No names: No Packdrill: Cigar Scams you have seen over the years. .

[El Presidente]

No names: No Packdrill is the key here.  let's hope no one goes for a holiday 

The reasoning behind this? 

I was asked overnight as to how to protect yourself from being scammed. It was a new member who was looking at a now hidden thread. I think it put the fear of God into him. 

There are a lot of ways to be taken. Many an experienced member here has been taken over the years. Legendary cigar divans have been taken. 

What I am getting at is that being taken is not the sole domain of the newbie. 

 

So what do we want from this thread. 

• No seller or buyers names. 
• No obvious manner of identifying the offending party. 

What we want is the story that provides enlightenment and education. Best read that again. 

 

Here is an example. It is true so let it be the first. 

Artie and I were finishing our chicken lunch at El Ajibe and decided to visit a nearby tobacco store.  Artie loves Cohiba Sublimes and they were released 5 years prior. I doubted you could pick up any boxes in Havana 

I asked the manager if he had any Sublimes tucked away. He said he did not, Artie wasn't expecting them to be there but he was disappointed nonetheless. it wasn't the first store we had approached. 

Next day I slept in after a 6am finish. Artie was banging on the door and as I opened it, he came in to show me his new box of cohiba Sublimes. 

He had gone back to the store we were in the day before and the manager had pulled him aside to say that a US client had cancelled his order and that one box had become available.  Artie bought them on the spot. 

I inspected the Sublimes. Nice work. if it weren't for the fact that they were rolled that week you could almost get away with it. 

Artie devastated. He flogged them off to another Oz dealer in the nacional courtyard. Couldn't go to a nicer Tosser. 

Moral of the story. 

If you are in Havana (or any tobacco store) and stock you have previously been denied suddenly becomes available while you are there (or the day post)........9 times out of 10.....walk away hermano...walk away 

____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

See...no one got named/defamed/hurt. Moral of the story achieved. see if we can keep it going and enlighten a few people. 

[Bartolomeo]

Have seen/experienced/heard many of stories since I started this journey.....

-Euro vendor selling fakes in auctions....multiple times

-Members on forums getting ripped off from other "members" in trades

-Mules from Cuba selling Customs that are not even close to the real thing

-Cigar stores in Cuba selling customs bundles to one member from another members personal locker 

-Cuban restaurant selling Duck on the menu and some members believed them....

Bart

[canadianbeaver]

[Habana Mike]

4 minutes ago, canadianbeaver said:

Almost an eclipse!

[Piligrim]

I had a Cuban "friend" 10 years ago, who used to sell me some freshly brought Cuban cigars from his motherland  those weren't good as I expected and I got my eyes on NC

Five years ago I started my own cigar project and read a lot about cigars, contracted to oficial importer jf CC and smoked a lot of different cigars (aged, EL, ER etc) and realized I was f*cked up by this Cuban "friend".

this year I won Habanos Expert Russia contest and can say it's much more difficult to scum me. People are trying to do that sometimes, but I deny.

[Habana Mike]

Late 90's. Beach on San Juan Puerto Rico. Waiter says hey man, you smoking cigar? I have Esplendido. $10. Bought one, tastes like crap and mushy as hell. Next day he comes by with a half box of 'Esplendidos'. Not one band matched the other, one even having stars instead of squares.

Lucaya, Freeport Grand Bahama circa 2003. Very well appointed cigar shop with stacks of Habanos. First clue Cuaba Churchills. Next the stack of Cohibas all bearing the exact same serial number on the warranty seal.

Prices way better outside the Havana Partagas shop than inside, same cigars. At least a half dozen 'hermanos' will tell you so on the way in.

[PigFish]

In the early 2000's Mr. Piggy loved to try new cigars. He was after whatever the Habanos catalog could provide. He actually believed that there were a group of folks in Havana that cared about making great cigars. He heard of a program where limited runs of cigars that were special were being made, and for a price not much more than what regular production cigars cost, he could acquire these 'fine' cigars if he was quick enough on the draw to get them when offered.

