About 4 or 5 years ago I decided to drastically downgrade my rig to include just a single bass, as I was gigging less, about to enter grad school, and just wanted something to noodle around with. I (stupidly) decided to sell my Warwicks and stick with a single J bass while pocketing the difference to help cover my tuition and impeding broke-assery. I thought I found a deal on an old Am. Deluxe J bass that was re-finished. It checked all the boxes - active pickups, blocked and bound neck, etc. - plus the seller was willing to ship it for me to try before I buy and he'd pay for return shipping if I was dissatisfied. I played it, it sounded good, so I paid for it and only noodled around with it sparingly while I was in grad school.
Fast forward to earlier today. My shoulder injuries are hitting me something ugly and my hand is cramping up more on the neck, so I'm realizing I need smaller bodied, lighter basses with thinner necks. I load up my J bass and drive to the local music shop to get it appraised. They note the dings on it and the aftermarket nut I installed, then they separated the neck from the body and gave me a look. It was a mix of "are you fucking with us?" and "son I've got some bad news," the latter being what they said. No Fender stamps. Instead, there was an All Parts stamp on the neck and nothing on the pocket, nor was the signature Fender hole under the pickguard and they didn't even know what kind of wood the body was, but it certainly wasn't alder or ash. They asked what I paid, said I got hustled and that they'd give me $100 for it and a free pack of strings out of pity.
I've since looked up the seller and lo and behold his account was banned. I emailed the admin who told me that the user was perma-banned for selling counterfeit instruments and passing them off as the real deal. They said to go through Paypal, but the purchase date is well past the deadline for filing a claim so I'm up a creek.
I'm all kinds of hella pissed, both at him and myself, and can't even find the seller anymore. The guy's Paypal account isn't active anymore, and the bank account I used to pay for the instrument was closed when I changed banks, so there's literally no way I can track this shitbag down. So now I'm stuck with a fake bass that I physically can't play anymore and I don't have the funds to buy one of the basses I truly want.