Be very careful when buying sealed sets. I see the exact same “white whale” sets being sold all over the country on FB marketplace. Someone has either replicated the tape used to seal the boxes or found a way to open them and remove the contents and replace them with something else.
Also, thanks for coming forward with this. I have a feeling there are a lot more people out there that have gotten scammed like this but are too proud to admit it.
If someone is honest they will be ok with you opening the sealed sets. Especially on a trade, if it was me I’d make you give me the cash first, but then you can inspect away
That’s how this is such a clever scam. A lot of people collect sealed sets. And a lot of people who do plan on opening them do so at a later date. They may fully intend to build the set but not till they have some time which might be weeks or months away and by that time the scammers are long gone.
I wouldn’t give you my address to legitimately sell a Lego set. No stranger needs my address. And this scam works at a police station unless you open the set right there before handing the money over.
I can’t believe I have to be the one to tell you this. I mean, someone should’ve clued you in on this nugget before now. Pay attention. Strangers you meet on the internet just might be willing to do you harm or steal things from you. It’s always good to meet them at a neutral location with lots of people around. A police station is a particularly safe place should a meeting with an internet stranger be necessary.
How do you not know this already?
Don't feel too bad. I got taken like this buying a set off of ebay. Different seller, obviously, but the exact same scam. They had some how opened the box, replaced the set with random bags of parts, and re sealed it so that it looked straight from the factory. By the time I realized and tried to contact them their ebay account was gone. Makes me leary of buying used sets anymore. That was a tough $70 lesson.
Last year I traveled to another city about 6 hours away and checked the marketplace there. Someone in that city was selling 6 or 7 white whale sets: Ewok Village, Death Star, MTT, Sand Crawler and a couple others. I had someone in my city selling the exact same sets plus one more. All were listed at a significant discount from their average price for sealed sets. Not 50% off but a good 25% off. Just enough to get me real interested in buying but not too much to make me think it was a scam. In fact the prices on the sets from both sellers were all within a few dollars of each other. I have since seen a similar deal in two other cities. I don’t know how they are doing it. I’m guessing they have replicated the factory tape somehow. But I haven’t inspected one of these deals myself.
As someone who likes to both build sets and collect sealed ones that will grow in value, this bums me out. I have bought only one sealed set since I have seen this happening. It was from someone who had many years of pictures on her FB page. Some significant FB history makes me feel like the seller is legit, but what if someone else scammed the person I’m buying from? So I guess that set i bought since I noticed this was happening is something of a Schrodinger’s cat.
I think what they are doing is using a hair dryer or heat gun to soften the glue on the box so they can open it without making it obvious. I'm sure that's what they did with mine. A lot of these companies check returned lego items by weight. I think that is how some of the "new" sets from Amazon are turning up with the same switcheroo scam. They are being returned with the proper weight of lego bricks so as to fool amazon, who don't open the lego boxes to check. I've heard of multiple people buying sets that looked factory sealed from Amazon that were done just like ours. These scammers are getting away with murder and making our hobby a less hospitable place. All over greed.
That seems strange, given he knows their names and what they look like (unless it’s a completely fake Facebook account). I get being unable (or unwilling) to chase down shoplifters, but it doesn’t seem like there’s much legwork required for the boys in blue here…
I just had the perfect idea, I'll put it in a separate comment too but he should have a friend ask to trade Lego and just do the same exact thing they did except with no Lego in the boxes...
Gonna John Wick your way to victory?
Get real. A criminal isn’t going to just apologise so what you gonna do? Shoot them?
It’s a matter for the police and they don’t care so the only sensible course of action is to just act like a real person in the real world.
Gonna John Wick your way to victory?
Get real. A criminal isn’t going to just apologise so what you gonna do? Shoot them?
It’s a matter for the police and they don’t care so the only sensible course of action is to just act like a real person in the real world.
You should have someone on a different account near you contact them off a separate (or same) post and ask to meet them and show up with yourself and the police.
The police may give you shid for it but if you can call a day ahead and try and schedule the meet where you know you can have an officer, it'll help. Also screenshot everything on their account that may be of use to you!
Good luck! I know karma will get them.
One of the comments said you were in PA, I won't inquire where, but if you pm me, I'd be willing to help or shoot them a message. That sucks so much. I have a huge collection, and if I lost stuff on a shitty trade, I'd be devastated. Again really sorry this happened most of my marketplace lego deals have gone well aside from sellers trying to swindle am extra 10 bucks or something from me at the last second. Definitely going to be weary about marketplace listings and follow your advice.
I just offhand asked if they were still available and she answered yes just now so there’s a chance if you’ve got a buddy you can set up a second meeting.
Wish I could but the police aren’t going to be around to help and it would be hard to get any charges placed on them. Thank you for the help though, I really do appreciate it.
