well, a gut feeling is usually right, but mine was all twisted with excitement to realize what was going to happen to me. in short i was scammed $700 by this guy and i hope by this post a new collector, like myself, not having the foggiest idea would not be taken by this person(s)/criminals. It all started with this email:

Date: Sat, 19 May 2007 10:24:03 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Pawe³ Nowak"
Subject: Re: Old German Militaria

Hello:

I have some German Insignia/Medals from WWI and WWII and a few German helmets from WWI and WWII in a good condition. There are also German daggers (SS,SA, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe, Wehrmacht and HJ). I have also a few bayonets and swords for sale: japanese arisaka, and three french bayonets: Chassepot, Grass and Lebel. I would like to sell them for a reasonable price. I also have a japanese swords (katana and tanto) with the blade from XVIII century. If you could have an interest, let me know.

Regards.

Shipwrecks.Research@yahoo.com

My curiosity requested pictures of his daggers.
He/She/They?? then sends me pictures of daggers available (i'm going to post a few to alert only)

ss dagger he says he has

hj dagger

heer dagger

Luftwaffe Dagger type 2?

Kreigsmarine Type 2 (?)

blade

so i was considering it when his second email comes:
Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 11:21:25 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Pawe³ Nowak"
Subject: Re: Old German Militaria
Hello:

Do you have an interest in the daggers ?. Yes or not ?.

I am waiting for your answer.

All the best.

Pawel

like an (well you know!) i reply, interested & he sends this email:
Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 01:56:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Pawe³ Nowak"
Subject: Re: Old German Militaria/Credentials and Prices

Hello:

Thank you for your answer. These are the prices:

1. SA dagger - 180 Euro.
2. SS dagger - 250 Euro.
3. HJ dagger - 160 Euro.
4. Kriegsmarine dagger - 220 Euro.
5. Luftwaffe dagger - 200 Euro.
6. Wehrmacht dagger - 220 Euro.

All the daggers are ORIGINAL/GENUINE. I do not sell fakes or reproductions.

Let me tell you something. I am not a collector. I got the items as a payment for my research work. I am an archivist and I live in Poland. I am 31 and I was educated in the University of Lodz (International Public Law Faculty). But my main interest is archival research. Diving and sailig also. I spend a lof of time in the archives and museums. Where I have a lot of friends. For example I know Cmdr. Ltd. David Watters who was a Deputy Director in National Maritime Museum in London. I have also friends in Ministry of Defence in UK. I am sending to you some of my credentials and references I have got in English archives. I hope it will help to trust me a little. If you want I can also send to you my EU Passport and EU Driving Licence. I can also get more items in a cheap price and we could work together. As I could get them from my friends here.

If you have an interest, keep me inform and I could have a proposal for you.

Anyway, let me know what you think about it.

All the best.

Pavel

well, at this point i felt something was wierd, but did i stop, no i continued on.. & here's his next email:

Date: Fri, 25 May 2007 03:22:45 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Pawe³ Nowak"
Subject: Re: payment/Bank Transfer

Thank you for your answer. I am glad to hear we could make a first deal and cooperate in the future. I am sending to you my actual EU Passport. I hope it will help to trust me a little. I am sending to you my bank account information as well as my mailing address. I accept 700US$ for thouse 3 daggers. And when we make this first deal we could make another with the other daggers or other items in the future. As I said before I am looking for someone I could cooperate in the future as I can get more genuine items from my close friends. As a payment way I prefer bank transfer. As a delivery method I prefer recommended courier mail like DHL Express Mail or Fed-Ex. I do not use PayPal. PayPal service is available here from June 2005 but we can only send the money this way now. We still can not receive the payment.

That is my bank account information:

My full name: Pawel Nowak
Name of the bank: Bank Millennium S.A.
Bank account number in IBAN format: PL37116022020000000086279795
Bank Swift Code: BIGBPLPW

Address of the bank:
Bank Millennium S.A.
(Departament Bankowosci Detalicznej)
Al. Jerozolimskie 123A
02-017 Warszawa
Poland
My mailing address you may need in the bank:

Pawel Nowak
Ul. Piastowska 20/41
97-500 Radomsko
Poland
I am waiting for your answer and I hope we can proceed it without any delay as I want to make more deals with you as soon as we finish this one.

his so called documents!

now why am i not thinking this stuff can be produced from anywhere!

and it goes on for another 2 pages (don't want to bore you), and another rediculous letter:

so he sends me his passport picture without me asking for it, it should have been obvious now! (its too big of a file, so i had to truncate it):

so he gets the money, but i don't hear from him so finally he sends this email:

Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 02:46:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Pawe³ Nowak"
Subject: Re: Money Recieved-Parcel

Thank you for your answer. Please accept my apologies for not contacting you sooner but I was away home and I had no chance to check my mail. The money finaly arrived and I will send the parcel tomorrow or on Saturday morning. The same moment I will send to you an e-mail with the shiping information.

Okay ?.

well, i finallyget it & his last response is:

Date: Fri, 8 Jun 2007 03:29:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Pawe³ Nowak"
Subject: Re: Parcel sent !
Please accept my apologies for not contacting you sooner but I was away home, staying with my family. He is in a hospital and I had to take care about my family. I am low of spirit. But please be informed that the parcel was sent to you by SAL Mail. The parcel was deposited in the local mail office. As they said - there will be a clarification and clearance delay due to the matter of the items. You must understand - all the items made before 1945 need to be check by the custom office before they release the parcel and forward to the customer. I am not a thief !. I have many friends in US, UK and France and I never lost any parcel. Sometimes it takes time for the delivery - but the SAL mail always deliver their parcels. If you feel uncontent - I can resend the funds and you resend the items.

