Scammer Procedure?

[BlindFaith429]

Seems like scammers have been picking up the pace lately, as we have seen form some previous threads.

I myself have encountered 2 of them.

What is the procedure? Send a PM to a site moderator?

[Alexndl]

Report them here with a copy of the message you got

https://www.mcarterbrown.com/forum/site-related/bug-reports/20645-spam-account/page5

[BlindFaith429]

Done, thanks. Didn't even think to check that area of the site.

[DocsMachine]

Seems like scammers have been picking up the pace lately[...]

-That's because it's working. That is, they're finding a rich vein of suckers in places like this, unfortunately. Virtually every board I'm a member of- paintball, machinist, welding, hotrod, etc.- if it has a classifieds section, is being trolled by dozens and dozens of scammers.

The thing is, if it were a big-ticket item, like a car or motorcycle, the buyer is going to want some documentation. Nobody is going to send of $20K to somebody whose only means of contact is a free Gmail address.

BUT... everyone here would- and often has- been happy to send off forty bucks for a ram or a reg or a rail or whatever. And basically no questions asked- it looks good in the pictures, here's your money.

Be careful out there. One of the biggest guards against this sort of thing is a member post count. If they're a new member, and zero or a very low post count, unless they can provide some other solid bona-fides, pass on whatever they're selling. I know there's a lot of "hey, I really want that thing!" and "this is a great deal, I don't want to miss out!" but the odds are really good these days that the thing doesn't exist. It's just a photo swiped from the internet somewhere.

Doc.

[Chuck E Ducky]

It’s easy if you don’t know them use PayPal protection. If they don’t take it it’s an instant red flag.

[Euphie]

Yeah if someone says no PayPal, then I am not gonna buy it. The one exception is for Facebook groups where we can just meet at the paintball field on Sunday and then I can verify the stuff in person.

[coyote]

The MO is often a new account chasing marks in the WTB section. Often moving the communication off board.

Something to remember, the primary ingredient in a con is urgency. Anyone trying to develop that emotion when selling privately is suspect.

[GanonsGrin]

Haha, here ya go. this is what it looks like, just in a stupid scale. Two public responses

https://www.mcarterbrown.com/forum/buy-sell-trade/wtb/241418-wtb-gtek-gmek#post241441

[chrislognshot]

where art thou mar. that right he falling a sleep at the wheel

[Axel]

They pop up on a weekly or sometimes daily basis and are pretty easy to spot. It's like... Walk into a crowd and all the pickpockets are wearing neon green shirts. I guess someone somewhere must be giving them money or they'd give up but I can't imagine who falls for it

[Chuck E Ducky]

I feel like they throw $hit at the wall till something sticks.

Phones been popping off with spam calls to. The robo calls tag anything that picks up tags it for future scams. They just tag the number as “ in use” and sell them to telemarketers and scammers. It’s just law of averages eventually they will catch a sucker.

A guy in my Car Club use to scam them back and go after them. He would get there IP and gather a bunch of info and shut them down as a hobby. He use to have a blog I followed but he got rid of it because he now works for the government. It was entertaining and he got really good at it.

[DocsMachine]

I can't imagine who falls for it

-You'd be surprised. Back when I was getting ready to buy that CNC lathe, I posted a WTB on a machinist board. First reply I got was from a zero-posts scammer. Sounded legit, the pics didn't appear on a reverse image search, etc.

But the more I talked to him, the less legit it sounded. Wouldn't offer a phone number, website, company name or even a location other than "in West Virginia". But here's the kicker- I hung on longer than I should have, because I wanted that machine. I wanted to buy it. It was a hell of a deal, and I was looking forward to it.

I went so far as to find an online company that offered Escrow services- but the instant he got the notification from them, he said no, he doesn't deal with escrow. Which is, of course, a huge red flag, and that finally broke through my 'gold fever'.

There's been guys on the hot-rod boards that have been looking- often for years- for rare parts for restorations. Somebody finally pipes up and offers one, has what appear to be legit pictures. They want that part. They want it so bad they can taste it. Yeah, the deal seems a little shady, but the part is virtually unobtainium- it's worth a little risk to finally put the project together, right? Wire off a grand or so and hope for the best.

Happens thousands and thousands of times a day. And is successful hundreds of times a day.

Anyone seen those "porch pirate glitter bomb" videos? The author of those once stumbled on a money trafficking ring that was quite sophisticated. They followed ONE "mule" transporting cash for the guy running the operation. The one time they followed, she had a FedEx box with $16,000 in cash in it.

Not quite the same setup as these classifieds-scammers, but gives you an idea of how lucrative that sort of thing is.

Doc.

[GanonsGrin]

Mark Rober is a pretty legit dude! Former NASA scientist