Make a new account, trade again, when they show up document everything (or beat them up) and then go to the police with video evidence (unless you beat them up)
Update: get a load of this, the guy knows about this post and wants to sue me for defamation. He even said that he would tell other companies not to give me internships…ok
Oh if they are watching this post.. I want to let these scammers now they are the scum of society. They will eventually piss off the wrong people and get what’s coming up them. They should be lucky you are as nice as you are because it would be extremely easy to trap them with an alt account and jump them with a group of people. They are definitely playing with fire
Yeah, not a whole lot we can do about that. I can write a report for it, but unless you insured your Lego, that’s not going to really help you.
No judge is going to sign off on a search warrant for some Lego unless it was like thousands of dollars.
Unless I can get full name and DOB out of facebook, can’t ID them and therefore can’t pull an arrest warrant either.
Unfortunately I understand the constraints of these little thefts, but these people are always repeat offenders at what point does it go from petty to a large theft? I see above someone says they were scammed by the same couple & I’m sure they’re not the only ones.
This just happened with me. Bought set 7133 off bricklink, seller listed complete minus box which i didn't care about. Got it, it's missing quite a few pieces, and some are crucial for the build. That sucks. People suck.
File a NSS (non-shipping seller) against the seller. They did not ship you what you bought. That usually gets the seller's attention. 3 complete NSS and they are shut down. Also, leave appropriate feedback to warn others.
People in the wrong love nothing more than to threaten legal action. The reality is litigation is damn expensive and I highly doubt they’re actually willing to invest that kind of cash to combat a poor Marketplace review or someone calling them a scammer over Messenger.
If they weren’t assholes — and truly innocent — the easy thing to do here would be to return OP’s sets. While it’s highly unlikely, I could see a scenario where they purchased these sets from someone else on FB Marketplace, kept all of them “sealed”, and then unknowingly scammed OP. But if they’re unwilling to swap the sets back — and are immediately resorting to threats of legal action — then yeah, that’s as good as a smoking gun.
man every few days i see something like this post in this sub, obviously it sucks that this happened and i hope it’s taken as a lesson and now hopefully you realize that you’ll be way better off just by saving up for those white whales instead of “getting lucky” and thinking u got a deal. it’s usually just too good to be true unless you’re the 0.00000000001% who put all their stats into luck
I'd report this as a robbery and mention the value amount. It's all word to mouth at that point, so use screenshots of the post and communications with them to back your story. If it gets to a certain dollar value and depending on the state, you may garner some attention. If anything, you give those "sellers" attention from the police and to help further stop these scams. If these people do this, they're probably doing other crimes. Call the police, stop asking reddit.
also, for a street lesson; always verify the product and/or money before exchanging anything. period.
They have done it once and will probably do it again, if you see another listing by them get a friend to message them and organise a meet up and go with them
I’ve bought from offer up and they said new in boxes never opened. The minute I met up with them I said I was opening up all the boxes first and making sure all the bags were there. I had my wife look up the sets and how many bags were in each set. Spending any of my hard earned money I’ll always check to see what’s in the boxes. Sorry you learned the hard way.
Tip for you OP: I know how it feels to be a bit shy in the moment so maybe next time you're buying something second hand you can take a person along that isn't afraid to ask questions and check things thoroughly.
Second tip: You're not there to make friends with the seller and it truly doesn't matter what they think of you, if they won't let you check something you already know enough.
Hope you're not too hard on yourself for getting scammed. It's a mix of strong emotions..
I am not a lawyer, but judging by the sets you showed, it looks like this could construe felony theft. The cops would definitely care about that. Add up the dollar total of everything they took you for. Also, gather up all the convos, photos, texts, whatever you have of them, and then write down a time line of events as soon as possible. Keep things just the facts with the cops, and take notes. Make sure you write the date, name of anyone you talked to, and then a short summary of the interaction. A lawyer will thank you for all of that work up front. If the total of your loss is over $900 then you should have a case. I am not a lawyer. This is not to be construed as legal advice. No decision that you make should be made without consulting proper consul.
Hire an attorney, file a suit. Should be conversion. Conversely, you can argue that they didn’t hold up the proper end of their bargain in the contract.
If this is what happened you need to DOX them, you have an address, potentially names, so you shame them to their family, take it from there basically as they'll do it again
I mean were the boxes sealed? I feel like this is really on you. Was it even a scam or are you just misinterpreting it? The post just says LEGO collection. They might not actually know what they even have.
the level of victim blaming here from fans of a wholesome hobby is shocking and im really disappointed in all of you. scamming and theft involving lego is common because it’s so valuable, we all know that, and this definitely seems like one of those cases. It doesnt cost anything to he sympathetic to a member of our community while at the same time it’s senseless to defend random people who profited off op’s trust and anxiety
Looks like OP was relying on images; the fourth image is actually a construction of bricks that you can see, but the rest are vague enough to be true to the description like you suggested
It says “most new in box” not all. But even still, who’s to say they didn’t get these somewhere else and they had no idea. Non-LEGO collectors don’t know if a pile of bricks is the right pile of bricks or even if it’s real LEGO brand. They can’t tell a difference.
