For Sale: warning to buyers - scammers on the fourm

[dan104]

Hi all,
I had a very recent transaction that I thought I would share.


I listed a want to buy for a item, and got a rather quick reply fro a person named Tom Harrison offering up the item. I gave a price and he said ok, I asked for pictures and got 2 shots, neither of them showed any sizing so I asked for another shot with an object in it. (one thing that smelled early on was his paypal account was for another name).



He pushed back telling me not to worry, I keep pushing and got a third shot with nothing in it. Started to smell a problem. Then I recalled a listing on ebay fora smaller version and looked it up and found the same pictures but from a place in PA and this guy said he was in FL.


Clearly a scam trolling our classifieds

[Stingo]

Report the DM or relevant posts by clicking on the triangle on the bottom left of the post/DM

[stormalong]

Also look at the member. How many posts has he/she made, how long have they been a registered user?

I had the same experience a while back. The PM was from a brand new member and the message was very generic. I did report the PM. A moderator replied that there was a lot of these lately.

These people scan for wanted ads. If they get a 1% response they make a good living. They have no knowledge of what they are claiming to sell so it is pretty easy to figure them out.

[CaptTom]

Good points, thanks!

I've noticed, on this forum and others, an uptick in accounts posting a first-time post to an old thread, but the post is overly general and adds nothing to the discussion, nor does it ask a question. In fact, they look like they've been written by an AI which was asked to write a brief paragraph about the thread title.

It used to be these were in poor English, but I guess with AI now they can get the syntax and grammar correct.

I assume these are to establish a "trusted" account. Many forums have rules requiring some number of posts before the user can do certain things, like post links or photos. Maybe other things like PMs or responses to classified ads.

I never remember if these should be reported or not. Some moderators like to know this stuff, others are so overworked they don't want to be bothered.

Bottom line is, always look at an account's posting history yourself before trusting that they're legitimate.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

................
I never remember if these should be reported or not. Some moderators like to know this stuff, others are so overworked they don't want to be bothered.
..............

Moderator Hat ON -

Please please please report anything that looks remotely like a scam user. Keeping everyone safe from scammers is a priority - we are never too busy too check out the potential bad guys and we have a lot of tools available to us to identify and remove them.

@dan104, if you still have the PM which Tom Harrison used to contact you, please use the report icon (top RHS of PM) and we will take the appropriate action. If you have deleted the PM but can remember his username, PM me his username.

I note we have a member with the username of Tom Harrison but clearly this isn't the guy trying to scam you as going by the data on his public profile page, he hasn't logged on since 2010.

[CaptTom]

Got it. I've made a mental note: CF = Contact (mods) For questionable posts.

Anything to make the mod's job easier. Thank you!!

[dan104]

Did it, the pm came from Brian1.1

[Shrew]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

Some moderators like to know this stuff, others are so overworked they don't want to be bothered.

Completely speculative and simply untrue.

[alctel]

There is also at least one guy on here who aggressively haggles down prices, and then turns around and resells the item later on for more money to someone else. Not illegal, but kind of a dick move.

[Iron E]

Originally Posted by alctel

There is also at least one guy on here who aggressively haggles down prices, and then turns around and resells the item later on for more money to someone else. Not illegal, but kind of a dick move.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see a problem with this.

Is it against the forum rules to do this?

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Iron E

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see a problem with this.

Is it against the forum rules to do this?

Do ... it's just, as alctel says, a really jerky thing to do.

We come here as a community. One basic tenant of community membership anywhere is: Don't be a Dick. No one should need a written rule to understand this.

[Iron E]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Do ... it's just, as alctel says, a really jerky thing to do.

We come here as a community. One basic tenant of community membership anywhere is: Don't be a Dick. No one should need a written rule to understand this.

We see things differently.
Although I haven't bought or sold anything on the internet, I see this forum as a group of adults who are able to make decisions on whether they want to sell for a reduced price or not.
If I did sell something, I wouldn't complain about someone reselling it.... seems childish.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by alctel

There is also at least one guy on here who aggressively haggles down prices, and then turns around and resells the item later on for more money to someone else. Not illegal, but kind of a dick move.

Also qualifies as running a business on the forum and should be subject to all of those rules other businesses have to follow (whatever those might be)

[JPA Cate]

Maybe it depends on which is more important to you: free enterprise or community reciprocity. Human interrelations require a certain level of empathy and insight to work smoothly and comfortably.

Ann

[Iron E]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Also qualifies as running a business on the forum and should be subject to all of those rules other businesses have to follow (whatever those might be)

This is the correct answer. If you're running the CF as an eBay business, then you should be subject to that "service provider" or business tag.