how i got scammed a small amount with social engineering

[duke_otc]

i got scammed 30usdc  by a regular customer with who i had done 10+ deals worth atleast 1k

usualy when he wants to buy he has to pay first through ebay or leboncoin payment processor but because i had reach the 2k year limit on my account i would have to submit my tax id to continue

so instead i use friends accounts but my clumsy friend went offline when he had to confirm the transaction to get the payment in his account. the customer was in a hurry and his betting parlay
was already starting and i didnt want him to miss it because that one might have worked. so first i spam call my friend to confirm the transaction but he is not responding
i sent the usdc regardless thinking my friend would come back in time before the customer can think about cancelling the unconfirmed sale
but my friend really vanished and atleast 1 hour passed the guy lost the bet and came back in the chat to see he could cancel the sale and he did it...



the txid 0xd964c7f8951a3d17d6eaacc5c4d84f8a07b0e21c4f3ccd245ba2bba03022df37

the scam annule means canceled in french
it is written psp game as the title because when i sell crypto on ebay or leboncoin i make listings of objects not outright crypto or i could break the tos

[duke_otc]

stay tunned for part 2 when i doxxed the guy and confronted him about it


part 2 is here as promised i just didnt have enough time to post it yesterday  


so after he scammed me i had already his phone number because we talk on whatsapp instead of leboncoin chat. also i had screenshoted his profil picture before he deletes it and his first and last name
with that i did some researchs and found out he is the son of a very rich man in paris and that pissed me off even more and motivated me to find him to know why he had to steal 30 if he is rich already.

i kept digging and found out where he graduated from and a general idea of what neighborhood he is from, after that i found his other accounts and seen that he was trying to sell his old golf clubs on leboncoin  
and i decided to set up a meeting to confront him and get the money back , to be sure it doesnt fail i dmd him with multiple accounts with different strategies because i think he knew i was after him.
it was the account that i had bargained on that got his trust because who would bargain and negotiate if the intention is to catch him  







lollll on this screen i went as far as saying " i dont have enough in my account can i do 250 with a wire transfer and 30 with cash ?" im so vicious when i want to he fell for it and told me to come to "gare de lest" to meet at 18h30




here i had arrived and this fool gave me his exact adress he is really making it easy for me



i see him from a distance and get there he opens the gate leading to his building but there is a lady getting her mail so here i was still pretending i am here to buy 3 golf clubs lollll.

(ps i audio recorded everything with the dictaphone app but i dont know how to post an audio here)


eventualy she left and at this point i was holding all 3 of the golf clubs he was not suspecting anything, then i told him " im gonna stop acting now this is getting annoying , you are pierre ****** (his name)
you stole 30 usdc from me two days ago" then he started apologizing and saying im sorry i have big financial problems i didnt mean to do that""  i told him wire me back the 30 (i know i was supposed to get 60 for the inconvenience but i felt bad he didnt look like the rich smug scammer that i tought he was he looked like a good kid who's going through a hardship so i asked for 30 only) "wire the 30 and i will give you back the golf clubs"
with a visibly shaking hand he started to try to find money between his accounts and i saw how broke he was i asked him. your parents dont help you ? (knowing he had a rich father)
he answered " well not anymore my father died of a turbo cancer a few months ago"  tbh i believe him that would explain why the son of a millionaire is living in this cheap place and has to scam 30e.
in my mind i tought "he probably died because of the covid vax" but i just sayd all my condoleances i hope its going to get better for you soon


i gave him my revolut id and he sent the 30 back


and that was it i learned a lesson and got payd for it "never trust a gambling addict, never send first even for small amounts even if its the 10th deal, if you have no choice but to trust someone make sure
you really know where to find him easely,

[Hazink]

Let me get through this with you. From what you are saying, you were scammed by your customers who have sent a transaction and later came back to get it canceled even after you have sent the USDC across to the customer, right? I don't know how that happened, but the transaction ID you shared was from the canceled transaction, or it's the transaction hash which was sent to you as proof of payment. 

