Warning to all Yak List Members Re: [yak] Garmin Edge 850

[Larry Newman]

This Thomas Poje is a scammer. This is a warning to all Yak List members.

Here is his information, but it might not be truthful:

Thomas Poje

70 Deerhurst Drive

Goleta, CA

I could bore everyone by forwarding a string of 20 messages, but here is a short summary:

• I responded to Thomas on 1 March.
• Thomas agreed that the $300 asking price included shipping (within CA)
• Thomas requested payment by PayPal
• Thomas said that he was selling due to injury and could no longer cycle
• Asked me to send the payment to this account, “shared with his son”, 
• "Here is my paypal details.
  It is a joint account with my son.
  
  
  User name....Joejacksonjr7

  Joe jackson”
• Send the payment on 1 March
• On 4 March, got this message: I was waiting for the papal payment to get cleared into my balance 
  As you sent payment via goods and  services option.
  Payment still remains on hold there .
  I will want you to help me with $40 to get the item shipped.
  Once the payment gets cleared into my account i will refund the shipping cost back to you.
  
  
• With a sinking feeling, I refused to send $40 for shipping, verified that PayPal fee for a $300 goods payment was less than $10. I offered to reimburse Thomas $10 for the goods fee upon receipt of the Garmin.
• I have had no response from Thomas since this 7 March reply:  "Sorry Larry for all inconveniences.

  I was waiting for the papal payment to get cleared into my balance 

  As you sent payment via goods and  services option.

  Payment still remains on hold there .

  I will want you to help me with $40 to get the item shipped."

I have have both bought and sold items of fellow Yak list members for years, having purchased my Pocket Rocket in 1994. I welcome your suggestions on how to proceed. 

Thank you.

Larry Newman
43 Birch Avenue
Cayucos, CA 93430
Larry: 406.581.1220

P.S. Thomas Poje: If you really are legitimate, I will post my sincere apology upon receipt of the Garmin 850 unit.

lnewm...@gmail.com

On Mar 1, 2026, at 6:14 AM, Thomas Poje <thoma...@gmail.com> wrote:

Garmin Edge 850
used twice and still look like new.
Comes with all accessories.
$300

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<850.jpeg>

[Dirk Bolle]

If it sounds to good to be true - it is.

Scammer for sure.

Sent from an IOS Device,  iMac, a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air,  Mac Pro, or occasionally (God forbid) a Windows PC. But never an Android device.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/bikefriday.com/d/msgid/yak/4AA35F41-8732-4BAB-A66B-559EBD3FB81E%40gmail.com.

[Josh Brown]

This account is all over the Touring Google groups to the point where I beg the mods to ban the account recently. 

I'm sorry that this happened. Telling your story will prevent it from happening again, hopefully. 

Be safe out there,

Josh

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/bikefriday.com/d/msgid/yak/4AA35F41-8732-4BAB-A66B-559EBD3FB81E%40gmail.com.

[Kelly Finan]

I think you handled this very well. Sounds like it's time to pull the plug and report to Paypal/get your money back. Thanks for reporting your experience to save the rest of us a headache!

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/bikefriday.com/d/msgid/yak/CALsizAR10O5a26EzkjacjhUGPhC6UDHnvc%3DsrOc6nrZYHHOFVg%40mail.gmail.com.

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570.877.2417

www.kellyfinan.com

Note to my awesome clients: When possible, please hit "reply" rather than starting multiple email threads for the same project. This helps me to keep your project organized and streamlined. Thank you!

[John Thurston]

I'd say you've done the best you can, Larry. It's time to pursue this with Paypal. I don't expect you'll get much love there, but I think it's all you can do.

John Thurston
Juneau, Alaska

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/bikefriday.com/d/msgid/yak/4AA35F41-8732-4BAB-A66B-559EBD3FB81E%40gmail.com.

