Defrauded by someone posing as WB member

Just a PSA for the group - a few weeks back I posted an ISO for Macdonald Cab on Commerce Corner. I was emailed by someone posing as “Chris Lee” from Wa State who offered the current 2016’s as well as previous vintages. I did a cursory check and saw that he was a member and was from Washington State. He understood the logistics of shipping, seemed to understand pricing, and when Macdonald would be shipping their 2016’s. Zero red flags so went ahead and paid him via CashApp as requested. He’s since ghosted completely and MacDonald has confirmed that neither that name nor email address is associated with anyone on their list. I guess it’s not impossible that he’s sick or dead but at this point all communication has ceased.

I’ve since spoken to a few other members with similar experiences such as mine stemming from WB. Several of which were posts made by members selling that subsequently ghosted as well.

I’d like to urge anyone with an experience such as mine to at minimum reach out to me with any details you might have in hopes we can potentially build some info on this person but ideally make a PSA such as mine so people are aware of such activities. I understand it can be embarrassing to be taken advantage of but the only way they get caught is by people speaking out.

I would urge everyone to make sure they are 100% confident in who they’re dealing with.

None in post. The person reached out directly. I agree I should have been more careful and will do so moving forward.

Thieves have no boundaries. This is just a progression in the con industry. Worse, the person may have been as young as 9 years old. It’s just a game, but you can win money. It can be addicting, (become a profession). If you spend the time and are successful in 1 or 2 in 10, you can retire at 30.

Did this person set up a WB profile, have posts etc., and then used this ‘mature’ account to defraud? Or are you saying this person represented they were someone else who has a legitimate WB account?

who were the members that ghosted? If the people who contacted you want to speak up, we can at least remove those people from the forum.

There was an incident that happened 4-5 years ago where one user ghosted on some people, but other than that I haven’t seen anything recent.

Someone who has the same name as another user in the same state. We combed through our records, seem to be different people based on what Justin provided to us.

The Chris Lee that’s a member here hasn’t visited the site since 2018. Also different emails. Different IP locations. From what we could gather, different city and profession as well.

As Charlie mentioned they claimed to be someone from the group who had an account. I made the mistake of giving my email address rather than conducting the business on the board. Previous history with buying wine has always been smooth, the guy seemed legit, name matched, etc. Will definitely be more careful!

They’re sending me the info tomorrow. I’ve encouraged them to speak up. Not sure if they will but either way I’ll bring all the info I have to admin.

Justin - sorry to hear that for you personally and for board in general.

I have been on both sides of a number of transactions and has always worked very well.

I had an issue with this person as well for some WLW, but sent payment using a cc through Amex and reversed the charges when he was flaky with shipment.

He used the following email to communicate.

lcd.3735@gmail.com
leewongc7@gmail.com

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