⚠️ Important Buyer Beware - Member Watch

[kickingaz]

I received a message from @crazyjeeplover in response to a want to buy ad I posted. He sent me pics of the part I wanted, even various pics as I requested them. I sent a Zelle payment of $1 to confirm and he got it, I sent the balance and he claims he never got it and I should reverse it (which you can't). I later found the photos he sent me on eBay with a different seller. This seller is a SCAM and should be avoided.

 

[willy]

Thank you for reporting this, and I’m sorry this happened.

He’s been banned. You should reach out to your bank as soon as possible; they might be able to reverse the charge as fraud. A few others have reported success doing that.

 

[Earl 392]

He’s been banned. You should reach out to your bank as soon as possible; they might be able to reverse the charge as fraud. A few others have reported success doing that.

Is he off the site?

 

[@JC]

Forum WTB ads, the "easy mode" for professional scammers.

 

[willy]

Is he off the site?

Yes. The member registered last week and only had a few posts. We do our best to screen all classifieds posts, but unfortunately this occurred through private messages.

 

[OldVetteGuy]

Suggestion to Staff members, set the forum so that members CANNOT post forsale ad's until they have been forum members for at least 90 days or have purchased a Supporting membership for 30 day.

This will help sort out the scammers, just a suggestion! Sorry, this is just the world we live in today!

 

[kickingaz]

Thank you for reporting this, and I’m sorry this happened.

He’s been banned. You should reach out to your bank as soon as possible; they might be able to reverse the charge as fraud. A few others have reported success doing that.

Thanks. I did contact my bank and they are disputing due to fraud.

 

[Focker]

I manage a forum and we do not allow anyone to see the classified forums until they have been a member for at least 15 days and have 5 posts. They also can't send a PM until they have been on for 15 days except to an Admin. It has pretty much stopped all the scams. Might be worth configuring here.

 

[Winston]

I manage a forum and we do not allow anyone to see the classified forums until they have been a member for at least 15 days and have 5 posts. They also can't send a PM until they have been on for 15 days except to an Admin. It has pretty much stopped all the scams. Might be worth configuring here.

Thanks Focker. This is how you gain entry into the circle of trust.

 

[willy]

Suggestion to Staff members, set the forum so that members CANNOT post forsale ad's until they have been forum members for at least 90 days or have purchased a Supporting membership for 30 day.

This will help sort out the scammers, just a suggestion! Sorry, this is just the world we live in today!

We do require a minimum of 20 posts or Supporting Member status to post in the classifieds. Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop transactions via private messages, so it’s important for everyone to remain cautious.

 

[willy]

I manage a forum and we do not allow anyone to see the classified forums until they have been a member for at least 15 days and have 5 posts. They also can't send a PM until they have been on for 15 days except to an Admin. It has pretty much stopped all the scams. Might be worth configuring here.

Thanks, we do have a minimum post requirement in place for sending private messages, but this user quickly made five posts to bypass it. I will look into adding a time requirement too.

 

[Focker]

Thanks, we do have a minimum post requirement in place for sending private messages, but this user quickly made five posts to bypass it. I will look into adding a time requirement too.

If you could block new members or guest from viewing it might help. The minimum post requirement is awesome because gives everyone a "sense" of someone being a true enthusiast.

 

[willy]

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up about a member who had a few classified posts and appears to have scammed a new member: @station378

As a reminder, if you’re buying something on the forum, please use a payment method that offers buyer protection.

 

[GERONIMO-USMC]

Station378 used A.I. to manipulate pictures, and also steals genuine pics from other forums.

If you look, zoom at his other for sale items and scrutinize them. You can see A.I. manipulation on the pics especially on all the papers with the user name. Different fonts in them, and blurred, warped, or manipulated MOPAR part number stickers, and missing blue lines on the note cards with A.I. signatures.

Also, in the picture of the half doors, there is one with the blue 4xe tow hook in the background that was in the JL forums for sale under another person with a 4xe.

Also, he has been a member here for quite a while with some helpful and liked posts, probably generated by A.I. as well, but these scammers have patience apparently.

 

[OldVetteGuy]

This has all been covered before, Please set up a "no posting of ad's or private messaging by new members for at least 60 days" or if that is not possible at least a review by a staff member to approve it before it gets sent or goes active.

Let's do what we can to at least make it difficult for these scammers!

 

[CAMEL2R]

I received a message from @crazyjeeplover in response to a want to buy ad I posted. He sent me pics of the part I wanted, even various pics as I requested them. I sent a Zelle payment of $1 to confirm and he got it, I sent the balance and he claims he never got it and I should reverse it (which you can't). I later found the photos he sent me on eBay with a different seller. This seller is a SCAM and should be avoided.

Douchebag! Thanks for the heads-up!!

 

[GERONIMO-USMC]

I’m starting to wonder if it is the same guy over and over again with different user names. Maybe a block on the IP Adressses of these known forum scammers for good measure.

 

[willy]

This has all been covered before, Please set up a "no posting of ad's or private messaging by new members for at least 60 days" or if that is not possible at least a review by a staff member to approve it before it gets sent or goes active.

Let's do what we can to at least make it difficult for these scammers!

We manually approve every new member and verify IPs. This member joined the site back in March 2023 and had made 38 posts, so didn't really stand out.

If a payment method doesn’t offer buyer protection or recourse and is being pushed heavily, that’s generally a warning sign in my experience.

 

[willy]

I’m starting to wonder if it is the same guy over and over again with different user names. Maybe a block on the IP Adressses of these known forum scammers for good measure.

We block IPs associated with banned accounts, but it’s fairly easy these days for traffic to be routed through a VPN.

 

[Focker]

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up about a member who had a few classified posts and appears to have scammed a new member: @station378

As a reminder, if you’re buying something on the forum, please use a payment method that offers buyer protection.

Looking over his post there nothing that would raise the normal red flags. He was good

I was moderating a few forums tonight and came across this guy using little twist on the same story on a bunch of forums. Much easier to spot.

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