Around the middle of August, I was contacted by E90post user driftbrick744. He offered to sell me a painted m3 rep front bumper for my E92. We negotiated back and forth on the price a bit, and arrived at $500. Per his request, I sent the money as a "gift" on paypal to avoid fees.
For the next few weeks, I contacted him asking for updates and for a tracking number. He was never able to provide one. Two of the times I spoke to him he told me he was on a business trip, and one time he said he was on a family trip. All three times he assured me he had sent the item, and would provide me with a tracking number upon getting back home from his trip.
Three weeks passed, and no bumper showed up. I did a little research, including google searching his paypal email address. I was horrified to find
this thread on a Volvo forum, which spanned 10 pages and recounted tales of his scams going back several years. Realizing only then that I was up against an experienced scammer, I contacted him once again and demanded a tracking number within 48 hours. Not surprisingly, the 2 days passed and I didn't hear a word. I texted him again asking him to call me, and was told he was "at the hospital with a family emergency."
I made a post on the other forum, indicating that I had been scammed by him as well. Many users contacted me, offering their support. Clearly this got his attention, as he then called me offering to refund my money. He told me "UPS must have messed up" with the bumper delivery, so he was just going to refund my $500. Sure, that's believable, but I digress...
He told me "money is tight" and he couldn't give back the whole $500. He asked if I would let him split it into two payments... then asked if he could do three... then four. I decided four checks for $125 was better than losing my entire $500, so I told him this would be ok.
An envelope arrived in the mail a few days later containing four post-dated checks for $125. But.... they weren't signed. I contacted him again to tell him abut this and he proceeded to send me a photo of his signature on a piece of paper telling me "sign it this way."
At this point, I called the police and the bank. Since the money had been sent as a gift on paypal, I couldn't get it back through them. The police asked me to break off all communication with him, provide copies of all text messages and emails, and get in touch with the bank. The bank conducted their own investigation and determined that this constitutes fraud. They were consequently able to reverse the charge this afternoon, resulting in my $500 being returned to my account.
driftbrick744 aka Ian Haan aka Volvo940tuner has been ripping people off for years. He has walked off with thousands of dollars from many innocent victims. Don't be the next one. If you ever see him selling something (or he wants to buy something from you) run for the hills. He's a scammer, pure and simple. I attempted to contact some of the mods/admins on this website to make them aware, but none of them replied to me. All I can say is watch your back! He's a criminal, and he will rob you blind if you fall victim to one of his schemes.