A word of caution to those who might be approached on-line with an offer to provide a wanted item:
Recently, I posted about my need for a replacement motor/gearbox assembly for a Lionel Santa sleigh pylon. While listed on the Lionel parts site as being used in several animated pylons, it has been unavailable for some time, with no suggested replacement.
Imagine my surprise when a member I was unfamiliar with messaged me with a referral to an email address that might have the needed piece. An email to that address elicited a quick response that the needed part was in fact available, at a shipped price only a bit above the list price for the otherwise unavailable part. Most of the rest of the email was routine e-commerce stuff that seemed legit.
However, the seller (at a generic outlook.com address) required payment via a PayPal-financed Apple gift card, even providing a direct link to buy one, an arrangement I found disturbingly similar to a lot of online scams. My spidey-sense was alerting strongly enough I backtracked to the original referral. It turned out that that member had joined the forum a little over a half year ago, but AFAICS had only made one post, a generic new member post when joining, not even responding to several members who had posted some welcoming questions.
So, what to do? What I did was write back to the prospective seller, indicating I was uncomfortable with the gift card payment, but would be willing to use PayPal directly. It's been a full day since I wrote, and so far, crickets . . .
What are my conclusions? Although I do not have definitive proof, I suspect the referring 'member' joined recently solely to sniff out people like myself in need of short-supply items, and make referrals to another, external email address (I suspect manned by the same person) who could allegedly provide that item. By requiring PayPal purchase of an e-gift card, the scammer can completely empty and abandon the card well before the purchaser suspects anything. I doubt there's any effective recovery or remedy, either -- at the buyer's direction, PayPal finances the gift card, which was delivered to the scammer as directed by the buyer, and such gift cards can be cashed in by the bearer or anyone with the PIN, so IMHO neither PayPal nor Apple are likely to provide much relief.
So, know your seller/referrer, especially if the deal is a bit suspicious, and be wary if the "deal" leaves you with no effective remedy. You have been warned . . .
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