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BajjerFan account was hacked?
Meltdown
Posts: 8,942 ✭✭✭✭✭
Over on the BST, Baj offered some gold buffs for crypto payment at a really good price.
I know of 3 folks who sent payment only to determine after that his account has been hacked.
Anybody have his phone number to call him? He has been M.I.A. since friday when the posts were written, then marked sold.
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His account has been hacked. This was confirmed.
God comes first in everything I do. I’m dedicated to serving Him with my whole life. Coin collecting is just a hobby—but even in that, I seek to honor Him. ✝️
Has anyone spoken to him?
Click on this link to see my ebay listings.
bump
I would have thought seasoned members here would have known better than to send payment to buy 1/2 oz of gold for the price of 1/3 oz of gold....come on, gentlemen 🫤.
Founder- Peak Rarities
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frac buff as a choice? more than just another hack. got to have numis knowledge
Smelled funny and ran the other direction.
Successful transactions with forum members commoncents05, dmarks, Coinscratch, Bullsitter, DCW, TwoSides2aCoin, Namvet69 (facilitated for 3rd party), Tetromibi, ProfLizMay, MASSU2, MWallace, Bruce7789, Twobitcollector, 78saen, U1chicago, Rob41281
Greed. No one is immune.
Victims are not to blame, but scams have no oxygen absent greed on both sides. Seasoned or novice, makes no difference.
Someone who has been here as long as him with a “deal” like that, and in Crypto no less, should have thrown multiple red flags up instantly.
🤷♂️
Also a second attempt by another scammer selling cheap gold. He only accepted no fee, crypto or cash. His line to real you in was he would meet you in person. I mean he must be legitimate if he’s willing to meet in person I guess a could just send him a payment. I would bet my left nut if anyone took him up on meeting him it would have never happened. BTW a left nut bet ain’t what it used to be to be. At my age they’re ornaments.
I'd hate to see your Christmas tree. 😳
Is there any way that those scammed can get their money back?
If he has been hacked, will he be able to access his account? Can the hacker change the email associated with the account as well as the password?
"Look up, old boy, and see what you get." -William Bonney.
I knew something was fishy, no body would sell gold (especially somebody with knowledge ) for that kind of price, heck they could take it to the nearest local dealer and get more than that.
Probably not. When you use those free payment methods, they are usually not reversible. If the payers were smart enough to fund the payment with a credit card (and pay the fees) then they could file a charge back on the credit card.
I did inquire but it sounded too good to be true and I did not proceed. This is not how a veteran of the boards with 20,000 posts would sound and I don’t think a transaction on the BST has ever been done in crypto. There is no such thing as Christmas in numismatics.
A good reminder to change your passcodes every so often...
Weird, BAJJERFAN or the hacker, posted a question on the Precious Metals forum about BTC on the 19th.
MY GOLD TYPE SET https://pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/complete-type-sets/gold-type-set-12-piece-circulation-strikes-1839-1933/publishedset/321940
The btc address given had over 12k in transaction sent to it on the day of the scam so more than a few people got got.
I know i wqs scammed. I even said to the guy if you are willing to ruin your reputation for 1100$ ...
Not going to lie. The scam worked because it was such a seasoned account that was "hacked."
Disconcerting
Feel like @PCGS_Moderator should be able to run ip tracker on the login to verify the suspicious activity?
I know getting the btc back is virtually impossible.... but if police reports are filed there are btc traders that can find the end accounts or who received the btc. Not sure we can claw back money but we can definitely press charges.
The ScamFish people track scam crypto all the time.
I'm sure law enforcement is working on a lot of cases like this and they should nail the perpetrator and make an example of them. Canadian law enforcement can be quite diligent, less so other parts of the world. If the person was phishing for victims on this site he was doing it on others. No doubt people would want to get the crook held to account even if they had to pitch in a reward for that.
They may have to tighten security for people logging in, although many probably wouldn't like it. My brokerage accounts send an email to address on file with a number code to plug in for getting logged on.
two factor authentication - tfa
the security people on the internet say using a tfa app is the safest. i would choose the phone over an email because email accounts an also be as easy to hack as a bajjer account. this is assuming you can receive texts and the site can do it. some sites will call you, so a text capable phone is not necessary
It looks like he uses the same "name" on other sites, such as NGC forum, Coin Talk, etc.: https://tinyurl.com/5yby369y The scammer may have tried hacking his other accounts as well before he hatched the scheme.
Confirmation on CoinTalk:
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/pcgs-account-hacked.418239/
"password" -> "passcode"
@PCGS_Hy @PCGS_Marketing @HeatherBoyd
Can someone help recover the account for him?
I tried but realized I got rid of his phone number. Still have his address but rest assured it wasn’t the real Bajjerfan who perpetrated this fraud. Someone hacked his account.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
He probably changed the email and password associated with the account.
