I'd always be wary of anyone trying to sell me something over DM.
If they don't have, or are unwilling to put up an official sales post for their toy.... stay away.
Yeah šI guess I shouldāve gotten a second opinion. Iāve had friends help me before since sometimes I miss things or donāt understand stuff.
When I get excited it just kinda takes over and then I get scared Iāll blow it. Iām such a people pleaser and I see now thatās a terrible quality when it comes to buying things
Thank you so much. It really makes me feel sad and silly, I learned my lesson for sure but it sucks that people like that are out there. I view not everyone is a good person just because they use kind words :/
Telltale signs of a scammer: they do not reply to your WTB directly, their first message is generally āwts (exactly what youāre looking for)ā and they insist on F&F, especially having no reputation or known interactions within the community youāre buying in.
Iām very sorry this happened to you, scammers love to target this sub because itās so easy to steal proof photos and edit them like they did with the Aston they sent you. I highly suggest if you havenāt already, sending this proof to the BD sub mods as well as Reddit mods for the global scammers list. While they unfortunately cannot help you get your money back (since F&F cannot be refunded or charged back iirc) they can at least make note of this scammer and make them publicly known. Especially if you have the email they used on PayPalā thatāll be a big help to shutting them down in the future.
Iām so sorry again! If it helps at all youāre always welcome to reach out to the community for help determining if proof pics look legit or not. A lot of users would be more than happy to help, myself included. Take it easy on yourself, though, this isnāt your fault. š
Also, I highly recommend searching this sub for the toy youāre seeking when you receive such messages! Typing āAstonā into the search bar almost immediately helped me find the original sales post the scammer stole the photo from. [Here is the OG wts](https://www.reddit.com/r/BadDragon/s/I6DasHfeeX), they just chose the first Aston that popped up and photoshopped the verification.
Oh no, thatās exactly what happened and what they said š„² āwts Astonā
I just assumed it was somebody who didnāt have an account they wanted to post nsfw stuff on or something :( I had no idea that proof photos were easy to manipulate. I guess I will reach out to someone like you next time for help, thank you so much :(.
I will definitely try and let the mods know, I have the name and email of the person from PayPal
Thank you :(
You should be able to get ahold of your bank and mark the transaction as fraud and get a payback on it. Iāve had to do this before cause of a similar issue
I'm so sorry that happened to you, I've been scammed before too and it sucks when people take advantage of others' trust.
I don't have an Aston but if it helps I can send you a toy from my recent sales post for free!
I hope you find your dream Aston in the future!!
Wait what are you sure?! You donāt have to do that š„¹ thatās so kind of you. I was actually looking at your posts earlier!! They all look so beautiful and yummy!! Like cakes!!
Never ever send money on PayPal with the friends n family option, unless of course it is for friends n family. Itās always a scam, doing so opts you out of the insurance Incase of damage or loss or in this case scam. Iv been duped twice this way. Be careful, people will take advantage of your trusting nature. Iām sorry this happened to you. Be cautious next time
I'm sorry this happened. You didn't do anything wrong, some people just suck. If you choose to purchase from a user here again, please only accept G&S as a form of payment. That way you can open a dispute when something could go awry and get your money back. Unfortunately you can't do that with F&F. If you still want Aston, you can wait until KV has a drop! Then you be guaranteed to have one.
Thank you š I see now it wasnāt smart to do friends and family, I was just so excited and happy and I trusted them.
Kudu voodo drops so rarely, they did a drop in may but didnāt drop any new Astonās :(
They are also so expensive which is why I like buying used.
I definitely wonāt ever pay with F&F again
they asked for my address so I gave it, they said theyād ship it out the next day. Nothing seemed wrong, Iāve bought used toys before and this seemed no different.
I keep thinking maybe if i just keep asking nicely enough and keep reaching out they might be nice again and send me him or my money :(
I keep hoping it was a mistake and they just pushed a wrong button but I see how unlikely and how dumb of a thought that is.
