I got scammed on Facebook

[ninetytwo]

Hello everyone.

I recently bought an Air 2s on Facebook marketplace. I went there to inspect the item and it was practically new, barely used. Everything seems fine until I couldn't bind the control to the drone properly. It kept saying I had to bind to control even though it said I could fly up to 5 times.

Now, I've bought 2 used drones before, a Mavic Mini and the DJI FPV and I didn't run into this problem.

Before deciding to take the drone home I searched online and found some people with the same issue and it said you need to have the firmware on the controller the same as the drone. And in fact they both had different firmwares. So I thought it was just a matter of updating and it would be solved, and at this point I transferred the money and kept the drone.

After so many attempts i can't bind or unbind the remote. When I tried to unbind the remote at home it said it was connected to a different account therefore it seems that I can't use it.

I contact the guy saying I need him to unbind the drone so I can use it. I saw some videos made on the drone that wasn't from the person I bought it from. I asked who he was and he told me it was his friend but he forgot the account details. He now obviously doesn't want to take the drone back and give me back the money.

I also caught him lying saying he would be unavailable in the next few months. I went to my bank and obviously there's nothing they can do.

Going to the police I'll get the same response for sure. If I contact DJI they will say there's nothing they can do. I now have a drone that i can't use and I'm down on a lot of money. To be honest I'm a bit heartbroken, I do know where he lives but he probably will still not pay if I go there.

Is there anything I can do? Is there a way to trace the location of the videos? They were filmed indoors and it was clearly for testing purposes only. If there was a way I could get in contact with that person I could ask him to unbind the drone from his account. Or figure out if he's indeed his friend. Or is there a way to reset the drone as well? I have all the conversations recorded with him but I don't think there's much I can do with them...

 

[Chaosrider]

Hello everyone.

I recently bought an Air 2s on Facebook marketplace. I went there to inspect the item and it was practically new, barely used. Everything seems fine until I couldn't bind the control to the drone properly. It kept saying I had to bind to control even though it said I could fly up to 5 times.

Now, I've bought 2 used drones before, a Mavic Mini and the DJI FPV and I didn't run into this problem.

Before deciding to take the drone home I searched online and found some people with the same issue and it said you need to have the firmware on the controller the same as the drone. And in fact they both had different firmwares. So I thought it was just a matter of updating and it would be solved, and at this point I transferred the money and kept the drone.

After so many attempts i can't bind or unbind the remote. When I tried to unbind the remote at home it said it was connected to a different account therefore it seems that I can't use it.

I contact the guy saying I need him to unbind the drone so I can use it. I saw some videos made on the drone that wasn't from the person I bought it from. I asked who he was and he told me it was his friend but he forgot the account details. He now obviously doesn't want to take the drone back and give me back the money.

I also caught him lying saying he would be unavailable in the next few months. I went to my bank and obviously there's nothing they can do.

Going to the police I'll get the same response for sure. If I contact DJI they will say there's nothing they can do. I now have a drone that i can't use and I'm down on a lot of money. To be honest I'm a bit heartbroken, I do know where he lives but he probably will still not pay if I go there.

Is there anything I can do? Is there a way to trace the location of the videos? They were filmed indoors and it was clearly for testing purposes only. If there was a way I could get in contact with that person I could ask him to unbind the drone from his account. Or figure out if he's indeed his friend. Or is there a way to reset the drone as well? I have all the conversations recorded with him but I don't think there's much I can do with them...

You should report it to the police anyway. Even if they don't do anything about it, it will increase their general awareness of the issue.

Just out of curiosity, how much did you pay for the used FPV?

Good luck!

TCS

 

[Deleted member 103366]

What protections if any do Facebook provide?
Does this problem stem from the binding used in connection with "Flyaway" coverage?
Whose phone/app were you using during the test flights?
If you had a face to face meeting and had encountered a problem why did you leave with a problematic drone or possibly problematic drone?
Can he not get his friend's log in details or put you in touch with the friend?
Have a look at Unbinding from SC? it might be worth asking in that thread if, if you had the friends details i.e. were able to log into their account, then you can break the binding. Or perhaps ask over on the DJI forum if the friend can break the binding WITHOUT being in physical possession of the drone etc.

 

[eEridani]

Just a hunch, but my guess is the drone wasn't that guys to sell.

Contact DJI - give them the serial numbers. They may be able to contact the rightful owner. And yes, receiving stolen property is a crime. Always demand proof of ownership in any private high dollar sales transaction.

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Just a hunch, but my guess is the drone wasn't that guys to sell.

Was thinking that, or found, and they bought a second hand controller / kit.