Again, have you check the address which you have for your supposed scammer customer if it matches with the one on the transaction to know if the error is from your friend who helped you receive the USDC

[DPHOR]

No matter how often you have done business with people online do not trust them completely because you can't get access to them or even see them when they disappear just like that, I would advised you next to be careful online on whom you trust as online are filled with scammers just waiting for the slightest opportunity to strike and run away.

[GxSTxV]

That’s totally on you. Sorry to say this but it’s like a naive mistake you can avoid easily if you was a bit more cautious. You trusted the wrong person for making multiple deals with him. Some people are just born scammers Xd or probably he is just a kid seeing a chance to take a quick 30€

That’s a lesson for you, never leave a chance for someone to scam you even if you have many successful deals together. Stick to the escrow rules. Fortunately, it’s small amount this time.

One question if you don’t mind, how can you trade with crypto on Ebay? Isn’t it against the rules and terms of this platform?

[VanyaS]

hanks for sharing this. It’s a good warning for others who still trade through Leboncoin or eBay workarounds. Even trusted buyers can change when there’s money on the line.I had a similar situation once — not a big amount, but enough to learn the lesson.

[AVE5]

You're complicating the whole terms. Are you the vendor buying the coin or you're the trader selling your coin to the vendor?
But anyways, the first mistake you did was to use someone's wallet or account to receive your funds.
If you've been using reputable exchange to facilitate your transactions all the while, you should have come across where escrows the platform advises not to release coin when vendor has not made payment. Also you should confirm your payment before releasing the coin.
So if you lost the coin it was out of your Ignorant releasing the funds when you haven't confirmed your payment. So I don't see scam there but your unguarded attitude.

However, seems you've mutual understanding with the counter parties. So you can always sort yourselves. Maybe when you finally hear from your friend who was supposed to receive the payment. Sorry for the lose but keep your head up for next time.

[JoyMarsha]

stay tunned for part 2 when i doxxed the guy and confronted him about it

Doxxing him is it to have him beaten up or threatened because you know his house address and identity. I guess you're not aware of that. The only way you could reach him is through the platform you have been using to run deals with him. Outside that, you can't trace him

I would advise you at this point to seek a way to resolve things with him amicably by letting him know you sent USDC before he cancels it. Use the transaction ID as evidence. It will be left for him to see reasons with you, of what went wrong

[albon]

First, I'm sorry for your loss. It's good that the amount was relatively small and not a large transaction.

The mistake you made was that you used your friend's account and rushed to send the money before confirming the payment, which remained unconfirmed for a while.. This allowed the customer with whom you had completed many successful deals to cancel the transaction and reclaim both his money and the USDC you sent him.

What he did was truly unethical and shows that he is not trustworthy. I do not advise you to deal with him again in any future transactions.. If you still have a way to contact him, you should ask why he acted so dishonorably this time, making it clear that the mistake was on your friend’s side, who went offline, and not because of you or any intention to cheat or delay.

[SOKO-DEKE]

Sorry for the lost. It happens sometimes when you have built your trust with some people, and one day they just mess up. It happens even with people we know in real life and who are close to us. So, with what has happened, I believe that you will not trust anyone again, no matter the kind of transaction they may have had with you before especially online. Sometimes we are always deceived by the trust we build with certain people.

Some scammers are very tactical in scamming people. They will try to build trust with a person before they scam them. Most of these dating scams that are happening these days, where someone is scammed out of thousands of dollars, occur because of trust. They will first build trust before asking for something.But based on your story, it’s not entirely clear to me that the guy intentionally scammed you. It might have been a mistake from somewhere.

[Cryptoprincess101]

No matter how often you have done business with people online do not trust them completely because you can't get access to them or even see them when they disappear just like that, I would advised you next to be careful online on whom you trust as online are filled with scammers just waiting for the slightest opportunity to strike and run away.

