Crazy thing… I wanted ti purchase a radar card for my new gtn750xi so my old radar would work with the new unit. Long story short a guy in here posted one from Ukraine, I would not pay for it bc of the fear of Fraud. He sent the card and I installed, works flawlessly. Well my cousin is in the fbi and he said that the Ukraine ppl have been stealing military equipment that the us sends over and I need to be careful. I had the card it worked I’m good on that end but I owe this guy money. The seller wants me to send money via western union and when we tried to do that it comes back with a fraud alert and will not allow us to send the money. He did send me pics of military aircraft … I want to be ethical but not caught up in some kinda illegal activity:….. what do I do

Are Garmin enablement cards serialized? FWIW, radar unlock cards don't need to be left in the 750Xi and normally would only work in a single box. I'm not sure how that works though, either the card has to be configured for the serial# of the unit it's enabling or the card gets modified during the enablement process.

In any case unless the card has a serial# and that number has been recorded as stolen, I wouldn't sweat it.

What do I do about paying some guy in Ukraine , should I just tell him when he shows up in person I’ll pay cash

You took his goods, you owe him the money. Try a payment method that doesn’t date to the stagecoach era.

Tips.fbi.gov

Do the right thing and disclose/report it

Report it to who

I just checked with my favorite Garmin dealer and he said when they order an enablement card for a GTN (or anything else) they have to supply the system ID for the equipment it's going to be used in. Did you have to give the person in Ukraine your Garmin System ID? If not I don't see how it would work unless Garmin's data security is broken.

I did not

The enablement cards are not programmed to a system ID from Garmin. Garmin may require a serial number or system ID when the order is placed for tracking purposes in the event the unlock gets wiped out, the unlock is stored in the configuration module and tied to the system ID one it has been used. There are very specific instructions for dealers to make sure the customer gets to retain the card even after it is used as an aid in case something happens where the unlock disappears.

I would pay the guy for a good card. If he is into something illegal karma will do the rest

That pretty much fits with what I was told except that for this to work, the SD card has to be modified the first time it's used by the device it's used in. Recoding anything in the config module couldn't prevent using the card in a different device in a different aircraft.

What prevents an unscrupulous dealer from cloning an unused card and "selling" it multiple times? Maybe Garmin is using a security feature of SD cards (the 'S' in SD stands for Secure) which prevents cloning. That said, I don't know how that could work for GI275 enablements which are loaded from a USB flashdrive instead of a SD card and flashdrives don't have the same security capabilities of a SD card.

Someone sent you a part you wanted to buy. Presumably you agreed to the price. You have the merchandise, it was as-described. Pay the man. Zelle, Venmo, Paypal, whatever. This is a modern European country, not the moon or the old west. Don't overthink it.

Did he have any pricing looking for a friend.

I tried to pay him the way he requested and it comes back fraud and will not send

That Ukrainian avionics reseller is legit.

You should work with him to find a proper money transfer.

Western Union transfer gets flagged all the time.

I find it hard to understand that a Garmin unlock card is stolen military goods.
That sounds more like some fake news from someone that would like to shut down the war and hand the country over to Putin.