Piggy grew up. The missing tooth did not get him a $10 dollar bill under his pillow, it cost him $1100 to replace at the dentist. Those special cigars, well they were no different from the old ones, except they had no track record, and they cost a great deal more for absolutely no reason at all.

Thankfully the story ended well because Mr. Piggy learned his lesson early. Most of these cigars were not 'fine' at all. They were dressed up and marked up for the collector community to fight over. As it turns out many were far worse than the cigars he smoked everyday at half the price.

-Ray

[dominattorney]

How many times does this happen?  Guy in Jamaica tells you he has the bee-line on the gran reserva Cohibas.  Only 450 bucks a box!  My GOD!  And the box count is 25!  Totally awesome.  Then your idiot friend pays the guy, calls you jealous/envious/sour grapes that you didn't get the good deal when you call him out for buying fakes, and then you're just like, Fine, enjoy your short filler. 

[luv2fly]

2 minutes ago, dominattorney said:

How many times does this happen?  Guy in Jamaica tells you he has the bee-line on the gran reserva Cohibas.  Only 450 bucks a box!  My GOD!  And the box count is 25!  Totally awesome.  Then your idiot friend pays the guy, calls you jealous/envious/sour grapes that you didn't get the good deal when you call him out for buying fakes, and then you're just like, Fine, enjoy your short filler. 

Have had a similar experience myself.  

[RickHendeson]

10 hours ago, PigFish said:

In the early 2000's Mr. Piggy loved to try new cigars. He was after whatever the Habanos catalog could provide. He actually believed that there were a group of folks in Havana that cared about making great cigars. He heard of a program where limited runs of cigars that were special were being made, and for a price not much more than what regular production cigars cost, he could acquire these 'fine' cigars if he was quick enough on the draw to get them when offered.

Piggy grew up. The missing tooth did not get him a $10 dollar bill under his pillow, it cost him $1100 to replace at the dentist. Those special cigars, well they were no different from the old ones, except they had no track record, and they cost a great deal more for absolutely no reason at all.

Thankfully the story ended well because Mr. Piggy learned his lesson early. Most of these cigars were not 'fine' at all. They were dressed up and marked up for the collector community to fight over. As it turns out many were far worse than the cigars he smoked everyday at half the price.

-Ray

 

Should have seen this coming; didn't.  Tres amusant.

[Puros Y Vino]

Early on I've smoked my share of fakes.  Mostly singles, never a full box thankfully.

My observations:

• Cigars sold in a Mexican resort are very likely to be fake.  And I'm not just talking about glass top boxes.  I've seen petacas of Siglo II's with a little window in them.
• Odd band application on HTF cigars or re using bands.
• Re-use of older boxes with new product in them, sold as vintage. Especially releases in cabs where bands were not in use during certain years.  Done with a box?  Mark up the bottom of the box near the code so it can't be re-used.
• In private sales. Prices that are too good to be true.
• The odd guy that can get unbanded , pre-release cigars. I've smoked my share I admit and they've been enjoyable smokes and given they cost as much as a muled Cuban custom, it didn't bother me too much at the time.
• Tons of group buy scams by people playing "the long con".. Joining cigar groups doing legit transactions, gaining trust and then setting up the big score.  There are blacklists out there with a lot of names/aliases on them of who is not trustworthy.  

 

 

[jackupster]

Recently on the web I came across a fancy looking website. Very legit looking. The prices really good...too good! The kicker was Cabs of SLR DC $600USD "in stock" . Run away!

[cigcars]

 

4 hours ago, jackupster said:

Recently on the web I came across a fancy looking website. Very legit looking. The prices really good...too good! The kicker was Cabs of SLR DC $600USD "in stock" . Run away!

     Yeah - just like available number of boxes of Punch Black Prince cigars - at regular affordable prices  Uh huh

[zeedubbya]

Once not too long ago my buddy "Jasper" showed me this amazing box of Cohiba Talisman being offered at the low low price of only $750 online.  Wow I thought--this is awful early for an EL release.  A few weeks later I found (on my own mind you) a box of Talisman with the exact same serial number.  This one was a bit more at $900.  Somehow that serial number code didn't check out on the HSA authenticity check at all.  It was a strange occurrence and I just laughed it off as Cuba being Cuba by putting a duplicate serial number and not updating the authenticity check on the "newest of the new" boxes.  And since I would surely only be interested in purchasing the rare matched serial number set I didnt buy that first box so I was forced to pass on the second one.  Boy would I feel pretty dumb if I had picked one up!

