Reverb scams are back!
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- Опубликовано: 27 сен 2024
- And here I thought scams on Reverb were gone. It just shows that when purchasing guitars and equipment online you should remain vigilant and if the deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.
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I have to admit that I'm slightly impressed by Reverb being somewhat proactive about killing these listings and accounts.
Credit where credit is due, they are actually quite good at it!
Unfortunate that the bar is so low nowadays that dealing with scams promptly is impressive :/ (no offence meant to you, this is just my observation)
@@delusion5867wtf do you want them to do
@@delusion5867 someone has to make this comment every single time, like yeah, we get it
Online scams are out of control, it's a problem. Just last week someone I knew died, and I got a friend request from a "memorial page" for them. I thought nothing of it and accepted it, and then they messaged me asking for donations for funeral expenses. I contacted the family and asked if it's legit and it wasn't. It was literally a scammer using someone's death to scam people lol.
I hate scammers. I hope I never run into one for their sake.
Sorry for your loss.
Frauds have no consciences at all. I have a family member who was scammed by someone and she is wheelchair bound, and they clearly knew that. They had two people in their "cast" who could mimic voices, had a LOT of background info that a stranger should not have, and it turned out the police knew of eight other people the same frauds had scammed during just the previous two weeks.
I flag at least 5 listings every week with fresh accounts selling cool gear for ridiculous prices
They’re all ridiculous prices
My dude doing gods work haha
Fair play bud!
Yeah, it happens a lot in the States. I always wonder what happens to the person scammed. Maybe it's just one of his buddies and it's just a game.
@@CormacTunstead im just looking around and find these ridiculously low priced top items. You gotta flag them. Somebody may fall for that crap. Reverb shouldn’t allow it but their AI ain’t smart enough
I once saw Gibson Les Paul custom "Randy Rhoads" go up by multiple sellers, from different countries, within an hour. All the same photos used. Some of them sold. I reported each one to Reverb.
If suspicious I always ask the seller for extra photos from specific angles. If they can't provide them then I move on.
I do the same thing. At times, I've asked for a pic of the item together with the front page of a current newspaper.
Just had that happen the other day.
@@rosewoodsteel6656a current newspaper 😂.
Sometimes you get the guy who gets all upset about having to take extra pictures too😂
@@HimothyBurton If someone is upset about adding a few pictures, which can make a sale easier for them, I would move on.
Also if you're a frequent Reverb seller, watch out for DMs telling you your account needs re-verification and will be shut down!
Some of them look like shit but others are done very convincingly
Reverb will NEVER message you via the messaging system, it's not their policy and no matter how legit it may look, it's a scam if "they" DM you! 😬
Scammers flood facebook with crap!
FB is just maga lunatics anyway, should be avoided
Yes they do and that crap's gotta change
And if you report it, because most of the scams are paid or ‘sponsored ads’ FB says ‘nope, not a scam, we got paid so it must be good’
FB account deleted. Much better now!
I used to buy and sell everything off reverb, but i sold a prs to a guy for a really good price, i threw a nice tweed case in, the case was around cig smoke at some point , so he said it smelled like cigs, and wanted 75 dollars back, i rufused i gave him the case for free, im not going to give 75 back for a free case i gave u. Then i sold afew other things on there, it was 400 worth of stuff, by the time the fees and tax everything came out i only made 300, that was it for me, i deal with sweetwater now and prefer it.
When i created my reverb account i didn't get paid for a few listings until the item was delivered to make sure i wasnt a scam
Yep. Same here. Can take you a little longer to get your money but reverb make sure you are somewhat legit.
Yeah these guys must have laid the groundwork by mailing each other stuff or something. Like you guys said , it was hard with reverb, first sales were held until buyer verified receiving item I think. It was a long time ago for me though I have had my reverb account forever ,maybe there is a way around it now?
I get paid once shipped, but I am a Pref Seller.
@@fortheloveofnoise same.
