Fraud Alert

[Rax]

Let's say you post a WTB item here. Sits here for a while, then, say, "snoweev" (random example, wink, wink) contacts you that "Davies" (another random example) has one for sale. Heck, snoweev gets a bit confused and lets you know "Davies" also has one of your other WTBs. "Davies" has a bit of everything, it turns out.

You contact "Davies" at their email address ("daviesmaclean@aol.com"), and obviously, the aol address is a dead giveaway this is an older gentleman. Once he agrees with your ask (very accommodating, very nice guy), he doesn't have a paypal, so he'll be using his son's (I'm assuming, middle aged himself). He doesn't take other than "friends and family," so I diligently look (there was also a rush thingie on this, as he's with his "son" for just a couple of days more!), and what do you know, his son's thingie is a commercial account, so I can't pay my friend Davies Mclean as the friend that he is to me. I ask, he checks, and it turns out his son is also his friend, who sends me a payment request from the same address ("dukeoke45@yahoo.com"). My new friend (Duke Onchonga, aka "dukeoke45@yahoo.com") now can have my money without the comm fees. We're family! Aren't we all.

My friendship with all these good folks kind of disappeared when I started asking questions. For instance, asking for pics of the resistor I want turned out eBay pics of the correct resistor but of a different value from one of the large instrumentation dealers in the US. I think my old friend was getting a little loose at this point. What's an order of magnitude between friends?

To my other request - what's his handle on here - he WAS on this community, but he forgot his password. Life's really complicated these days on the internets.

[Xtremexp]

Same thing happened to me , exactly what has been described. Be aware people.

Funny enough, he was pushing to sent paypal transfer even i have not seen the item picture.

[dorkshoei]

This is a known issue.  Happens on every forum that has classifieds and allows wanted ads. That said the mods here don't seem very concerned which is a shame. 

[AVGresponding]

Unless you report it, they won't know about it. It has been stated numerous times by mod/admin staff that they do not read every post on the forum.

[Rax]

Unless you report it

How exactly do you do that?

[dorkshoei]

Unless you report it

How exactly do you do that?

You would click on the "report" button.  There is one on every PM you receive.

[dorkshoei]

Unless you report it, they won't know about it. It has been stated numerous times by mod/admin staff that they do not read every post on the forum.

I reported snoweev 3 days ago when I got the same PM. It seems his account is still active and he last logged in yesterday.  We shall see if he's still active in another week.

One time a year or so ago I reported a similar pm and got a reply from one the mods saying they didn't consider it a scam which blew me away. On the forum I'm a mod on, we delete a dozen plus accounts a week, it's whack a mole but members lost money. 

I suggested to the mods that they add a warning about these wanted scams to the sticky on this forum but I've not heard back yet

[Rax]

I reported it, and am tackling this from PayPal side too. There's just too many environments these scam artists seem to be running freely on.

[dorkshoei]

If you didn't make a payment Paypal won't do anything.   

[wd5jfr]

He tried to scam me but when I asked for serial numbers and a picture along with his location he went silent.

[AVGresponding]

Unless you report it, they won't know about it. It has been stated numerous times by mod/admin staff that they do not read every post on the forum.

I reported snoweev 3 days ago when I got the same PM. It seems his account is still active and he last logged in yesterday.  We shall see if he's still active in another week.

One time a year or so ago I reported a similar pm and got a reply from one the mods saying they didn't consider it a scam which blew me away. On the forum I'm a mod on, we delete a dozen plus accounts a week, it's whack a mole but members lost money. 

I suggested to the mods that they add a warning about these wanted scams to the sticky on this forum but I've not heard back yet

For good or ill, from what i understand they go on numbers; the more people that report an issue, the more likely they are to act. After all, I suppose that if just one person makes a report, it might be just sour grapes or a grudge.

[jogri]

It's not even like this is a new issue... He has been doing this since december without getting banned:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/buysellwanted/scammer-alert-snoweev/

[dorkshoei]

After all, I suppose that if just one person makes a report, it might be just sour grapes or a grudge.[/color][/font][/b]

The problem with the above is that the template of these scams is identical and it does not require advanced forensics to identify them.

- Person sending PMs has recently joined.  For any other forum that's measured in a few days, alas here, a few months

- Person sending PM has zero posts, or very few which are gibberish and clearly not forum related

- Person immediately wants conversation to move to external email

- Person never has item, it's always someone else they know who does

Such senders have their accounts disabled at first complaint on other forums because the above pattern is so distinct.

[Simon]

We can't see PM's, we can only go on reports we get. I'll take a look. But, cmon, people falling for this? my mate not on this forum has what you want? we can't operate outside of this forum. I'll take a look.

[Rax]

We can't see PM's, we can only go on reports we get. I'll take a look. But, cmon, people falling for this? my mate not on this forum has what you want? we can't operate outside of this forum. I'll take a look.

I don't think anyone in this thread has been scammed, though they did try. I think members would be reassured if these accounts - which serve no other purpose than trying to scam - would be handled one way or another. But I personally understand it's probably mostly a game of whack-a-mole.
At any rate, I did my due diligence and reported the PMs, and warned everyone in a public post on what's going on. Hopefully, this narrows down the room these people have to operate on this community.

[dorkshoei]

I don't think anyone in this thread has been scammed,

If you read the other thread (referenced two posts above) about same scammer,  one member here did lose money.