Without taking off the hat

Everything started with a simple and tempting ad on Divar; an ad selling a stock laptop with excellent specifications and a price about 30% below the market price. The advertiser wrote that due to urgent financial need and a house down payment, they were willing to sell the device much cheaper. When I messaged, they responded very politely and reasonably. They sent photos and even a short video showing the device's condition and said: "Several others have also contacted me; if you are really a buyer, pay a small deposit so I can remove the ad and reserve the device for you." Initially, I hesitated, but their confident tone and fabricated urgency made me feel that if I delayed, I would miss a golden opportunity. I transferred a 500,000 Toman deposit via card-to-card transfer. Half an hour later, they called and said the package had been handed over to Tipax, but to finalize the waybill registration and insure the goods, half of the total amount (about 5 million Tomans) must be paid so the system can issue the waybill. When I asked them to send the Tipax receipt, they sent a fairly believable computer-generated invoice with a stamp. This was my second mistake; instead of stopping the process, to avoid losing my first deposit, I transferred the requested amount. Immediately after the second transfer, my number was blocked and all messages in the Divar chat were deleted. Signs I ignored: - Unrealistic price: creating a sense of urgency with a price much lower than the market norm. - Psychological pressure to transfer quickly: claiming multiple buyers and urgent financial need. - Requesting a deposit before seeing the item: trusting images and videos that were easily downloaded from the internet. Actions after the incident: The first thing I did was to go to judicial service offices and file a complaint titled "Internet Fraud." By providing payment slips and the destination card number, the case was referred to the Cyber Police. There I learned that the account number to which the money was transferred was a rented card belonging to someone else, and pursuing such cases is a lengthy and exhausting process. This experience showed that there is no reliable guarantee in online transactions without a secure payment platform (or in-person settlement after delivery), and the other party's insistence on payment before seeing the item is always the clearest warning sign.