Your advice is good but sometimes we cannot always be so smart to escape scam especially when it involves people we have built some trust with, be it physical or online. I have been scammed physically before by someone i trusted so much, shit happens. Nevertheless, what i will say is that when doing any business online, ensure that you are the most trusted person such that you will be the first to confirm a deal before you initiate a transaction. Though that has been the case from what the OP said until he used his friend's account to initiate the transaction so i would say that it's just an unfortunate incident from the side of OP because he was trying to please his customer. I have a feeling that the customer will even come back because if he actually wanted to scam OP he would have targeted a huge amount and not 30 USDC.

[duke_otc]

Let me get through this with you. From what you are saying, you were scammed by your customers who have sent a transaction and later came back to get it canceled even after you have sent the USDC across to the customer, right? I don't know how that happened, but the transaction ID you shared was from the canceled transaction, or it's the transaction hash which was sent to you as proof of payment. 

Again, have you check the address which you have for your supposed scammer customer if it matches with the one on the transaction to know if the error is from your friend who helped you receive the USDC

hi, he was able to cancel it because my friend was offline and didnt press to confirm the transaction in time so he was able to cancel it latter
but all good i posted part 2 about how i got the money back

[duke_otc]

That’s totally on you. Sorry to say this but it’s like a naive mistake you can avoid easily if you was a bit more cautious. You trusted the wrong person for making multiple deals with him. Some people are just born scammers Xd or probably he is just a kid seeing a chance to take a quick 30€

That’s a lesson for you, never leave a chance for someone to scam you even if you have many successful deals together. Stick to the escrow rules. Fortunately, it’s small amount this time.

One question if you don’t mind, how can you trade with crypto on Ebay? Isn’t it against the rules and terms of this platform?

lesson learned even though i got my money back i will never send first again to someone that i dont know where he lives already

i think it might be against the rules to outright sell crypto on those sites but there is an easy workaround when you have a customer that lets say he wants to buy 500 usdc well you make a new advert selling
an object like a pc for 520 and he pays for it then you send him the crypto and to the sites it looks just like you sold another ps5 or whatever

[duke_otc]

stay tunned for part 2 when i doxxed the guy and confronted him about it

Doxxing him is it to have him beaten up or threatened because you know his house address and identity. I guess you're not aware of that. The only way you could reach him is through the platform you have been using to run deals with him. Outside that, you can't trace him

I would advise you at this point to seek a way to resolve things with him amicably by letting him know you sent USDC before he cancels it. Use the transaction ID as evidence. It will be left for him to see reasons with you, of what went wrong

already tryed he had blocked me but i found him and got the money back i got really lucky (posted above)

[duke_otc]

hanks for sharing this. It’s a good warning for others who still trade through Leboncoin or eBay workarounds. Even trusted buyers can change when there’s money on the line.I had a similar situation once — not a big amount, but enough to learn the lesson.

if you dont mind could you share what happened so i can also learn from it ?

[duke_otc]

No matter how often you have done business with people online do not trust them completely because you can't get access to them or even see them when they disappear just like that, I would advised you next to be careful online on whom you trust as online are filled with scammers just waiting for the slightest opportunity to strike and run away.

Your advice is good but sometimes we cannot always be so smart to escape scam especially when it involves people we have built some trust with, be it physical or online. I have been scammed physically before by someone i trusted so much, shit happens. Nevertheless, what i will say is that when doing any business online, ensure that you are the most trusted person such that you will be the first to confirm a deal before you initiate a transaction. Though that has been the case from what the OP said until he used his friend's account to initiate the transaction so i would say that it's just an unfortunate incident from the side of OP because he was trying to please his customer. I have a feeling that the customer will even come back because if he actually wanted to scam OP he would have targeted a huge amount and not 30 USDC.

hi, yea my friend was too slow when he had to confirm the transaction so the guy cant cancel anymore and time was running out the "loyal customer" was about to miss his bet so i released lol
next time i only do things when i control the accounts so this doesnt happen ever again. )btw i got the money back i posted above how i did it )
also would you mind sharing how you also got scammed ? i think we could all learn from this

[Cryptoprincess101]

No matter how often you have done business with people online do not trust them completely because you can't get access to them or even see them when they disappear just like that, I would advised you next to be careful online on whom you trust as online are filled with scammers just waiting for the slightest opportunity to strike and run away.

