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Don’t fall for this scam (stupid con attendance mistake...
2 years ago
We should have known better. I and a local friend both failed to get a room in the MFF room lottery, but we found someone in the MFF chat with two spaces.
First red flag: wanted the money up front (we paid)
Second red flag: Pressured us to contribute to a room party (we didn’t).
The host stayed in touch but I half expected something bad would happen. When we got to the hotel and let him know, he instantly replied with a picture of a damaged car and claimed he’d been in a crash. We pressured him to contact the hotel and get us into the room, at which point he blocked both of us and BOTH of the other two roomies (who had suspiciously similar names) dropped out of the roommate char we’d made. The second was certainly a sock puppet for the first.
Now we are roomless and out some money each. I can’t get the money back through PayPal due to it being a friends and family payment so all I can do is try to get them in trouble with PayPal. Assuming the host isn’t a sock puppet account on PayPal too.
This was all dumb on our parts and a result of the hotel lottery system. We had to register to enter the lottery which meant we paid for a reservation and we’re desperate for a room. We’ve found another room but we’re out the original money.
The lesson to be learned is: do not, under any circumstances, pay for a room sight unseen before you get to the hotel. Even if you know the host, asking for money early is extremely questionable behavior. If you have to bail on the con, at least you’re out only the reservation money.
UPDATE: It's not just us. Others got burned by the same scammer, or one using the exact same photo of a damaged car.
First red flag: wanted the money up front (we paid)
Second red flag: Pressured us to contribute to a room party (we didn’t).
The host stayed in touch but I half expected something bad would happen. When we got to the hotel and let him know, he instantly replied with a picture of a damaged car and claimed he’d been in a crash. We pressured him to contact the hotel and get us into the room, at which point he blocked both of us and BOTH of the other two roomies (who had suspiciously similar names) dropped out of the roommate char we’d made. The second was certainly a sock puppet for the first.
Now we are roomless and out some money each. I can’t get the money back through PayPal due to it being a friends and family payment so all I can do is try to get them in trouble with PayPal. Assuming the host isn’t a sock puppet account on PayPal too.
This was all dumb on our parts and a result of the hotel lottery system. We had to register to enter the lottery which meant we paid for a reservation and we’re desperate for a room. We’ve found another room but we’re out the original money.
The lesson to be learned is: do not, under any circumstances, pay for a room sight unseen before you get to the hotel. Even if you know the host, asking for money early is extremely questionable behavior. If you have to bail on the con, at least you’re out only the reservation money.
UPDATE: It's not just us. Others got burned by the same scammer, or one using the exact same photo of a damaged car.
It's why scammers use it. If paypal refuses to do anything the only option left would be your bank but it'll lock up your paypal account until you can verify your information, mine is currently locked after I went through my bank to refund a fraudulent 200$ charge after my FB was hacked
I've only been to AC and TFF and as far as I've seen neither have used a lottery system for rooms, which I'm thankful for as I've not had to deal with that
Oh well, sorry to hear that happened to you :/
What you could try is claiming to paypal that you were persuaded to use the PP-Friends option. That works sometimes.
sorry to hear on this
I almost got scammed too, but there was a lot of stuff that just didn't sit well with me, and when I double-checked with the moderators on the telegram channel it turned out the guy who contacted me was on a ban-list for being a known scammer. I was able to get in with a more reputable crew by the good graces and the difference was like night and day. They were willing to work with me on pay whereas the other guys were pushy in demanding a rigid up-front cost.
It sounds like they hit or tried to hit a lot of people this year.
I'm glad their telegram moderators are so vigilant with maintaining lists and sharing information with other cons but not everyone is going to have access to that. MFF could stand to take more preventative steps by clarifying their refund policy and adding a notice about scammers to their website.
I hope your con experience was a good one otherwise. It was nice running into you again at the vore meet. I recall hanging out with you in a hotel room long ago with some others, just chatting about things. It feels like everything is a lot more frentic now.
Hanover Fiste