For Sale: Fraudulent seller activity

[justsammer]

Hey folks,
I dislike having to share this, but i wouldn't want anyone to fall victim to a scam, and hopefully spreading the word will discourage these people from trying to scam others.

Be aware of a fellow by the name of John Mellos in California trying to sell a 2007 Monitor windvane, or selling anything else.
As well, possibly associated with this, is a member of this forum called "Makess".

This member, "Makess", sent me a private message telling me to contact John Mellos, because john had a 2007 windvane for sale (which I was looking for). John responded immediately to my email, sent me photos and details, and was very pushy to have me send my money over and purchase the windvane right away. Later John sent me another email telling me he had an interested buyer, and asked me if I was interested, which i took as a bluff to get me to hurriedly purchase his windvane. However upon further investigation and more communication with him about his windvane, a lot seemed dubious and didn't make sense, and both the manufacturer (Scanmar/Monitor) and myself found it to be almost entirely a pre 1990's windvane (which is different in build and materials) with a couple of random parts from other windvanes added on. When gently questioned about this, the seller got flustered, and provided three different dates, dates that varied in more than 20 years, and two very different stories, in three different emails, then finally provided a serial number and got pushy again and told me to stop confusing myself, and that it was a 2007. The serial number he provided is from a completely different unit from what he was selling, that serial number comes up as "missing/stolen" when the folks at Scanmar/Monitor looked into it. Even the folks at Scanmar, after viewing his windvane when i forwarded the info to them, told me that the entire thing is very dubious and being misrepresented. Then this John fellow disappeared without a response when I confronted him about recognizing that he was being dishonest.

I then tried to follow up with the original person "Makess", who referred me to John, and found that I could not send him a message on this forum, because he is blocking messages from other members. Upon further investigation of "Makess", I found that he just became a member exactly one day before sending me the message, with no other involvement or posts anywhere else on the forum.

I don't mean to paint a negative image on these folks (they might actually be the same one person), but all seems to point to very dubious actions, at best. If either of them can come forward and clarify their actions in a very credible manner, than I would stand corrected. But I doubt it.

[Wotname]

Justsammer, if you haven't already done so, I suggest you forward your information directly to a Mod. If "Makess" isn't legit then I'm sure the Mods will 'move him on'!

[Pete7]

The Makess account was banned on 1 Nov 20. It was registered to someone called John Meloss. He is hiding behind a VPN.

As Wotname said, if any others appear, just let us know and we will act quickly.

Pete

[justsammer]

wow, it was the same person, acting as two. thank you Pete.

[Don C L]

Interesting... good friend of mine had his Monitor vane stolen off the dock in Alameda about ten years ago...hmmm
Still have that serial number?

[martinwinter]

Interesting I had a similar experience with someone trying to sell a wind vane very pushy trying to get payment via a strange payment method many facts just did not line up
he was reported to the moderators
Buyer beware
1. if the person advertising has only been a member for a short time this could be a warning sign.
2 push hard for details what boat do the have etc these scammers dont really know boats well
3 if you are at all nervous don't pass any money always use a secure system like paypal
My question would be should the forum restrict sales until the member has been on the forum for a min of six months