Lastest Online Scammers?

Douglas Schuch · From: Valencia, Philippines

I ran into this page as he was advertising on a Facebook Steel Guitar page I belong to: Geoffrey Pedal Steel Guitar Collection. I've never heard of this vendor, and the prices made me a little skeptical. Like an blond lacquer Emmons P/P D10 for $3k, and a Kline D10 for $1.5k. Has anyone had any interactions with this person and can confirm he is legit? Or perhaps he's a member here and can clarify? Otherwise, I'd suggest plenty of caution.

https://www.facebook.com/Geoffrey.Steel.Guitar

edit: I notice none of the pictures seem to be taken in the same location - leading me to suspect he just grabs images from the internet of other steel sales. Most people selling used steels, you look at their pictures, and you notice a lot of similarity in how and where they were taken. Not here. The '75 Sho-Bud single-neck was clearly taken in a music store named "World Of Music" possibly....
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Bringing steel guitar to the bukid of Negros Oriental!

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

I don't think he is legit, but I have no proof. My biggest problem with him is that he spammed me through Messenger, which I don't appreciate from any "vendor". I looked at his profile, and he joined FB not too long ago if I remember right. One of the first things I noticed was the different locations that the pics were taken at. Seemingly varying picture qualities made me suspicious that they were downloaded images.

I clicked the link in your post, and I just noticed that it looks like his page has been removed. I also did a search for him and he does not show up, and posts where he posted, show his name as not a link making me believe his account is gone.
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Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, Recording King Professional Dobro, NV400, NV112,Ibanez Gio guitar, Epiphone SG Special (open D slide guitar) . Playing for 54 years and still counting.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

This is a screenshot of one of my searches. His name is in black text meaning you can't view his profile. The names in blue allow you to click the name and be taken to their page.

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Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, Recording King Professional Dobro, NV400, NV112,Ibanez Gio guitar, Epiphone SG Special (open D slide guitar) . Playing for 54 years and still counting.

Wayne Brown · From: Bassano, Alberta, Canada

The Emmon's picture is off of reverb from a gentleman in Australia. It is a current running sale ad.
thanks
wayne
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Owner Out West Music,Seats,Parts and accessories
www.outwestcountry.ca

Jon Light · From: Saugerties, NY

I looked into this a few weeks ago. The Facebook and Instagram pages are still loud & clear. Seems to have come into existence April 2023.

I've got a personal rule that if you are a small vendor with no history or reputation to rest on, you must provide some idea of who you are. I want an "about us" page that gives me a name.
Fail that test and I'm not going to trust you.

What makes this one odd is that the FB page has this photo as its profile pic.

Dr. Geoffrey Westrich is apparently a respected NYC orthopedic surgeon. His having a steel guitar hobby would not be at all unusual. Being a steel guitar dealer....that's a different story.

It's hard to see the pictures of the guitars thru the red flags. In the interest of fairness, all he has to do is come to the forum and say 'here is who I am'. But first he'd have to join the forum.

Kelcey ONeil · From: Sevierville, TN

It's a scam.
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Co-owner and operator: Emmons Guitar Co.

Dave Grafe · From: Hudson River Valley NY

A complete fraud. All photos including that of the good doctor and workbench and technician are copied from other sources. If you encounter this entity on Facebook report it as such. This sort of fraud can do immense damage in very little time if not arrested.

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

I'm thinking I can't see his profile or posts is because I jumped his ass for spamming me. He may have blocked me.
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Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, Recording King Professional Dobro, NV400, NV112,Ibanez Gio guitar, Epiphone SG Special (open D slide guitar) . Playing for 54 years and still counting.

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Folks - if this isn't a scam, I'll eat my hat. The guy with the Geoffrey Westrich MD badge in the photo doesn't look anything like the guy playing steel on the instagram page. A bunch of these photos are from old reverb ads. The red flags are numerous. None of it makes any sense - I've never met a legitimate online seller of music equipment who writes and does stuff like this.

Look - this is the steel guitar forum. People talk steel and buy and sell stuff here. We try our best to weed out scammers and other BS here. It's not a perfect marketplace, but the record so far is pretty good. Nobody can guarantee anything, but we do our best. We require people to use their real names and pay a fee using some type of (generally) traceable payment form to join. Again, not perfect, but a helluvalot better than dealing with some type of external social media or selling site where there is no way to verify actual identity at all. And we want nothing to do with these outside selling marketplaces. I'm not talking ebay or reverb, where the platform provides some type of indemnity against fraud and has a financial interest in transactions.

I've seen, literally, hundreds if not thousands of obvious scammers with shopify websites, facebook pages, craigslist ads, you name it. If you wanna trust this kind of crap, fine. Personally - unless I can meet somebody in person and do a face-to-face exchange, I wouldn't touch this kind of crap with a ten foot pole. YMMV, but please don't drag the forum into it.

So if you wanna use facebook, instagram, craigslist, or whatever - fine. But please don't expect us here on the forum to vet ads like this. In fact, I would have a problem with anybody here vouching for any external ads like this - UNLESS (and this is a big UNLESS) they really know the seller and are willing to take responsibility for the outcome. But otherwise, this forum should not be in the business of vetting unknown outside sellers. It's tough enough keeping scammers off the forum! We cannot tell you whether or not some unknown outside seller is legitimate.

HowardR · From: N.Y.C.-Fire Island-Asheville

I deleted his account from Slide, Pedal, & Lap Steel Guitar Players on youtube......

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