 

[ninetytwo]

Today fortunately I bring good news. Yesterday was a hectic day, I threatened the guy with police, told him he had until the end of the day to pay me back and I would return the drone. I told him I had all is info and he couldn’t run and at the end of the day he caved.

I went back there, gave him the drone and he payed me back. I have to say I was incredibly lucky.

I’ll be honest with you, the guy sounded genuine and completely clueless about the issue. Don’t know if it was actually stolen or not, my theory is that the drone was given to him as a form of payment by someone else, because the first thing he said the first time I met him was that he was really struggling with money.

The drone was basically new, the items were almost all still inside the plastic. If it was in fact stolen I think it could have been stolen from a shop or a reseller not a person. Doesn’t make it any better though.

All in all, I can’t exactly prove the drone was stolen.

What protections if any do Facebook provide?
Does this problem stem from the binding used in connection with "Flyaway" coverage?
Whose phone/app were you using during the test flights?
If you had a face to face meeting and had encountered a problem why did you leave with a problematic drone or possibly problematic drone?
Can he not get his friend's log in details or put you in touch with the friend?
Have a look at Unbinding from SC? it might be worth asking in that thread if, if you had the friends details i.e. were able to log into their account, then you can break the binding. Or perhaps ask over on the DJI forum if the friend can break the binding WITHOUT being in physical possession of the drone etc.

I’ll answer your questions one by one.

- Facebook provides no protection.

- Yes, it had flyway coverage and the drone was bind to a different account.

- I was using my account with my phone.

- Like I mentioned before, the only problem I encountered was not being able to bind the remote. I Googled what could be the issue and found different topics mentioning the remote and the drone needed to be updated and have the same firmware, which wasn’t the case. And since I couldn’t update it on the spot, I took a risk and took it with me anyway - this was my mistake, and since I had bought and sold different used drones before, I never thought this would become an issue. And I know a lot of people are not even aware of this problem.

He claims his friend doesn’t remember the details anymore. And yes, if I had his details I could unbind the drone from his account and link it to mine, but it wasn’t an option.

I admit my guilt, and I definitely took a lesson home. But I do have to mention, DJI should be specific with these issues. In my opinion, as soon as you connect a drone to your account that is linked to a different one, it should give a warning, something like this:

“Warning, you are attempting to connect a drone to your account that Is linked to a different account. Unlink from previous account or contact DJI for support.”

But no, the warning you get is the one @Severian linked in the other topic. It’s more of a riddle than anything else. If DJI really wants to tackle robberies and scams, they should be more clarifying.

You should report it to the police anyway. Even if they don't do anything about it, it will increase their general awareness of the issue.

Just out of curiosity, how much did you pay for the used FPV?

Good luck!

TCS

I paid £1260 five months ago. The FPV combo is currently at £1150 on Amazon, and mine came with the fly more kit, which included the extra 2 batteries. 2 Batteries alone cost over £250 so I made a conscious decision of buying this used (which had only been flown once) and saved almost £200 pounds. Plus I have the original invoice.

 

[tlswift58]

Today fortunately I bring good news. Yesterday was a hectic day, I threatened the guy with police, told him he had until the end of the day to pay me back and I would return the drone. I told him I had all is info and he couldn’t run and at the end of the day he caved.

I went back there, gave him the drone and he payed me back. I have to say I was incredibly lucky.

I’ll be honest with you, the guy sounded genuine and completely clueless about the issue. Don’t know if it was actually stolen or not, my theory is that the drone was given to him as a form of payment by someone else, because the first thing he said the first time I met him was that he was really struggling with money.

The drone was basically new, the items were almost all still inside the plastic. If it was in fact stolen I think it could have been stolen from a shop or a reseller not a person. Doesn’t make it any better though.

All in all, I can’t exactly prove the drone was stolen.



I’ll answer your questions one by one.

- Facebook provides no protection.

- Yes, it had flyway coverage and the drone was bind to a different account.

- I was using my account with my phone.

- Like I mentioned before, the only problem I encountered was not being able to bind the remote. I Googled what could be the issue and found different topics mentioning the remote and the drone needed to be updated and have the same firmware, which wasn’t the case. And since I couldn’t update it on the spot, I took a risk and took it with me anyway - this was my mistake, and since I had bought and sold different used drones before, I never thought this would become an issue. And I know a lot of people are not even aware of this problem.

He claims his friend doesn’t remember the details anymore. And yes, if I had his details I could unbind the drone from his account and link it to mine, but it wasn’t an option.

I admit my guilt, and I definitely took a lesson home. But I do have to mention, DJI should be specific with these issues. In my opinion, as soon as you connect a drone to your account that is linked to a different one, it should give a warning, something like this:

“Warning, you are attempting to connect a drone to your account that Is linked to a different account. Unlink from previous account or contact DJI for support.”

