info Things to watch out for to prevent being scammed.

[Gator]

I contacted Chad yesterday. Both Maxwell and Maxwelll- two accounts created in early April for the sole purpose of stealing your money - have been deleted. But it's up to us to be aware. This brave new world we live in doesn't always play nice.

[BlueEye]

Quick follow up - I was able to program out a new member registration check that validates IP registration address location against the United States and Canada.  Any other countries outside US and Canada will require manual admin approval now going forward.  I think this should help stop some of the bad apples out there.  That code was implemented live last night.  It does not eliminate the risk 100% as there could still be bad apples obviously here in the US and Canada but the majority of the time, these scammers come from oversea registered IPs (as was the case with Maxwelll).

[Bait Bucket]

Well, I  guess I was sleeping on this one. Drex2 new a guy...LOL, who was selling an abu garcia reel for 100 dollars and when I didn't answer quick enough, he lowered it to 70. Well, I fell for it and paid him. He then wrote back saying he needed another 30 dollars for shipping due to the pandemic.  Right then I knew I was bit. 

Here's the list of profiles...Drex2, LOU profile says he joined in early may. His partner in crime, [email protected], and PayPal email is Wilma Mongare, [email protected]. 

So, just beware of this guy and pay more attention than I did. 

[gkgstorageinc]

Need to be careful here

[Nic]

How do I report scammer accounts? Just had a sneaky one try and con me.

 

Account: Darren2

Email: [email protected]

[Saugeyetom]

On 4/20/2022 at 8:28 AM, BlueEye said:

Quick follow up - I was able to program out a new member registration check that validates IP registration address location against the United States and Canada.  Any other countries outside US and Canada will require manual admin approval now going forward.  I think this should help stop some of the bad apples out there.  That code was implemented live last night.  It does not eliminate the risk 100% as there could still be bad apples obviously here in the US and Canada but the majority of the time, these scammers come from oversea registered IPs (as was the case with Maxwelll).

I use scamolitics on ogf.  Same??

[essex29]

Yes I was recently scammed on here. I was trying to by planer boards. II got a message from Vince00. He said he had a friend that had them and sent me a email address. Needless to say I got scammed. Thanks 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Reelcrazy]

38 minutes ago, essex29 said:

Yes I was recently scammed on here. I was trying to by planer boards. II got a message from Vince00. He said he had a friend that had them and sent me a email address. Needless to say I got scammed. Thanks 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To bad you didn't see this first! 

[greenhornet73]

Beware if they tell you to make your PayPal payment to them through “ friends and family”.  That protects them from having to give you your money back or canceling your payment.

Edited January 14, 2023 by greenhornet73

[Gator]

Restrict your purchases to members who have some standing on the forum. A guy with a history of posting reports is unlikely to be a scammer. Googan, maybe lol...

[sherman brown]

On 5/26/2020 at 4:18 PM, Reelcrazy said:

As most of you know scams are rampant on Craigslist and other sites. Less likely here but it happened to me. Here are some major points I have learned along the way.

 

1. Check the users history on the site before agreeing to purchase anything. If they signed up for membership very recently and messaged you privately that they have the item you are looking for be very careful. Especially if they show no other activity on the site.

 

2. If they refer you to someone else to purchase the item through who is not a member of the site, ie "contact this individual at this email address ______________" should raise red flags.

 

3. Look at the wording the individual uses. Yes is it possible that someone who does not speak english as a first language is completely legit unfortunately many times they are not. Many scammers throw in the words like "kindly" to seem friendly in strange places that really make no sense.  The following is an excerpt from a message I received from this scammer "Okay a notification from Paypal will be sent to you kindly click yes on the notification to complete your payment. This is to ensure that you have successfully made your payment to me so in order to have them shipped to your location. Kindly let me know when you have received it and clicked it."

 

Notice how some words do not belong or out of place. In this situation I was trying to buy one downrigger but they referred to the item as "them" indicating this person does not even know what a downrigger is. They use words like "merchandise" or "goods" to describe the items you are trying to purchase when anyone that fishes would call it a "rigger" or "downrigger"

 

4. They ask for steps that are foreign to you compared to past transactions. This individual asked for a screen shot of my payment confirmation. They also insisted that they would send a notification to me through paypal to confirm the payment. This step does not exist in Paypal. 

 

5. Scammers are getting very sneaky and use American names and emails. 

 

Im sure most of this was covered already but go into each transaction with caution and do not send cash, check, or money order to anyone unless you personally know them. Do not use friends and family in Paypal unless you personally know them. 

I have bought many items with a postal money order from people I didn't know and so far, but the most i have paid was around 400.00. I have never been scammed. but I found a couple of items like motorhomes at a good price and another one for a truck on Facebook marketplace. but when i went to buy them, they wanted me to buy through eBay at an account they had set up. this just didn't sound right so contacted eBay about this and was told they never did this type of thing outside of eBay. I reported there listing as scam.

[Reelcrazy]

21 minutes ago, sherman brown said:

I have bought many items with a postal money order from people I didn't know and so far, but the most i have paid was around 400.00. I have never been scammed. but I found a couple of items like motorhomes at a good price and another one for a truck on Facebook marketplace. but when i went to buy them, they wanted me to buy through eBay at an account they had set up. this just didn't sound right so contacted eBay about this and was told they never did this type of thing outside of eBay. I reported there listing as scam.

