What are you doing in the UAE, Tom? Taking a nice little vacation?Honestly, it was my own fault for not checking this guy out more. Because he claimed to be a member of Avsim, I definitely had a lot more trust in him than I would have had otherwise.Something that I think would be helpful throughout the community as a whole is a program or list that exposes people like this. I think the main one that is out there now is called heat or heatware. It lists transactions made between members of forums so you can check out someones credentials like you can on eBay.At any rate, I hope this thread helped at least one person from making the same mistake. No matter where the person is from or how well you think you might know them or be able to trust them, never do. People are just waiting to take advantage of anyone they can find.Craig

On business and am off to Tunisia tomorrow. Lesson learned; just because the claim to be a member of the AVSIM community, that doesn't bless them with honesty and integrity. AVSIM is just like any other neighborhood; we have our bad guys and our heros. Just like in the real world, you should always establish someone's bona fides before sending money their way. The forums are certainly one way to establish those bona fides and I would encourage everyone to check with the larger community before doing business with a member who claims affiliation or membership here (and by doing so attempts to impart credence or credibility by affiliation or membership).

Yes, I am aware of that. I would never blame Avsim for this, it proved to me exactly what you just said.Craig

Hi TomI know you and I have touched base on this before, but doesn't this prove yet again the importance of real identities for forum members?Surely there's a way to ensure that when someone registers, only their real names are used and they must give a traceable real address to AVSIM to 'prove' their identity. Obviously, that address must remain confidential to the AVSIM system (i.e. never disclosed to anyone), but AVSIM could state that, for instance, they reserve the right to check and confirm that the details submitted are real.In my opinion, there should be no objections to members who are honest giving AVSIM such information, but I would be quite suspicious of anyone wishing to 'hide' behind various personas and identities....Just a thought.Toni.

If you take notice in the Swap Meet forum, this guy has done the same thing to another person. Who knows how many others. Check out the same thread in the Swap Meet forum.Craig

That would make it Scotland Yard I think.

i to have also had experiance with russel trigg , he claimed to be a Private pilot and moved to the usa , and seems to have large surplusses of cash in his paypal he's sent me pics , he's a con man i agree with that , he just lies to much ! he claims to have a cockpit from a 707 in his back yard , i meen lol russel if that is ur real name get real ! , and he also claimed to have a 20ft python i meen come on russ !!! get real !! dont deal with him he's an con man

i to have also had experiance with russel trigg , he claimed to be a Private pilot and moved to the usa , and seems to have large surplusses of cash he's sent me pics , he's a con man i agree with that , he just lies to much ! he claims to have a cockpit from a 707 in his back yard , i meen lol russel if that is ur real name get real ! , and he also claimed to have a 20ft python i meen come on russ !!! get real !! dont deal with him he's an con man

I believe that any email address using ntlworld would have to be sent using an ntl phone line or ntl cable modem. A friend of mine used to work for them and he could not have the ntl facilities because their cables did not run in the street he lived in at the time. He tried to use their then free internet connection from a British Telecom phone line and it wouldn't work. At any rate this almost certainly means any message from an ntlworld email address must have been sent from the UK. I would suggest looking at the properties of any ntlworld emails he has sent to get his IP address. I believe it is also possible to call that IP number from the START RUN box using the ping command: ping -a xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (might not be 3 digits between each dot) You might have to be quick to see any response that happens in the black box that opens up, but run the command again to take another look. Might be possible to take a screen shot! I once identified a troublemaker using this method. The information I got from that simple command gave a clue as to who he worked for and was enough to find his real name, address, and wife's name and his work and home phone numbers. Not everyone will be as lucky as that though.

He must not have that much of a surplus in his PayPal account because they werent able to recover any of my funds. I am still waiting to hear from ntl world to see if they can do anything for me.Thanks for your advice, Charlie, I will look into that sometime.Craig