We scammed the scammer Steve48IDAs....

[851duck]

I replied to the Steve Stromberg posting below but thought others might enjoy reading how my girlfriend Amber scammed the freaking scammer


Ok. Here is my version. The text written by my girlfriend Amber below is more entertaining reading and gives more details.

I 851duck (aka dumbass) offer Steve dickhead $350 for 2 Gasburners (no pics of course). Ad posted on this site Friday the 13th. What was I thinking!

He replies back on Sunday morning. He'll take $350 plus $125 shipping economic? from France.

I, dumdass, Paypal him $475. I immediately get suspicious (after I hit send) because his Paypal address is unverified. I then read the feedback on Samba. (I was in a hurry to get back to working on my Vert in the garage). Now I'm freaking. I call Paypal. Nothing they can do until he claims the money. He doesn't right away. I figured it was because the person in France has to get it and it's like a 6 hour time differnce from the East coast. I go back out to the garage to hurt myself for being a dumbass.

Girlfriend Amber all be herself, without my knowledge, emails Steve dickhead from a differnt account and offers him more $$$ for the 2 Gasburners. He takes the bait!

Amber strings him along a little saying she's setting up the Paypal. He offers to help! (Nice ^&%ing guy).

I email him back saying I really shouldn't of agreed to purchase the wheels because I forgot the truck needs tires and has to be inspected by the end of the month(It's an 06. I think it will pass the way it is:). I tell him I'll take the wheels next month if he still has them and hasn't gotten a better offer. I ask him to just decline my Payment. HE DOES!!!! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

I'm so excited he declined my payment I make a big mistake and wake up Amber @ 6:15 am Monday morning to tell her (PS Don't wake sleeping Redheads!).

She sends Steve dickhead an email asking him if he has 4 rims. I wanted to make sure he wasn't legit. He says he only has 2. Scammer!
She calls him out!

The rest is history. Paypal should be putting the $475 back into my account on Friday!

Here's Amber's account. We sent all this to Everett already.

******************

Friday the 13th – not the best day to buy something without breaking the most important rule – CHECK THE SAMBA FOR FEEDBACK! John, my very astute boyfriend, decided to purchase 2 magnesium Gasburners for $350 + $125 shipping, sight unseen, from your friend and mine, Steve48idas.

Purchase means he sent him the money via PayPal…$475 bucks – enough money to buy me a nice COACH purse – ok ok, or LOTS of parts off The Samba from reputable sellers.

I decided to take evasive action as *Sandy*…and pretend I wanted them for a higher price in order to hopefully get John’s money back…

Email 1: the setup.

************************
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: TheSamba.com Ad - 2 gasburner Porsche (no pics available)
Date: Jan 15, 2006 2:46 PM

A visitor to TheSamba.com has replied to your ad at:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=263366
and sent the following message:
***************************************************************

From: Sandy ([email protected])
Ad : 2 gasburner Porsche (no pics available)

If these are still available, would you take $450?

***************************************************************
If you have been contacted by a scam artist similar to the ones
listed at http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=253
or have any other concerns about your privacy, please forward
this email to TheSamba.com at [email protected]

Regards,
Everett Barnes
http://www.thesamba.com

**************************

At this point, John was sweating it pretty bad, bit his fingers to bloody little stumps stewing over it. You see, he’d sent the money and read the guys feedback (steps 1 and 2 respectively) and decided to call PayPal to see if he could get his money back…they told him the only way was to have the person deny the payment, or if John could catch them right when they accepted the $ PayPal would try to put a hold on the funds before they actually transferred to the guy’s bank.

After John got off the phone with PayPal, I got the below email stating the Gasburners he’d paid for (and let “Steve” know he’d paid him for at the same email address I was corresponding to him at) were still available. You can’t tell me the guy didn’t see the email stating the money was sent – which he’d received 8 hours prior to me asking to buy them.

Email 2: “Sure, uh sure they’re still available…you’ll give me $550? GREAT! SEND IT OVER! THANKS I mean, uh MERCI!”

***************************

To: Sandy <[email protected]>
Subject: 2 gasburner Porsche (no pics available)
Date: Jan 15, 2006 3:17 PM

Hello,
Yes they are still available. Due to the weight (even if they are light) and the size of the packet (oversize so they don't like such packet at the postoffice) I prefer to ship economic. And it is the most affordable way of shipment.
Your offer sounds good to me. Where are you based?
Shipment to USA is about $100 in economic.
Let me know
Thanks

***********************
He said he gave me the PayPal address but after looking though his emails, he hadn’t so I slipped that card up my sleeve to use later should I need a stall tactic. Now the whole time I’m doing this, John is in the garage working on the 69 vert he’s restoring (hopefully after this, for me!) Obviously not getting much work done – coming in every 10 min, DID HE GET MY MONEY YET, DID HE DID HE HUH HUH??? QUICK, CHECK PAYPAL AGAN! The poor man was on the verge of a nervous breakdown at this point.

