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Due to a pending investigation I can't provide many details other than to say if you have any dealings with [url=mailto:[email protected]][email protected][/url] who goes by Marcellus Sanchez, be very cautious about how the purchase is handled and be sure to use a service that is insured.

Should this post be "stickied"?

I've received messages from others indicating they have also had a problem with this seller. If you have an open investigation into anything you may have purchased from this individual, please contact me. I have further information that may assist with those investigations.

This really sucks, most of the people on here are great sellers.  I have had no issues with two or three transactions I've had.  I hope you get it worked out though.

The e-mail you gave is not attached to any TromboneForum member.  Nor is his name on my lists.  Does he have a Forum Handle or did you get an e-mail query?

He had several things for sale on the trombone Facebook groups including the trombone forum.org group. I know of Greg black mouthpieces and yamaha trombone listings that seem to have been fraudlent. Possibly others.

He offered to sell me a custom bass trombone with axial-flow valves for $200 because I was a student. I never gave him any student ID. He claimed to be a sister company with Getzen, and when I asked what the name was, he said they were just a shop. While there has been no proof that he was being dishonest, this seems quite suspicious and I didn't want to take that risk.

He started getting much smarter. I know of at least a Greg Black mouthpiece and Yamaha student horn that were being sold for pretty reasonable prices by him... the pesky problem is they didn't exist.  I do have proof that he was being dishonest but I don't want to release it publicly until this particular investigation is over. I can relay any information on him if someone was scammed to them if they were not able to get a satisfactory resolution to their issue.

I would like to contact you about marcellus sanchez.. thanks Ross

Shoot me an email with the button under my profile picture

Same guy tried to scam me a few weeks ago.  I posted that I was looking for a Yam 882 bass trombone.  Sure enough, he contracted me.   Couldn't answer basic questions about the horn, though, and didn't understand how normal people do on-line transactions.  The usual blah, blah, blah.  Pretty transparent.

Quote from: CamelPumpkin on Apr 02, 2017, 11:08AMHe offered to sell me a custom bass trombone with axial-flow valves for $200 because I was a student. I never gave him any student ID. He claimed to be a sister company with Getzen, and when I asked what the name was, he said they were just a shop. While there has been no proof that he was being dishonest, this seems quite suspicious and I didn't want to take that risk.

$200 for a custom bass trombone? That alone is a major red flag.

So my PayPal investigation is over but I did file a police report. As far as I know that doesn't preclude me from saying anything so I will say that it seems like some of his attempts are really stupid and others are pretty sharp.  In my particular case - in short - was that he had me pay a UK PayPal account and then told them that I was him. I have two accounts too, personal and business, so I didn't think anything of it. Particularly since I got a shipping # from the UK pretty quickly.  Well.... turns out the shipping number was something he ordered for himself that got delievered in CA, not the east coast.  So if you order something and it ends up in a different state 'out for delivery' call the post office immediately and tell them that its stolen merchandise.  I didn't see it in time and by the time I did, he had already retrieved it. Fortunately, I paid with PayPal. So I told PayPal the story and they eventually settled the dispute but unfortunately that probably doesn't mean this guy lost his money since the bank account tied to his account is probably tied to one that doesn't have any funds in it.

In this case, he told me he had a used student model bass trombone that was a reasonable price. Pictures he sent me didn't come back with a reverse image search and memory serving talked about at the level a high schooler would about their trombone they were selling. 

FWIW, I do believe the person may be a minor but that could simply be a fake identity they setup for themselves. That may be the reluctance to use PayPal, since you can't start one until you're a certain age.   

A few months back on the facebook page of the individual --- this is the one that he used to initially contact me --- he posted that he was looking for a friend or relative to "help" him get some soccer equipment. I beleive that may be what precipitated this but either he decided that it was lucrative to keep doing this or perhaps PayPal was able to get a hold of his funds after they resolved my particular incident.

The other people who have contacted me have been generally trusting and, at least as far as the stories go, made pretty reasonable assumptions that this guy took advantage of.

Its unfortunate, because I used to feel pretty comfortable trading equipment around this community without much of a problem.  But with this I'm very much less inclined to do so. Perhaps its just the age we live in but I'm really not likely to do anything that doesn't have an official PayPal transaction tied to it and unless you really trust and know the person you're dealing with, I would suggest doing the same as well. No 'friends and family' option!  THat 2.9% fee is a low price for insurance against the chance of never seeing what you thought you were purchasing.

$200 for any bass trombone is a major red flag... unless you forgot a "0"...