Scammed by StarFreeLight

[Parra]

What happened: I wanted to buy a LuxSocks account and StarFreeLight PM'ed me and said that he could sell me one and to contact him on Skype. I contacted him and he said 25$ for an account and after I paid he told me to wait 4 hours and has since gone silent.

Scammers Profile Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2471783

Reference Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5084352
Amount Scammed: 28$
Payment Method: Vanilla Visa Prepaid Gift Card
Proof of Payment: https://i.imgur.com/NjDXeu3.png
PM/Chat Logs: https://imgur.com/a/a5BXV8Ohttps://imgur.com/a/ZwsBkichttps://imgur.com/a/MfUuZJWhttps://imgur.com/a/gY7GgSrhttps://imgur.com/a/GtvFpmahttps://imgur.com/a/WIWMpMuhttps://imgur.com/a/u4OqOcJ
Additional Notes: None

[1714159053]

1714159053

[Parra]

Some added proof. This kid is dumb LMAO.

https://i.imgur.com/4Og7yvF.png

[Parra]

Your last reply was that they did work and you were just draining them. You incriminated yourself here hence why I call you dumb..

[magneto]

What happened: I wanted to buy a LuxSocks account and StarFreeLight PM'ed me and said that he could sell me one and to contact him on Skype. I contacted him and he said 25$ for an account and after I paid he told me to wait 4 hours and has since gone silent.

Scammers Profile Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2471783

Reference Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5084352
Amount Scammed: 28$
Payment Method: Vanilla Visa Prepaid Gift Card
Proof of Payment:
PM/Chat Logs:
Additional Notes: None

If the screenshots are accurate, he essentially admits that he had stolen the balances of your gift card.

However in this post, the alleged scammer is still trying to sell your gift card for bitcoin. Is there any chance that you can still use the Vanilla gift card before he does (since he is selling the gift card, which means that he may not have drained it yet), or is he attempting to scam with that currency exchange thread as well?

Also, in this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5079544.msg48424748#msg48424748, he puts down his email of panchito123497@gmail.com, which is linked to an army of accounts used to scam in the past here.

There is pretty much no chance of getting your money back if you can confirmed he'd already used all of the balance in your card. At least it is a small loss, but please, don't deal with newbies without escrow in the future.

[Parra]

What happened: I wanted to buy a LuxSocks account and StarFreeLight PM'ed me and said that he could sell me one and to contact him on Skype. I contacted him and he said 25$ for an account and after I paid he told me to wait 4 hours and has since gone silent.

Scammers Profile Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2471783

Reference Link: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5084352
Amount Scammed: 28$
Payment Method: Vanilla Visa Prepaid Gift Card
Proof of Payment: https://i.imgur.com/NjDXeu3.png
PM/Chat Logs: https://imgur.com/a/a5BXV8Ohttps://imgur.com/a/ZwsBkichttps://imgur.com/a/MfUuZJWhttps://imgur.com/a/gY7GgSrhttps://imgur.com/a/GtvFpmahttps://imgur.com/a/WIWMpMuhttps://imgur.com/a/u4OqOcJ
Additional Notes: None

If the screenshots are accurate, he essentially admits that he had stolen the balances of your gift card.

However in this post, the alleged scammer is still trying to sell your gift card for bitcoin. Is there any chance that you can still use the Vanilla gift card before he does (since he is selling the gift card, which means that he may not have drained it yet), or is he attempting to scam with that currency exchange thread as well?

Also, in this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5079544.msg48424748#msg48424748, he puts down his email of panchito123497@gmail.com, which is linked to an army of accounts used to scam in the past here.

There is pretty much no chance of getting your money back if you can confirmed he'd already used all of the balance in your card. At least it is a small loss, but please, don't deal with newbies without escrow in the future.

Yeah, I should have known but I needed that account and 25$ was not too big of a loss for me. The gift card has been drained though. Thank you for looking into it.

[magneto]

-snip-

Yeah, I should have known but I needed that account and 25$ was not too big of a loss for me. The gift card has been drained though. Thank you for looking into it.

Ah damn... That's unlucky, man. My advice for when you deal in the future would be to:

a) Always check the person's reputation, including untrusted feedback. If there is negative reputation or no reputation at all, then be extremely cautious. Research any email addresses, social media, and bitcoin addresses that are associated with the account to see if there are any previous connections with other scams.
b) Use escrow in all scenarios unless you are willing to lose the amount you send.
c) Try not to pay with gift card, because it can be hard to prove who exactly took out the funds. A scammer could easily take funds out of your gift card, claim that it has been emptied, and refuse to give you your goods.

If you did all of the above within this scam, you would have easily saved yourself your money. I understand that $25 isn't necessarily a whole lot, but remember that you're also giving the scammer income, no matter how little you lose.

[Patatas]

Some added proof. This kid is dumb LMAO.

Oh what an irony! You are trying to buy hacked/cracked digital goods from some random strangers on the internet with zero reputation and pay them upfront? I failed to realize who's actually the dumb one here.

[Parra]

Some added proof. This kid is dumb LMAO.

Oh what an irony! You are trying to buy hacked/cracked digital goods from some random strangers on the internet with zero reputation and pay them upfront? I failed to realize who's actually the dumb one here.

Cannot argue with that haha. I was probably the dumb one here because he was a pretty bad scammer.