Fraud Alert: Audio Zoom Zoom, Netherlands


Beware: I paid almost $15K to Audio Zoom Zoom (Netherlands) for a Kondo Souga amplifier and all communication stopped completely as soon as the money was paid. Guy goes by the name Varchi.
Ag insider logo xs@2xmusicm

dear Sir,

thank you for your your warning.

i was near to send money to them.

please find their bank account:


 

Titulaire du compte: Pavel Varchi Toma

Adresse: Meander 901, 6825MH, Arnhem, NL
Nom de la banque: ING BANK N.V.
Adresse de la banque: Willesplein 38, 6811KC, Arnhem, NL
IBAN: NL93INGB0665526113

SWIFT: INGBNL2A

 

he also told me that in french which is my language:


Bonjour M. Pictet,

En ce qui concerne ce gars qui pleure pour 15K $, ce n'est pas ma faute, je lui ai demandé d'envoyer les fonds sur mon compte bancaire, pas à mon adresse PayPal et il n'a pas écouté.A présent, ses fonds sont bloqués et nous attendons PayPal pour débloquer Les fonds pour nous pouvons résoudre le problème.

and that:


M. Pictet,

Oui c'est le cas, je lui ai dit qu'il ne m'appartient pas de lui rembourser ou de débloquer les fonds PayPal est le seul à pouvoir le faire. Je lui ai demandé d'enlever cette discussion parce qu'il me donne un mauvais feedback et devinez quoi, il ne peut pas le supprimer du forum Audiogon.

Nous avons ouvert une poursuite parce que cela nuit à notre image. Il doit répondre de cela parce que nous perdons des clients à cause de cette discussion sur le forum

Merci,

Varchi

Audio ZOOM ZOOM

you need to sue him and to warn other customers as much as you can.

thanks again and very sorry for you.

Bernard


Being ripped off in any language is still being ripped off. Again, I sincerely empathasize with the poster who lost $15K. However, the idea of sending that kind of money, via bank transfer, triggers so many red flags in my mind that it seems incomprehensible that anyone would do it, but they do. For my money, if I can’t drive to meet the seller and handle a cash-and-carry transaction, then I’ll just keep looking until I find someone local who is selling what I’m looking for. Just know that there are people out there who are better at figuring out how to separate you from your money than you are at detecting them. This is just my opinion.
I am sorry. Just the name Audio "Zoom Zoom" is a major warning of a scam. 
Just my opinion. 
Hello, Musicm. 
You have all my solidarity... I totally understand that in a moment of an eminent thrilling purchase, even if one might feel that something is strange, you might just easily be catched by the net because you can't point out exactly what it is wrong.
I am in Europe and I too was severely (for my very modest parameters) robbed through an ad on site called "hifi-platform.eu", by a so called "hans" 2years ago. It wasn't so much, off course ( hell, my total in the bank account is much less than that amount!) but it was enough for me to fill a complaint in the police. I was stupid, I have to admit, because there were several ways of realising it was scam. I didn't know that anyone can take pictures from e-bay and use it freely, for example... I really can't understand how e-bay even alows that, without even a watermark or anything!! Just perfect high definition photos that the scammer took from e-bay and sent to my e-mail. And that was what happened, without ever crossing my mind that it might not be the same person in the two ads, and very naively accepting the seller lie to why such different prices.
Curiously...the site was from netherlands also: 
https://pt-pt.facebook.com/pages/biz/community/Hifi-Platformeu-603624133035770/ 
But the money went to someone in Italy. The site was shut down little time after that, but to today I don't know if it was part of the scam... I thought not, because afterwords I noticed there were scam alerts in several ads (including the one I responded, the day after paying!!), but after reading this thread, and given that I wrote by that time to the manager of that site without getting answered and it close a bit after, I can't be sure. I'm not hoping to see my money again, because i don't think italian police worried any tinny bit with it. This is very sad,...it should be law that every site that allows private selling have some checked information about the sellers, like a simple address confirmation letter with a registering code.
I hope everything works out better for you...it seems that you were victim of a much more sofisticated method.