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Caution adviced when dealing with this member (40 Viewers)

Full discloser for everyone, since most everyone knows I'm one of the people trying to help somehow fix this mess. Most if not all already know that I'm trying to assist in solving this in one of two ways. The first is, everybody gets their chips. If for some reason their chips they’ve purchased are unattainable, then the second preferred outcome, which is for all the buyers to get their monies back. The tasks within have included helping mediate, coordinate, and also reship (yet again) items that will be coming my way from the seller to their respective owners. By offering my help, I am in no way, shape or form defending the actions of the seller, nor do I accept partial blame for this whatsoever. I haven't been blamed by anybody to make me say this, but I thought I would throw that out there and clear the air a little.

I'll be following up diligently from my end with as many updates as possible. I don't have any guarantees to offer nor can I make promises that this will all be fixed overnight. What I can promise however is that I'm trying my best to help make everyone involved become whole again.
 
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trigs said:
Curious how many people this guy PMed trying to sell chips to that turned him down. A few people have already stated this happened to them.
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Just to share my personal experience as well, hope this helps.
-

He pm'ed me few weeks ago looking to sell mint 160 Terrible fracs, that he is receiving soon.
I agreed and paypal him the money and he immediately refunded me asking for FF option only.

I explained to him that international buyers do not have the luxury of that option and I'll be more than happy to cover the fee, in which he didn't want to do the deal. Told him I'll asked a friend of mine in the US to do PP FF for him. Within 4 hours he tried pressuring me by calling the deal off in which I asked him for a day to coordinate the payment. Fast forward 9 hours later he cancelled the transaction stating he has issues with shipping to singapore and will be only willing to do so if i paid more and covered insurance.

I was done with the deal at that point no matter how pretty the chips. I ended the deal there and thanked him for his time.
If anyone need screenshots of my PM with him, if it helps do let me know.
-

On another side note, I had another experience with a site vendor who was selling dealer buttons in which I never received my goods. I went on hiatus from PCF at the same time and when I came back i realised he didn't shipped the rest of my order but 6 months has passed since. I was back in May this year and his last seen was in Feb. I just wrote that off in my books and never told anyone.
 
steam said:
On another side note, I had another experience with a site vendor who was selling dealer buttons in which I never received my goods. I went on hiatus from PCF at the same time and when I came back i realised he didn't shipped the rest of my order but 6 months has passed since. I was back in May this year and his last seen was in Feb. I just wrote that off in my books and never told anyone
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Sounds like you are referring to @PokerChipsDesign. There were some other Members who had similar issues with not receiving their dealer buttons. Cant find the thread or know the outcome but maybe someone else here is aware of what the result was.
 
Sucks. Dude seems to have been buying chips, (probably scamming) and then reselling them before he even had them, (probably scamming) Just one big $h!tcycle ponzi.

—————

PROTIP.
when I started I only bought from Jim. Most trusted chip vendor hands down.

“Trusted chippers” are not hard to find if you hang around long enough to understand the market here.

one easy way to background check a seller is to have a long look at thier “content” … go back and see what they talk about here on the forum. One look at poppins conversations would have been a pretty good indicator of what you might experience.

buying chips from overseas is almost always a PITA, it just takes forever, costs more and it’s stressful waiting. There’s language and cultural barriers. There are great chippers on all continents, but I would only attempt a significant overseas purchase from a longtime pristine reputation chipper, even then, you gotta know it’s gonna be stressful.

———————


@horseshoez sucks to be you stuck in the middle, but if you have acted like a clearinghouse for this guy you might want to rethink it. It’s a good thing to offer to accept and ship a rack or two for people overseas, it’s entirely different to be part of what to me looks like a “small business” sized chip reselling venture. Especially when it all crumbles.

Not accusing you of anything and it’s not really my business, but how you ended up in the middle of this drama? It’s just unfortunate.

——————

hope you all find resolve in this.
 
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Johnblue said:
Sucks. Dude seems to have been buying chips, (probably scamming) and then reselling them before he even had them, (probably scamming) Just one big $h!tcycle ponzi.

