scammed! by! s4cr! out of thousands of $$$!

[vdub2625]

it's really too bad, I was hoping that I was the only one scammed by him recently. I was really upset becuase I filed a dispute with paypal but 2 days too late. He still was in contact with me for a while after that too, who knows why because he already had his money.

What did you purchase? i'm sorry I didn't read the whole thread for the details. He got me for Zender Sports he was supposedly refinishing, this was back in Sept.

I only paid half of his asking price ($450) but that's a significant chunk of change for me. I had been looking for the perfect set of wheels for 3+ years and finally settled on these. I don't think I'll ever be buying wheels, ever. I tried disputing it with my bank but since I authorized the transaction to paypal (who then paid him), I am stuck. PayPal told me that the dispute time had passed and closed the case. i suspect this is common with all his transactions and that's how he can get away with it.

[Youro-Luke]

can someone confirm/deny this statement:
this thread won't really have an effect on stopping Antonis Palekis from scamming people in the future because all he has to do is register a new user name and/ or create a new paypal address & he'll be right back at it again.

my reply:

first off, please tell me it won't be this simple for s4cr to continue his game! also, I had thought paypal connects to your social security number & your bank account, no? if I am wrong here, how does somebody ever put a stop to somebody as manipulative & conniving as this?

I mean, if it's that easy for anyone to scrap some cash, I'll just put up a rare item for sale every week, lure a sucker, wait for paypal to tell me I've got cash, & then flee from ever replying to emails. done deal, my mortgage & prostitutes are paid for life.

so frustrating! I swear.
someone please chime in here. thanks guys; always.

Paypal is very wary of stuff like this, even if you log into your account from a different IP than the one you registered with, they get a warning

They'll freeze your account on any major transaction that they find suspicious and unlock it when they have confirmation that the goods reached the buyer

I've had this happen on 2 occasions, both times I've had to wait for my money for about a month and had to pay shipping out of my own pocket and then pray that everything would get there fast

So I don't think he'll be able to open another PPaccount once he has an unresolved complaint/open case

[Youro-Luke]

I warned you guys about this shady douche last year!

Mods did nothing then, and AFAIK he's still not banned here! nuts!

Hope this doesn't discourage people from buying from legitimate overseas sellers like Image and me

I really **** to do this, but I've been PM'd here & on bimmerforums regarding a fellow member on here that has scammed me out of a set of wheels.

I don't know the best way to go about this story, but s4cr has stolen a very! very! large chunk of money from me. This situation is beyond sad & has left me close to vomit on an almost daily basis for almost 2 months now.

DO NOT BUY FROM S4CR!

S4CR is a SCAMMER!

S4CR will take your money & promise you wheels that he does not even own!
please please be careful; again, DO NOT BUY FROM S4CR!

I've been asked to please post this thread warning forum members. I feel horrible doing so, but at the same time, I feel it's an obligation to fellow wheel whores to be careful.

his name on StanceWorks, MaxBimmer, Bimmerforums, VWVortex, & Stanced.lt is s4cr. His real name is Antonis Palekis from Lietuva, Telsini. it's in Lithuania.

basically, he lures you in with a set of wheels that he says he owns, are rare, & in mint condition. he says he'll paint the wheels whichever way you want, freshly polish the lip, zoop seal it, send with a brand new key locking device . . . the whole shabang. basically he tells you everything you want to hear.

Antonis, s4cr, told me to just send the money & he'll get you a tracking number sent directly to my email within 24hrs. of receiving the cash. once he had gotten my money, he seemed to stall on sending the tracking numbers & said he couldn't make it out to the shipper that same day & would try the next. didn't happen, so he says our time zones are completely different so he will do it first thing tomorrow, but it'll seem like a couple of days because of our differences in time zones again.

okay, no problem I'm thinking. I mean, the guy's on a bunch of forums, seems really into fitment & bimmers, etc. nothing was fishy & besides, the dude's so genuine sounding in his emails that I had nothing to question.

so, almost two weeks go by & I start to think something seems a bit off here. I've purchased plenty of wheels before from overseas & never remember having a similair dealing. I want to PM s4cr, but I feel silly asking him to prove they've been sent, so I stall on my own end figuring he'll just copy/ paste them to me sometime soon.

it became about 5 weeks since I had paid closer to $2,000 than it was $1,000 & my subconcious keeps telling me to just PM the dude & ask for the tracking numbers. it's not checking up on the guy, it's just something that should be understood when purchasing anything online. it's the same as getting a receipt at a store, so I do PM him.