But no, the warning you get is the one @Severian linked in the other topic. It’s more of a riddle than anything else. If DJI really wants to tackle robberies and scams, they should be more clarifying.



I paid £1260 five months ago. The FPV combo is currently at £1150 on Amazon, and mine came with the fly more kit, which included the extra 2 batteries. 2 Batteries alone cost over £250 so I made a conscious decision of buying this used (which had only been flown once) and saved almost £200 pounds. Plus I have the original invoice.

Glad it worked out. So many scams on FB Marketplace - esp in vehicles that I've noted. Never bought anything on it, so best to take extra caution in future.

If any red flags show up - best to walk away - even if a great deal.

 

[Deleted member 103366]

Glad you got your money back etc.

 

[GFields]

Glad you got it all sorted out.

 

[Johnmcl7]

Just a hunch, but my guess is the drone wasn't that guys to sell.

Contact DJI - give them the serial numbers. They may be able to contact the rightful owner. And yes, receiving stolen property is a crime. Always demand proof of ownership in any private high dollar sales transaction.

In my experience DJI will refuse to do anything like this, a friend found a Spark on a roof and got it down then contacted DJI asking them if they could pass his details onto the Spark owner so they could respond and organise getting the drone back but DJI wouldn't contact the owner.

 

[eEridani]

In my experience DJI will refuse to do anything like this, a friend found a Spark on a roof and got it down then contacted DJI asking them if they could pass his details onto the Spark owner so they could respond and organise getting the drone back but DJI wouldn't contact the owner.

Good to know - but it never hurts to try.

 

[Johnmcl7]

Good to know - but it never hurts to try.

Yes, I was surprised they couldn't do anything although I guess there's potential to violate privacy and data laws so it's probably just a lot easier to avoid it.

 

[Johnmcl7]

I’ll be honest with you, the guy sounded genuine and completely clueless about the issue. Don’t know if it was actually stolen or not, my theory is that the drone was given to him as a form of payment by someone else, because the first thing he said the first time I met him was that he was really struggling with money.

The drone was basically new, the items were almost all still inside the plastic. If it was in fact stolen I think it could have been stolen from a shop or a reseller not a person. Doesn’t make it any better though.

All in all, I can’t exactly prove the drone was stolen.

That was the feeling I had when reading your post but either way I'm pleased to hear you managed to get your money back.

 

[dave canada]

Hello everyone.

I recently bought an Air 2s on Facebook marketplace. I went there to inspect the item and it was practically new, barely used. Everything seems fine until I couldn't bind the control to the drone properly. It kept saying I had to bind to control even though it said I could fly up to 5 times.

Now, I've bought 2 used drones before, a Mavic Mini and the DJI FPV and I didn't run into this problem.

Before deciding to take the drone home I searched online and found some people with the same issue and it said you need to have the firmware on the controller the same as the drone. And in fact they both had different firmwares. So I thought it was just a matter of updating and it would be solved, and at this point I transferred the money and kept the drone.

After so many attempts i can't bind or unbind the remote. When I tried to unbind the remote at home it said it was connected to a different account therefore it seems that I can't use it.

I contact the guy saying I need him to unbind the drone so I can use it. I saw some videos made on the drone that wasn't from the person I bought it from. I asked who he was and he told me it was his friend but he forgot the account details. He now obviously doesn't want to take the drone back and give me back the money.

I also caught him lying saying he would be unavailable in the next few months. I went to my bank and obviously there's nothing they can do.

Going to the police I'll get the same response for sure. If I contact DJI they will say there's nothing they can do. I now have a drone that i can't use and I'm down on a lot of money. To be honest I'm a bit heartbroken, I do know where he lives but he probably will still not pay if I go there.

Is there anything I can do? Is there a way to trace the location of the videos? They were filmed indoors and it was clearly for testing purposes only. If there was a way I could get in contact with that person I could ask him to unbind the drone from his account. Or figure out if he's indeed his friend. Or is there a way to reset the drone as well? I have all the conversations recorded with him but I don't think there's much I can do with them...

thatsd bad luck i bought a spark from an add on here, sent 300 and never recieved the drone so I WATCH FOR MEMBERSHIP STATUES MAYBE THINGS ARE DIFFERENT WITH THE FPV BUT I HAVE LINKED SEVERAL CONTROLERS TO MY PRO

 

[ninetytwo]

Thanks everyone for your support guys, really appreciate it.

In my experience DJI will refuse to do anything like this, a friend found a Spark on a roof and got it down then contacted DJI asking them if they could pass his details onto the Spark owner so they could respond and organise getting the drone back but DJI wouldn't contact the owner.