—————

PROTIP.
when I started I only bought from Jim. Most trusted chip vendor hands down.

“Trusted chippers” are not hard to find if you hang around long enough to understand the market here.

one easy way to background check a seller is to have a long look at thier “content” … go back and see what they talk about here on the forum. One look at poppins conversations would have been a pretty good indicator of what you might experience.

———————


@horseshoez sucks to be you, but if you have acted like a clearinghouse for this guy you might want to rethink it. It’s a good thing to offer to accept and ship a rack or two for people overseas, it’s entirely different to be part of what to me looks like a “small business” sized chip reselling venture. Especially when it all crumbles.
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@horseshoez is definitely not the one to blame here. We should rather thank him for trying to make this mess right.
 
Johnblue said:
@horseshoez sucks to be you stuck in the middle, but if you have acted like a clearinghouse for this guy you might want to rethink it. It’s a good thing to offer to accept and ship a rack or two for people overseas, it’s entirely different to be part of what to me looks like a “small business” sized chip reselling venture. Especially when it all crumbles.

Not accusing you of anything and it’s not really my business, but how you ended up in the middle of this drama? It’s just unfortunate.

——————

hope you all find resolve in this.
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This little business you refer to simply does not exist. It is common knowledge that @horseshoez helps many members outside the US for free with the sole purpose of helping them get chips, which are difficult to access especially when being oversea relative to CONUS only shipping. Plus save on shipping costs, without asking anything in return and taking on his personal time.

After a year here reading every day what's going on (or almost) I can say without mistake that the only member (among the ten or so of us who benefit from this huge help) who used Zaki for his personal business is poppin with endless purchases/sales. Was @horseshoez a victim of his kindness? I'm sure he was.
 
Johnblue said:
Sucks. Dude seems to have been buying chips, (probably scamming) and then reselling them before he even had them, (probably scamming) Just one big $h!tcycle ponzi.

—————

PROTIP.
when I started I only bought from Jim. Most trusted chip vendor hands down.

“Trusted chippers” are not hard to find if you hang around long enough to understand the market here.

one easy way to background check a seller is to have a long look at thier “content” … go back and see what they talk about here on the forum. One look at poppins conversations would have been a pretty good indicator of what you might experience.

buying chips from overseas is almost always a PITA, it just takes forever, costs more and it’s stressful waiting. There’s language and cultural barriers. There are great chippers on all continents, but I would only attempt a significant overseas purchase from a longtime pristine reputation chipper, even then, you gotta know it’s gonna be stressful.

———————


@horseshoez sucks to be you stuck in the middle, but if you have acted like a clearinghouse for this guy you might want to rethink it. It’s a good thing to offer to accept and ship a rack or two for people overseas, it’s entirely different to be part of what to me looks like a “small business” sized chip reselling venture. Especially when it all crumbles.

Not accusing you of anything and it’s not really my business, but how you ended up in the middle of this drama? It’s just unfortunate.

——————

hope you all find resolve in this.
Click to expand...

I simply reshipped packages for that member just as I do for numerous other international members. As @MilouPilou1 mentioned above, those outside the US at times aren’t able to purchase chips as per the seller’s conditions during a sale. Even if they were allowed, majority of their purchases would be cost prohibitive especially when it’s by the rack, barrel, or sometimes even lesser quantity. I essentially help them have a US address, receive all their packages and when they feel like it’s time, ship them off in one or two consolidated boxes. I never once operated as part of a so-called clearinghouse, neither for that member nor anyone else I provided the service for. On many occasions some of whom I helped would change their mind about a purchase they made, and I’d help facilitate a sale within the US prior to those items leaving by way of taking some good pictures to be used in their listings. Did I ever help a specific member “peddle” anything that could be considered shady? Without a shadow of a doubt, a loud and resounding no. I just wanted to help him get his stuff just as I did the others.