Really good advice on the Google searches. Photo and text searches are a huge ally in protecting yourself from getting scammed. Not totally foolproof, but that’s also where common sense needs to be applied.
I saw a custom shop USA Dean ML for like 2k from sweden, immediately wanted to buy. Turns out that guitar was in australia and sold on ebay for 4k a week before the scam upload😂
Maybe more prominent in the guitar market, but vintage keyboard reverb spaces are pretty true-there’s an occasional scam but it’s easy to see through
Right on time KDH.
Thanks for posting this, dude - I haven’t been shopping actively on Reverb lately but it’s good on you to show buyers how to be cautious when viewing listings. We appreciate it!
You comment about accounts that have existed for a few years, and have at least a review made me think of the following: I watch YT vids of some american cable channels that stream when I'm asleep here in Tasmania. Pirating these shows is of course naughty and YT takes them down when they find out. However, there seems to be a small group from SE Asia and Eastern Europe that buy up fairly popular accounts from SE Asians and use these accounts to post. At the moment the trend is to offer money to Thai, and Indonesian girls with knitting channels that have 200K+ subs and use these channels. It's weird, but must make money from advertising while they last. So, that may be what is happening with old Reverb accounts, people buy them (or hack them) to use to give authenticity.
Thanks for the heads up on this.
I like to reverse image search the sellers pictures which also helps determines if its a scammer or not.
I report listings for people selling items that proclaim they're "brand new". They never do anything about it which is sad because it clearly goes against listing guidelines. If you bought it and opened it, it's not brand new unless you're an authorized dealer.
I bought two brand new guitars from rondo and they were brand new satisfied
@@stewarttomkinson3356 he means stuff that is 'mint' not new but they only played it a couple of times and didn't scratch it so in their dishonest mind they think they can get full new price for it and list it as 'brand new' while stating in the description that they bought it off sweetwater or andertons then opened and played it but it's after the return period
I stopped shopping on Reverb because of the scams.
Same. Unless it's a shop I know or one I can locally verify.
The scams really aren’t that hard to spot. Still the best place to buy used gear imo. Just have some common sense. If you’re dumb enough to buy a 70s Les Paul for $1300 or a 90s Parker Fly for $750 as shown in this video, That’s on you.
@allstopblue5717 yeah. Scams are always easy to spot. To good to be true pricing, or they want you to send payment some other way, or a deposit first...etc. Just buy from known sellers, or know what questions to ask those with little history.
@@allstopblue5717 no it's not. It's on the scammer still. Regardless of your high opinion of yourself.
@@allstopblue5717 I've never been scammed on Reverb. I've bought some things that I had to return but I've never been scammed. Actually I think Ebay is better but Reverb has more sellers now.
I wanted to buy a BC Rich bronze Mockingbird and people are selling them for ridiculous prices when they are worth $150 on average and yet people sell them for $700 on reverb thinking they are Korean made when they are Chinese made
I was terrified I walked into one of these scams when I bought my graffiti yellow Strat. Because almost all the red flags were there. But... it eventually came.
But the fact that these types of scams can give such anxiety to the market when searching for deals is really unfortunate.
Great tip to search the description, the next step for the scammer is to chuck the old description in chatGPT ask it to rewrite it. So you cant search the listing anymore.
Could be a password reset phishing thing. There’s a lot of people stealing accounts out there.
Thanks for making this video, you're a scholar and a gentleman.
Thanks for this! I love guitarists helping other guitarists.
always remember the good old mantra: if it looks too good to be true it usually is
For note, this happens on Vinted as well
Got my 2 WALKER cd's i recently ordered to Canada, great stuff! Thanks for this video too!
Such as the OxBox in mint going for $500 from Japan, and the pair of mint Distressors mint for around $1600 from the UK. I notice the names on the accounts have changed in a matter of days.