Yes this has been around forever. Whenever there is a step that is out of the norm it needs to be questioned. At this point in this day and age I wouldn't send anyone money with out having the item in hand unless I knew them. Only exception is if I was using a service with very good payment protection. You might not get scammed for a couple transactions but you will at some point if you send money with no recourse. 

 

Even Paypal is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars on scams. They will reimburse you but they eat the cost. 

[mirayong]

That's what happened recently, but thank God I realized that he was a fraud.

 

 

 

_{Mini Militia App Lock}

Edited January 26, 2023 by mirayong

[AnglingAddict]

Vince00 scammed a guy I know as well - same deal responded to a WTB ad saying he his friend had the item etc.  Asked to be paid through Friends and Family....

[sszoldra]

Not everyone with a different cell # from where they live is a scammer. I still have my Ct. cell # though I live in Ga. now. I just know more people north than I do south.

[TC Creations]

On 5/26/2020 at 4:18 PM, Reelcrazy said:

As most of you know scams are rampant on Craigslist and other sites. Less likely here but it happened to me. Here are some major points I have learned along the way.

 

1. Check the users history on the site before agreeing to purchase anything. If they signed up for membership very recently and messaged you privately that they have the item you are looking for be very careful. Especially if they show no other activity on the site.

 

2. If they refer you to someone else to purchase the item through who is not a member of the site, ie "contact this individual at this email address ______________" should raise red flags.

 

3. Look at the wording the individual uses. Yes is it possible that someone who does not speak english as a first language is completely legit unfortunately many times they are not. Many scammers throw in the words like "kindly" to seem friendly in strange places that really make no sense.  The following is an excerpt from a message I received from this scammer "Okay a notification from Paypal will be sent to you kindly click yes on the notification to complete your payment. This is to ensure that you have successfully made your payment to me so in order to have them shipped to your location. Kindly let me know when you have received it and clicked it."

 

Notice how some words do not belong or out of place. In this situation I was trying to buy one downrigger but they referred to the item as "them" indicating this person does not even know what a downrigger is. They use words like "merchandise" or "goods" to describe the items you are trying to purchase when anyone that fishes would call it a "rigger" or "downrigger"

 

4. They ask for steps that are foreign to you compared to past transactions. This individual asked for a screen shot of my payment confirmation. They also insisted that they would send a notification to me through paypal to confirm the payment. This step does not exist in Paypal. 

 

5. Scammers are getting very sneaky and use American names and emails. 

 

Im sure most of this was covered already but go into each transaction with caution and do not send cash, check, or money order to anyone unless you personally know them. Do not use friends and family in Paypal unless you personally know them. 

 

[Gator]

It's always worth revisiting this information. Two common types of insidious approaches that I've seen used recently, which may apply to items purchased here indirectly in one case, but just an FYI in the other.

 

You may receive an "invoice" or notice of payment in your messages thanking you for your purchase, but you didn't purchase anything. And so you try to follow up to figure out what's going on, and that's where they get you. Never click any links provided or provide any information to these clowns. Delete, ignore, move on. 

 

You may get a phone call from somebody who sounds like one of your loved ones - common themes are relatives who've been arrested or in an accident and need money for lawyers, hospital, etc...grandparents are perfect victims here.

 

Taking two seconds for due diligence is the smart play. We recently had some friends nearly fall prey to this scam, and even as bright, educated individuals, their emotions got the best of them. The scammers, who were supposedly municipal employees for the police department, said they accept payment in Bitcoin, and that's a red flag lol. They simply picked up the phone and called their son, who was fine and oblivious, as college students are on Saturdays...

[Sk8man]

The unfortunate thing (among  many) relating to the use of Artificial Intelligence is that they are now able to couple a photo with the actual voice of someone so it will be very difficult if not impossible to spot some of these scams.

[Reelcrazy]

Most of the time these money grabs using family members are aimed at the elderly or at least 65 plus. They get overwhelmed and grew up in a time where this treachery didn't exist. It doesn't even cross their mind it isn't real and will do anything to help a son/grandson et cetera. I have seen 30k in cash taken of out of a retirement fund and sent in an envelope with no questions asked. Have also had to console people who knew it was likely a scam but were not 100 percent sure and were beside themselves that a family member could possibly be in trouble. Very confused, very overwhelmed. Educate your elders and be educated yourself. You always have time to slow down make calls and figure out what is going on. 
 

Transactions in person

 

Ask to see the item with your name, a sun, moon, and a unicorn on a piece of paper in someone's hand. Not resting on the item. It is way harder to professionally photoshop in a hand and paper in the foreground than a piece of paper sitting on an item or next to it. Look very carefully at the way light hits the hand and paper does it look out of place to your brain? Then it is. 

 

Only use payments methods that 100 percent protect you. Unfortunately this is non negotiable anymore. You are not getting a better deal by using a free service. If they are a person that sells items more than once they will have something besides venmo and the cash app. 

 

Make sure the item is actually protected under the entity's protection policy. Some items are omitted from purchase protection. 

 

If the seller is worried about transaction fees offer to pay them yourself. If the item is such a good deal the transaction fees shouldn't kill you to pay. 

 

Once again a short list of details but if simply adhered to unless an account is directly hacked and the scammer actually uses your account directly to take money or buy items you cannot get scammed. You simply have to not make "exceptions" because "someone was just widowed" and they have a brand new boat. They are from Canada and the pictures of the boat are clearly in the florida keys.