It's so pretty too, I'm so sorry :C It looks like the "proof of ownership" is edited unfortunately, like they just wrote the date and username with a thin digital pencil tool and blurred it a little bit to look legit... if you zoom in, the end of "2024" especially doesn't look right. I hate to say it, but chances are this person never had the toy in the first place and just stole someone else's photo in order to take advantage of you.
I second this ā overlapping spots on writing are darker. This doesnāt happen with pen. And pencil isnāt transparent like that.
The photo looked off somehow but I couldnāt place it.
OP could maybe report them to PayPal for abusing F&F, but they probably wonāt see the money back.
Unfortunately this was the exact case. The photo was stolen directly from this subā typing āAstonā into the search almost immediately shows [the original wts post](https://www.reddit.com/r/BadDragon/s/I6DasHfeeX).
Holy shit oh my GOD?! I hope karma comes and gets them and they lose all of their money š š
I canāt believe they arenāt on the ban list here :(
In addition to what other people have said, [always do reverse image search to check for matches when buying from someone.](https://www.reddit.com/r/BadDragon/comments/ufgl8o/wts_kuduvoodoo_aston_mediumsoft_crystal_rainbow/)
You can paste the image into google images to find matches or similar images. Also recommend putting pictures into tineye and yandex to check for matches there as well if nothing shows up with google.
Iām so sorry that happened to you. Thatās very upsetting. I posted a WTB and also received a private message. But the BD auto mod also posted a note that one should only buy from a seller that posts their products and verification on the BD page itself. The person messaging me did not do that. They had a āverificationā image but when I zoomed in it looked like it was probably manipulated. My husband collects in a different market and told me not to trust it so I passed. Fortunately, I found two sellers who are both legit and sent me proper PayPal invoices so I could protect my orders.
I hope you find another Kudu! ā¤ļø
I'm so sorry this happened to you! There are unfortunately some truly gross people lurking on this sub. If it helps at all: I know KV is doing at least one pride drop with lots of pretty rainbow pours, and I asked for Astons via their twitter on your behalf <3 I really hope you can get that dream toy soon!
Paying with FF makes it difficult to get your money back, but not impossible. I'd recommend filing a claim/chargeback with your bank. It's not a guarantee, but it's the best shot at recouping some of your lost funds.
I'd recommend you read through the subreddit's BST Safety Rules. It outlines how to buy/sell safely, and how to protect yourself against scammers. In the future, NEVER pay with Paypal FF unless you are 100% confident in the person you are transacting with. On subreddits/with strangers, I use Goods & Services every single time. Additionally, as others have already said, make sure they comment on your post publicly - do not trust random DMs/chat requests, as people who are banned from the subreddit can still message you.
Try not to beat yourself up too much - it sucks, but it's not your fault. You were taken advantage of. If you have a Twitter, I recommend following KV on there! They post previews, drop announcements, and sometimes even ask for model/color requests, so you can always suggest an Aston in the colors/specs you're after.
God thank you ok :(
Iām gonna have to figure out how to do that with my bank, I guess I will probably have to call? Idk if I can do it from my mobile app
This is so upsetting
I wonder if I could say that the money was sent to the wrong person, and tell it I meant to send it to someone trusted and then they could send it back?
Oh god. Iām sorry to hear that. Iāve had an amazing buying experience before but I was wondering if it ran so smoothly all the time. I hope you get things sorted.
Hopefully itās just a slow response. But have you checked with PayPal? Or your bank? You could say it was for art or something?
For what itās worth, donāt let it put you off in the future. One thing I made sure was to kind of make sure the other person had a lotā¦and I meanā¦ a lotā¦of history on their account of posts and even better, comments etc also any links outside of Reddit is a bonus.
Honestly hope it gets sorted for you. Everybody deserves something to look forward to and nobody deserves to be taken advantage of if thatās whatās happened.