I got an video ad for Reverb during this video. That’s questionable timing lol
I agree these are good things to look out for, the only thing I would say isn't always an indication of a scam is gaps in sales. I go through phases where I'll spend a couple years buying equipment, then after 2-3 years I'll start selling off the stuff I don't like or use that often. Once all that's sold I'll start buying more equipment and my Reverb shop will sit there empty for another few years until I start selling off equipment again.
I love your channel it’s got a lot of different stuff so it very entertaining thank you for your hard work
It might be that people who put this on the "cart" are part of the "business".....
Well done to you for making people aware, I hope hope you save this last guy from getting ripped off.
Being old fashioned and paranoid is a good way to avoid internet scams.
Buy in person, pay cash
I've seen listing's that look like they're trying to sell miniature guitars, but use camera angles to make it seem like a standard size guitar
I like the no-scripted format.
I bought a used violin off Reverb, and while it was the right model, it was not the one in the picture. Wrong scratches, a fine tuner was missing and was there in the pic. I won't shop Reverb again. I'd rather just by new from Sweetwater and get it over with instead of trying to save a buck on used.
What did you do about it? That's a shady seller, not Reverb's fault. Also could be a simple mix-up with a seller who had a few of the same model (I also buy/sell TCG cards, and have had a seller on TCGplayer [the card game version of Reverb] send me the wrong printing of the right card a few times [things got rectified when I brought it up]).
@@Kylora2112 its sold on reverbs website its their fault.
As a buyer, they almost always have full control in the transaction. If you contacted reverb they would’ve refunded you 100% and be in your favor
Used stuff on Reverb was bad during Covid but now it's back to where you can save a good bit. I wouldn't buy used unless it's a third cheaper than new.
@@joeking433 look at other places such as the gear page. No crappy taxes and fees. Better people on their since most are actual musicians and not generic mindless customers that reverb has. I been selling/buying through with ease and even made good friends/conversations through there. It reminds me of what reverb used to be, back when it was actually owned by and used by mostly musicians.
I think about selling stuff on Reverb all the time but I have that issue where I have no feedback. If I price things at the "going rate", no one has any reason to buy from me when they can get it from a seller with a reputation. On the other hand, if I price the item(s) too cheap, people will think it's a scam. It's a catch 22 in my situation.
Just undercut the lowest offering, even if by one dollar. Do a very nice listing though, good photos, good description. Be Nice. You’ll get going in no time. I sell on reverb all the time.
While I only had 10 feedback when I started selling on Reverb, I would post clear photos, and link a short performance video that's on RUclips. Then, when it sells, I do another performance video just as I'm about to pack it, then show myself packing it up. This way they can't claim it was broken when I shipped it. I message the seller on Reverb with the link to the video the day that I ship.
@@gunkyzip Do you know if I'm allowed to put a link to my eBay profile to show I'm not a scammer? I have 600+ feedback and 100% positive.
@@gunkyzip Great idea! I always take photos of the item as it's being packed. If I need the photos, I have them. I haven't needed them yet.
People will buy what you're selling at a good price. I never had any trouble.
Reverb commission stops me using them. Too expensive.
Who's to say that the people who have these fake listings in their cart aren't also just the same scammer with alt-accounts putting the gear in their cart, just to make really mess with that FOMO that some guitar players clearly have?
It used to happen on eBay once upon a time. Then they started dotting out letter in names which made any name hunting tricky.
I hesitated on a Jackson, and I was offered a lower price. The person was in the middle of nowhere, U.S. but I am glad I did because other 48 watchers did not go for the lower offer. It was pulled a couple of days later. Thanks for the update.
I thought you had to have at least one sell before they would start releasing the money when you provide a tracking #. For that first one you won't get the money until the person actually receives it. Either way, I only sell every 2-4 years so I'm one of those people who has no recent feedback. I thought there would be alot of other people like that; not everyone sells multiple times per year on reverb.
If I am ever interested in potentially buying an instrument online, I ALWAYS do a reverse image search. I think the description search is a brilliant idea also!