Email 3: I hadn’t responded back in 3 ½ hours…

***********************
From: Steve Stromberg <[email protected]>
|

To: Sandy <[email protected]>
Subject: 2 gasburner Porsche (no pics available)
Date: Jan 15, 2006 6:48 PM

let me know asap if you want them please. I gave you the paypal address.
Thanks

**********************

Below is our conversation about my supposed lack of PayPal. At this point, the money *Steve* had John send to [email protected] was yet unclaimed. And John had escalated from nervous breakdown to just shy of heart attack because he was on the precipice of getting hosed - hard… After shooting the VW signal up in the air and having a teleconference with the boys, John decided he would attempt to get his money back from this guy. I in the mean time continued to play stupid to see if this guy was legit.

Email 4: Sandy doesn’t have PayPal. (I’m going to hell for lying)

**********************
From: Steve Stromberg <[email protected]>


To: Amber Amidzich <[email protected]>
Subject: 2 gasburner Porsche (no pics available)
Date: Jan 15, 2006 8:18 PM

Sorry,
I only accept paypal, because I really haven't any time to go to the post office. You can create a paypal account very quickly and easily.
Thanks

Amber Amidzich <[email protected]> wrote:

Unfortunately, I do not use PayPal, would you be willing to take a cashier's check? Of course I would send it and once you receive it you could then cash it and send the wheels. I'd really appreciate it!

Just give me the name of the person you need the check sent to and the address.

thanks again!!! these wheels are SO hard to get! I'm in the US, yes. I will send the check certified Airmail and give you the tracking and everything so you know it's on the way....

Sandy

***********************

After the above email, I told *Steve* I would go set up a PayPal account because I didn’t currently use it and was a novice. I let him know after I received the below email that he’d forgotten to give me an email address to send the money to– and that I was waiting to be verified by PayPal so I could send the money so I could give John time to ask him for his money back.

John then emailed him and asked him if he could have his money back because he *needed to put tires on his truck for inspection and forgot* but would *send him the money next month if the wheels were still available*. ANYTHING to get his money back NOW.

Email 5: Sandy “sets up” her PayPal account, but as a novice, thinks she needs to be VERIFIED to send $.

***********************

From: Steve Stromberg <[email protected]>


To: Amber Amidzich <[email protected]>
Subject: 2 gasburner Porsche (no pics available)
Date: Jan 16, 2006 5:04 AM

Hi,
Ok, no problem. In my opinion, if you are not verified, you can pay with paypal and don't need to wait the 2 or 3 days to find the numbers on your credit card paper.
A friend of mine is taking the money because I saw yesterday that I have some prblems with paypal and I don't know why. so she is tacking the money for me and she will give it to me later. the paypal address is: [email protected]
Don't ask her for details, she doesn't know anything about cars, she is just helping me because of my paypal problems.
So the total amount is $450 plus the shipment price (I think I gave it to you yesterday -don(t remember what I said, I am really busy)
Thanks

*******************

After I got the above email, with yet ANOTHER email address to send the money to, he declined John’s payment. (yet told others he was having *PayPal issues*.)

Just to make sure we weren’t being super paranoid, I emailed him and asked him if he had 4 wheels. (Which would account for why he told me they were still available and yet sold them to John and asked for payment from me as well.)

Email 6: Maybe he IS a decent guy, just not so smart – maybe he DOES have 4 wheels. OR NOT.

*******************

-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Stromberg <[email protected]>
Sent: Jan 16, 2006 6:45 AM
To: Amber Amidzich <[email protected]>
Subject: 2 gasburner Porsche (no pics available)

Sorry,
I only have 2 rims
If their is any problem, contact me, I will try to answer a best as possible.
Thanks

********************
Here’s my final response…

********************
From: Amber Amidzich <[email protected]>

To: Steve Stromberg <[email protected]>
Subject: 2 gasburner Porsche (no pics available)
Date: Jan 16, 2006 8:04 AM

Actually, there is an issue. To be blunt, this seems like you're trying to scam me. You haven't posted "PENDING" on the Ad on The Samba, you told another Samba user you're in the US after the ad says you're in France and you told me the wheels were available after you sold them to yet another Samba user.

Unless you're trying to screw someone out of money or are just that ignorant, you DON'T DOUBLE SELL ITEMS!!!!

Care to answer "as best as possible?"

*********************

(I’ve added these emails into the string since I sent this to Everett – the below is the response and conversation me and Sparky had over me thinking he’s trying to scam us)

***This was his response to my above email…***

From: Steve Stromberg
To: Amber Amidzich <[email protected]>
Subject: 2 gasburner Porsche (no pics available)
Date: Jan 16, 2006 8:26 AM
Their is no issue, John as been refund because he asked me to be refund, so the wheels are still available. I have some parts in US and some in France and someone can post them for me as I am rarely at home. And I don't double sell !
So John is refund, don't ask for more, you're not sure, don't buy. I have been honnest with him, I refund. If i wasen't honnest, i will never refund him.