My role and involvement at this time following his ban is very simple, and that is as a liaison to help people who bought chips from that member hopefully either receive them or be fully refunded. I’ve received several PM’s from panicked buyers worrying they could be out of hundreds or in some cases, thousands of dollars. It’s painful to hear that, no matter what a person’s financial standing is at the moment, and I’d like to help them avoid that in any way I can.

Hoping for the best, and I somehow still have faith that we’ll have the preferred outcome out of this mess. I welcome any direct questions you may have for me via PM.
 
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I've read all these posts and posts from other threads and taken a look at my one transaction with Poppin92. Nothing adds up. I'm thinking/fearful there's something more nefarious happening than just a chip shell game. Stolen identities and financial account fraud are very common these days. Hackers (hacker cells) have become very sophisticated.

We've all provided our PayPal login names, other payment platform credentials, home addresses, full names, and in some cases, bank account information. I am fearful that Poppin92, and perhaps a network of others, are playing the long game here as we fret about chips. Could be direct identity/account hacking and/or selling our (very valid) info to third parties for the same.

@horseshoez seems awesome, but all this package receiving, cataloging, opening, sorting, re-packaging, label printing, shipping billing, account reconciliation, re-shipping, package tracking and issue correction plus PM receiving and responding seems like a bit of volunteer overkill even for the most altruistic soul on earth. It's absolutely a full-time job. There would be no one in better position to realize Poppin92 is some kind of scammer. No alarm sounded, just "keep calm everyone" after the explosion.

I just don't get it at all. My suggestion, change your passwords and monitor your PCF, PayPal, Venmo and bank accounts.
 
As far as I can see @horseshoez has been done as much as everyone else on this. It's great to have someone offering their reshipping services and I had considered using him or someone similar myself as it's a great service and really helping the non US members in the community out. It's just a shame that someone has abused this offer and trust and may have ruined it for everyone else in the future.
 
BirdCage said:
I've read all these posts and posts from other threads and taken a look at my one transaction with Poppin92. Nothing adds up. I'm thinking/fearful there's something more nefarious happening than just a chip shell game. Stolen identities and financial account fraud are very common these days. Hackers (hacker cells) have become very sophisticated.

We've all provided our PayPal login names, other payment platform credentials, home addresses, full names, and in some cases, bank account information. I am fearful that Poppin92, and perhaps a network of others, are playing the long game here as we fret about chips. Could be direct identity/account hacking and/or selling our (very valid) info to third parties for the same.

@horseshoez seems awesome, but all this package receiving, cataloging, opening, sorting, re-packaging, label printing, shipping billing, account reconciliation, re-shipping, package tracking and issue correction plus PM receiving and responding seems like a bit of volunteer overkill even for the most altruistic soul on earth. It's absolutely a full-time job. There would be no one in better position to realize Poppin92 is some kind of scammer. No alarm sounded, just "keep calm everyone" after the explosion.

I just don't get it at all. My suggestion, change your passwords and monitor your PCF, PayPal, Venmo and bank accounts.
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I understand your concern and you could very well be correct. It’s just that it doesn’t make sense when looking at how he entered this place. There were problems from the beginning. If I was setting up a long time scam I would go out of my way to appear like an upstanding member to really establish myself and earn everyone’s trust. Can’t really say he’s done that.
 
In response to what you said regarding volunteer overkill, it started to feel this way, yes. That is exactly the reason why I debated either stopping it altogether or having a pricing structure for it. I even started up a thread to inform people of that as well as get their feedback.

Why would I not be aware or have some sort of indication that anything of this nature would happen? Easy answer. These sales took place without my knowledge. These were directly made between him and the buyers. That’s why I wrote what I wrote above so that people don’t judge too quickly or ask questions like, “well why didn’t Zaki know until much later?” I had zero knowledge of all the outstanding sales and shipments that were promised. Only way I became aware of it all is when this thread was opened and I also received messages from people outlining the circumstances within their purchases from the seller.
 
horseshoez said:
In response to what you said regarding volunteer overkill, it started to feel this way, yes. That is exactly the reason why I debated either stopping it altogether or having a pricing structure for it. I even started up a thread to inform people of that as well as get their feedback.
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Again, many PCFers support your awesomeness, but this rationalization is a bit hollow as it was posted less than a week before all this came to light.