This in the end is what AI and automation will bring us more and more. We are lightning fast approximating toward what was somewhat memeful have been described as the dead Internet hypothesis.ywats ago. More and more bot and scam activity. It's the unfortunate truth, that the incentive to do things online which has scam risks is slowly lost. Buying used gear is one of those fields. :-(
I’m just heart broken for all those ladies whose husbands were found to have cheated on them, prompting them to sell the pristine PRS or Fender CS they purchased as a gift. Infidelity is out of control among couples with exceptionally generous spouses.
😂😂😂
I see so many fake listings for Distressors and SSL Bus+ units for like half price, always outside the US from a shop with no ratings. Stay safe out there.
@KDH. That’s pretty informative, as usual, that Reverb is still having to deal with scammers. I lurk around to see what looks good to me, but am on a gear buying hold due to needing to perpetuate my existence over buying gear at the moment.
I, too, am a Reverb seller. I haven’t sold much (1 guitar). I believe I priced it fair enough to pay for the quality packing and shipping plus a small enough profit (I believe that I worked for it).
Due to needing to perpetuate that existence, I have to sell some of my collection. Not the best of times (right now) to be selling. But, I can use the money. Not the consummate musician as you and so many are other things keep the coffers filled on my end. More gear to buy later.
What about a video describing what actually goes into selling gear on Reverb, Marketplace, or even eBay (though I don’t have much confidence in selling on that platform)?
I fell into a similar trap 2 years ago in German Ebay for a guitar. I even hesitated a lot before making the payment. But once the money was transferred, no answer whatsoever from the scammer. I went to the police. But of course nothing came out of it. Try to have a video or phone chat with the seller before your purchases.
Flagged several Collings JLs listed with the same photos from new accounts. Madness.
Thanks for the heads up. I was obsessed with Parker Flys years ago and really upset when they went out of business. So, seeing one for such a ridiculously low price, even though I would have been skeptical, might have been too tempting to resist.
Yeah, have you seen Ken Parker's RUclips channel? I just bought a NiteFly and it's supposed to come today. I think they're the best guitars out there.
Reverse image search that shiiit guy I'd bet like you said they're probably on another site(s) ...yea nevermind lol!
Badass channel btw, here's hoping there's an Iceman video somewhere on here... I'm definitely an Icefan all the way!!! Haaa scratch the image search, you just tried it on that parker as I'm typing. Copy/pasting the description is a very nice idea! Makes sense that'd work as it's something they'll likely overlook (of course hopefully they'll not end up seeing this video and adjust!).
Here's an advanced question (that I've very much been wondering, obviously you haven't gotta put time into this if you don't wanna)...
-Which of Ibanez's Iceman models (you can actually buy) has the thinnest neck?
-Have you ever heard of an EX-Series (like a cheaper version from the late 80s - 90s before the GiOs, but infinitely better quality) Icey? Sorry I thought of this because I thought I saw someone using one once but it may have been a product of a neck-swap.
And yes, of course I'm gonna scour the channel now hunting for a video on them. It'd be cool to do a video in which we run through the entire history of the model from the OG "shared-Greco shop" days, right up to the modern iterations including even the dumbass "Snakebyte" Gio-style shatocasters they've got now! Why did quality have to fall apart between the EXs and GiOs... My '91 EX-320(? I think) is like a modern RG quality and it's massively agitating lol.
Sorry to post a novel, but I as well am a "guitar nerd" (music in general really). I'm almost positive it'll be just as bad with whatever video I pick next... Cheers sir, and really it's wonderful content!
Thank you for this information!
Yep on all my listings be careful guys.
Couple things I wonder now- are sellers regularly using filters on their pics? I bought an olympic white Tele a while back and in every photo the fretboard was so dark it looked ebony. I really like that look alot, seller had like 50+ seller ratings that were 4+ stars. So I bought it. When I got the guitar the fretboard was no where near what the pics looked like. Light to mid brown fretboard at best. No lighting could have made that much difference.