I read similar experiences as well, that’s why I never contacted them, they would just discard me.

I think they should at least have a data base with serial numbers that are reported stolen.

thatsd bad luck i bought a spark from an add on here, sent 300 and never recieved the drone so I WATCH FOR MEMBERSHIP STATUES MAYBE THINGS ARE DIFFERENT WITH THE FPV BUT I HAVE LINKED SEVERAL CONTROLERS TO MY PRO

Sorry to hear that, that’s unfortunate. In my case I bought the Air 2s but I tried it before purchasing…and my FPV I got it off eBay. Sometimes it’s way better to get it on more secure platforms, like eBay or Amazon.

I’ve now ordered a used Air 2s from Amazon, we’ll see how it goes.

 

[Droniac]

Today fortunately I bring good news. Yesterday was a hectic day, I threatened the guy with police, told him he had until the end of the day to pay me back and I would return the drone. I told him I had all is info and he couldn’t run and at the end of the day he caved.

I went back there, gave him the drone and he payed me back. I have to say I was incredibly lucky.

I’ll be honest with you, the guy sounded genuine and completely clueless about the issue. Don’t know if it was actually stolen or not, my theory is that the drone was given to him as a form of payment by someone else, because the first thing he said the first time I met him was that he was really struggling with money.

The drone was basically new, the items were almost all still inside the plastic. If it was in fact stolen I think it could have been stolen from a shop or a reseller not a person. Doesn’t make it any better though.

All in all, I can’t exactly prove the drone was stolen.



I’ll answer your questions one by one.

- Facebook provides no protection.

- Yes, it had flyway coverage and the drone was bind to a different account.

- I was using my account with my phone.

- Like I mentioned before, the only problem I encountered was not being able to bind the remote. I Googled what could be the issue and found different topics mentioning the remote and the drone needed to be updated and have the same firmware, which wasn’t the case. And since I couldn’t update it on the spot, I took a risk and took it with me anyway - this was my mistake, and since I had bought and sold different used drones before, I never thought this would become an issue. And I know a lot of people are not even aware of this problem.

He claims his friend doesn’t remember the details anymore. And yes, if I had his details I could unbind the drone from his account and link it to mine, but it wasn’t an option.

I admit my guilt, and I definitely took a lesson home. But I do have to mention, DJI should be specific with these issues. In my opinion, as soon as you connect a drone to your account that is linked to a different one, it should give a warning, something like this:

“Warning, you are attempting to connect a drone to your account that Is linked to a different account. Unlink from previous account or contact DJI for support.”

But no, the warning you get is the one @Severian linked in the other topic. It’s more of a riddle than anything else. If DJI really wants to tackle robberies and scams, they should be more clarifying.



I paid £1260 five months ago. The FPV combo is currently at £1150 on Amazon, and mine came with the fly more kit, which included the extra 2 batteries. 2 Batteries alone cost over £250 so I made a conscious decision of buying this used (which had only been flown once) and saved almost £200 pounds. Plus I have the original invoice.

Obviously caveat emptor. But I’m very happy for you that it worked out. I like face to face meetings myself. I find them more productive? Justice is sweet revenge. I commend you on your proactivity. Flysafe & Godspeed, Droniac

 

[dave canada]

Thanks everyone for your support guys, really appreciate it.



I read similar experiences as well, that’s why I never contacted them, they would just discard me.

I think they should at least have a data base with serial numbers that are reported stolen.


Sorry to hear that, that’s unfortunate. In my case I bought the Air 2s but I tried it before purchasing…and my FPV I got it off eBay. Sometimes it’s way better to get it on more secure platforms, like eBay or Amazon.

I’ve now ordered a used Air 2s from Amazon, we’ll see how it goes.

ebay has been really good for me amazon is good but alot of the time, dollars higher depending on what you after

 

[ninetytwo]

Obviously caveat emptor. But I’m very happy for you that it worked out. I like face to face meetings myself. I find them more productive? Justice is sweet revenge. I commend you on your proactivity. Flysafe & Godspeed, Droniac

Thank you, really appreciate it.

ebay has been really good for me amazon is good but alot of the time, dollars higher depending on what you after

Yeah but Amazon has a much better return policy. A lot of sellers don’t have a good return policy, plus if I relocate I can always send back to Amazon much easier.

 

[dave canada]

likewise with ebay for me and i don,t have to pay a membership to get free shipping

 

[Pixeldawg]

This is why I don't buy on Facebook. They don't do much of anything except shrug their shoulders and say ''gee, too bad''. I got taken for about $400 for an antique camera. Never again. Best of luck. Have you contacted DJI support to see if there are any options to get help for this? Have you tried doing a factory reset?

Best of luck,

Mark