He told me that he gets it from someone that works directly at lego. Also, the sets in the box “new” were filled with knockoffs. He also says he’s been collecting for 20 years and loves lego
So you didn’t check to see if the boxes had been opened? Getting from someone “directly at LEGO” is a huge red flag. That’s something scammers will often say. So he obviously likes LEGO if he took your sets. Lol. Guess he just wanted to get rid of his crap. But you really should have opened it there. Or at least checked the tape… I mean, could you not feel a difference when picking up the boxes? Maybe I’m just a super fan but this seems avoidable.
seriously? there are always new ways to scam and it’s horrible to shit on the newest victims of it just because you feel like you wouldve been smart enough to see through it. that’s the same mentality of people who insist younger generations are lazy and need to pull ourselves up by our boot straps and buy a house like they did because they were smart enough, like you are now
I’m 23 and just bought a house with mine and my wife’s own money right after graduating college a year ago. No help from parents. Your argument isn’t working.
>no help from parents
See the trouble with being an asshole in my subreddit is that it causes people to report you and me to see it and be able to mock you for being this stupid. Especially when I know from your post history that your entire success in life is due to your parents financial assistance. And even then your ability to own a home is because you lived in a backwoods state whose only claim to fame is getting burned down for betraying the US and then you moved to a swamp where land is cheap as shit.
If you wanna talk shit about others you best come correct yourself.
What about tape? Did you not look at the tape? Or like I said, feel a difference? Where did you meet them to trade this stuff? Was it their house? If so, I’d be driving back there immediately.
If it’s filled with other LEGO (or knock-off bricks) and the seals look fine (which isn’t that hard for scammers to get around), I’m not sure how you would be able to tell the difference without opening the boxes on the spot. I highly doubt the majority of the people reading this thread would do so in a similar situation if there were no other warning signs (i.e., box / seals appear to be in good condition, FB profile is clearly real, seller is clearly a LEGO fan, they have a good ratio of positive reviews, etc. etc.). But sure, go ahead and beat-up on the guy who got scammed if it makes you feel better about yourself for some weird reason.
Have you ever been scammed? Ever in your life has anyone 'gotten one over' on you where you lost money or possessions or just pride?
I think everyone goes through it eventually because we all want to believe, for whatever reason, in the deal.
Give the dude a break. Be constructive with your feedback instead of tearing him down. He's already pretty low and probably pretty aware what happened at this point.
not sure why you were downvoted but the consensus seems to be that with the issues people are seeing with scams currently, you unfortunately can't trust anyone. just trust and verify what you put your money into and you should be better now that you've experienced that yourself. hope it turns out better for you
If you can find something that sounds like Lego, use an empty ucs set box and have a friend trade that for their sets and just keep doing that with different friends until you get enough Lego to maybe sell or trade for a profit
Wonder what would have happened if you checked and confronted them in person. Gun? Knife? Run? Not sure, but in the places ive lived at times coming out scammed can be safer than checking… but damn the audacity is absurd. Im sorry u took the hit friend. Not trying to downplay it at all here, just trying to hit the bright side of it
Unfortunately I know exactly who you're talking about. That dude is a scammer from Butler, PA. If you Google him, you'll see that he's been arrested before for theft.
Sorry that he got you. I know someone that he tried to scam as well. He'll even take out the Minifigures and reseal the boxes before selling the sets.
Be very careful when buying sealed sets. I see the exact same “white whale” sets being sold all over the country on FB marketplace. Someone has either replicated the tape used to seal the boxes or found a way to open them and remove the contents and replace them with something else.
I hope the value of your collection you lost was over $500. The police tend to care more when the value of the stolen items are over a set amount. Souce: I live in a blue state. And if you had the suspects legit info on facebook it would really help too.
OP is right, @nomadianking — “sellers” interested in trading (rather than, ahem, selling) will put a placeholder in there, like $1 or $1,234. It’s also common to see that when a seller is selling a large quantity of items that are priced individually (but, evidently, doesn’t want to create separate listings for each item). They just list the a la carte pricing in the ‘description’ area, instead.
Anyone willing to submit to such a trade and not do their due diligence deserves to be taken advantage of. There's a sucker born every minute. Sorry it happened to you but come on man.