Antonis is all cool with me, he says he's sorry he hasn't gotten back to me. He says it's because he wanted to make sure the wheels were in perfectly restored condition & that the polish on the lips were even, etc. I had them painted by him as well - at least supposidely, & he tells me in a PM how the guy was dragging & he didn't want to rush him in fear he'd do a bad job, etc.

I think s4cr is literally my best friend & looking out for me here, so I believe these stories & lay back thinking that s4cr is treating my wheel purchase like gold, so don't stress him out as he is already doing that to himself over my set of wheels. He says don't worry, I answer your every reply fabel & emphasizes how it's very important to keep in good contact with me so I feel safe as to where my wheels are at every given moment. Remind you here that he has not sent ouf this set of wheels 5 weeks past the date I had paid him what I will refer to as 'thousands'.

I think this is stupid & should not be the case, so I tell him if you cannot get my wheels done by the end of the week, just refund some of the cash I gave you & ship them out already. He says no man, I want you to be proud when you open the boxes & help create an epic build for you so please just hold tight. he says I can ask a couple of people of his business dealings here & vortex as to create some trust, but I say it's all good, just send them out by the end of this week because I'm starting to get scared. He says, yep; promise.

well, the end of the week goes by & nothing. I get pissed, but don't contact him because again, I try to be very respectful & think highly of Antonis Palekis of Lithuania. foolish of me! I start thinking of how many people I know that will only buy wheels in person for similair reasons etc. my dumb ass though was only concentrated on gettin' some rare shoes mounted up & so my judgement became easily clouded. this furthered in my head as clouded judgement when I asked why he would do this; it would only come back to haunt him. I also told myself to stay cool, because this guy is like the nicest you've ever met.

so wrong of me! s4cr surely scammed me. I kept having thoughts at this point on how I'm dealin' with a dude overseas that has had my money now for close to 2 months & still hasn't sent my wheels out. I get all crazy in the head when I realize some dude over seas has my money & my wheels & the true story of what's going on here while I just sit back & say, naw, the dude is straight as hell.

this fades right before the actual two month mark & I PM his saying I need proof of some sort that these wheels have been sent out. he says in his country they do not provide such without paying an extra fee. I say I don't care, pay it & contact me before weeks end because I don't like thinking about this everyday; I literally can't handle how strong some of the fears are on my mind.

Antonis tells me to relax & that he's sorry. s4cr continues to go on saying he will pay out of pocket for these tracking numbers, but if I could be so kind as to let him cash his work check on friday first so that he'll have the cash to do so. I say okay . . . however, this now brings us to the following week which was more like two weeks later since I had inquired over this early in the previous week.

Sorry you have to go through this Myles, If I knew you were buying wheels from this guy I would have advised you against it

I guess what I find confusing is he offers to paint the wheels whatever color you want...you claim you asked him to paint the wheels yet also expected them to be shipped within 24 hours. How would that be feasible? It's one or the other. Don't get me wrong, I'm not implying you ARE or ARE NOT being "scammed". I was just pointing that out.

With that being said, I WILL say that when I purchased some wheels from Poland it took a hair over 2 months from when they were first shipped. It seemed to take forever!!! It's very nerve racking. I was given tracking numbers through the USPS and they were only scanned in ONCE...when they were leaving Poland! So for 2 months after I sat and waited and checked the tracking numbers every couple hours and nothing. Eventually they showed up on my doorstep. 2 wheels the first day, 2 wheels the next day.

USPS typically doesnt update their tracking info on international shipments. I ship internationally on a daily basis, and Id say that happens about 80% of the time. they get scanned when the package reaches the international dispatch, then never again.

Yep, this is what I deal with on a regular basis Mike, very frustrating for both parties involved

[Noi5eB0mb]

Simple, he keeps changing usernames, IP ban the bastard.

[maciek]

Hey Miles, sorry to hear what happened to you man, this really sucks.. Im hoping that you get your wheels/money back.

[FABEL]

can someone confirm/deny this statement:
this thread won't really have an effect on stopping Antonis Palekis from scamming people in the future because all he has to do is register a new user name and/ or create a new paypal address & he'll be right back at it again.

my reply:

first off, please tell me it won't be this simple for s4cr to continue his game! also, I had thought paypal connects to your social security number & your bank account, no? if I am wrong here, how does somebody ever put a stop to somebody as manipulative & conniving as this?