Airport security never fails to ask if one is carrying a package or item for any other person. Unfortunately, there is personal responsibility and collateral risk when helping others.
 
BirdCage said:
Again, many PCFers support your awesomeness, but this rationalization is a bit hollow as it was posted less than a week before all this came to light.

Airport security never fails to ask if one is carrying a package or item for any other person. Unfortunately, there is personal responsibility and collateral risk when helping others.
Click to expand...

I wasn’t trying to rationalize anything by the way, nor do I owe any explanation from my end to anybody. I was providing info for the sake of clarity. My reshipping for him or anybody else has nothing to do with what we are currently trying to fix. Those, as mentioned above, were sales made between two parties, not three.

There was nor will there be any collateral risk on my part. Only thing I’m responsible for and will gladly emphasize, is that I’ve saved people hundreds and often thousands of dollars in shipping expenses.
 
horseshoez said:
I wasn’t trying to rationalize anything by the way, nor do I owe any explanation from my end to anybody. I was providing info for the sake of clarity. My reshipping for him or anybody else has nothing to do with what we are currently trying to fix. Those, as mentioned above, were sales made between two parties, not three.

There was nor will there be any collateral risk on my part. Only thing I’m responsible for and will gladly emphasize, is that I’ve saved people hundreds and often thousands of dollars in shipping expenses.
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Back off of @horseshoez already! Although I never used his services, I know very well how crucial these reshipping services are for non us-chippers. Most of us foreigners are a pretty cool bunch and I won't accept that there is now a stigma to selling or (re-)shipping outside of the US because of one nefarious assclown who turned out to be a bad egg.
 
BirdCage said:
Again, many PCFers support your awesomeness, but this rationalization is a bit hollow as it was posted less than a week before all this came to light.

Airport security never fails to ask if one is carrying a package or item for any other person. Unfortunately, there is personal responsibility and collateral risk when helping others.
Click to expand...
On @horseshoez defense he’s been bitching about how much work their reship ping stuff is for many weeks. I’ve been telling him to come up with a charge for it. So please stop insinuating that he’s involved somehow. I too hope that Poppin is simply a scatterbrained idiot and this will work out as it did before. I also warned zaki to be careful with him as he like the rest of us doesn’t know Poppin personally. He too could be getting scammed and would be stained in this community.
 
BirdCage said:
I've read all these posts and posts from other threads and taken a look at my one transaction with Poppin92. Nothing adds up. I'm thinking/fearful there's something more nefarious happening than just a chip shell game. Stolen identities and financial account fraud are very common these days. Hackers (hacker cells) have become very sophisticated.

We've all provided our PayPal login names, other payment platform credentials, home addresses, full names, and in some cases, bank account information. I am fearful that Poppin92, and perhaps a network of others, are playing the long game here as we fret about chips. Could be direct identity/account hacking and/or selling our (very valid) info to third parties for the same.

@horseshoez seems awesome, but all this package receiving, cataloging, opening, sorting, re-packaging, label printing, shipping billing, account reconciliation, re-shipping, package tracking and issue correction plus PM receiving and responding seems like a bit of volunteer overkill even for the most altruistic soul on earth. It's absolutely a full-time job. There would be no one in better position to realize Poppin92 is some kind of scammer. No alarm sounded, just "keep calm everyone" after the explosion.

I just don't get it at all. My suggestion, change your passwords and monitor your PCF, PayPal, Venmo and bank accounts.
Click to expand...
And setup two factor on all your accounts if you havent already. Preferably with an authentication app, not just text/email
 
Eriks said:
I understand your concern and you could very well be correct. It’s just that it doesn’t make sense when looking at how he entered this place. There were problems from the beginning. If I was setting up a long time scam I would go out of my way to appear like an upstanding member to really establish myself and earn everyone’s trust. Can’t really say he’s done that.
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I think he did appear legit to the untrained eye? He had 20+ positive reviews. I know I wouldn’t have suspected a thing if I didn’t see this thread
 
BirdCage said:
@horseshoez seems awesome, but all this package receiving, cataloging, opening, sorting, re-packaging, label printing, shipping billing, account reconciliation, re-shipping, package tracking and issue correction plus PM receiving and responding seems like a bit of volunteer overkill even for the most altruistic soul on earth. It's absolutely a full-time job. There would be no one in better position to realize Poppin92 is some kind of scammer. No alarm sounded, just "keep calm everyone" after the explosion.
Click to expand...