I know some people like to keep their sets sealed but when buying from a private seller, I alway open the box and check the bags (especially those with figs in them) for completeness. Btw - I do feel for you; people do just suck sometimes. Always be careful and take care of yourself.
Thanks, I was recently offered a Mandalorian Forge set 75319, for $15 and I declined. I offered to buy it if it was legit, but the seller declined. Sadly, this shouldn't happen if the seller was legit.
Imo never pay cash unless you can inspect the boxes there with the seller present. Too much of a chance for something to go wrong, especially with big purchases
This is why i do all my purchases from reputable BL sellers or through paypal transactions....I never do trades unless its with someone i know or someone highly reputable.....And i never buy NIB sets unless its from a retailer. Never had an issue buying used sets or parts.
I'm sorry for that loss, sounds rough.
I'm always worried about people replacing bags in tape-sealed sets, so when I bought my Phantom II set online last year I made sure to find a box with thumb tabs (much as I hate those) to minimise the risk of part-swapping.
I don’t trust anyone. Especially when it comes to buying things like that. If it’s online I make sure that I only buy from places that let you dispute the order and get your money back if you are cheated. Like Mercari. Payment doesn’t go through until you gave inspected the purchase and give the ok. And if you get it and it’s not right, you can dispute it, return the purchase and get your money back. I’m sorry that happened to you and it’s s hard lesson to learn. Don’t trust anyone because they will rip you off at every chance.
Did you report it to facebook? I doubt theyll help get your stuff back but it might prevent anyone else from going through it as well?
I did yea but because there weren’t any cameras, there wasn’t much they could do
Wait did you buy it for a dollar?
Sounds like they traded sets and he got robbed by it.
Oh that’s rough.
Yeah the $1 tag is always to get it to the top of the sort. That means it’s a trade or best offer situation
Be very careful when buying sealed sets. I see the exact same “white whale” sets being sold all over the country on FB marketplace. Someone has either replicated the tape used to seal the boxes or found a way to open them and remove the contents and replace them with something else.
I’ve taken this as an expensive lesson
Also, thanks for coming forward with this. I have a feeling there are a lot more people out there that have gotten scammed like this but are too proud to admit it.
If someone is honest they will be ok with you opening the sealed sets. Especially on a trade, if it was me I’d make you give me the cash first, but then you can inspect away
That’s how this is such a clever scam. A lot of people collect sealed sets. And a lot of people who do plan on opening them do so at a later date. They may fully intend to build the set but not till they have some time which might be weeks or months away and by that time the scammers are long gone.
[удалено]
I wouldn’t give you my address to legitimately sell a Lego set. No stranger needs my address. And this scam works at a police station unless you open the set right there before handing the money over.
[удалено]
I can’t believe I have to be the one to tell you this. I mean, someone should’ve clued you in on this nugget before now. Pay attention. Strangers you meet on the internet just might be willing to do you harm or steal things from you. It’s always good to meet them at a neutral location with lots of people around. A police station is a particularly safe place should a meeting with an internet stranger be necessary. How do you not know this already?
[удалено]
Or a police station.
Don't feel too bad. I got taken like this buying a set off of ebay. Different seller, obviously, but the exact same scam. They had some how opened the box, replaced the set with random bags of parts, and re sealed it so that it looked straight from the factory. By the time I realized and tried to contact them their ebay account was gone. Makes me leary of buying used sets anymore. That was a tough $70 lesson.
Last year I traveled to another city about 6 hours away and checked the marketplace there. Someone in that city was selling 6 or 7 white whale sets: Ewok Village, Death Star, MTT, Sand Crawler and a couple others. I had someone in my city selling the exact same sets plus one more. All were listed at a significant discount from their average price for sealed sets. Not 50% off but a good 25% off. Just enough to get me real interested in buying but not too much to make me think it was a scam. In fact the prices on the sets from both sellers were all within a few dollars of each other. I have since seen a similar deal in two other cities. I don’t know how they are doing it. I’m guessing they have replicated the factory tape somehow. But I haven’t inspected one of these deals myself. As someone who likes to both build sets and collect sealed ones that will grow in value, this bums me out. I have bought only one sealed set since I have seen this happening. It was from someone who had many years of pictures on her FB page. Some significant FB history makes me feel like the seller is legit, but what if someone else scammed the person I’m buying from? So I guess that set i bought since I noticed this was happening is something of a Schrodinger’s cat.
I think what they are doing is using a hair dryer or heat gun to soften the glue on the box so they can open it without making it obvious. I'm sure that's what they did with mine. A lot of these companies check returned lego items by weight. I think that is how some of the "new" sets from Amazon are turning up with the same switcheroo scam. They are being returned with the proper weight of lego bricks so as to fool amazon, who don't open the lego boxes to check. I've heard of multiple people buying sets that looked factory sealed from Amazon that were done just like ours. These scammers are getting away with murder and making our hobby a less hospitable place. All over greed.