 

 

[Habana Mike]

21 hours ago, zeedubbya said:

Once not too long ago my buddy "Jasper" showed me this amazing box of Cohiba Talisman being offered at the low low price of only $750 online.  Wow I thought--this is awful early for an EL release.  A few weeks later I found (on my own mind you) a box of Talisman with the exact same serial number.  This one was a bit more at $900.  Somehow that serial number code didn't check out on the HSA authenticity check at all.  It was a strange occurrence and I just laughed it off as Cuba being Cuba by putting a duplicate serial number and not updating the authenticity check on the "newest of the new" boxes.  And since I would surely only be interested in purchasing the rare matched serial number set I didnt buy that first box so I was forced to pass on the second one.  Boy would I feel pretty dumb if I had picked one up!

 

 

sure it wasn't the same box being resold by the next buyer?

[GrouchoMarx]

Well, I haven't been "scammed"... I do remember my last trip to head office (Cuba)....

First, there was the guy in old havana trying to convince me that the "annual cigar festival" was about to start, just a few blocks over and that I could get cheap cigars there. (this of course, followed by him asking if I'd help get some milk for his baby - if you've heard of that scam).

There was a guy at the Veredero resort (from Holland I think) - who we met and he was 100% certain he was getting "real" cigars from his "friend". He showed me a box of "sig6's" - cracked wrappers, bad bands, all of it. I kept telling the guy they were selling him fakes but he wouldn't have it - or he didnt get it? He didn't seem to have a lot of mayo in his tuna salad. LOL

[Doctorossi]

11 minutes ago, GrouchoMarx said:

There was a guy at the Veredero resort (from Holland I think) - who we met and he was 100% certain he was getting "real" cigars from his "friend". He showed me a box of "sig6's" - cracked wrappers, bad bands, all of it. I kept telling the guy they were selling him fakes but he wouldn't have it - or he didnt get it? He didn't seem to have a lot of mayo in his tuna salad. LOL

Some folks are incomprehensible. Even if the cigars weren't fake (they were), why would anyone want a box full of cracked wrappers? I guess some would consider it a reasonable exchange for "Whole box- only $100!"

[TomF]

On 8/22/2017 at 1:34 AM, PigFish said:

In the early 2000's Mr. Piggy loved to try new cigars. He was after whatever the Habanos catalog could provide. He actually believed that there were a group of folks in Havana that cared about making great cigars. He heard of a program where limited runs of cigars that were special were being made, and for a price not much more than what regular production cigars cost, he could acquire these 'fine' cigars if he was quick enough on the draw to get them when offered.

Piggy grew up. The missing tooth did not get him a $10 dollar bill under his pillow, it cost him $1100 to replace at the dentist. Those special cigars, well they were no different from the old ones, except they had no track record, and they cost a great deal more for absolutely no reason at all.

Thankfully the story ended well because Mr. Piggy learned his lesson early. Most of these cigars were not 'fine' at all. They were dressed up and marked up for the collector community to fight over. As it turns out many were far worse than the cigars he smoked everyday at half the price.

-Ray

But what do you have against a McRib Sandwich...?

[TomF]

In 1994 I went to Jamaica. I bought a box of Monte 4's from a taxi driver out of the trunk of his cab at the airport. They were fantastic!

During that same trip I bought a CoRo from a cigar shop near the hotel. It was crap.

Is there a lesson here? You tell me...

[TomF]

Oh! And by the way...what the hell is a packdrill...???

[Doctorossi]

11 minutes ago, TomF said:

Oh! And by the way...what the hell is a packdrill...???

An insole for an espadrille.

[El Presidente]

11 minutes ago, TomF said:

Oh! And by the way...what the hell is a packdrill...???

Origin. Pack-drill was a punishment given to soldiers in the British Army, requiring them to undertake drill (exercise) in full uniform and carrying a heavy pack.