I mean, if it's that easy for anyone to scrap some cash, I'll just put up a rare item for sale every week, lure a sucker, wait for paypal to tell me I've got cash, & then flee from ever replying to emails. done deal, my mortgage & prostitutes are paid for life.

so frustrating! I swear.
someone please chime in here. thanks guys; always.

[Dutchy]

^ dutchy, see this is the sheit that just cuts me up inside!

how the hel can someone do this to people?
how the hel can someone GET AWAY! with doing this to people?

& why do we allow Antonis Palekis to even be a part of our community? I mean, there's close to a dozen links on here of his scamming people out of large sums of money & they're all the same story.

s4cr is extremely nice & understanding & seems like a hardcore enthusiast until he gets your money, & then just like this thread you will never ever ever hear back from him; absolutely ridonkulous.

I am so sorry for you dutchy. I think I can accurately say I know exactly how you feel, that is why I am trying to fight back in multiples of ways like making this thread. I can't believe how common it is for this guy to just ride on the shirt tails of all of us. s4cr is probably viewing this thread & just laughing at how foolish all of us have been.

it really is disgusting!

It really is brutal, sucks because I and I'm sure you had to work hard for that money, I currently have two broken cars (mine and my girlfriends) both of which needing major repairs, and even though I can do all the work myself it would be nice to have that 400 to pay for some of the parts cost.

Steve

[evangelo]

fabel i know you dont want to hear this, but dude you are not getting rims or money from this guy.

ive been burned before for a couple grand and yes it sucks very much but its life and we become assholes to others from these experiences.

i say contact interpol and see if they file internet fraud as a crime.

luck is not going to change the fact, but if your into superstition then i will say goodluck to you.
angelo

[AUDI_JAY]

Sent you a pm fabel to offer a bit of help

[FABEL]

Both of you, quit your bickering. Whatever happened between you guys has nothing to do with this thread.

^ thank you very much! ^

I don't think they meant to turn this thread about them, but I still appreciate you throwing the hint out there that this thread is about being cautious/ not buying from s4cr.

please SW continue to add any feedback or ideas that any of you may have. I have learned much & feel good getting the word out there. someone on some forum should have tried organizing a full scam list like I & others have done here in this thread.

so, again, I am highly! highly grateful to all o ya's.

no update on the wheels, my money, or response from s4cr as of yet. with so many variables at stake, the wait is literally killing me. serious torture here over my holidays; it sucks so so bad & is kind of hard to feel 'community' from others passionate upon the same as myself at the moment.

[FABEL]

^ dutchy, see this is the sheit that just cuts me up inside!

how the hel can someone do this to people?
how the hel can someone GET AWAY! with doing this to people?

& why do we allow Antonis Palekis to even be a part of our community? I mean, there's close to a dozen links on here of his scamming people out of large sums of money & they're all the same story.

s4cr is extremely nice & understanding & seems like a hardcore enthusiast until he gets your money, & then just like this thread you will never ever ever hear back from him; absolutely ridonkulous.

I am so sorry for you dutchy. I think I can accurately say I know exactly how you feel, that is why I am trying to fight back in multiples of ways like making this thread. I can't believe how common it is for this guy to just ride on the shirt tails of all of us. s4cr is probably viewing this thread & just laughing at how foolish all of us have been.

it really is disgusting!

[Dutchy]

how much you pay him, if not secret?

I paypaled him 400.00 as a deposit to have the wheels refinished and redrilled. The total amount was to be 1100.00 for them shipped.

At first I trusted him, and he seemed legit. Then I had some issues with paypal and my bank and it not accepting payment for the remaining amount, I said I would wait a paycheque and make sure I had my credit card 100% paid off to make sure their wouldn't be problems with it going through. His response didn't seem right to me, he was overly willing to wait for the money and seemingly didn't care how long it took. To me if I'm selling something, I will be reasonable and understanding, but I won't tell someone that I can wait as long as it takes if I'm holding something for them. For that reason I held off and decided to just cut my losses.

[image]

I sent s4cr a deposit back in the summer and after some sketchyness after the alotted time to open a paypal dispute I decided to not send the rest of the money and cut my losses. Just wondering if the OP ever got his money through the credit card company, as I may try to do the same.

how much you pay him, if not secret?

[Dutchy]

I sent s4cr a deposit back in the summer and after some sketchyness after the alotted time to open a paypal dispute I decided to not send the rest of the money and cut my losses. Just wondering if the OP ever got his money through the credit card company, as I may try to do the same.

[Average_Jerk]

Both of you, quit your bickering. Whatever happened between you guys has nothing to do with this thread.