Yeah, not happy about this. And all the fake minifigs thanks to 3D printers.
Ye gotta weigh your sealed sets at the minimum.
How to get the official weight of any set?
Brickset typically has the dimensions and weight
Rip sorry brother
Thanks man, I just hate scammers with all my heart
Damn dood I’m sorry. You’re in PA aren’t you. Had same experience. Shoot me a PM. They suck balls.
We could take a slightly more angry approach and all message them with trades show up and kick their asses ?
Make a police report. It might seem pointless but sometimes it DOES do something.
OP said he contacted the police but they weren’t helpful
Surprise surprise
That seems strange, given he knows their names and what they look like (unless it’s a completely fake Facebook account). I get being unable (or unwilling) to chase down shoplifters, but it doesn’t seem like there’s much legwork required for the boys in blue here…
If there’s one thing the pigs in blue love to do it’s not do their job
arrange to meet them again with a different account and try get your lego back. don’t just let them get away with stealing your property.
Bring a friend in a separate car too so you can have someone recording it and also to keep you safe
100% agreed.
I just had the perfect idea, I'll put it in a separate comment too but he should have a friend ask to trade Lego and just do the same exact thing they did except with no Lego in the boxes...
Gonna John Wick your way to victory? Get real. A criminal isn’t going to just apologise so what you gonna do? Shoot them? It’s a matter for the police and they don’t care so the only sensible course of action is to just act like a real person in the real world.
Gonna John Wick your way to victory? Get real. A criminal isn’t going to just apologise so what you gonna do? Shoot them? It’s a matter for the police and they don’t care so the only sensible course of action is to just act like a real person in the real world.
Well, did you try to contact them again or go back to where you met them?
I’m trying to
You should have someone on a different account near you contact them off a separate (or same) post and ask to meet them and show up with yourself and the police. The police may give you shid for it but if you can call a day ahead and try and schedule the meet where you know you can have an officer, it'll help. Also screenshot everything on their account that may be of use to you! Good luck! I know karma will get them.
Thanks man, that’s what I’m trying to do. I’ll let you know if something comes from it
One of the comments said you were in PA, I won't inquire where, but if you pm me, I'd be willing to help or shoot them a message. That sucks so much. I have a huge collection, and if I lost stuff on a shitty trade, I'd be devastated. Again really sorry this happened most of my marketplace lego deals have gone well aside from sellers trying to swindle am extra 10 bucks or something from me at the last second. Definitely going to be weary about marketplace listings and follow your advice.
I just offhand asked if they were still available and she answered yes just now so there’s a chance if you’ve got a buddy you can set up a second meeting.
Wish I could but the police aren’t going to be around to help and it would be hard to get any charges placed on them. Thank you for the help though, I really do appreciate it.
You could just go and rip open whatever box they try to offer and snag it on camera 🤷🏻♂️
Find a cop who is also an AFOL who will be more sympathetic to your situation.
Still only so much we can do within the constraints of the law
Very good idea
Make a new account, trade again, when they show up document everything (or beat them up) and then go to the police with video evidence (unless you beat them up)
I’m messaging them on fb rn
Keep us updated
Couldn’t get the remind me to work so I’m just going to leave a comment to come back to later lol
Just the typical “your a scammer” “no I’m not” back and forth stuff. Hopefully more people reported the post
Update: get a load of this, the guy knows about this post and wants to sue me for defamation. He even said that he would tell other companies not to give me internships…ok
He's just trying to keep you from stopping his thefts. Uhhh...alleged thefts 🤣
Yea, I called his bluff
That’s hilarious. Get facked, Jake and Alyssa.
The listing is gone
Oh if they are watching this post.. I want to let these scammers now they are the scum of society. They will eventually piss off the wrong people and get what’s coming up them. They should be lucky you are as nice as you are because it would be extremely easy to trap them with an alt account and jump them with a group of people. They are definitely playing with fire
[удалено]
The police don’t care if you got scammed buying Lego, sorry to be the bearer of bad news lol
Yeah, not a whole lot we can do about that. I can write a report for it, but unless you insured your Lego, that’s not going to really help you. No judge is going to sign off on a search warrant for some Lego unless it was like thousands of dollars. Unless I can get full name and DOB out of facebook, can’t ID them and therefore can’t pull an arrest warrant either.
Unfortunately I understand the constraints of these little thefts, but these people are always repeat offenders at what point does it go from petty to a large theft? I see above someone says they were scammed by the same couple & I’m sure they’re not the only ones.
thank you for serving officer
If it's too good to be true, it is.
This just happened with me. Bought set 7133 off bricklink, seller listed complete minus box which i didn't care about. Got it, it's missing quite a few pieces, and some are crucial for the build. That sucks. People suck.
