I finally got ripped off.

APRRSV said:

When did Australia become communist/socialist as opposed to capitalist?

Ed

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Communism and Socialsim are far from the equivalence you imply. And I am sure what was meant by “collectivism” was not the Communist “collective farm” but rather a cultural practice of prioritising a social group, like a church, homeowners association, insurance- these are all “collectives” that work together to benifit the whole.

A barn raising is collectivism at work.

As a Yank who just returned from Aus yesterday, Australia is much more like what a mid-century America should have become.

Did anyone want Australia to become this?:

acotrel said:

In Australia, we value common decency, 'a fair go' and collectivism. Our nation was started by convicts. However, the smartest Australian criminals do not usually have convict ancestors

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Fair go. Australia was founded on the grand theft of the entire continent from its legal owners.

Back on topic...
The whole transaction is a lesson in current behavior. At least you have a picture of the s/n of said object for sale. You can publicize that to alert any others in this group of possible further scam.

cliffa said:

@brian4.2 Sorry to read this. Looking at Facebook this guy is still at it. Have you reported him ?

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I went to 6 sites he was pulling the same scam, got them all shut down by calling him out as thief, I waited till after midnight so he couldn't take them down till morning. 1 site was an Australian Indian motorcycle group. I also got a message from someone who got ripped off in June by WES COMPTON, same guy, he got him for the total plus $400 shipping.
Sad part is he unfriended me on facebook.

brian4.2 said:

I went to 6 sites he was pulling the same scam, got them all shut down by calling him out as thief, I waited till after midnight so he couldn't take them down till morning. 1 site was an Australian Indian motorcycle group. I also got a message from someone who got ripped off in June by WES COMPTON, same guy, he got him for the total plus $400 shipping.
Sad part is he unfriended me on facebook.

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Good on you to at least extract some revenge by shutting down that particular scam. No doubt he'll resurface with another scam under another name. That ID should not even be on FB now.

brian4.2 said:

I went to 6 sites he was pulling the same scam, got them all shut down by calling him out as thief, I waited till after midnight so he couldn't take them down till morning. 1 site was an Australian Indian motorcycle group. I also got a message from someone who got ripped off in June by WES COMPTON, same guy, he got him for the total plus $400 shipping.
Sad part is he unfriended me on facebook.

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He may be living in Ohio, do you have his IP address?

Your cash card may have some information.

If you can get a current address you may be able to threaten a law suit?

Best

There are times when the Saudi regime has the answer to thieves - it’s difficult to scratch your arse with a hand missing

Our liberal minded societies don't understand that sometimes the punishment needs to fit the crime. It would go along way to deterring other would-be delinquents.

There would be a lot of hands off in NZ ! .

Have seller take & send 2 pics.
#1 with that days paper in front of bike or parts.
#2 with individual outside front of residence showing house number. (Google map for pic to confirm)
Not fool-proof, but a big step closer to sorting out scams.
Cheers

hhh said:

Did anyone want Australia to become this?:

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Let me explain about 'collectivism' in an Australian sense. During WW2, Australian soldiers were in Changi Jail in Singapore , along with the British and the Yanks. The British kept their class system going. The Yanks were all individuals, The Australians had their support system up and going. In Australia, we do not leave people for dead.
In Nazi Germany, Adolph HItler misused collectivism and turned it into mass hysteria. One of my mates is an ex-pat Pom. He said 'of all the people in the world Australians are the most similar to the Germans'. He also said 'a holocaust could happen here'. It would not take much for some idiot to create a dangerous solidarity. If certain things happened, it would unite the populace. - Anything which confronts common decency.
It is really funny. The most travelled people in the world are Australians. When we go to Europe, we are never alone, regardless of what might happen.
I have a problem in our community - I do not conform to the norm. We are supposed to remain stupid. I watch a lot of Youtube videos on politics and economics.

Collectivism is like socialism - it can be used for both good and evil. Liberal democracies are usually socialist, and so are many authoritarian regimes. Collectivism is more about mindset than economics. Adolph Hitler's use of psychology was a perversion of science.

