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Anyone dealt with this guy in Germany?

Mike-R-

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Oct 12, 2017
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Liverpool
Hi all, just thought I would see if anybody has had any dealings with a guy in Germany whose email is PatrickVlidi@gmail.com. Anybody actually bought anything from him and have any feedback. He says he just wants a deposit to cover shipping and then the balance once it is delivered and all is good, but still just a little cautious.
Thanks all, Mike.
 
That is classic scammer !
Asking for the shipping money and balance when delivered.

I wouldn’t send anything to someone abroad without full payment upfront unless I knew them well.
 
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Thanks for responding. That's why I am cautious about doing it but if it's a paypal deposit isn't the money covered if things go wrong, not that he has confirmed how the deposit to be paid yet. I was hoping really that somebody had dealt with him and all turned out good and he was reliable. I think I'm being a bit hopeful really!!!

Thanks.
 
I would say it is, but I'm not the best on pricing . £2000 Lord of the Rings including delivery - I think it's probably priced to pull people in, and he just got back me and said it's a 35% deposit by bank transfer!!! Sounding more and more dodgy I am thinking.
 
I'd be very wary of anyone accepting a deposit for a pinball and payment on delivery, even if they were UK based let alone international. How does this guy know that you wouldn't block his messages once you'd received the pin?

And no - outside of a linked eBay purchase PayPal doesn't offer you any meaningful protection for sending money, particularly not when sending it as "friends and family" which is certainly what he'd want you to do.

Having said that - I bought my TAF from abroad, and basically got to a point in the negotiation where the guy was waiting for me to send all the money, and I was trying to arrange a 50/50 payment system to try and protect myself. It was sortof like neither of us trusted eachother fully, and why would we? We didn't know eachother from Adam. In the end I took a punt, sent him the money in full and mentally wrote it off - if I lost it i would've chalked it up to a life experience, etc. I don't think I would do it again though, the potential for being scammed is too great, including if the machine turns up and its nothing like advertised, etc.
 
I'm thinking so, although there are trusting people in the world still. I went to pick up a TAF of someone in Essex a couple of years back and was going to transfer through PayPal after I had seen it but when I tried it wouldn't let me due to the amount and he let me drive off with it and me sort it out when I got home. Very good of him and very trusting. He got his money though of course, but very trusting, dont think I would do that!!!!
 
Puppies and pinballs, both things that people get a little obsessed about and when they see them they want them. Seems a little odd he's in Ohio I December selling puppies and 4 months later in Germany with cheap pinballs for sale. Possible I suppose, but unlikely.
Will let you know if he gets back to me.
 
This is a classic scammer trick.. Price something cheap enough that it seems like you will have to rush to buy it before anyone else can, but not so cheap as to be obviously wrong. It works because you want to believe its real, and that you've lucked out by finding out about this before anyone else. The scammer will say things that on the surface sound reassuring, but aren't - e.g. like him accepting a deposit and full payment on delivery of the pin.

If you sent him £700 that's the last you'd ever see of it.

Also if he's in Germany he ought to be on https://www.flippermarkt.de with some kind of history of sales.

If it were me and I was sufficiently bored I'd offer to come over this weekend to view it and pay in cash. I'm sure he'll have some reason he can't do that.
 
This is his reply when I asked why not paypal payment and if I transfer him the money I have no comeback and how do I know if anything will arrive!! His response was:

I understand what you mean but I'm not the type of person you might be thinking about and if I could ship the machine without any deposit,then I would. I can send a copy of my passport to you if you want. I am only selling these machines because my son needs money in school,so let me know if you are ok with this and if we can proceed.

Again seems to be doing as @Durzel suggests and saying things that appear reassuring. Well I definitely can't end up £700 lighter, so I think not. Maybe I will see what his price will be without the delivery and i will go for it and see what his response to that is, again as @Durzel suggested.

Thanks all.
 
This is his reply when I asked why not paypal payment and if I transfer him the money I have no comeback and how do I know if anything will arrive!! His response was:

I understand what you mean but I'm not the type of person you might be thinking about and if I could ship the machine without any deposit,then I would. I can send a copy of my passport to you if you want. I am only selling these machines because my son needs money in school,so let me know if you are ok with this and if we can proceed.

Again seems to be doing as @Durzel suggests and saying things that appear reassuring. Well I definitely can't end up £700 lighter, so I think not. Maybe I will see what his price will be without the delivery and i will go for it and see what his response to that is, again as @Durzel suggested.

Thanks all.

It’s bull**** the machine won’t even exist lord of the rings is a 3k + machine don’t get sucked in. No point wasting anymore time on him
 
There is always an emotional hook. Why are you still conversing with this guy? Send me the £700 instead.
 
If you can be bothered say that you're in Germany next week on business or something, and that you can pop over and pick it up in person. I'm sure there will be a reason you can't.

How is he replying to you? Email?
 
Keep him dangling on the line for amusement. Would be interesting to see what his passport looks like which he has suggested sending you a copy of.

Ricky Gervais told a story where money was taken from his bank account as part of a gold bullion scam. When the Police got involved to set up a sting operation the person turned up to collect the gold with a passport, the picture on the passport was David Brent cut out from The Office DVD :rofl:

 
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I remember dealing with a guy in Britain regarding retro games. It wasn't 2k but it was for decent sum of cash.
It got to the subject of payment and I was telling him about people scamming etc.
I said that a scammer must be pretty brave to scam someone who can afford to send 1k through the post and not be suspicious of it. Probably not the type of person to steal from.
Surprisingly the next email I got said the games were no longer available as he was keeping them 😂
 
I remember dealing with a guy in Britain regarding retro games. It wasn't 2k but it was for decent sum of cash.
It got to the subject of payment and I was telling him about people scamming etc.
I said that a scammer must be pretty brave to scam someone who can afford to send 1k through the post and not be suspicious of it. Probably not the type of person to steal from.
Surprisingly the next email I got said the games were no longer available as he was keeping them 😂
Patrick Vlidi aka fboldwin aka Kevinson aka Moses Molindo Motama aka Jonson. Selling half price machines on free ads all over the world. Found Denmark , Kuala Lumpur and USA in seconds. Has a German bank account. If you deal with him you're a bigger idiot than he is a thief. Lives Luxembourg, Portugal, Germany and the Cameroon. Spent 3 days winding him up and trying to get information together for fraud squad. If you see any of his ads report him. He will be using a new name, but the deal is to send a deposit, no collection.
 
I have a copy of his passport. 64 year old bloke Patrick Vlidi, Portuguese. Trouble is it's stolen and the passport runs out in May this year. So he'll nick another. Sent me Pinterest pictures of machines. Even managed to photo shop a piece of paper onto one with my name and address. What use is a photo of a passport too? He's pretty good, but very obvious if you keep your wits about you.
I hope he can be proven guilty and convicted.
 
Hi, he sent me a copy of same passport. His ads are on preloved now at an even cheaper price. Hope somebody catches up with him soon.
Thanks Mike
 
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