File a NSS (non-shipping seller) against the seller. They did not ship you what you bought. That usually gets the seller's attention. 3 complete NSS and they are shut down. Also, leave appropriate feedback to warn others.
It's bricklink dude not craigslist, you have actual recourse lmao
No i know, just annoying to even have to deal with it is all. I'm in the process of taking action.
This is why we can’t have good things. Smh
Did you let the seller know that some pieces were missing?
Yes I did. They sent me an email saying it was delivered but I was on travel, but I relief explaining just waiting on reply.
[7133-1: Bounty Hunter Pursuit](https://brickset.com/sets/7133-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/7133-1.jpg)
ask the seller, then report them if they don’t give it all. bricklink actually does stuff about this.
They threatened harassment charges if I tell her she’s a scammer again
Lol...the criminals gonna report crimes.
People in the wrong love nothing more than to threaten legal action. The reality is litigation is damn expensive and I highly doubt they’re actually willing to invest that kind of cash to combat a poor Marketplace review or someone calling them a scammer over Messenger. If they weren’t assholes — and truly innocent — the easy thing to do here would be to return OP’s sets. While it’s highly unlikely, I could see a scenario where they purchased these sets from someone else on FB Marketplace, kept all of them “sealed”, and then unknowingly scammed OP. But if they’re unwilling to swap the sets back — and are immediately resorting to threats of legal action — then yeah, that’s as good as a smoking gun.
Last name Ruth
Yea
What did you trade him for these
was the listing posted in harmony pa?
Yep
man every few days i see something like this post in this sub, obviously it sucks that this happened and i hope it’s taken as a lesson and now hopefully you realize that you’ll be way better off just by saving up for those white whales instead of “getting lucky” and thinking u got a deal. it’s usually just too good to be true unless you’re the 0.00000000001% who put all their stats into luck
I'd report this as a robbery and mention the value amount. It's all word to mouth at that point, so use screenshots of the post and communications with them to back your story. If it gets to a certain dollar value and depending on the state, you may garner some attention. If anything, you give those "sellers" attention from the police and to help further stop these scams. If these people do this, they're probably doing other crimes. Call the police, stop asking reddit. also, for a street lesson; always verify the product and/or money before exchanging anything. period.
Robbery involves threat of force, so at least try to get the crime right. Police won't care at all about this.
Cool man, doing do anything about it then.
Will do same amount of work as the cops on this, thanks.
It is called mail fraud. Report to USPS and they start monitoring address for complaints.
They have done it once and will probably do it again, if you see another listing by them get a friend to message them and organise a meet up and go with them
I’ve bought from offer up and they said new in boxes never opened. The minute I met up with them I said I was opening up all the boxes first and making sure all the bags were there. I had my wife look up the sets and how many bags were in each set. Spending any of my hard earned money I’ll always check to see what’s in the boxes. Sorry you learned the hard way.
Tip for you OP: I know how it feels to be a bit shy in the moment so maybe next time you're buying something second hand you can take a person along that isn't afraid to ask questions and check things thoroughly. Second tip: You're not there to make friends with the seller and it truly doesn't matter what they think of you, if they won't let you check something you already know enough. Hope you're not too hard on yourself for getting scammed. It's a mix of strong emotions..
If a deal is too good should really not pursue it, sorry to hear this but really shouldn’t be trusting anyone without consumer protection laws
Where are you located? A very similar listing is on Facebook near me
Pennsylvania
Samesies, thought about responding the $700 for all the UCS sets seemed too good to be true though. I’ll make sure to report the post
I am not a lawyer, but judging by the sets you showed, it looks like this could construe felony theft. The cops would definitely care about that. Add up the dollar total of everything they took you for. Also, gather up all the convos, photos, texts, whatever you have of them, and then write down a time line of events as soon as possible. Keep things just the facts with the cops, and take notes. Make sure you write the date, name of anyone you talked to, and then a short summary of the interaction. A lawyer will thank you for all of that work up front. If the total of your loss is over $900 then you should have a case. I am not a lawyer. This is not to be construed as legal advice. No decision that you make should be made without consulting proper consul.
Roast them! Call them out as scammers n frauds n be ruthless… do this for all honest people
Hire an attorney, file a suit. Should be conversion. Conversely, you can argue that they didn’t hold up the proper end of their bargain in the contract.
