CAUTION: Scammers are Targeting Wanted Ads

[StereoNET]

Members, as you know we have spent considerable time and resources protecting our community from scammers, particularly in the Classifieds 2.0. For the most part, this has been very successful. Almost all of the features introduced in regards to posting, reporting, contacting etc have all revolved around the security and protection of the members.

 

However with the highly requested and demanded Wanted section, which came later, scammers have shifted their focus to that area now. I am referring specifically to scammers answering posted Wanteds Ads (not posting them).

 

100% of recent "scams", and while there have only been a few, they are the result of hijacked accounts. I just typed out the entire process around how this is happening, but have decided to remove all that as we don't want to give too much away for obvious reasons. Needless to say, we are making some changes to the processes to combat this further, but this is all custom coding, and not out of the box stuff for the software we use for the forums. 

 

We have many steps and processes in place to weed out scammers in For Sale ads, but unfortunately this is much harder to monitor in Wanted Ads, and that is why scammers have shifted their focus to these ads.

 

Be cautious, be suspicious. If a Wanted Ad is answered, apply the usual checks.

 

• Do they have Trader Feedback (possibly yes, if they have access to a hijacked account!)
• Will they accept Paypal? (no scammer has offered Paypal to date, they are always EFT only!)
• Do they offer pickup? (they will never offer Pickup, but may initially say yes and then do a bait and switch - all of a sudden they are away for work!)
• The price is usually somewhere between too good to be true, or just better than market value.
• Can they show a receipt with their name on it? (they often say they have a receipt and will find it later)
• We have even see cases where they offer a copy of their drivers license, but this cannot be trusted as they have hijacked a user's email and often find material like that within emails.

 

If any doubt whatsoever, walk away! If any suspicion, report the PM conversation to us immediately! This is often how we are alerted to scammers in the Wanted section in the first instance.

 

We are doing all we can to protect this community and continue to weed out scammers, and we've been very successful at this already. Most of them do not even get through the New Member Introduction process before we are on to them (which is why they have turned to hijacking accounts). Unfortunately, they never give up trying, and as we implement more security methods and processes, they shift their tactics. Right now, it's hijacked accounts and Wanted Ads. Today we are implementing some further processes here, but this is a never ending battle and they will look for new loopholes or workarounds.

 

Again, with Wanted Ads, be cautious, be suspicious.