gearjunkie
Lil-Rokslider
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."
Recent example. I posted I was looking for a used Rem7600. An individual messaged me said to contact him at his email address. First red flag. Member history, Rokslide was unable to find the member so he had already deactivated his account this was a huge red flag. I continued to play along. He sent me pictures of a model 7600 and a good description of the rifle that made sense from a gun owners perspective. I asked him how he would like payment. He requested Paypal friends and family, another red flag. At this point it was obvious he had copied a for sale ad from another site. I asked him to prove that he had the rifle in his possession. So he sends me a picture with the rifle and a handwritten card with his name the date and the rifle details. This threw me for a loop was this legit? So I zoomed in really close on the picture. He had used photoshop or something to insert the card into the picture only by zooming in did i see that the card seemed to be floating off the carpet and had weird shadows. At this point I called him out. He called me judgemental which was strange. Then he sent me a picture of an actual Montana drivers license with a name that matched what he was calling himself. Not only was the Friends and family a red flag. He sent me a link so someone else's account to pay through paypal and it was a donation link. To summarize I am well versed in scams ect... being a Police Officer. This guy had me second guessing even after being relatively sure it was a scam! They are getting progressively more slick! Oh and I already have another message in my inbox about a rifle from a new user.
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.
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."
Recent example. I posted I was looking for a used Rem7600. An individual messaged me said to contact him at his email address. First red flag. Member history, Rokslide was unable to find the member so he had already deactivated his account this was a huge red flag. I continued to play along. He sent me pictures of a model 7600 and a good description of the rifle that made sense from a gun owners perspective. I asked him how he would like payment. He requested Paypal friends and family, another red flag. At this point it was obvious he had copied a for sale ad from another site. I asked him to prove that he had the rifle in his possession. So he sends me a picture with the rifle and a handwritten card with his name the date and the rifle details. This threw me for a loop was this legit? So I zoomed in really close on the picture. He had used photoshop or something to insert the card into the picture only by zooming in did i see that the card seemed to be floating off the carpet and had weird shadows. At this point I called him out. He called me judgemental which was strange. Then he sent me a picture of an actual Montana drivers license with a name that matched what he was calling himself. Not only was the Friends and family a red flag. He sent me a link so someone else's account to pay through paypal and it was a donation link. To summarize I am well versed in scams ect... being a Police Officer. This guy had me second guessing even after being relatively sure it was a scam! They are getting progressively more slick! Oh and I already have another message in my inbox about a rifle from a new user.
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.