And is it just me or are there alot more sellers who do not respond at all to legitimate questions you might have about their guitar for sale? I don't buy that many guitars and don't ask questions just to ask them but when I am interested in buying it's normally VG - NM older vintage guitars. So when they don't have a good description/didn't mention something I want to know about like maybe a truss rod issue or is guitar all original I might ask about it. And quite often now I get no response. So I move on.
I recently saw a rare guitar I sold a month back, pop up on reverb for less then half of what I sold it for. The listing was all my pictures and exact description text. I don't recall what the Seller's Feedback was but it seemed to have been taking down within 10 mins. I assume it was caught and no one tried to buy it hopefully.
Just googled and found someone also tried to sell it on Craig'sList :(
Thanks for the alert. It is greatly appreciated!
I have been hankering for a particular amp, but even the ONE availabe there with all the right price and postage was "a bit off", so no, no mega deals, no dodgy listings, no nothing.
It's not some elite hand wired amp made with adamantium wiring. The Big T in Germany has them for less than 1k, I was just hoping to pick one up from the UK. But NOPE.
Thanks KDH for the quality investigations and the videos.
Somebody call Ryan "riffs beard and gear" Bruce!
I have a couple of Murphy Lab Gibsons for sale. I have never used Reverb and they would be my first items for sale. Without any history on my account, I can 7nderstand why people might be suspicious of me. What do I do?
Thank you, Mr KDH. Caveat emptor....
Too bad about those Parkers. I live about an hour away from this so called Richard and his gear depot.
With the reverb price history, they should be able to auto flag statistical outliers with the price.
Reverb had a pretty big data breach back in 2018 (I think?) and so my bet are that these scammers are likely using real, albeit, old accounts that the actual owners of haven't logged into for a while.
All photos need to be heavily watermarked.
Happens locally on Facebook market places. Scammer would put up $2000 guitars up for $500 and labe it as "Lead Guitar"
Just hold monet until delivery AND positive review. Easy. Done. How is this still a problem.
What if they don't get back with a review? Making the seller wait even longer for their money. I've sold plenty of gear where I've never even gotten a review by fresh brand new accounts buyers. It's annoying because I want my buyers to see as much feedback as possible. Id estimate 10-15 high priced items with no feedback.
What are you going to do to ensure the recipient leaves a review/is honest?
Tbh, I'm starting to wonder if online banking and shopping will totally fail within the next decade, because people cannot keep falling to this danger. Most of us are not programmers, let alone high level programmers, so we are almost defenseless. At this point, only defense is to trust no one on the phone, nor the internet, and keep your data off all devices, which means no online shopping or banking. I definitely would only buy a guitar in person, in a store.
I came across a nice custom shop warrior for about 2k less than it cost new. I realized the factory date on the guitar was literally 2 weeks ago, so somehow the guitar managed to make it to someone, and that someone decided to sell it at that big of a loss in 2 weeks? I sent him a message asking him to send me a picture of the guitar with his name in the photo. Obviously there was no response. This seller only had 2 buyer reviews.
and for this very reason, i never buy from Reverb or ebay
Reverb allows hackers to use fake accounts with old fake reviews?
How is that possible?
4:50 very unusual that a guitarist doesn't buy gear every year? Ok den
I saw that exact Parker guitar for sale for the same price but in Danish Kroner on a Danish second hand site and I do remember thiking "wow that's a good deal"
People sell their accounts for basically every site especially if they're old and well established or have a large follower count so I wouldn't be surprised if that's what happened here.
Why does Reverb not do it like eBay and wait for the verification of the buyer that the product has been received !?!
They need to follow ebays lead and not release funds for new sellers. If you haven't sold in years you'll still have to wait.
I experienced this with a "deal" listing for a Kemper. I was refunded after a couple weeks through paypal.
Now I’m paranoid the bass I just bought was a scam lol.
I don’t think so though, the seller was fast to respond and I got shipping info that day.
