Scammers among us.

[truckerdave397]

So I contacted a seller on here with a” I will take it” response. I did the normal back and forth PMs and everything went well. I did receive this PM from someone else that was not the seller. 0 post, joined this month , random PM sounds like a scam to me. Hopefully the administration will take care of it. Again this has absolutely nothing to do with the original seller.

[ShooterAZ]

They have been banned. Thanks for the heads up. This is a typical Scam setup, so in the future please hit the Report Post button. It's the little black triangle with the exclamation point in it. That way we can get to it sooner.

[Winger Ed.]

Thanks for reporting that.
The S&S section is among the most heavily watched and moderated places on the internet.
However; Moderators can't catch 'em all and not soon enough.
We are still dependent, and grateful for members reporting suspicious things or violations.

When found or reported, the issue is handled as soon as possible, often within the hour,
and with all the grace and finesse of a falling ton of bricks..

[WILCO]

Glad it was shutdown.

[deltaenterprizes]

Thanks for the good work mods!

[trapper9260]

Thanks for the good work mods!

I 2nd that, we need to keep those off the site.

[Shawlerbrook]

Unfortunately this type of scam has been common on other sites with Buy/Sell sections. Big red flag is when they want to communicate by email only. Moderators thank you for for hard work.

[georgerkahn]

This happened to me not too long ago, and the CLUE was scammer employed, too, my "real" eMail address, as opposed to just using the Private Messaging on this forum!" I immediately informed a Mod and scammer was gone . (Funds did get to seller, and I received that which I had purchased )
Anyhoos -- this is a headsup for me -- perhaps, too, for you? -- if the "seller" contacts you vis anyother means than your handle on this site, and Private Message on this site -- for me, I view it as a scam!
geo

[MrWolf]

If they have zero posts, just joined, or post to a thread over a year old as their only post the red flags start waving. Can't stand scammed. Mods do a great job, it's not easy.

[Reg]

Your first clue should have been the new member with zero posts. Those of us who have been here for some time have an established feed back record as far as the S&S section goes and guard our reputation.
On about all sites now scamming is running rampant but established reputation is everything!

[ddeck22]

In terms of feedback (specifically regarding the Straight Shooters and Deadbeats section), I find that only 10% of people leave feedback. I agree that # of posts is a decent proxy for that...1 is definitely a red flag

[hoodat]

String em up -- It'll teach em a lesson. jd

[jdgabbard]

I usually do a quick look at the seller's previous posts (go to their profile and look under activity). This does help narrow down someone actually engaged in the hobby versus someone on here just trying to sell, or scam. Sometimes I'll take a chance with someone who doesn't post but seems to have had multiple selling threads with no negative comments.

Another big red flag for me is inadequate response time or refusal to respond to specific questions. If you wait days/weeks to respond, and ignore specific questions, I'm very likely to not purchase from you again...regardless of how the transaction ultimately ended up.

A long time ago I had a college professor who told me to trust my gut, it had several million years of evolution behind it, and it was more dependable than my over analyzing mind. Since then I've been burned far fewer times....

[Alex_4x4]

It makes sense to move this topic to the top of the list of “Our Town” topics.

[trebor44]

Several decades ago, I got scammed by an outfit that had run a full page ad in a popular magazine. I contacted the authorities and got 'nada'. There really are NO safeguards to NOT getting scammed or taken. Go with your 'gut feeling', yeah you may lose out on a "deal" but it really is up to you! Some of the advice given here is valid, and some is 'iffy'. The sophistication of the 'scams' is just starting, thanks to AI! "Scamming" aka thieving is as old as prostitution (at least you get something)! Note: if they get your email they 'have you'! The same goes for phone numbers etc.

[Arkansas Paul]

I want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly.
The people trying to scam folks isn't actually the seller, right?
Are scammers seeing the thread, then going to the potential buyer's profile and getting their email address?

I just want to confirm that it is not the actual sellers doing the dishonest shenanigans.

[Der Gebirgsjager]

There have been several variations, but what usually happens is that Party #1 agrees to buy something from Party #2. Then they receive a PM, or sometimes an e-mail, giving instructions to send the payment to Party #3 (the scammer). Some have done this, and lost their money, but quite often now days Party #1 thinks something isn't quite right and reports the payment request by clicking on the little triangle at the bottom left of the posting window. Forum Staff then usually bans Party #3.

DG

[elmacgyver0]

I have been lucky so far on this site, everyone I have had dealings with have been on the up and up.
I have been scammed a few times, but not here.

[truckerdave397]

I want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly.
The people trying to scam folks isn't actually the seller, right?
Are scammers seeing the thread, then going to the potential buyer's profile and getting their email address?

I just want to confirm that it is not the actual sellers doing the dishonest shenanigans.

Paul you are correct. The seller had absolutely nothing to do with this potential scam. Someone saw that I was buying some magazines for over $100 and I assumed that they figured that I would send the $$ to them. Again, I can not stress this enough, the seller had absolutely nothing to do with the scam.

[Winger Ed.]

I just want to confirm that it is not the actual sellers doing the dishonest shenanigans.

Right.
A scammer jumps in and sends a PM to the buyer and tries to hi-jack their money by attempting
to get the buyer to send their money somewhere else other than directly to the the seller you're dealing with.
The PM will start off with having the buyer contact the scammer at a certain email address to set up the payment/theft.

The seller is unaware of this and is completely out of the PM (communication) loop.
Stopping/banning these people depends on the buyer reporting the PM.
Moderators can't access your PMs. The only way we'll know a scammer has contacted you is if you report it
by clicking the little black triangle on your PM screen and it goes to the Staff where it can be acted on.
Most of the time, these reported posts get acted on within the hour.