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Bad ***BUYERS BEWARE OF TRAVIS STEPHENS-- Do NOT Send Funds To PAYPAL USER Stephens9940@gmail.com/jackthblade@gmail.com --SCAMMER***

DennisM

DennisM

Gold Member
Feedback: 23 / 0 / 0
Joined
Feb 3, 2024
Messages
204
I agreed to a deal with BladeForums USER ID "smokescreenwrc". There was allot of email traffic outside of Blade Forums with an imposter claiming to be the member selling the knives. The individual said to make PPFF payment to "Stephens9940@gmail.com or jacktheblade@gmail.com ". After I completed the payment and notified smokescreenwrc in a PM and the Posting for the knives, I was informed that the emails outside of Blade Forums were not from "The REAL Blade Forums: smokescreenwrc" were not from him. So basically ... I was bent over and F'ed w/o lube! Just informing others in hopes they will not be scammed like I did.

PayPal and the institution that is the holder of my CC used were both informed. Outside of the hassle - and at most 10 business days for the charge to be removed - no harm no foul. I am a fairly knew member to this forum and have made multiple purchases thus far with good honest people. It sucks that a few bad eggs try to F UP a good thing. There will be no more PPFF purchases for me.
 
You could have avoided all of this by just purchasing a membership and conducting business directly via PM...
 
AGREED about the PPFF - lesson learned. Even paying members have gotten scammed like this though.
 
**UPDATE**
My money was refunded by my financial institution, USAA. FU scammer!! Hopefully all the others who've been scammed can get their money back too.
 
Congrats. You were fortunate.
 
Thanks and yes I was. It was a valuable lesson learned on my end.
 
DennisM said:
**UPDATE**
My money was refunded by my financial institution, USAA. FU scammer!! Hopefully all the others who've been scammed can get their money back too.
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That is the second time I've heard this lately. I always thought paypal wasn't able to refund FF payments, so that's promising news.

I know you can do chargeback if you paid through PP with a debit card, but I always thought you risked losing your PP account by doing that.
 
SwissHeritageCo said:
That is the second time I've heard this lately. I always thought paypal wasn't able to refund FF payments, so that's promising news.

I know you can do chargeback if you paid through PP with a debit card, but I always thought you risked losing your PP account by doing that.
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If its tied to your CC and your drawing from it, you CC company can also do some work for you. Just step over PP and let your CC deal with them.
 
badmatt said:
If its tied to your CC and your drawing from it, you CC company can also do some work for you. Just step over PP and let your CC deal with them.
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Wouldn't be the first time I heard that but my impression was that PP frowned upon that practice. Such to the point you risk losing access to your account.
 
SwissHeritageCo said:
Wouldn't be the first time I heard that but my impression was that PP frowned upon that practice. Such to the point you risk losing access to your account.
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PP can suck an egg if they are unwilling to intervene with legit scammers.
 
USAA is awesome with customer protection.

When I initiated the dispute with PP, shortly after the transaction was made and the scammer went silent, PP declined my request and told me to go through my financial institution because they are the hierarchy in the transaction. So glad I don't have a PP backed card or I would have lost my money due to my naivety.

THANK YOU USAA!!!! A+++ customer service
 
glad you got made whole.

usaa used to be the best, last handful of years I wouldn't say that anymore. I've been with them almost 30 years now in banking and insurance. so current ceo since 2020 has lost 1.3billion dollars last year. first loss since 1923..meanwhile got himself a more than 2/3rds raise.....

he's made a mess and continues to make a mess of what used to be a great company. least they covered you op.......maybe Wayne felt bad and gave ya part of his 8.1 million yearly compensation.....
 
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SwissHeritageCo said:
Wouldn't be the first time I heard that but my impression was that PP frowned upon that practice. Such to the point you risk losing access to your account.
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For a PPFF transfer, they may decide to sever the relationship. Chargebacks likely cost them money and, because its a FF transfer, they're not getting compensated for it.
badmatt said:
PP can suck an egg if they are unwilling to intervene with legit scammers.
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OP didn't pay for protections so he didn't get protections.

The dynamic is pretty standard across businesses.
DennisM said:
USAA is awesome with customer protection.

When I initiated the dispute with PP, shortly after the transaction was made and the scammer went silent, PP declined my request and told me to go through my financial institution because they are the hierarchy in the transaction. So glad I don't have a PP backed card or I would have lost my money due to my naivety.

THANK YOU USAA!!!! A+++ customer service
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PP declined b/c you used PPFF. Good news on the USAA front but I wouldn't make a practice of this type of thing.

Glad it worked out in the end
 
I won't take any PP addresses sent through email anymore. I did my best to scrub the site of mine & I will only do deals through PM now. Sorry, this happened to you.
 
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