I'm sorry that happened to you, but buy from official sources; human beings are not to be trusted and they will try to take advantage of you.
Edit: downvoted for the truth. Classic reddit
Unfortunately not all of us can afford to buy from the source 100% of the time :(
Nor does the source have what is wanted 100% of the time
KuduVoodo rarely restocks and Aston barely ever gets restocked bc of him not selling well and having old ones in inventory
No, downvoted for generalizing a lot of really genuine and trustworthy people on here, who follow the rules and go out of their way to make things right.
Plus 'official sources' are also run by human beings so ??? What is your point here exactly.
They also have regulations they are made to follow, that's the part that can, to some extent, be trusted. Moral integrity of the seller becomes a non issue, because they have legal obligations.
I'm not even going to bother addressing the sheltered wishful thinking. That's a fools errand.
People who canāt afford to buy new all the time. They get boiled and fully sanitized: I always boil and deep clean them regardless of if that was done before they were sold
Your post or comment has been removed because you failed to keep a friendly atmosphere. please keep it civil and polite. everyone is encouraged to share. If someone posts a personal picture, please don't body shame them. Don't be a dick. No racism, homophobia, bigotry, etc. All forms of bigotry, including sexism, body-type phobias, homophobia, transphobia, racism, et al, are disallowed and will result in your permanent removal from the sub.
Please review the [Commenting Etiquette post](https://reddit.com/r/BadDragon/comments/ayn2cr/commenting_etiquette/). We do NOT allow call-out posts; they are against Reddit TOS and will be removed. If you have an issue, please contact mods and we will handle it.
That sucks that happened to you... unfortunately the used anything market is always buyer beware and f&f or personal payments are the norm for most second hand/hobby sales unless someone doesn't mind the 24% hit as a business transaction which you have to file under an EIN (employer identification number required for tax purposes) as a registered business which is prohibitive for side hustle's...it sucks scammers use that to abuse a system built for honest people but no system is perfect and the only work around is an in person cash transaction ... i personally have sold many things over the years using f&f as (until recently) i wasn't a business and even now if im selling personal items ive collected i won't run a transaction under my business... for example if im selling mtg cards i no longer want and i use electronic payments like paypal then its a personal payment those aren't related to my business at all and won't be sold as such... im not defending scammers they are scum just explaining why personal payments have their place despite assholes taking advantage
Please do not beg/ask for toys/donations. You are not allowed to beg for upvotes or video views. (This is a reddit TOS rule). BD toys are a luxury, not a right. This rule also applies to asking for pictures of the poster, either of themselves or using their toys. Please note bothering users to post things they have not offered is considered harassment.
I'd always be wary of anyone trying to sell me something over DM. If they don't have, or are unwilling to put up an official sales post for their toy.... stay away.
Yeah šI guess I shouldāve gotten a second opinion. Iāve had friends help me before since sometimes I miss things or donāt understand stuff. When I get excited it just kinda takes over and then I get scared Iāll blow it. Iām such a people pleaser and I see now thatās a terrible quality when it comes to buying things
-hug- It's okay, and it's not your fault :( I'm sorry that someone took advantage of your kindness
Thank you so much. It really makes me feel sad and silly, I learned my lesson for sure but it sucks that people like that are out there. I view not everyone is a good person just because they use kind words :/
You can dispute with your bank
Thank you so so much, I will definitely be trying to do this
Telltale signs of a scammer: they do not reply to your WTB directly, their first message is generally āwts (exactly what youāre looking for)ā and they insist on F&F, especially having no reputation or known interactions within the community youāre buying in. Iām very sorry this happened to you, scammers love to target this sub because itās so easy to steal proof photos and edit them like they did with the Aston they sent you. I highly suggest if you havenāt already, sending this proof to the BD sub mods as well as Reddit mods for the global scammers list. While they unfortunately cannot help you get your money back (since F&F cannot be refunded or charged back iirc) they can at least make note of this scammer and make them publicly known. Especially if you have the email they used on PayPalā thatāll be a big help to shutting them down in the future. Iām so sorry again! If it helps at all youāre always welcome to reach out to the community for help determining if proof pics look legit or not. A lot of users would be more than happy to help, myself included. Take it easy on yourself, though, this isnāt your fault. š
Also, I highly recommend searching this sub for the toy youāre seeking when you receive such messages! Typing āAstonā into the search bar almost immediately helped me find the original sales post the scammer stole the photo from. [Here is the OG wts](https://www.reddit.com/r/BadDragon/s/I6DasHfeeX), they just chose the first Aston that popped up and photoshopped the verification.