Your advice is good but sometimes we cannot always be so smart to escape scam especially when it involves people we have built some trust with, be it physical or online. I have been scammed physically before by someone i trusted so much, shit happens. Nevertheless, what i will say is that when doing any business online, ensure that you are the most trusted person such that you will be the first to confirm a deal before you initiate a transaction. Though that has been the case from what the OP said until he used his friend's account to initiate the transaction so i would say that it's just an unfortunate incident from the side of OP because he was trying to please his customer. I have a feeling that the customer will even come back because if he actually wanted to scam OP he would have targeted a huge amount and not 30 USDC.

hi, yea my friend was too slow when he had to confirm the transaction so the guy cant cancel anymore and time was running out the "loyal customer" was about to miss his bet so i released lol
next time i only do things when i control the accounts so this doesnt happen ever again. )btw i got the money back i posted above how i did it )
also would you mind sharing how you also got scammed ? i think we could all learn from this

I have read how you recovered your money but i hope he paid for your miscellaneous expenses because it will be sad that after going through that process you talked about, and he could only pay you the 30 usdc. There was something you said that got me which is ''never trust a gambling addict''. That's a real fact because those people can tell lies and can do some dubious stuffs just to get money to gamble. Gambling is not bad but never trust an addict no matter what they say. I don't even know why a son of a rich man will become a gambling addict as you said, it's so bad anyways. About sharing my scam experience, i don't wish to share because it was actually someone who was close to me. Thanks!

[Porfirii]

No matter how often you have done business with people online do not trust them completely because you can't get access to them or even see them when they disappear just like that, I would advised you next to be careful online on whom you trust as online are filled with scammers just waiting for the slightest opportunity to strike and run away.

I agree but after deals worth at least 1k with that person, I understand that being scammed for just $30 could've been unexpected. It is explained though, because it seems that the customer had financial problems, probably an addiction too, and like the saying goes "the opportunity makes the thief", and in this case his friend's clumsiness created the perfect occasion.

Thank you for sharing your experience duke_otc. Good job finding the scammers identity, and well played: you got back what he owed you, nothing more.

[LOVER BOY 422]

i got scammed 30usdc  by a regular customer with who i had done 10+ deals worth atleast 1k

usualy when he wants to buy he has to pay first through ebay or leboncoin payment processor but because i had reach the 2k year limit on my account i would have to submit my tax id to continue

so instead i use friends accounts but my clumsy friend went offline when he had to confirm the transaction to get the payment in his account. the customer was in a hurry and his betting parlay
was already starting and i didnt want him to miss it because that one might have worked. so first i spam call my friend to confirm the transaction but he is not responding
i sent the usdc regardless thinking my friend would come back in time before the customer can think about cancelling the unconfirmed sale
but my friend really vanished and atleast 1 hour passed the guy lost the bet and came back in the chat to see he could cancel the sale and he did it...



the txid 0xd964c7f8951a3d17d6eaacc5c4d84f8a07b0e21c4f3ccd245ba2bba03022df37

the scam annule means canceled in french
it is written psp game as the title because when i sell crypto on ebay or leboncoin i make listings of objects not outright crypto or i could break the tos
https://www.talkimg.com/images/2025/10/21/UMxFnI.jpeg

To me I noticed negligence here how can you release coin when the vendor has not paid,next time you have to confirm transaction before you can release your coin 🪙 nomater how you people have do business now look at it ,this is also a big lesson ,many make this mistake and the end they call it scam your where not scammed it's out of your negligence,this almost happened to me but I was controlled by my emotions.

[duke_otc]

its more complicated than that he payd and i have a certain time to release or he would miss his bet but it was on my friend account and he went offline and forgot to go and press confirm so the guy cant cancel anymore .

so i released since its a small amount and i exchanged many times with this guy and i was expecting my friend to get back online soon enough so the guy doesnt have the time to think and see that he can still cancel

and i knew it wouldnt be too hard to find the guy i already had his name, picture and number