Suspicious answers to equipment wanted ads

[Jay Schwartz]

I'm moving the post I made in Equipment Wanted to here, so that people can discuss this publicly if they choose to,..

A while ago I posted that I needed scope aperture plates for a Shinkyo portable 35mm projector. I got some good advice here, including about how I could probably make one with an online service that cuts metal parts to order.

And then on 1/24//26 I got this private message:

"Hello Any luck yet? Yes I do have one I'm looking to part with; Will you be interested ? Send me a text [removed by me]@gmail.com"

I responded by email that I have not obtained one as of yet and would be very interested in getting his. I asked that he send a photo so that I know it is the right part, and asked what he wanted for it.

He wrote back:

"Sorry for the late response work got hectic , have it in excellent condition . Where are you located? Do you have a price in mind for it? Also about picture do you have a picture of it you can show me so I can be sure we are talking about the same thing before I got home to send a picture of mine."

I wrote back explaining that it would take me a little time to make a photo since the projector was not in my home, but go ahead and send his photo. I also noted that I hoped the price would not be too high! No reply.

I then sent a photo of Shinkyo aperture plates. No reply.

I then sent a private message on here, asking him to look for my email. No reply.

Maybe he was hoping I was going to offer a significant price for his aperture plate and stopped responding. Or maybe he realized he did not have the correct part (and also stopped responding).

But I also wondered if he ever had the requested plate at all, and was just aiming to take my money.

So I ask now if anyone here had a similar response to equipment or films wanted posts on here! If so, I will share the name and email address of this person.

[Mark Gulbrandsen]

Unless the plate is embossed like Simplex XL plates are then you can make them yourself, or with a little help from a local machine shop. Have a half dozen pinhole plates made to the O.D. of your good current plate, get a nibbling tool and a couple fine smallish files. Have the edges on the files removed with a surface grinder so you don't ruin the corners when filing. And if you have a lot of material to remove carefully use the nibbler.. and then file to size. When I had my own machine shop I only ever bought plates that had to be embossed, the rest I made.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

I'm moving the post I made in Equipment Wanted to here, so that people can discuss this publicly if they choose to,..

A while ago I posted that I needed scope aperture plates for a Shinkyo portable 35mm projector. I got some good advice here, including about how I could probably make one with an online service that cuts metal parts to order.

And then on 1/24//26 I got this private message:

"Hello Any luck yet? Yes I do have one I'm looking to part with; Will you be interested ? Send me a text [removed by me]@gmail.com"

I responded by email that I have not obtained one as of yet and would be very interested in getting his. I asked that he send a photo so that I know it is the right part, and asked what he wanted for it.

He wrote back:

"Sorry for the late response work got hectic , have it in excellent condition . Where are you located? Do you have a price in mind for it? Also about picture do you have a picture of it you can show me so I can be sure we are talking about the same thing before I got home to send a picture of mine."

I wrote back explaining that it would take me a little time to make a photo since the projector was not in my home, but go ahead and send his photo. I also noted that I hoped the price would not be too high! No reply.

I then sent a photo of Shinkyo aperture plates. No reply.

I then sent a private message on here, asking him to look for my email. No reply.

Maybe he was hoping I was going to offer a significant price for his aperture plate and stopped responding. Or maybe he realized he did not have the correct part (and also stopped responding).

But I also wondered if he ever had the requested plate at all, and was just aiming to take my money.

So I ask now if anyone here had a similar response to equipment or films wanted posts on here! If so, I will share the name and email address of this person.

Share the name of the person but not the email address now, in this thread.

Are they a member of this forum? (You can just do a search for "posts by (name)" using the search box at the top of the forum page.)

You should also contact the forum admin using the "Contact Us" info.

Spammers and scammers are dealt with swiftly by Brad and the forum moderators, so report him.

[Jay Schwartz]

I did send a message to Brad with the full details. He probably did not see it yet.

But has anyone else experienced this?

[Ryan Gallagher]

Yeah I almost fell for one a while back, there are prior threads on the subject too.

[Jay Schwartz]

Since nobody else has said this happened recently, I'm not sure if this is a bad person or not. He just joined the forum in December. I'll keep you all posted!

[Ed Gordon]

So I ask now if anyone here had a similar response to equipment or films wanted posts on here! If so, I will share the name and email address of this person.

Too late Jay, your original post shows the name "keithbrouhard@gmail.com". I assume the fictitious Keith signed up for the forum and then sent you the private message via this forum. Keith was in the process of reeling you in. The next step would be asking you to send payment. Brad has probably already deleted his forum account. If you still have his forum ID in your private messages, try sending Keith another Private message.

The good news is that your sense of something being wrong was correct.

[Jay Schwartz]

Ha! So it does! I did not realize the email link would remain after I changed the text.