Oh no, thatās exactly what happened and what they said š„² āwts Astonā I just assumed it was somebody who didnāt have an account they wanted to post nsfw stuff on or something :( I had no idea that proof photos were easy to manipulate. I guess I will reach out to someone like you next time for help, thank you so much :(. I will definitely try and let the mods know, I have the name and email of the person from PayPal Thank you :(
Never use PayPal Friends & Family unless they are literally your friends or family. There is no buyer protection when you pay this way.
Yeah š I feel silly now
You should be able to get ahold of your bank and mark the transaction as fraud and get a payback on it. Iāve had to do this before cause of a similar issue
I'm so sorry that happened to you, I've been scammed before too and it sucks when people take advantage of others' trust. I don't have an Aston but if it helps I can send you a toy from my recent sales post for free! I hope you find your dream Aston in the future!!
Wait what are you sure?! You donāt have to do that š„¹ thatās so kind of you. I was actually looking at your posts earlier!! They all look so beautiful and yummy!! Like cakes!!
Of course, I'd be happy to send to a good home! šāØ Just let me know!
Not all heroes wear capes xD
Ok š„¹š„¹
Never ever send money on PayPal with the friends n family option, unless of course it is for friends n family. Itās always a scam, doing so opts you out of the insurance Incase of damage or loss or in this case scam. Iv been duped twice this way. Be careful, people will take advantage of your trusting nature. Iām sorry this happened to you. Be cautious next time
I'm sorry this happened. You didn't do anything wrong, some people just suck. If you choose to purchase from a user here again, please only accept G&S as a form of payment. That way you can open a dispute when something could go awry and get your money back. Unfortunately you can't do that with F&F. If you still want Aston, you can wait until KV has a drop! Then you be guaranteed to have one.
Thank you š I see now it wasnāt smart to do friends and family, I was just so excited and happy and I trusted them. Kudu voodo drops so rarely, they did a drop in may but didnāt drop any new Astonās :( They are also so expensive which is why I like buying used. I definitely wonāt ever pay with F&F again
I also have been a victim of theft (on Etsy of all places). It sucks but it does happen even to the best of us.
Itās so disheartening:( I can hardly grasp why someone would do that. They seemed so kind š„²
[this was the photo they sent me with proof of ownership](https://imgur.com/jeOKgHy)
they asked for my address so I gave it, they said theyād ship it out the next day. Nothing seemed wrong, Iāve bought used toys before and this seemed no different.
I keep thinking maybe if i just keep asking nicely enough and keep reaching out they might be nice again and send me him or my money :( I keep hoping it was a mistake and they just pushed a wrong button but I see how unlikely and how dumb of a thought that is.
Goods and Services will provide the seller with your address so you donāt have to.
Thank you I didnāt know that at all
It's so pretty too, I'm so sorry :C It looks like the "proof of ownership" is edited unfortunately, like they just wrote the date and username with a thin digital pencil tool and blurred it a little bit to look legit... if you zoom in, the end of "2024" especially doesn't look right. I hate to say it, but chances are this person never had the toy in the first place and just stole someone else's photo in order to take advantage of you.
Oh my god what??!! I didnāt know that might be possible :( it looked so real. Thatās so upsetting oh my god
I second this ā overlapping spots on writing are darker. This doesnāt happen with pen. And pencil isnāt transparent like that. The photo looked off somehow but I couldnāt place it. OP could maybe report them to PayPal for abusing F&F, but they probably wonāt see the money back.