If this is what happened you need to DOX them, you have an address, potentially names, so you shame them to their family, take it from there basically as they'll do it again
I mean were the boxes sealed? I feel like this is really on you. Was it even a scam or are you just misinterpreting it? The post just says LEGO collection. They might not actually know what they even have.
the level of victim blaming here from fans of a wholesome hobby is shocking and im really disappointed in all of you. scamming and theft involving lego is common because it’s so valuable, we all know that, and this definitely seems like one of those cases. It doesnt cost anything to he sympathetic to a member of our community while at the same time it’s senseless to defend random people who profited off op’s trust and anxiety
[удалено]
I guarantee you OP already feels dumb. Everyone that gets scammed puts a part of the blame on themselves.
The description: 1. UCS Landspeeder (NIB) 2.UCS X-WING (NIB) 3.UCS Mos Eisley Cantina (Built) 4. Mandalorian Light Cruiser (NIB) 5.D-O (NIB) 6. BB-8 (Built) 7.Throne Room Diorama (NIB) 8. Star Destroyer (NIB)
ThE dEsCrIpTiOn WaS tOo VaGuE, oBvIoUs SCAM!!!!1
Looks like OP was relying on images; the fourth image is actually a construction of bricks that you can see, but the rest are vague enough to be true to the description like you suggested
The guy said new in box, it’s literally in the pictures.
It says “most new in box” not all. But even still, who’s to say they didn’t get these somewhere else and they had no idea. Non-LEGO collectors don’t know if a pile of bricks is the right pile of bricks or even if it’s real LEGO brand. They can’t tell a difference.
Spoken like someone who’s never dealt with people on marketplace, sure just an honest mistake 🤔 Fb is scammer central
If this was the case they wouldnt be trading for other lego they dont know the value of. It would be cash.
He told me that he gets it from someone that works directly at lego. Also, the sets in the box “new” were filled with knockoffs. He also says he’s been collecting for 20 years and loves lego
So you didn’t check to see if the boxes had been opened? Getting from someone “directly at LEGO” is a huge red flag. That’s something scammers will often say. So he obviously likes LEGO if he took your sets. Lol. Guess he just wanted to get rid of his crap. But you really should have opened it there. Or at least checked the tape… I mean, could you not feel a difference when picking up the boxes? Maybe I’m just a super fan but this seems avoidable.
seriously? there are always new ways to scam and it’s horrible to shit on the newest victims of it just because you feel like you wouldve been smart enough to see through it. that’s the same mentality of people who insist younger generations are lazy and need to pull ourselves up by our boot straps and buy a house like they did because they were smart enough, like you are now
I’m 23 and just bought a house with mine and my wife’s own money right after graduating college a year ago. No help from parents. Your argument isn’t working.
my argument isnt working because youve personally been able to achieve something most dont? be proud of yourself but dont let it get to your head
Definitely isn’t getting to my head. But it is making me realize that anyone can do it with dedication.
So its going to your head. Got it.
>no help from parents See the trouble with being an asshole in my subreddit is that it causes people to report you and me to see it and be able to mock you for being this stupid. Especially when I know from your post history that your entire success in life is due to your parents financial assistance. And even then your ability to own a home is because you lived in a backwoods state whose only claim to fame is getting burned down for betraying the US and then you moved to a swamp where land is cheap as shit. If you wanna talk shit about others you best come correct yourself.
[удалено]
Where the eff do you live? Bangladesh? Also, if we’re going to split hairs here, who paid your college tuition?
Like i said in my post, i knew i should have trusted my gut and opened the boxes.
What about tape? Did you not look at the tape? Or like I said, feel a difference? Where did you meet them to trade this stuff? Was it their house? If so, I’d be driving back there immediately.
If it’s filled with other LEGO (or knock-off bricks) and the seals look fine (which isn’t that hard for scammers to get around), I’m not sure how you would be able to tell the difference without opening the boxes on the spot. I highly doubt the majority of the people reading this thread would do so in a similar situation if there were no other warning signs (i.e., box / seals appear to be in good condition, FB profile is clearly real, seller is clearly a LEGO fan, they have a good ratio of positive reviews, etc. etc.). But sure, go ahead and beat-up on the guy who got scammed if it makes you feel better about yourself for some weird reason.
Have you ever been scammed? Ever in your life has anyone 'gotten one over' on you where you lost money or possessions or just pride? I think everyone goes through it eventually because we all want to believe, for whatever reason, in the deal. Give the dude a break. Be constructive with your feedback instead of tearing him down. He's already pretty low and probably pretty aware what happened at this point.
not sure why you were downvoted but the consensus seems to be that with the issues people are seeing with scams currently, you unfortunately can't trust anyone. just trust and verify what you put your money into and you should be better now that you've experienced that yourself. hope it turns out better for you
Instead of spending money on Legos, you should spend it on a clue.
