Steven Olban SCAMMER ALERT using another HAMS call!

[w5llmatt]

Placed an ad for a Palstar HF-AUTO Tuner. Received a response from a ham KJ4LNL Reiner T Venegas. We settled on a price. He requested PayPal which was fine. He then requested friends and family which is a no no as we were neither friends nor family. So there’s red flag #1. I insisted on sending payment the correct way through PayPal. He then responded saying friends and family always worked good for him. My radar was starting to go off at this point but like a fool I went ahead with the deal.

He then responds and tells me that he needs me to send the money to a different email. Red flag #2. Like a big dummy I still went through with it. So I sent the money and about five minutes later I get a email from the address I sent the money to saying they had refunded my money. So apparently this Steven guy had emailed this person that refunded my money and told them to be expecting payment to be coming. They weren’t willing to be in on the scam so she was nice enough and sent my money back to me and told me the guys real name. Basically I got extremely lucky. I think really the only thing that saved me was sending the money the correct way through PayPal. If I had sent it via Friends and Family this might not have turned out good for me.

I have tried finding a good email for the REAL Reiner Venegas and let him know and someone has created a email address and is using his name and call to scam people but I haven’t had any luck as of yet.

Matt w5LL

[AL7HG]

The same exact thing happened to me. I was running an ad saying I was looking for an amplifier. He offered me an Acom 2000 for $2,200. When I asked for a photo he sent one. He said he was the first owner, said he had an invoice but never sent it. Without me asking he cut the price to $1,800. He said he was in Alabama, when I checked out that ham call it said KJ4LJL was in Tennessee. This scam alert kept me from sending him the money.

[w5llmatt]

Glad this helped you. This guy needs to be stopped! Problem is I’m sure he’s moved on to using someone else’s call now but maybe folks will do a search on his name.

Matt
W5LL

[KA2FIR]

What email address was used? Did you report it?