God comes first in everything I do. I’m dedicated to serving Him with my whole life. Coin collecting is just a hobby—but even in that, I seek to honor Him. ✝️
Who ever hacked it... seems to have had knowledge of what he was doing
.
I sure hope that PCGS's dedicated team can get some justice with this scammer. I have a list of PIs I used years ago on a fraud if anyone needs contacts.
If I found out my account was hacked and someone was committing a fraud with it, I would immediately create a new account for myself (alternate ID) and post in the BST thread (and elsewhere) that the offerings were bogus.
Unless it has changed, PCGS takes a couple of days or more to verify your email and give you posting privileges.
peacockcoins
I had no idea you could even change your email. That is terrible what happened.
That's where I am.. how can you change the email you signed up with?
I will take responsibility for buying gold for a deal... but I would like some kind of explanation from the PCGS/CU as to how this was done...
If an account signs up and confirms an email address how can that email address be changed without the whole account being changed?
I trusted the length and respectability of Bajjer and find out that is moot...
In your profile, it is possible to change the email. Most websites will allow one to change the email without much hassle. It might ask for a code to be sent or some other verification method that the hacker potentially had access to.
You can always change the email address and confirm the new one. It's a necessary feature because people do change email addresses. The hard part is having it in the first place. Once you're in, you are in control. MFA would make it much harder to hack (as mentioned above).
People running scams don't do it from their own accounts, using their own addresses because it would be too easy to find them. It's always either a hacked account or a fake account.
If you go to your profile page, there's an "edit profile" button at right that will allow you to change your email and password.
The money sent via crypto wallet is gone, PayPal funds can likely be recovered. Authorities aren't going to do anything for this scale of fraud, and I'd be shocked if PCGS was able to track anyone down. Like I mentioned on the BST thread, the PayPal accounts used by the scammer are almost assuredly just extra layers and also hacked.
This was a semi sophisticated little flimflam, only "semi" because gold at the principle of buying gold 33% back of melt is absurd. Other than that, they spoke pretty well and managed to be convincing enough too carry conversation with several members.
I agree, but I also agree with @dcarr's sentiment. Even though it takes a couple days for an account to get approved, I would have immediately been contacting someone here to sound the alarm asap. Many of us have contact info on our websites or visible emails linked in our signatures, or posted on our profile page.
Founder- Peak Rarities
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^
Excellent point. That is assuming too that he was immediately aware. I know I login each day but many seasoned members don't. Skipping days isn't unusual behavior I'd think.
peacockcoins
Baj has commented over on the OFR. He's had some pretty serious health issues very recently.
People that remember me know that I wouldn't be selling gold at fire sale prices and that I don't deal with crypto...
Click on this link to see my ebay listings.
Most of the time I think it's just the boomers and older who get scammed, but good reminder that sometimes it's not about age or lack of tech-savvy. Sucks for the few of you who took it on the chin -- hopefully, your loss is everyone's lesson at least.
Just yet again a reminder: if something looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck... it's probably a duck.
I had a Account Contact me out of the blue regarding an interest in coins I had listed, did anyone else receive messages from this account? Also on Friday, Brand New Account with no further info. (I am currently away in France on Vacation thus the time stamps are off but upon him asking if I accept crypto I shut him down, also suspicious that he wanted it to be shipped by DHL via his own account, never had someone ask that before. I have not heard back from him since providing my Paypal Details.
+1
If I found out my account was hacked and I was unable to create a new account I would contact a board member and have them post that my account was hacked.
Thats what the OP did. The board member hasn't gotten back to him though.
God comes first in everything I do. I’m dedicated to serving Him with my whole life. Coin collecting is just a hobby—but even in that, I seek to honor Him. ✝️
Just changed my password to something that even Elon Musk could not break.
It has been at least ten years since I did this.
I suggest others change their PW's if it has been a long time.
My former PW was pretty basic I must admit.
Ageist
We’ve yet to hear anything indirectly from Bajerrfan on the boards and we’re going on day three. Maybe he’s out of town or on a cruise.
I quoted his post from CoinTalk several posts ago in this thread. He can’t get back in here so you won’t hear from him unless a mod can help him reclaim his account.
Read the rest of the thread. He posted on another forum
There's more than one way to skin a cat. A number of fraud crimes were committed here, including identity theft and wire fraud or something like that, etc.. The FBI may only be interested in six figure frauds, but there are a lot of other legal enforcement entities that will chase all the leads and hopefully catch the perpetrator. This may be a group of criminals. If it is just one person there were probably other similar scams perpetrated by them.
He’s been a board member for 25 years with 30k posts and he couldn’t find someone to post on his behalf here.
If all his contact info is within messages here, then it would be a challenge.