[Tobstertx3]

Hey all,

Thought i'd provide some feedback.

I sent a message to a guy on his thread of an item that they had posted for sale saying "Hey PM Me".

I was really interested in the item so went ahead and sent a PM to the seller with a specific Title.

A few hours later, I received two separate PMs from different users with titles VERY close to what I had sent the seller but not the same. So i immediately knew something was off. As well as the actual Seller had replied.

The SPAM PMs asked me to text them and provided a number which I obviously didn't. Both users had 1 post.

Had I not sent a PM, I might have fallen for this.

Be careful out there.

[Joebie]

Yep, they'll tell you that they're OP of a for sale ad just on a different account or some other similar but clearly fake story.

[Pauly Wauly]

Originally Posted by Tobstertx3

Hey all,

Thought i'd provide some feedback.

I sent a message to a guy on his thread of an item that they had posted for sale saying "Hey PM Me".

I was really interested in the item so went ahead and sent a PM to the seller with a specific Title.

A few hours later, I received two separate PMs from different users with titles VERY close to what I had sent the seller but not the same. So i immediately knew something was off. As well as the actual Seller had replied.

The SPAM PMs asked me to text them and provided a number which I obviously didn't. Both users had 1 post.

Had I not sent a PM, I might have fallen for this.

Be careful out there.

You must be new to car forums?

These kind of scams happen on all forums. Never trust someone with one post trying to sell you something.
You have to be careful also with people with a lot of posts.

I always pay with PayPal, and I do not send payment as friends and family, like that I am always covered if something goes wrong.

[Tobstertx3]

Originally Posted by Wauly

You must be new to car forums?

Member of F150 Forum for 5+ years. Never had this happen to me before although I know there’s a lot of it out there.

[Pauly Wauly]

Originally Posted by Tobstertx3

Member of F150 Forum for 5+ years. Never had this happen to me before although I know there’s a lot of it out there.

Okay

I`ve seen it happen on every car forum that I visit.

[Redd]

Very common here. Every time I reply 'You have PM' in a for sale post, I get someone else other than the OP message me back pretending to be the OP.

Theresa's a few things I do now before buying anything. First is do a background check on the seller. I look thru his profile and his posts - how long has he been a member? How many posts does he have? What are the posts about - are they fluff posts to bump up his numbers, or does he contribute in other meaningful ways? If he's a frequent seller (there are those too) I look thru their old for sale posts to make sure others were not scammed.

It's a bit of work but necessary to stay safe these days.

[///MPhatic]

Originally Posted by Wauly

You have to be careful also with people with a lot of posts.

I haven't found this to be the case. In fact, before doing business with someone I always check their previous posts, what they are about, their frequency, address and car info if I can get it.

Originally Posted by Wauly

I always pay with PayPal, and I do not send payment as friends and family, like that I am always covered if something goes wrong.

It's a good policy, but sometimes you can do F&F, you just have to do your research to see who you're dealing with. I recently got $9600 through friends and family because the guy didn't want to pay the tax.

[Pauly Wauly]

Originally Posted by ///MPhatic

I haven't found this to be the case. In fact, before doing business with someone I always check their previous posts, what they are about, their frequency, address and car info if I can get it.



It's a good policy, but sometimes you can do F&F, you just have to do your research to see who you're dealing with. I recently got $9600 through friends and family because the guy didn't want to pay the tax.

It does happen, not as often as with someone with just one or two posts, but I have seen it happen before.
Yeah, that is the one mistake a lot of people make, they don`t bother looking up the history of the seller before sending them money.



I have done F&F, but those transactions were with people that I know, I would not do it with a stranger, and I don`t recommend doing that. I have seen a lot of people get burned doing that.

$9600 Does this person know you, or where you live? There is no way I would send that amount to someone through F&F if I didn`t know that person.

[///MPhatic]

Originally Posted by Wauly

$9600 Does this person know you, or where you live? There is no way I would send that amount to someone through F&F if I didn`t know that person.

We don't know each other, but I have been on the Lotus board since 2006 selling high-dollar parts (no negatives), 5,500 posts, and we're on chat with each other, FB & IG. And that's the crucial bit. Same with Bimmerpost, join date is 2008, 2400 posts, plenty of FS threads, etc. Trust is a hard thing to come by these days, but it's possible if you do your research.

[treimche]

How/where can we report these scammers so they get banned?