Reshipping is not very complicated but it is time and effort consuming. I fail to see how identifying someone selling chips they don’t have or committing some type of payment/PayPal shenanigans could even happen by a reshipper let alone they be responsible for identifying it or even that they somehow were involved unless I missed something other than the mere fact that they are a reshipper. Quite frankly, if that is your implication, it is rather offensive. @horseshoez does this as a favor to the community to help people out. No good deed goes unpunished around here.
 
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khp said:
I think he did appear legit to the untrained eye? He had 20+ positive reviews. I know I wouldn’t have suspected a thing if I didn’t see this thread
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I suppose that’s true, lots of water under the bridge since december
 
OfficerLovejoy said:
Back off of @horseshoez already! Although I never used his services, I know very well how crucial these reshipping services are for non us-chippers. Most of us foreigners are a pretty cool bunch and I won't accept that there is now a stigma to selling or (re-)shipping outside of the US because of one nefarious assclown who turned out to be a bad egg.
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On a funnier note and in response to this…

1623674771751.gif
 
I think this thread highlighted a flaw in the rating system - that sometimes people don’t leave feedback and sometimes people are also willing to let things slide to avoid negative revenge feedback.

Perhaps one way to solve this is have a timed and invisible feedback period. Sales/Trade participants could have 20 days to post feedback in a way that no one can see, but the other side will know a rating and comment was provided. After the 20 days are up, the feedback goes live, with further feedback disabled for the sale/trade to make “revenge feedback” impossible
 
khp said:
I think this thread highlighted a flaw in the rating system - that sometimes people don’t leave feedback and sometimes people are also willing to let things slide to avoid negative revenge feedback.

Perhaps one way to solve this is have a timed and invisible feedback period. Sales/Trade participants could have 20 days to post feedback in a way that no one can see, but the other side will know a rating and comment was provided. After the 20 days are up, the feedback goes live, with further feedback disabled for the sale/trade to make “revenge feedback” impossible
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I've been through many hobbies over the past few years with that I've sold lots of computer stuff on reddit and I really like how many of those sub-reddits handle 'rating' after the deal is done and both parties have money and product. Either the seller or buyer states that the sale was completed and tags the other party involved. Once the second party states that they confirm. The sale is confirmed and then both users get the credit on their account. I'm pretty sure its all tracked with an auto-mod. Not sure the capabilities that this forum tech has for such an arrangement, but no one gets credit until the sale is complete.

Also they have pretty strict rules on how sales are to be listed and conducted as well so that kinda leads into this system.
 
Tarheel4Life said:
This is what happens when people who don’t transact faithfully don’t get called out.

How many times has someone mentioned something like “there is a member who didn’t ship” or “there is a guy here who circumvented the ChipRoom purchasing rules” and nobody ever wants to name names.

Sadly my only surprise is that this doesn’t happen a lot more frequently, particularly with non-CONUS deals given how many people here are from the US.
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THIS.

I’ve made a shipping blunder in the heat of selling 1000’s of chips in a whirlwind of sales. I did what it took to make it right. And always will. No pitchforks. I’m looking into a deal with another user that was a while back and that will be righted too if I made a mistake. No pitchforks. Does that make me a scammer? No. But I’ve always dealt with any issue quickl and directly. But this situation is classic as to why sometimes people should be called out publicly for being dishonest.
When the last scammer surfaced weeks back it went public right away. everyone’s guard went up. I started using PPGS with anyone I didn’t know and even with some I felt I “knew”. Yes PayPal won and got their fees. Oh well right!? A forum like this is ripe for this nefarious activity. It’s mentioned that a scammer would be more likely to be successful if they became a trusted member of the community. I believe that.
When I told a friend about our hobby and the great forum and outlet for the chips we have the first thing he said was “I’m going to get in there and sell you guys 1000’s in chips and disappear” is this what happened? Could be.
it seems if you call someone out for dishonesty or unfaithful transactions your the one who gets punished. Guess that needs to change. Sad days.
One of my hero’s judge Judy said many times:
“Your story doesn’t make sense sir, and when a story doesn’t make sense it usually a lie”.
Judge Judith Sheindlin
 
