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Sweetwater (Not Really Sweetwater) Scam


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Last night an ad appeared on my Facebook page, purportedly from Sweetwater, with some outrageous discounts on UAD software, their Rhodes software for $50 instead of the usual 300, for example. After the instantaneous ignition of the GAS effect, it occurred to me that anything that seems to be too good to be true usually is. I called Sweetwater and they confirmed that this is not a deal from them. Just wanted to put this out as an FYI in case this ad appears in any of your feeds.

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I don't really have much in the way of "feeds" anymore, but I don't think I've ever clicked an ad on any page.   From emails, I do.    If I see something promising, I'll go straight to that store.   Guess I'm sorta ruining the cash flow of the internet but I can live with that!

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I saw something similar to that appear on my FB feed for a few days last week.  Some 'lightly damaged' or 'overstock' Nord keyboards were being heavily discounted... :laugh:

'Someday, we'll look back on these days and laugh; likely a maniacal laugh from our padded cells, but a laugh nonetheless' - Mr. Boffo.

 

We need a barfing cat emoticon!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I see these Sweetwater scams on FB all the time - usually it's a "shipping mistake" where you click a link to get a FREE keyboard. The comments are all fake accounts, some with the exact same text ("I love my new keyboard", etc.). Just looked and found this (doesn't mention Sweetwater but you get the idea). It sure says something about the intelligence of a population that these kinds of ads exist and some people actually think they're for real. Sad.

 

image.thumb.png.7cffe33d335485571ee592d76aa0e9b0.png

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42 minutes ago, allan_evett said:

I saw something similar to that appear on my FB feed for a few days last week.  Some 'lightly damaged' or 'overstock' Nord keyboards were being heavily discounted... :laugh:

Yes, I have seen ads for keyboards at a stupid low price on FB also. Those are easy to stay away from. I think they scammers had tried to tie that to Sweetwater also, IIRC.

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Yeah, retail scamming is huge right now. They get onto the Google Shopping results too, with low prices and websites that look like the real ones. When I find myself on one of those, I always start fresh from the actual site and search for the item that way. It never shows up for that low price.

Now out! "Mind the Gap," a 24-song album of new material.
www.joshweinstein.com

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1 hour ago, BenWaB3 said:

Last night an ad appeared on my Facebook page, purportedly from Sweetwater, with some outrageous discounts on UAD software, their Rhodes software for $50 instead of the usual 300, for example. After the instantaneous ignition of the GAS effect, it occurred to me that anything that seems to be too good to be true usually is. I called Sweetwater and they confirmed that this is not a deal from them. Just wanted to put this out as an FYI in case this ad appears in any of your feeds.

 

Those ads have been running for months on FB offers different brand keyboard and sometimes Gibson guitars.    I figure it was some sort of scam probably delays and skyhigh shipping costs, not to mention who know who your giving your private info to.     Like others said.   if it sounds too good to be true it probably is a scam.     

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For low prices check out AliExpress. $1271.90 for a Yamaha C7. $454.25 for a Nord Stage 4 88. 

Gibson G101, Fender Rhodes Piano Bass, Vox Continental, RMI Electra-Piano and Harpsichord 300A, Hammond M102A, Hohner Combo Pianet, OB8, Matrix 12, Jupiter 6, Prophet 5 rev. 2, Pro-One, CS70M, CP35, PX-5S, WK-3800, Stage 3 Compact

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12 hours ago, Reezekeys said:

I see these Sweetwater scams on FB all the time - usually it's a "shipping mistake" where you click a link to get a FREE keyboard. The comments are all fake accounts, some with the exact same text ("I love my new keyboard", etc.). Just looked and found this (doesn't mention Sweetwater but you get the idea). It sure says something about the intelligence of a population that these kinds of ads exist and some people actually think they're for real. Sad.

 

image.thumb.png.7cffe33d335485571ee592d76aa0e9b0.png

 

There's something about the font that always seems to give them away...

 

27 minutes ago, Shamanzarek said:

For low prices check out AliExpress. $1271.90 for a Yamaha C7. $454.25 for a Nord Stage 4 88. 

 

I actually messaged one of those dudes in China on WhatsApp, who after a bunch of assurances that he wouldn't be in business on the website if he was dishonest (because he would be downvoted to oblivion on store ratings), agreed to send me pictures of the Nord in his office when went in later that day. I saw them and thought "Wow! This guy's got a whole storehouse of keyboards like he was saying." But I decided to check Reverb anyways...dude took a listing from Armens in NY and just sent those pics.

