We got an email from somebody who fell victim to a scammer in purchasing an Ibanez Jem from a private party. He sent the seller $1,500 by wire for a counterfeit. If you’ve had a similar experience, please send us a line to bryan@gearsecure.net so we can spread the word. In issuing these warnings, we should be able to restrict the market for these scammers. Unfortunately with the economy in the shambles it is, more people are pulling this sort of thing to make money.

In this case, the seller was named Dante Meman, and he was using the email guitar_player1976@hotmail.com, which doesn’t seem to be in use anymore. I’ll get the city and state he lives in in an update.

UPDATE: He is from Adelanto CA.

We’d recommend staying away from buying from this individual at least until we get word of some resolution to the situation. Since he isn’t responding to the buyer, we are assuming he knows he’s selling counterfeits.

We’re working on some new ideas in how to prevent this in the future.

When you place an order with a small, high end luthier, you can often expect a long wait. Two years or more are not uncommon. But you do expect to get what you ordered in the end.

A follower alerted us to some forum posts about Henneken Guitars. Their site is very attractive, but hasn’t been updated since 2005. It is hard to call this definitively as a scam or a maybe the luthier is just a flake. Who knows, really? From these posts, it is hard to tell if anything has ever been delivered, but Markku, after much chasing, is making right for at least the first forum poster, and many thanks must go out to the forum users who played detective and translator from a continent away.

We’d like to discourage you from making inquiries with this company until its reliability can be confirmed.

Here’s the biggest story:

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=412191

or this blog:

http://www.12review-henneken-guitar.blogspot.com/

The reviews on Harmony Central are all from one person, and while he is listed as an endorsee, the relationship has soured by the third review.

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/product/Henneken+Guitars/Royale+Delux/10/1

If you have had a similar experience, please let us know. We’d like to pread the word about scams or companies that are not living up to their word. You can send us an email at bryan@gearsecure.net

**UPDATE** July 8, 2009 – We have received confirmation that this is no longer the Midwest’s problem. Cases have been reported on both coasts. This is nationwide. – MKuhl

There has been a rash of credit card scammers buying Macs in the midwest, with reports coming from several states. The M.O. is to place a cell phone call to their issuing bank, who is actually a friend and give a false authorization code. This one is easy, it only affects retail owners and employees. Solution: only authorization numbers from their own merchant services should be accepted. If the scammers realize we’re onto them, they may switch to a different product, so be on the lookout. Never take an authorization number from a customer’s phone.