khp said:
I think this thread highlighted a flaw in the rating system - that sometimes people don’t leave feedback and sometimes people are also willing to let things slide to avoid negative revenge feedback.

Perhaps one way to solve this is have a timed and invisible feedback period. Sales/Trade participants could have 20 days to post feedback in a way that no one can see, but the other side will know a rating and comment was provided. After the 20 days are up, the feedback goes live, with further feedback disabled for the sale/trade to make “revenge feedback” impossible
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Good call. eBay let’s the receiver of feedback respond but on eBay feedback is directly attached only to that sale. The “feedback” system here does not seem capable of being as elaborate.
 
RivieraDanny said:
THIS.

I’ve made a shipping blunder in the heat of selling 1000’s of chips in a whirlwind of sales. I did what it took to make it right. And always will. No pitchforks. I’m looking into a deal with another user that was a while back and that will be righted too if I made a mistake. No pitchforks. Does that make me a scammer? No. But I’ve always dealt with any issue quickl and directly. But this situation is classic as to why sometimes people should be called out publicly for being dishonest.
When the last scammer surfaced weeks back it went public right away. everyone’s guard went up. I started using PPGS with anyone I didn’t know and even with some I felt I “knew”. Yes PayPal won and got their fees. Oh well right!? A forum like this is ripe for this nefarious activity. It’s mentioned that a scammer would be more likely to be successful if they became a trusted member of the community. I believe that.
When I told a friend about our hobby and the great forum and outlet for the chips we have the first thing he said was “I’m going to get in there and sell you guys 1000’s in chips and disappear” is this what happened? Could be.
it seems if you call someone out for dishonesty or unfaithful transactions your the one who gets punished. Guess that needs to change. Sad days.
One of my hero’s judge Judy said many times:
“Your story doesn’t make sense sir, and when a story doesn’t make sense it usually a lie”.
Judge Judith Sheindlin
Click to expand...
Definitely PPGS is the way to go. PayPal made its money but it’s also providing insurance. 3% is worth it.

I’m worried about people not accepting PPGS because of that tax law change.
 
RivieraDanny said:
THIS.

I’ve made a shipping blunder in the heat of selling 1000’s of chips in a whirlwind of sales. I did what it took to make it right. And always will. No pitchforks. I’m looking into a deal with another user that was a while back and that will be righted too if I made a mistake. No pitchforks. Does that make me a scammer? No. But I’ve always dealt with any issue quickl and directly. But this situation is classic as to why sometimes people should be called out publicly for being dishonest.
When the last scammer surfaced weeks back it went public right away. everyone’s guard went up. I started using PPGS with anyone I didn’t know and even with some I felt I “knew”. Yes PayPal won and got their fees. Oh well right!? A forum like this is ripe for this nefarious activity. It’s mentioned that a scammer would be more likely to be successful if they became a trusted member of the community. I believe that.
When I told a friend about our hobby and the great forum and outlet for the chips we have the first thing he said was “I’m going to get in there and sell you guys 1000’s in chips and disappear” is this what happened? Could be.
it seems if you call someone out for dishonesty or unfaithful transactions your the one who gets punished. Guess that needs to change. Sad days.
One of my hero’s judge Judy said many times:
“Your story doesn’t make sense sir, and when a story doesn’t make sense it usually a lie”.
Judge Judith Sheindlin
Click to expand...
are you able to make right the CDI chips that I dibs in the sales thread but you were unable to fulfil them?
 

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