Beware - More elaborate scams inbound

[Gfunk]

Hi all, figured I’d share a story here so no one gets burned.


I posted a WTB a few weeks ago for a tenor/alto case. This person called “Dale Dupree” responded weeks later with a few pictures with what looked like a double tenor case. The case had a picture of a man and his two younger children inside, maybe to try and convince a buyer it’s a real person. Anyway, when I asked for more pictures they sent me an AI modified picture based on the original picture. At a quick glance between rehearsals I didn’t notice, but it’s quite obvious after looking seriously.

The seller refused PayPal, so I can’t use G&S, which is a typical and huge red flag. I wasn’t going to compromise on this. But, when I asked for the Zelle address (which has no sender protection), it was under his wife’s name, Douglas Tatro.

At this point I was 99% sure this was a scam, but I wanted to see what else I could get. I asked for the persons Facebook, they told me to find it. So I sent them my profile and told them to send me a request. They did as I asked and had made a new profile to send me a friend request. Yikes.

Then, I asked them to give me a call to confirm they knew a bit about trombone. When they picked up and answered in an Indian accent in where I suspected was a call center based on the background chatter and volume. He kept insisting on me for a shipping address and did not answer my questions to show a basic knowledge about trombone.

The most alarming part of this was how the scammer responded over email 1. Like a normal person 2. By faking to be an old person incompetent with technology. They cited not knowing how to set up PayPal and not having help from their kids to set it up.

There was a few more inconsistencies like calling the case “goods”

Also note that if you google “Dale Dupree” it is a real person with a real online presence. Even in the same city as the scammer was saying they’d ship from. The phone number matched too.

Also, I had a buddy get contacted by the same email for his WTB post. I’ve emailed Matt K, but the scammers email is [email protected] incase they reach out to you.

I didn’t fall victim to this, but be careful. These people are growing more intelligent and elaborate and are putting in a lot of work to scam people.

[ssking2b]

I just got hit with the same scam by DALE DUPREE wanting to sell me a Giardinelli SYM-T small shank mouthpiece from my WTB posting. Initially, I sent the requested money, but having read this post, I cancelled it before it was picked up.

[mpkamowski]

Same here. He found an old add for the bell I was looking for. He messages directly to my email. I knew it was a scam because I found the same old add too since I was looking. I asked him to reply directly through here and that scared them off.