Flippa scam ? Anybody who can help me ?

Hi everyone

My name is David, the new owner of a news blog, sold by a merchant call Dagmar Gersert through Flippa.


The website was not sold for the first time as the guy ran away and I won the bid when it was re-listed on Flippa.


When I browse the seller's feedback, it was 100% positive feedback (even though there was only one feedback), and I also asked him is there any risk to pay the writer in advance he said no as the writers were mentored by him. Then I paid US$1200 for one month salary via Paypal personal payment to three writers (I use A, P, G to represent those writers) in advance. To be more specific, A for $600 for posting 8 articles and titles for the whole 24 articles on daily basis as agreed by both party. P, G for $300 each for writing 8 articles per day without titles. And I ask P and G to CC me when they send email to A.


The thing is I paid the writers recommended by him, only A posted 9 articles so far in 3 days' time (still far below the requirement for 8 articles/day ), no response from P and G even though the seller(Dagmar Gersert ) claimed that all writers have started work fully.


The writers seldom have communication with me (only talked to me before I make payments) and are highly controlled by him.


I asked him to urge the writers start to work asap, and he is not active anymore in answering my questions for writers after receiving the payments.


The current problem is the traffic dropped a lot and nearly no revenue (only a few dollars) at the moment.


I feel frustrated and helpless. I invested a lot ($7000) and no return. It seems I made a wrong decision for paying the writers in advance and was cheated by this guy?


Not quite sure whether dispute through Flippa works for post-sale.


Anybody who can help me ?


Any suggestion for resolving the problem or advice for improving this websites' traffic is much appreciated.


Thanks in advance.


Have a nice day


Regards


David

Not so much a flippa scam, but more a 'shitty employee' scam.

And, not to be a dick, but if you pay in advance in the first instance, you should expect a good proportion of 'unknown' employees to screw you over, regardless.

Never pay someone in advance that you don't know. I also learned the hard way.

It was definitely the wrong decision to pay in advance, and I would definitely feel frustrated too, but I don't think you're helpless yet. Did you pay with a CC? Charge back everything that you can. Same if you did PayPal. But first, if you paid thru Flippa, I would do a lot of research on how they handle disputes (if that is an option). With that info, open a dispute, and try to win. If you open it without doing your research, he will probably win because this probably isn't his first time scamming.

If you can't win thry Flippa, go the chargeback route, and if that doesn't work, you're probably SOL - I (and probably a ton of people on BHW) have been scammed to the tune of a couple k without doing the proper research.

May I know what is CC ? What is SOL ? I paid the writers through Paypal, I just had a research of personal payment through Paypal, it seems that Paypal will not be responsible for personal payment ?

What is your email address? I will be waiting for you to send me your email address so i could have a chat with you.

Sounds like the domain owner is running a scam with the so called employees.

shoot me the url

btw.. do you know that recently there was a google update and some news sites were hit? .. incl., some big ones?

check out: http://www2.webmasterradio.fm/seo-101/2016/big-google-update-but-not-penguin-or-panda (might shed some light)