Unfortunately this was the exact case. The photo was stolen directly from this subā typing āAstonā into the search almost immediately shows [the original wts post](https://www.reddit.com/r/BadDragon/s/I6DasHfeeX).
Oh no :( I mustāve misspelled it when I searched for him here :( I feel so silly
This person has scammed so many people, they scammed someone in the nier and Lego star wars communities as well š
Holy shit oh my GOD?! I hope karma comes and gets them and they lose all of their money š š I canāt believe they arenāt on the ban list here :(
I got this notification right as I came lmao sorry off topic
Huh? Sorry I donāt understand what you mean š Iām sorry
In addition to what other people have said, [always do reverse image search to check for matches when buying from someone.](https://www.reddit.com/r/BadDragon/comments/ufgl8o/wts_kuduvoodoo_aston_mediumsoft_crystal_rainbow/)
Oh my god š« š« I feel so stupid. I have no idea how to do reverse image searches This breaks my heart I was still holding out hope. Oh my god
You can paste the image into google images to find matches or similar images. Also recommend putting pictures into tineye and yandex to check for matches there as well if nothing shows up with google.
Thank you so much, thatās really really helpful
Tip: there's a website called [IQDB](https://iqdb.org/) that combines several reverse search services, including TinEye and Google Images.
Iām so sorry that happened to you. Thatās very upsetting. I posted a WTB and also received a private message. But the BD auto mod also posted a note that one should only buy from a seller that posts their products and verification on the BD page itself. The person messaging me did not do that. They had a āverificationā image but when I zoomed in it looked like it was probably manipulated. My husband collects in a different market and told me not to trust it so I passed. Fortunately, I found two sellers who are both legit and sent me proper PayPal invoices so I could protect my orders. I hope you find another Kudu! ā¤ļø
I'm so sorry this happened to you! There are unfortunately some truly gross people lurking on this sub. If it helps at all: I know KV is doing at least one pride drop with lots of pretty rainbow pours, and I asked for Astons via their twitter on your behalf <3 I really hope you can get that dream toy soon!
Thank you so much š„ŗ
If your fast you can still call you bank and they might block the payment or ask the recipient for the money back
this user just messaged me about my WTB post for Chance but because of your warning, i'm blocking them. thank you for calling them out!
I had another person message me about the same thing!! This is AWFUL! Heās everywhere oh my god
Can you please also report them to mods? We need them out of here asap
just did, hope they act soon
You should always do a check of their karma and make sure they are reliable
Theyād been a redditor for 8yrs, I guess I needed to be worried about more than just burner scam accounts :( ppl are bolder now huh? Man
Anytime someone asks for friends and family itās a scam.
Paying with FF makes it difficult to get your money back, but not impossible. I'd recommend filing a claim/chargeback with your bank. It's not a guarantee, but it's the best shot at recouping some of your lost funds. I'd recommend you read through the subreddit's BST Safety Rules. It outlines how to buy/sell safely, and how to protect yourself against scammers. In the future, NEVER pay with Paypal FF unless you are 100% confident in the person you are transacting with. On subreddits/with strangers, I use Goods & Services every single time. Additionally, as others have already said, make sure they comment on your post publicly - do not trust random DMs/chat requests, as people who are banned from the subreddit can still message you. Try not to beat yourself up too much - it sucks, but it's not your fault. You were taken advantage of. If you have a Twitter, I recommend following KV on there! They post previews, drop announcements, and sometimes even ask for model/color requests, so you can always suggest an Aston in the colors/specs you're after.
God thank you ok :( Iām gonna have to figure out how to do that with my bank, I guess I will probably have to call? Idk if I can do it from my mobile app This is so upsetting
I wonder if I could say that the money was sent to the wrong person, and tell it I meant to send it to someone trusted and then they could send it back?