I am waiting for your answer.

All the best.

If you want I can send to you the link to the SAL mail. Let me know.

so there you have it Gents. my loss your gain. i'll stay in my fantasy world & pretend the shippment is on its way & will arrive any day now... yes.. but it won't be his.. you win some & you loose some and that's how things are balanced. I hope you will not make my mistake & i hope i've provided useful information for novices like myself to not loose what you don't already have! peace out. =)

This guy is a well know rip off artist, sorry you had to learn the hard way! but didn't you notice all the pics are on different backgrounds? There is a dealer in the UK that got take for about same amount with his passport pic included on his web site with a different pic but same name and addy, I'll try and post his web page addy so you can get some info what he did and let him know your story, He has the police invovled. I received a email about 2/3 weeks ago from this guy.

Meastro,
Here a few previous threads on this low-life, even a google search returns more bad news than you can shake a stick at, what amazes me is he still uses the same name, even though half the collecting community has his name at the top of their hit-list.
He has been banned from this site countless times on alias e-mail accounts and logs on purely to scan for new members and their e-mails, its high time this information was blocked for good on an open forum!!.
Sorry you have been burnt, it would be handy to post all relevant information you have like current e-mails, phone numbers etc.

Pawel Nowak

Hi Y'all,

I guess "our boy" is still at it and probably reading this right now! I just received this from him this Morning. What a Fisherman! I hope he catches what he deserves!!

Skipper

quote:

Hello:

Ich biete deutsche Auszeichnungen/Insignien, Helme und Bajonetts/Daggers an (WK1 und WK2). All die Gegenstände sind originell und in gutem Zustand. Ich verkaufe sie zu einem sehr günstigen Preis.

I have some German Insignia/Medals from WWI and WWII and a few German helmets from WWI and WWII in a good condition. There are also German daggers. I have also a few bayonets and swords for sale: japanese arisaka, and three french bayonets: Chassepot, Grass and Lebel. I would like to sell them for a reasonable price. I also have a japanese swords (katana and tanto) with the blade from XVIII century. If you could have an interest, let me know.

Regards.

Shipwrecks.Research@yahoo.com

Since Pawel Nowak's address shows he live in Radomsko - woj.Lodz you should contact by email the Lodz Police fraud department: pg@lodzka.policja.gov.pl.
In case if they will not react or answer, you may also contact Polish National Police Headquarter complaints department in Warsaw skargi.kgp@policja.gov.pl.
Just remember to CLEARLY state your name, address, phone number (most likely they will call you) and your email address.
If your will send just anonymous grievance, it will be ignored.
Polish police treat very seriously all kind of internet frauds and scams.

It's about time to end the "happy" activity of this scumbag who brings the bad name on Polish collectors and sellers.
On July 15 I'm going to Poland for couple of weeks and will see what could be done with this guy.
I'll take the liberty to copy all posted images and comments and show them to good friend of mine who is the high-ranked officer in Warsaw Police Headquarter, but without direct complaints of victim(s) there's nothing to do.

There's also another way to deal with this guy:
If he will offer you for sale something you think is a very good deal and just can't resist to send him your hard-earned money, just ask him for the copy of the exportation certificate/permit.
In Poland by the law anything made before 1945 cannot be sent abroad without special government permit.
Each item should be precisely described and sometimes the photo must be attached.
To get such permit is a REAL pain in the a$$ because of bureaucracy and waiting period (usually couple of months).
I'm pretty sure he will NOT provide it and you get the picture.

Just DON'T agree the item will be sent via any other European Community country since it's very easy to avoid the custom control and no certificat is required.

I would suggest playing him along. Ask all kinds of questions, request more pictures, argue about postage and almost buy the piece. Claim the money has been sent and make up phony transaction number. Then claim the money was sent back, etc etc.

Dave

Boy..this guy does not give up..you have to realize that he makes a good living at this, running concurrent scams 20-30 a week..

This criminal makes 7-10,000 a week on this... a WEEK fellas..

And...this gent has been visited , and had the living crap beat out of him(from what i understand, a solid 10 minute tuning up from three irate rather large Europeans
..)

so, no matter the risk, it is worth his while to continue the scams..

I remember this guy from Eban back in 2000-01 he made a killing despite having numerous negatives he still continued to sell medals from $20-75 claiming they were "old"! A friend of mine bought a war merit first class from him back in 2001 and the quality was so bad the pin fell off! He was eventually kicked off but continued to return under different alias..He will get his one day!

I think Walter's idea with his Warsaw Police friend will do some good as in at least putting a damper on this guys activities!

Hey Pawel,,your here,,,and reading this,,,don't think someone won't make a trip over there and 'help' you to stop,,tickets to Poland are pretty cheap and it could very well be worth for them to get a little 'satisfaction' to ,,lets say re arrange your teeth for you.............

thank you walter, dave, gents. i like walters idea, & i will followup with a complaint. who knows, maybe it will do some good!

I received email with the same initial offering from the same guy. I'm somewhat new to this forum.Even changed my screen name twice because I closed out my old internet service provider and couldn't remember my password.Glad I didn't bite;like swords instead ! Regards

I've seen that SS dagger before. I'm sure there's a another picture of it somewhere here on GDC.