If you can find something that sounds like Lego, use an empty ucs set box and have a friend trade that for their sets and just keep doing that with different friends until you get enough Lego to maybe sell or trade for a profit
If it's too good to be true, it's likely not true
I'm sorry dude but YOU WERE GOING TO OPEN THEM ANYWAYS? Or at least you could've opened them right in front of them before giving them any money
Wonder what would have happened if you checked and confronted them in person. Gun? Knife? Run? Not sure, but in the places ive lived at times coming out scammed can be safer than checking… but damn the audacity is absurd. Im sorry u took the hit friend. Not trying to downplay it at all here, just trying to hit the bright side of it
Womp womp
How much did you actually end up paying for this junk? I hope it wasn’t too much, I feel super bad for you
This is exactly why I never buy /trade for lego sets on the second hand market, especially the online and social media markets.
The sad thing is you probably loved using your legos you traded and their probably just collectors and are going to put in a case to collect dust
Unfortunately I know exactly who you're talking about. That dude is a scammer from Butler, PA. If you Google him, you'll see that he's been arrested before for theft. Sorry that he got you. I know someone that he tried to scam as well. He'll even take out the Minifigures and reseal the boxes before selling the sets.
Be very careful when buying sealed sets. I see the exact same “white whale” sets being sold all over the country on FB marketplace. Someone has either replicated the tape used to seal the boxes or found a way to open them and remove the contents and replace them with something else.
I hope the value of your collection you lost was over $500. The police tend to care more when the value of the stolen items are over a set amount. Souce: I live in a blue state. And if you had the suspects legit info on facebook it would really help too.
Make sure you look into what the “felony theft limit” is in your area/state.l where I’m from it’s $750-$25,000 for a class D felony.
Post their info
Alyssa Ruth. Set your marketplace to harmony PA and it’s the all the same pictures OP posted
Make a new acc. Find another post. Do a trade with them. Follow them home after the trade happens 😏 Go from there 🤷
Why would you even bother contact someone for legos listed for 1$? There is so many red flags for this.
Its used as a placeholder price usually
OP is right, @nomadianking — “sellers” interested in trading (rather than, ahem, selling) will put a placeholder in there, like $1 or $1,234. It’s also common to see that when a seller is selling a large quantity of items that are priced individually (but, evidently, doesn’t want to create separate listings for each item). They just list the a la carte pricing in the ‘description’ area, instead.
Just like call the police? Scamming someone is a crime
I did, they didn’t do anything.
Then start blasting how shitty the people are on like the town Facebook groups
Find where the person live and murder his entire bloodline
Nobody should be scammed out of lego
Anyone willing to submit to such a trade and not do their due diligence deserves to be taken advantage of. There's a sucker born every minute. Sorry it happened to you but come on man.
You must be fun at parties…
Game is game, it’s up to you to be careful
Lol wut?!
Wdym? It’s the truth, you have to be carful because people will be people no matter what
[удалено]
They won’t do anything over a trade.
is this not common sense?
that sucks
I know some people like to keep their sets sealed but when buying from a private seller, I alway open the box and check the bags (especially those with figs in them) for completeness. Btw - I do feel for you; people do just suck sometimes. Always be careful and take care of yourself.
[удалено]
Lol they aren’t actually $1
Is this in pa it looks familiar
It is
Thought so it looked like familur
Thanks, I was recently offered a Mandalorian Forge set 75319, for $15 and I declined. I offered to buy it if it was legit, but the seller declined. Sadly, this shouldn't happen if the seller was legit.
[75319-1: The Armorer's Mandalorian Forge](https://brickset.com/sets/75319-1) [[Photo]](https://images.brickset.com/sets/images/75319-1.jpg)
If it's too good to be true, it's too good to be true.
A whole 1$
Well... did you do the trade at their place or?? Cos there's always a carton of eggs and toilet paper?? Screw the scammers!
Imo never pay cash unless you can inspect the boxes there with the seller present. Too much of a chance for something to go wrong, especially with big purchases
This is why i do all my purchases from reputable BL sellers or through paypal transactions....I never do trades unless its with someone i know or someone highly reputable.....And i never buy NIB sets unless its from a retailer. Never had an issue buying used sets or parts.
I'm sorry for that loss, sounds rough. I'm always worried about people replacing bags in tape-sealed sets, so when I bought my Phantom II set online last year I made sure to find a box with thumb tabs (much as I hate those) to minimise the risk of part-swapping.
Could you have a friend contact him to “buy something” and then show up and confront him?
I don’t trust anyone. Especially when it comes to buying things like that. If it’s online I make sure that I only buy from places that let you dispute the order and get your money back if you are cheated. Like Mercari. Payment doesn’t go through until you gave inspected the purchase and give the ok. And if you get it and it’s not right, you can dispute it, return the purchase and get your money back. I’m sorry that happened to you and it’s s hard lesson to learn. Don’t trust anyone because they will rip you off at every chance.
I wonder what they would have done if you went and demanded them back?
Update OP?