I thought there were scams again! Julian Lage’s signature Collings goes for around $8k mint, and a mint one popped up last week for $4.5k. I added it to my cart, about to buy on credit, but I decided to check the user. They didn’t have a single review. I went back to the shopping cart knowing it was a scam, and then received a notification that the guitar had sold. I don’t think the sale went through though, I’ve been checking the recently sold, and none sold for that ridiculous price
Since they are poaching the pics, would searching using Google Lens help?
I also have 0 reviews and it makes it hard to sell something. So I had to lower the price just to have a chance of selling.
Thanks for the vid..........Was I the only one, or did lots of you get a RUclips Reverb Ad 7.00min into it 🤣🤣🤣. In any case, I don't understand how Reverb cannot review the ad PRIOR to posting, as opposed to taking it down later???
I usually only browse verified dealers on reverb, Ive seen so many postings claiming they have a usa made guitar and you can clearly see the made in China or Indonesia on the back of the headstock. The most disgusting was a dean ml bolt on that was trying to pass for a usa custom shop 😂😂
I got an ad for Reverb before this video - advertising the Fender JV 50’s modified Stratocaster for $679, which is about half price! And I went on Reverb and looked, and it’s there! (limited number) But I don’t have a spare $700 laying around, and I’m not a fan of a soft v neck. But that’s a steal! Now I’m going to watch this video about scams on Reverb… 😂
reverb and a "good deal" are two words that should never be used in a sentence because stuff on reverb is always ridiculously overpriced
A little OSINT goes a long way, now we have to be wary of stuff being sold online and while that's not something new it always gets me.
not everyone selling on there is a shop, understandable to be cautious but not everything with no reviews or fresh accounts are automatically scams
these examples are very obviously scams though
The accounts are taken over via password spraying hackers. Fairly sophisticated, they do the same on TGP. Same exact MO.
I heard there is a bill in congress requesting the death penalty for scammers.
Either the site was hacked and these accounts are being used to sell gear due to the fact that there is some positive sale a while back (makes a future sale more trustworthy)... or just the accounts were hacked as they used simple to guess passwords.
"It's much harder to fall for."? Ok. That's good.
I've noticed a dubious sell for a 60's Selmer amp: Pictures of a croc-skin with pots at the lower part, video of another model with pots at upper part and if the title is for the 50W version, in the description, you were seeing the 6W model of amp, thus it has been changed after I signaled it... still odd: which version is it?
I gave up on Greedverb
If I see these kinds of listings, I just report them and move on. If you actually bother to report the listings, and don't just sit on them going "oh no I hope nobody buys this scam listing!!" then the listing will be taken down and the account will most likely be removed.
I saw a Murphy lab 59 listed for like 8k lol . One purchase from 2017, and the guy on Reddit came forward saying it was his guitar he sold a while ago
They shuld have ai check new listings against ended ones for identical wording.
Really good of a guy in Denmark to offer free shipping to continental united states XD
I don’t order things online besides parts, strings, and picks. Everything else I buy in person.
For the Americans, put a filter on yours for only stuff in the US and you’ll rarely see any scam stuff. They’re all based in other countries. Not to say you can’t get scammed from someone in the US, but I’ve never seen one scam account from here
Agreed. I've never had a problem with this and I've been selling/buying on Reverb for years. Has to be a thing outside the USA.
I always do that!
It is easy....just look at account age, and sales...I have got many screaming hot deals over the years...never scammed...except once sold a defective synth like I would not notice....returned it tho
Not related on topic but, what is with guitars that are cut all the way up to either the trem or bridge tuners in the body? EVH said he ruined the sustain of his destroyer by cutting the shark mouth in there(so we should know better) and if anyone wants to sit in classical and play, it makes it rest on the leg....can't believe that design makes it past RnD on anything, especially these days, albeit a little more understandable that Ibanez did it 30+years ago
Never shopped on Reverb. I've always wanted a Reb model