 

I decided to ask him about it in a very "charitable" manner. His response? "This is why I'm hesitant to show customers pictures, because the overstockers use existing photos sometimes"...he had forgotten his earlier story about going to "the office" to take the pictures. I didn't have the patience to humor the conversation any further, so I just stopped there.

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What's even more surreal is how niche some of these scams are becoming. I follow a number of vintage and electromechanical keyboard groups on Facebook. Over the past months there has been a surge of FS postings that look like honest to goodness items that someone is selling for their grandma or whatever. Nice Hammonds and Leslies for $600, Wurlies for $1k, etc. Always the seller just joined the group that day and has a very vague profile. People start asking questions about it and pretty soon thereafter the admin has deleted the fake ads. This happens often enough that I'm sure some scams are happening.

 

There are a TON of fake/copy ads all over Facebook for just about anything. If you like a particular thing, suddenly you'll be served up all kinds of ads for "buy this shirt with a picture of your favorite band" but it's just some reseller or fraudulent ad.

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Facebook is so quick to delete threads about political views or beliefs that they don't like, and they are just a bit slower to delete post of obvious misinformation, but they are only too happy to sell add space to what should be obvious scams. 

This post edited for speling.

My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page

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The hits keep coming!

 

image.thumb.png.60fff3697200b21afce43ffabf4b8535.png

 

Everybody loves these Nords!

 

 

image.png.6661f2f83b332ce448b1cae0528fde41.png

 

Look, everybody is signing up with Facebook just to let us know how great this deal is!

(That's right, every commenter in this thread is a brand new Facebook user!)

 

image.png.3fe81d7fa9f184ce69f32c47003b15f7.png

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1 hour ago, Reezekeys said:

The hits keep coming!

 

image.thumb.png.60fff3697200b21afce43ffabf4b8535.png

 

Everybody loves these Nords!

 

 

image.png.6661f2f83b332ce448b1cae0528fde41.png

 

Look, everybody is signing up with Facebook just to let us know how great this deal is!

(That's right, every commenter in this thread is a brand new Facebook user!)

 

image.png.3fe81d7fa9f184ce69f32c47003b15f7.png

 

Complete with attractive young female to hopefully make us disregard our reservations.

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Seen a Butt-Load of them kind. Never bought one. 

 

I have two 25 key USB boards that play plugins. I barely use those, they were on our local craigslist. If was going to buy any serious keyboard I'd want to play it first in person. So it needs to be no more than a fairly short drive away. This is true of all music gear for the most part. Once in a while I'll go ahead and order something, that's how I got the Korg Wavedrum Global and I've never regretted owning that one. Great tool/instrument. 

 

It took a chunk of my life to get here and I am still not sure where "here" is.
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9 hours ago, Reezekeys said:

The hits keep coming!

 

image.thumb.png.60fff3697200b21afce43ffabf4b8535.png

 

Everybody loves these Nords!

 

 

image.png.6661f2f83b332ce448b1cae0528fde41.png

 

Look, everybody is signing up with Facebook just to let us know how great this deal is!

(That's right, every commenter in this thread is a brand new Facebook user!)

 

image.png.3fe81d7fa9f184ce69f32c47003b15f7.png

I’m just impressed she can hold a Nord Stage 4 like that. That must be the newer revised one where they shaved 12kgs off the weight. Nice work Nord!

Yamaha MODX8, Legend Live.
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I just "won" a Nord keyboard from Clearwater. I only pay shipping cost. It's declined my card 4 times, saying insufficient funds. Yet I have way more money in my account than the 9.95 shipping fee.  Scam? I think so, folks! No telling how much money they were looking for.  

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One day later, different "store", same photoshopped picture, now it's "slightly damaged package" instead of "misleading advertising prices."

 

Comments are once again new FB accounts, all fake.

 

image.png.dcacaa71d85f8c2dfb1b2f7edc2141d1.png

 

I report these as scams and it does NOTHING. Why bother?

 

image.png.959a1199f8a1b14181c34548cfd750f5.png

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11 hours ago, Roxie said:

I just "won" a Nord keyboard from Clearwater. I only pay shipping cost. It's declined my card 4 times, saying insufficient funds. Yet I have way more money in my account than the 9.95 shipping fee.  Scam? I think so, folks! No telling how much money they were looking for.  

 

And now the scammers have your credit card number.

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Yeah get your credit bureaus on standby if you've given these scammers your financial info, I was a victim of identity theft two years ago and they are RELENTLESS in spamming your info in as many different avenues as possible as many times as possible in as little time as possible. They were able to drop my credit score by at least 10 points before I was able to lock all of my info and report it to the bureaus.

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