***I don’t have my original email to this next one (which was the response to the above) – he didn’t include it in his response – but what I pretty much told him was that if he was SOOOO honest and had so many friends at Laposte why couldn’t he borrow one of their digital cameras to take pics of the rims if he “really had them” and send it over? ***

-----Original Message-----
>From: Steve Stromberg
>Sent: Jan 16, 2006 9:43 AM
>To: Amber Amidzich
>Subject: 2 gasburner Porsche (no pics available)
>
>Think what you want.
> I haven't accepted his payement, and I refund him. I have the right to accept payment and take the better and refund other guys I think.
> I havn't many friends at laposte. Just my address and my friend address. so stop that sh*t. I am honnest, I don't want to hassle and waist my time with you. You have no problem, your guy has been refund and i will not deal with you. Now, you make me sick.

***So I responded with***

Amber Amidzich <[email protected]> wrote:

You only have one friends address? Then who's Sofie, who's Magali and who's Marie?

Look dude, chill out. DON'T swear at me and get all pissy when you don't even understand what we perceive you did. I'm not the only person that thinks you were trying to scam people.

Go sell on Ebay.

***And then I responded with***

Amber Amidzich <[email protected]> wrote:

You moron – you CAN’T TAKE MONEY from tons of people and decide which is the best offer and *hopefully* send all the other money back!!!! THAT’S DOUBLE SELLING!!!! GET A FRIGGIN CLUE!

***His final response***


From: Steve Stromberg <[email protected]>
To: Amber Amidzich <[email protected]>

Subject: Re: 2 gasburner Porsche (no pics available)

Date: Jan 16, 2006 9:52 AM

If you go on paypal, you can see that you can have several email addresses. Sophie and Marie are the same paypal addresses. Magali, is the paypal address of a friend of mine, the other, it is me. as I said, You and the other, think what you want, I understand that it could be strange for some of you, but I am honnest and I have never scam somebody.

***Interestingly enough – after talking with Everett – it appears our boy IS Scam King – Everett banned him in 04 for the same crap – selling unverifiable items on The Samba***

See link:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=123334

Gosh that was fun!!!

[Gary]

Bravo for both Amber and you. Take that woman to dinner on the scammer's dime!
_________________
West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943)

[Tram]

"Amber the scamber". It has a nice ring to it.
_________________
Немає виправдання для війни! Я з Україною.

[fifty-five]

Rock on! Glad you didn't lose any money.

[Ambersand]

Yeah - we were LUCKY....

And John is right - DO NOT WAKE A SLEEPING REDHEAD - no matter HOW much money you just saved .... especially if it's because you just switched your car insurance to Geico.

Amber (the angry redhead)

______________________________________
"I gots me a Squarie - and she sure is purdy!"

[Jake Raby]

I owe you a handshake...

This guy is a real piece of work- a troll that lurks under slimy bridges and takes advantages of who ever he can.

If anyone is trying to find him, I know where he is.
_________________
Jake Raby
Raby Engine Development
www.rabyenginedevelopment.com
"I've never given anyone Hell, I just told them the truth and they thought it was Hell"

[FASTBACKDON]

[clearsurf2001]

[David]

good deal.

I was trying to 'phish' the guy out too and got a weird reply.
I made a thread to see if I could get feedback about what I thought was a hokey seller.
I didn't know about "steve stomberg" let alone the fact that he re-invented himself into a French man/woman/person.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=151021

Needless to say I wasn't gonna send any $ w/out a real pic.
All his ads had pics from elsewhere.

And now due to all this attention and his name being brought up again, we'll be on the lookout for him.

Everyone that posts on other forums may want to share the news that Steve is upto his tricks again.
_________________
Cheers,
Dave

*October '54 Ragtop

[Ambersand]

I need to send a BIG thank you to Volks - had he not posted asking those questions, we'd never have put 2 + 2 together and realized we were about to get HOSED!!!!

THANK YOU!

Amber
_________________
"I stayed up all night playing poker with tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died."

69 Squareback "Squarie"
74 Westy "Mini Mojo"

http://home.earthlink.net/~ambersand

[buggdude67]

It is wrong to try to double sell even if you get a better offer. Yo Steve this would be your first problem. They caught you.
I sold a part for a Thing once to the first guy before I found out I was priced about 25% of its true value. The way I found out is so many people emailed me with much better offers. I had to sell to the first guy, no question, I accepted his offer to my ad.

Amber way to go on you anti-scam. Keep up the good work.

Rich aka [email protected]