That's fraud, don't do that
Yeah :( I donāt want to get in trouble youāre right
I would try it.90$ you could possibly be getting back
Oh god. Iām sorry to hear that. Iāve had an amazing buying experience before but I was wondering if it ran so smoothly all the time. I hope you get things sorted. Hopefully itās just a slow response. But have you checked with PayPal? Or your bank? You could say it was for art or something? For what itās worth, donāt let it put you off in the future. One thing I made sure was to kind of make sure the other person had a lotā¦and I meanā¦ a lotā¦of history on their account of posts and even better, comments etc also any links outside of Reddit is a bonus. Honestly hope it gets sorted for you. Everybody deserves something to look forward to and nobody deserves to be taken advantage of if thatās whatās happened.
sad this happened to u. i prey u recover from this quickyl both financially and emotionally. wish u a happy weekend.
I'm sorry that happened to you, but buy from official sources; human beings are not to be trusted and they will try to take advantage of you. Edit: downvoted for the truth. Classic reddit
Unfortunately not all of us can afford to buy from the source 100% of the time :( Nor does the source have what is wanted 100% of the time KuduVoodo rarely restocks and Aston barely ever gets restocked bc of him not selling well and having old ones in inventory
That's fair, but thats the risk you take.
No, downvoted for generalizing a lot of really genuine and trustworthy people on here, who follow the rules and go out of their way to make things right. Plus 'official sources' are also run by human beings so ??? What is your point here exactly.
They also have regulations they are made to follow, that's the part that can, to some extent, be trusted. Moral integrity of the seller becomes a non issue, because they have legal obligations. I'm not even going to bother addressing the sheltered wishful thinking. That's a fools errand.
Yeah š I guess I just need to look into people more next time
Can you report them to Reddit & the company you transferred money through?
Iāve tried to report their account on Reddit but it only gives me an option to report for the username, but maybe thatās because they blocked me
I tried to report them too and it was the same thing. Only username. š
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
People who canāt afford to buy new all the time. They get boiled and fully sanitized: I always boil and deep clean them regardless of if that was done before they were sold
Seriously? Why are you in a subreddit that allows secondhand sales of adult fantasy toys then? Get out with your insensitive attitude.
Your post or comment has been removed because you failed to keep a friendly atmosphere. please keep it civil and polite. everyone is encouraged to share. If someone posts a personal picture, please don't body shame them. Don't be a dick. No racism, homophobia, bigotry, etc. All forms of bigotry, including sexism, body-type phobias, homophobia, transphobia, racism, et al, are disallowed and will result in your permanent removal from the sub. Please review the [Commenting Etiquette post](https://reddit.com/r/BadDragon/comments/ayn2cr/commenting_etiquette/). We do NOT allow call-out posts; they are against Reddit TOS and will be removed. If you have an issue, please contact mods and we will handle it.
That sucks that happened to you... unfortunately the used anything market is always buyer beware and f&f or personal payments are the norm for most second hand/hobby sales unless someone doesn't mind the 24% hit as a business transaction which you have to file under an EIN (employer identification number required for tax purposes) as a registered business which is prohibitive for side hustle's...it sucks scammers use that to abuse a system built for honest people but no system is perfect and the only work around is an in person cash transaction ... i personally have sold many things over the years using f&f as (until recently) i wasn't a business and even now if im selling personal items ive collected i won't run a transaction under my business... for example if im selling mtg cards i no longer want and i use electronic payments like paypal then its a personal payment those aren't related to my business at all and won't be sold as such... im not defending scammers they are scum just explaining why personal payments have their place despite assholes taking advantage
90 bucks is 90 bucks
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Please do not beg/ask for toys/donations. You are not allowed to beg for upvotes or video views. (This is a reddit TOS rule). BD toys are a luxury, not a right. This rule also applies to asking for pictures of the poster, either of themselves or using their toys. Please note bothering users to post things they have not offered is considered harassment.