[Walter Lapchynski]

Scammer indeed. There was a whole rash of accounts offering similarly terse and, frankly, off-topic ads on the Yak! over the last few years. It got to be rather overwhelming at one point. So I pruned the list, made new memberships require approval and changed the welcome message for the list (note my emphasis):

"This is a place where you can trade tips, tricks and travel ideas relating to Bike Friday. Make friends and encourage others to join the fold. If you've got a Friday to sell, many people are looking for their first or fifth Bike Friday, so that works, too.

***This is not a place to sell bike goods in general.*** This is also not a place to discuss non-Bike Fridays, except in context of Bike Friday. Doing so will lead to the posts being deleted and memberships being permanently revoked."

This individual managed to narrowly skate around the relatively low bar to entry I have. Their reason for joining was "Yak discussion." So I asked them what they wanted to discuss. They said "about rides." Seemed reasonable enough. At least it was on topic. My experience in the past is that scammers would either not reply or come up with something similarly vague and not relevant. This was just close enough.

At that point, they posted the ad. Since I was familiar with the behavior, I told them they were getting canned. And they were. And the topic was deleted. It's only too bad that it remained up for about 4 hours. And in that time managed to catch your attention.

I really don't want to make this an exclusive invite only club. I hate walled gardens like Facebook. But clearly I need to be even more rigorous with my vetting of new members.

Meanwhile, I would suggest reporting them as a scammer to PayPal. This whole idea of getting someone else to pay for shipping is a very, very common scam. If the payment is still pending, cancel it if you can, or ask PayPal for help with that. If the funding source for the PayPal account is a credit card, maybe you can do a charge back. PayPal should disable their account.

Wishing you luck.

Everyone else: if it's not a Bike Friday being sold here, don't trust it!

P.S. I dropped the scammer from this thread. No reason for them to be any more aware of the fact that we're on to them. 

On Wed, Mar 11, 2026 at 10:09 AM Larry Newman <lnewm...@gmail.com> wrote:

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/bikefriday.com/d/msgid/yak/4AA35F41-8732-4BAB-A66B-559EBD3FB81E%40gmail.com.

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Walter Lapchynski
Sales Consultant | Information Services Assistant

Green Gear Cycling dba Bike Friday

direct line +1 541-234-5126

[Genna deVries Mann]

Wow. He was trying to sell me the Samsonite SCure travel case from Ohio last week. Glad I didn’t try to buy it.

Genna Mann

Aptos, CA

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/bikefriday.com/d/msgid/yak/CAOVRG240bUHB%2BsUTQDeYREe6_S8t86ojG6PyGpSH3UAw-iXavQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Larry Newman]

I just followed up on PayPal. 

What I learned: 

This guy asks for the buyer to use the “Payments to Friends” option to avoid fees. However, the payer has no recourse to request funds be returned. 

They will follow up with he scammer, but I’m not optimistic. 

Can also file a dispute with my bank (doing so), but not optimistic.

I guess in the future, always use the payment for “goods and services” option unless you know and trust the seller. 

My first time issue on the Yak list.

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Regards,

Larry

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/bikefriday.com/d/msgid/yak/78c9eef2-1a6e-4db9-83e4-9cc911df737a%40thurstons.us.

[David Dillard]

If it's not Bike Friday related or someone you're acquainted with from the list, ask for a picture of the item with the time and date written on a piece of paper. That's usually enough to make them go quiet on you. 

David Dillard 

Louisville 

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From: y...@bikefriday.com <y...@bikefriday.com> on behalf of Genna deVries Mann <gdv...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2026 5:16:57 PM
To: Walter Lapchynski <w...@bikefriday.com>
Cc: Larry Newman <lnewm...@gmail.com>; Bike Friday Yak! <y...@bikefriday.com>
Subject: Re: Warning to all Yak List Members Re: [yak] Garmin Edge 850

 

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[John Thurston]

I must have missed that in the initial message.
Yeah. If you used the 'friends and family' option, your money is gone.

John Thurston
Juneau, Alaska