Collectivism is made up of two sorts. One sees it as a means to gather power and money. The other sees it as a way to make things better for everyone. Guess which set end up running the shop?

acotrel said:

... He said 'of all the people in the world Australians are the most similar to the Germans'. He also said 'a holocaust could happen here'.

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It already happened. Ask the Aborigines about that.

acotrel said:

Let me explain about 'collectivism' in an Australian sense. During WW2, Australian soldiers were in Changi Jail in Singapore , along with the British and the Yanks. The British kept their class system going. The Yanks were all individuals, The Australians had their support system up and going. In Australia, we do not leave people for dead.
In Nazi Germany, Adolph HItler misused collectivism and turned it into mass hysteria. One of my mates is an ex-pat Pom. He said 'of all the people in the world Australians are the most similar to the Germans'. He also said 'a holocaust could happen here'. It would not take much for some idiot to create a dangerous solidarity. If certain things happened, it would unite the populace. - Anything which confronts common decency.
It is really funny. The most travelled people in the world are Australians. When we go to Europe, we are never alone, regardless of what might happen.
I have a problem in our community - I do not conform to the norm. We are supposed to remain stupid. I watch a lot of Youtube videos on politics and economics.

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Check out the section on Australia in "Around the World on a Motorcycle, 1928-1936 " by Zoltan Sulkowsky. A snap shot from almost 100 years ago seems to support your assessment.

I suggest the biggest problem in our world is money-motivation. In Australia kids go to school and stress about getting a better-paying job. They do not pursue their interests. When the get their jobs, the job is an impost - not necessarily something they enjoy doing. I would never start a business fixing motorcycles or making parts for them. It would kill my interest. I spent most of my working life as a scientist in defence factories developing materials and processes. My motorcycle was a major factor in how I lived my life. When you can put your mind to developing some thing amd then creater it and make ot perform well - you have achieved.
People who plan robberies are simply parasites. I had three friends who grew-up to become bank robbers. I know how they think - pretty stupid. They did terms of 4 and 6 years in jail. They could not successfully rob a piggy bank. If I was going to be a criminal, I can think of much better ways.
These days in Australia, most crime is done legally. We have people who have superannuation accounts holding more than 400 million dollsrs and a booming housing construction industry .- For the last 40 years we have had wage stagflation. That sort of thing creates petty crime.

NickZ said:

Check out the section on Australia in "Around the World on a Motorcycle, 1928-1936 " by Zoltan Sulkowsky. A snap shot from almost 100 years ago seems to support your assessment.

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Indeed. He was here at the time of Australia's holocaust. He would have been just in time for the last officially sanctioned massacre of Aborigines in Australia in 1928, when police hunted down and shot dead between 30 and 200 Aboriginal people, at Coniston Station in the Northern Territory at the tail end of the Frontier Wars. The holocaust then moved from the mass slaughtering stage of the previous 100 years to the phase of internment camps, euphemistically called "missions" or "reserves" where they were unable to leave without the rarely granted permission of the superintendent, forced to work for no wages, forbidden to speak their own language or practice their own religion and could be beaten or flogged for breaking the arbitrary rules of the superintendent. This went on up into the 1970s in places like the NT and Queensland.
So Acotrel's mate was very perceptive in thinking a holocaust could easily happen here with the kind of collective thinking that is widespread. The collective conspiracy of silence on the whole subject that followed is another example, resulting in a sort of collective amnesia and then collective denial that is only just starting to lift as more people recognise the country's real history that lay hidden and buried in official records for so long.

Back on topic (Geez talk about thread drift!) it seems like many are having troubles with buying and selling on Facebook. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03...e-scams-buying-selling-goods-online/102041274

Looks like it has turned into a right cesspool. I think I will stick with Gumtree, eBay and JustBikes etc. They are vulnerable enough to scammers too but Facebook seems to be out of control.