Heads up>>> SCAM ALERT

[Suwanee Broncos]

I have a wanted ad for a hard to find part and received a private message from a "Mathewbar" telling me that "willierogers603" has a very nice one that he's looking to sell. Sounded fishy, but what the heck, I'll send an email. Sure enough, he speaks no specifics of the part but is eager to seal a deal, and "Mathewbar" has vanished like a fart in the wind: no trace in my inbox, nothing on the post, and nothing in the member's search.

Beware ya'll!

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I have a wanted ad for a hard to find part and received a private message from a "Mathewbar" telling me that "willierogers603" has a very nice one that he's looking to sell. Sounded fishy, but what the heck, I'll send an email. Sure enough, he speaks no specifics of the part but is eager to seal a deal, and "Mathewbar" has vanished like a fart in the wind: no trace in my inbox, nothing on the post, and nothing in the member's search.

Beware ya'll!

Spam account that we haven’t found and wiped out yet. Spam has become a real problem.

@ryan

 

[Uncle Gump]

I have a wanted ad for a hard to find part and received a private message from a "Mathewbar" telling me that "willierogers603" has a very nice one that he's looking to sell. Sounded fishy, but what the heck, I'll send an email. Sure enough, he speaks no specifics of the part but is eager to seal a deal, and "Mathewbar" has vanished like a fart in the wind: no trace in my inbox, nothing on the post, and nothing in the member's search.

Beware ya'll!

Hit the report button and it will ad it to the queue. The staff will then ban the member.

I see Lil blue has banned him

 

[ryan]

Spam account that we haven’t found and wiped out yet. Spam has become a real problem.

@ryan

You kill em, I'll grill em

 

[JoshT]

You can pretty much figure on this happening any time you post a wanted ad in the classifieds section. Maybe something for sale too, but I don't do that often. They come out of the wood work hoping to hook and reel in a fish. I'd guess that they have bots set up to create accounts, watch the section and pm automatically. Just report and move on. Don't give them the time of day or any interaction, that just feeds the algorithm.

 

[AHenry014]

Was scammed on another forum for 200 bucks a couple years back. Ive been doing forum deals for years and this was no different. The seller had legit photos of the items, specifics only an enthusiest would know, etc. I got a little sketched out when the seller insisted I pay with Zelle, which at the time I had not used before. Against my better judgement, I paid the person, who then proceeded to string me along for a week stating he would ship the item. It got a bit strange when I started receiving messages asking if I would be the middleman in a paypal/zelle deal. The deal was that I receive money via paypal, keep it, and provide someone else money through Zelle. At that point I knew I had been taken and had no other recourse besides asking for my money back, which obviously never came. Live and learn.

After I learned I had been scammed, I sent a message for the forum moderator to have the username banned. The weird part? They had no record of the username.

I find myself fairly regularly reporting obvious scammers across the various forums I frequent. Be careful out there, theyre getting creative! Paypal goods/services only!

 

[pjtoledo]

hmmm, interesting.
a couple weeks ago I posted a wanted and received the "hey, message XXX, they might have the part"
I didn't message the 3rd party.

 

[AHenry014]

hmmm, interesting.
a couple weeks ago I posted a wanted and received the "hey, message XXX, they might have the part"
I didn't message the 3rd party.

If its the username for another credible member here, then that might be OK to explore. If they supplied you with an email address, dont bother.

 

[JoshT]

hmmm, interesting.
a couple weeks ago I posted a wanted and received the "hey, message XXX, they might have the part"
I didn't message the 3rd party.

Was the messenger an established forum member or a relative newbie? Was the third party another forum member, or some odd email address?

If an established forum member was recommending another member, it might be legit. If it was a newbie suggesting an odd email it probably isn't.

 

[pjtoledo]

Was the messenger an established forum member or a relative newbie? Was the third party another forum member, or some odd email address?

If an established forum member was recommending another member, it might be legit. If it was a newbie suggesting an odd email it probably isn't.

don't remember, and I deleted the messages.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

If an established forum member was recommending another member, it might be legit. If it was a newbie suggesting an odd email it probably isn't.

The problem with that is that we’ve had older forum members who may not have been active for awhile that suddenly send a message like that and when a mod or admin looks at things, it becomes obvious that the account was hacked.

 

[Jim Oaks]

This type of scam has been going on for a long time. As soon as someone says Joe-Shmo has the item you're looking for, here's how to contact them, a red flag should be smacking you in the head. I'd avoid doing any business with new or newer members. I won't buy anything from anyone that hasn't been an active member here for quite a while.

 

[sgtsandman]

I've gotten burned in the past with relatively unknown members (different forum) selling stuff.

In one particular deal, the person took a couple pictures of the gear set I was interested in but in such a way that they didn't show the chipped teeth on the ring gear and pinion. My guess is that they accidentally dropped them at some point and was looking to unload them while getting some money back instead of just eating the cost of their screw up. Needless to say, they disappeared from the forum after that. I left a bad review just in case they ever did come back but not much could be done beyond that other than letting the forum admins and moderators know about it.

Buying parts on a forum is very much a buyer beware proposition.

 

[ShhhhhDougsHere]

@Suwanee Broncos Thanks for the heads up.

I've not even really tried to buy anything on any forum.

Being unemployed and broke sucks.

I really do appreciate the warning.