BEWARE of SCAMMERS and other Scum

[handejector]

This thread: Scammers
which starts with:

Man, what’s with all the scammers here lately?

Thanks to Lee and the mods for weeding these guys out.

and the high number of recent SCAMMERS prompts me to start this thread.

First, let's get our definitions straight:
Spammer
A spammer is an unsolicited advertiser. They are sending you an email or posting ads (usually with links) here on the forum. They are EASY to deal with-
Simply delete the emails and REPORT the spam you see posted here.
We'll delete the clutter and ban the spammer.

Scammer
A scammer is trying to swindle you. He is a liar, thief, cheat, and swindler!
He is answering your WTB ad, telling you he has what you want. He will send you pics he probably copied from a real ad on the net. You will send him money, usually asked for in a wire transfer or a money order, and you will never hear from him again.

Scammers work this board for the obvious reasons-
We are a very busy board with LOTS of WTB ads. You folks is "prime pickins".

So, how do we fight this?
Well, duhhhhhhhhh............
USE YOUR HEAD!
They send PMs about like this:

Hello ,I have what you looking for and it in a very good conditions
You probably would love it ,you can mail me on.
[email protected]

See the obvious in that PM?
LOOK at the guy that just answered your WTB ad!
LOOK at his profile at top right of the PM-

Did he just join? It shows his join date.
Has he ever posted? It shows his post count. If he has posted, are his posts anything more that "That's nice" or "I agree" or "Great gun!" ????

We bust our butts trying to keep you safe from these scumbags, but C'mon. people- do some checking yourselves!
WAY too many of you are answering a PM like that!

Use the

at top right of the PM to report it.
Don't Worry about being wrong! We investigate them thoroughly, so no harm/no foul if you are wrong.

waplop joined at 9:54 this morning. One of his PMs was reported at 10:30. We had him banned within 60 minutes of him joining!
In that time, he answered FIFTEEN WTB ads.

This has been posted for 18 months:
Sticky: How to NOT get Scammed
READ it!

.

 

[Tom S.]

This needs to be bumped and could be titled "We can't protect you against yourself".

Perhaps 95% of the forum members would never be taken in by these scammers, but folks, some of our members do fall for them. Most likely because the vast majority of our members are stand up people and we tend to trust each other. Yet despite Lee's warnings and our attempts to shut scammers down as quick as possible, members occasionally fall prey to these scumbags.

The biggest tool we have in catching these guys is YOU! Report any suspicious PM or Email. Unless you do, we have no idea a scammer is operating!

Just like Smokey says: "Only you can prevent forest fires" we say: "Only you can prevent being scammed".

You are the first and most important line of defense!

 

[6518John]

From our local US District Court last week.

“I’m flabbergasted that people continue to be flimflammed by this. I sincerely hope [the sentence] will deter others.”

11 years in federal prison and 9 million in restitution to the leader of one of these IRS impersonation scams. The US attorney told me many of these victims are elderly.

These scammers are truly scum of the earth.

 

[islamoradamark]

Thank you for looking out for us.

 

[S&WsRsweet]

A thanks from me also .You guys try hard but this sort of thing is on the rise so we have to all be vigilant .

 

[vonn]

A large number of my customers are elderly (80 +)and the bad guys target them looking for an easy score because the success rate is higher. I think older people are more trusting and the bad guys are very convincing.

 

[Wise_A]

Protip, dudes--

If someone answers your WTB ad, request multiple pictures of the item with your username handwritten on a card--same card in each one. Request specific angles, as well.

Do note, however, that it's possible to fake this somewhat convincingly to the untrained eye, but it's difficult, and time-consuming. Not low-hanging fruit, in other words. Most of the time, they just want to grab something off Google Images and be done with it.

Mostly, though--postcount, and post history. There are a few accounts out there with a couple hundred posts, all WTBs and WTSs. Nobody's going to waste their time being sarcastic in 2,269 posts to rip you off for $500.

 

[Mercs]

Thanks so much. Most of the replies from my WTB ad were of that same nature


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[handejector]

Microsoft just called. Jason says they have detected a serious problem with my computer.

He can tell me the commands to type in so we can fix it.

Thank goodness he found me!

 

[Tom S.]

Microsoft just called. Jason says they have detected a serious problem with my computer.

He can tell me the commands to type in so we can fix it.

Thank goodness he found me!

Wait - did you have money left over from that Western Union money gram you sent to the IRS? Oh, I remember now, you've got that $7million coming from the Nigerian Prince.

 

[old bear]

Scammers are operating everywhere. I'm trying to deal with a forum member who has recently got in my pocket. Not much I can do except leave negative feed back in the seller section. If anyone wishes additional information check my recent post in the feedback section.

 

[gman51]

Belly to belly cash sales or I keep my money or gun. Recently on Armslist I had two scammers see if I would go for a quick sale and go along with a scam. This fish isn't biting your hook, line and sinker.
Obviously the scams do sometimes pay off or they wouldn't keep doing them.

 

[muddocktor]

Lee, have you guys ever thought about implementing a certain post count before a member has access to the Classified areas? I used to be into overclocking and building computers and the board I used to mainly post on had a hard count of either 50 or 100 quality posts (not the "I agree" or "That's great" type posts) before the Classifieds were visible to them and that helped cut down the scammers and trolls down a whole bunch. The Mods and Admins would check out newer members that seemed to have many of those type posts and reset their post count manually if necessary. And I believe they also had like a 5 or 10 post count implemented before you could send PM's too.

I'm just throwing these out at you to try to help you guys out, as I thought these ideas were very helpful keeping the trolls at bay. Also, when I was active there they had an organization called the Trollhunters who would help hunt down these low life scum. I don't know if they are still active, but I don't think so.

Anyways, I do appreciate the job you guys put in trying to keep the scum at bay.