Scam Alerts

9542 Views 111 Replies 39 Participants Last post by terminalvertigo, 3 mo ago

davetcan

Discussion Starter · Aug 25, 2021

We continue to be targeted by scammers in both the WTB and For Sale categories. When dealing with a new member with no history please use extreme caution. We recently banned a new user "mmk7" following an alert from a member suspecting a scam. This guy claimed to have the guitar our member was looking for but when questioned more specifically to provide proof he eventually disappeared. We banned him as soon as we heard but it wasn't quickly enough and another member looks to have lost some money to this guy. He has since tried to rejoin twice to my knowledge under different user names but has so far been stopped both times.

Things to watch for, questions to ask.

1. Someone who just joined.
2. Someone demanding payment by EMT only.
3. Someone avoiding supplying pics of the item in question.
4. Someone unwilling to provide other references.
5. Someone willing to lower the price dramatically for cash or EMT.

I'm sure there are other flags, be careful out there.

If you suspect someone please bring it to our attention as soon as possible.

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fogdart

· #36 · Apr 9, 2022

Voxguy76 said:
FYI - I was messaged by this member (terryeric470) who joined the forum 30 min ago about a W
TB ad. Given his message I'd say it's safe to say this is a scam. Just fair warning and PSA.

View attachment 412338

Thanks for letting us know. For quickest action in the future, please PM the mods. That way we are sure to see it quickly.

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fogdart

· #38 · Apr 9, 2022

greco said:
Is reporting it also a reasonable approach for a "quick action"?

Absolutely, but a PM will yield the quickest result. I get an email alert when I’ve got a PM on the forum. We don’t get an email alert for reports - we only see them when we log on. A scammer can rip off a number of members in under an hour.

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fogdart

· #41 · Apr 9, 2022

laristotle said:
Maybe ask the programmers to enable email notification for that?

I will not be signing up for that. We get multiple reports daily.

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fogdart

· #43 · Apr 9, 2022

laristotle said:
Comes with the territory of being a mod, does it not?

The reason why we have multiple mods is so that workload is distributed. We all have families, full time jobs, other interests... lives. Between the three of us there is usually someone on the forum every hour or so. If that’s not a quick enough response time for you maybe take it up with VS and request them pay a staff member to maintain the site at all times. If you think that I’m gonna set up email alerts for every report you are dead wrong. But maybe the guy with 16,000 posts since 2019 has way too much time on his hands and doesn’t understand that concept.

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fogdart

· #46 · Apr 9, 2022

laristotle said:
I just offered a suggestion to your concern. Nothing more.

Now, go have your cup of coffee.
or maybe a snickers.

No. You offered a suggestion, and I explained why I wouldn’t be doing that. Then you came back with a snarky remark which I took exception to. I welcome suggestions, but I will not roll over when someone takes a shot at me.

I’ve been up since 5am. I’m past coffee and thinking about lunch at this point. You wanna tell me what I should eat for my lunch too?

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fogdart

· #47 · Apr 9, 2022

davetcan said:
Responding to reports does. Constantly getting email alerts does not. Other than Scammer alerts I've never seen a report that warranted "immediate" reaction. Most of them come from people with an agenda. PM's are the best method for dealing with scammers, as noted.

Thanks Dave!

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fogdart

· #49 · Apr 9, 2022

JBFairthorne said:
Wow. Someone is pissy today. Maybe you shoulda slept in.

Im not pissy at all. I’m having a good chuckle at this little sparing match.

Plenty of time to sleep when you’re dead. Mornings are my favourite part of the day. Especially in the spring!

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