doesn’t want to use PayPal (which has buyer protection) it raises red flags in my book. Whenever I buy something from a forum or via Facebook or craigslist I always do a google search for whatever information I have on the person (name, email, address, phone, etc.) to make sure that I’m not getting myself into a precarious situation (especially if meeting in person). It’s not a catch all and things can certainly slip through the cracks, however it does give a little piece of mind. Always insist on PayPal if you can, and don’t use the “send money to friends or family” option when you do as it rids you of buyer protection.

 

[KLXD]

I didn't know that last tidbit about Paypal. Thanks for that.

The solution is to increase your payment to cover the fee if the buyer doesn't want to loose the 5% or whatever it is now. If he still insists you use friends/family it would be a red flag.

 

[fouillard13]

yeah, lots will ask to send "friends and family" so theres no fee.... but then paypal looks at it like its a birthday gift and not a business transaction so theres nothing to dispute. no option to dispute it or nothing. learned that one the hard way too.


the other major red flag was him unable to send a picture with todays date, etc...



he had you, then he 100% lost you and wrote you off when you asked for picture proof. then you came right back him, he didnt even have to try and basically handed your money over to an obvious scammer. ouch. live and learn!!! hopefully other guys can learn from your mistake.


my roomate got called last summer by the IRA. the number on his call ID was the local police number (spoofed obviously) and they told him he owed $5000 within 7 days or 30 days in jail for missed income tax payments... well guess who transferred that scammer $3500 in itunes gift cards and pre paid credit cards to pay his income taxes. idiot. took his phone to the police department to ask why they called and did that and the scammer talked to the cops and laughed at them and taunted the cops. not a thing they could do or trace and he was out $3500.

 

[turbobrick240]

my roomate got called last summer by the IRA. the number on his call ID was the local police number (spoofed obviously) and they told him he owed $5000 within 7 days or 30 days in jail for missed income tax payments... well guess who transferred that scammer $3500 in itunes gift cards and pre paid credit cards to pay his income taxes. idiot. took his phone to the police department to ask why they called and did that and the scammer talked to the cops and laughed at them and taunted the cops. not a thing they could do or trace and he was out $3500.

I got a couple scam calls from "Social Security" on my cell last month. They were robocalls that connected me to the scammer in India or Pakistan. I knew it was phony from the get go, but was curious so I played along for a minute giving fake info. They were going to cancel my social security number unless I paid up, lol. I might have been a bit more intimidated if they had said they were from the IRA.

 

[KLXD]

I've had a few voice mails from the IRA saying pay up or else. Hard to believe anyone falls for those.

Funny that they don't even wait for the beep to start their spiel.

Fortunately I'm in a position that I have no reason to answer calls from numbers I don't recognize.

 

[turbobrick240]

I've had a few voice mails from the IRA saying pay up or else. Hard to believe anyone falls for those.

Damn, are there really scammers out there posing as the IRA?! I thought George Mitchell got that all straightened out.

 

[1854sailor]

Damn, are there really scammers out there posing as the IRA?! I thought George Mitchell got that all straightened out.

 

[jokila]

I went ahead and removed his address and DL photo.

I agree, I’ve always had good luck buying things through forums. Never had an issue until his guy. Seems like he’s only attacking want to buy (WTB) ads.

My clue to this scam was that he wouldn’t work with me on a payment method. When I sell something I’m usually pretty flexible about how I receive money but when someone doesn’t want to use PayPal (which has buyer protection) it raises red flags in my book. Whenever I buy something from a forum or via Facebook or craigslist I always do a google search for whatever information I have on the person (name, email, address, phone, etc.) to make sure that I’m not getting myself into a precarious situation (especially if meeting in person). It’s not a catch all and things can certainly slip through the cracks, however it does give a little piece of mind. Always insist on PayPal if you can, and don’t use the “send money to friends or family” option when you do as it rids you of buyer protection.

On a counter point, as a seller, I make people pay me the surcharge to do a deal that is not family and friends. I am not paying for that privilege.

But beware, if you sell to someone NOT as family and friends payment, they can screw you that they didn't receive the package, it's not what you said it was, blah blah blah, and guess who paypal will believe almost 100%. Yeah, not you.

So as a seller you can get scammed too.

 

[KLXD]

On a counter point, as a seller, I make people pay me the surcharge to do a deal that is not family and friends. I am not paying for that privilege.
But beware, if you sell to someone as family and friends payment, they can screw you that they didn't receive the package, it's not what you said it was, blah blah blah, and guess who paypal will believe almost 100%. Yeah, not you.
So as a seller you can get scammed too.

You're an honest seller, I'm an honest buyer. If everyone was like us there wouldn't be any problems. Unfortunately...

So we each do what we can to protect ourselves. I don't mind paying the fees as a buyer for that protection.

 

[KLXD]

Damn, are there really scammers out there posing as the IRA?! I thought George Mitchell got that all straightened out.

Oops.

Though some have argued the IRS is a terrorist organization.

 

[Chuck78]

THESE SCAMMERS STRIKE AGAIN!!!!!
A duplicate WTB ad of mine, same scam, on a different forum!!!!!


I GOT THIS MESSAGE FROM MY WANTED AD TODAY:

Hi you can contact Paul he has a for sale paulbonoski7@gmail.com

Sent from my TECNO LB8a using Tapatalk

Nicholas Pascal
&
Paul Bonoski

those are the aliases THIS time....