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Beware of scammers in this forum

2799 Views 27 Replies 10 Participants Last post by  Rance
Hi all,

I just wanted to make everyone aware of a recent experience I had. A few days ago I posted a WTB classified in this group. A relatively new "member" private messaged me indicating he had the item I was looking for and provided me with his email address to work out the details. When he sent a photo of his item for sale, I noticed the photo was copied from a prior sale from a different user on this forum. When questioned on the photo, he sent "actual photos of his item", which were also photos recycled, but this time taken from an obviously different user on another EV site. Had I not noticed the photos were recycled, I may have sent this person money without realizing they were a scammer. Beware of users attempting this sort of scam
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Which user?
Or, better, report this to the moderator.
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I reported separately to the moderators. Haven't heard anything back yet though. The account was mikegreen008 in case anyone else is dealing with this person.
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Thanks for the report.

Spammer marked and banned.

This has been happening with some frequency here over the last year. Seems to be the new meta scam.

I suggest people be extremely wary of new users and anyone PMing them. If an item is for sale, no reason it can't be discussed publicly, and there's better odds someone would recognize the picture/comments.
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Most other forums people introduce themselves, throw 10 or so posts up so there is some history.
I took your advice and posted my project in the member introductions forum ;)
I will try to elaborate why introductions, and 10 posts before PM’s or offering for sale makes a difference.
1 If you introduce yourself, it gives others feed back about You, this opens the door. Also, any scammer spammer is likely not not waste so much time. That is not a given of course.
2 10 posts is enough to establish commitment etc
3 Selling, people are very very trustworthy. Normally not buying $10,000, or any significant, but diyec doesnt need the bad rap or problems.

I have not spent enough time on here, simply reading. Now I am in process of build and will be more frequent. Ive been playing with 18650 batteries for 25+ years. Had NiCad RC cars in the early 80. Many different chargers and some electronics at school. Have some Lotus, and built a few cars and trucks over the years. Have a good auto, metal, composite shop, and a basement with electronic bits.

Hope I can help

Funny thing just happened before posting this reply, a pop up window with a survey for my ISP Telus. Seemed very legitimate, but in the end. They wanted $10 for DHL shipping.
I know the company providing this forum out of Toronto Ontario Canada hosts many forums. I am on about 15 of them. Knowing something about news in Canada, I have seen the same company being sued for hosting porn sites. Canada has no regulations on internet traffic. So…Moderators. Take this with a grain of salt, Participants of diyelectriccar and any forums that are similar to this, served by the same Co. in Toronto be ware. I suspect the CRTC is about to go under the gun for allowing this, and it should stop.
What I am trying to say, is that this Fourm and others like it, linked to the pornohub and others scandal are at risk.
Please dont take my word for it, but too much reliance on bigbrother hosting could be a problem. Obviously Its an easy platform for the Moderators of the Forums and Administrators.
It will be a shame to loose all this work.
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A $2000 scam is easily worth 10 postings of "work". Even 100 postings is $400/hr. All you do is hang out where high value goods are sold between like-minded people...99% who are genuine, honest, people.

Our greedy, materialistic, narcissitic society (at least mine) has starved out even decent people -- desperation to survive means we see more of this, not a steady amount. If you've been unemployed, burned off your 401k, and there's no social safety net, the only thing stopping you from doing what you normally would not is fragile integrity, pride, hope, and a little voice in your head your conniving parents planted called a conscience.

The easy answer is not your 12 postings (your lame suggestion equating your post count and talking about RC cars makes you suspect to me 😂), but to pay using PayPal for goods and services. They have a buyer protection guarantee that you get what you bought. The seller pays a small percentage...nobody cares about 3% or 5% on an arbitrarily priced item.

So, you can hang out here for 20 more posts, gain camaraderie by bitching about Telus ((I'm a shareholder in that public company - they have corporate governance requirements) popups, but I'll still be buying your fantastic divorce-forced-lowball-priced electric motor with PayPal Buyer Protection.

Because there are desperate people out there these days with projects that have sat for five years that do need to pay the next mortgage payment and we can help each other out.

There are guys out there who are moving (forced or otherwise), getting divorced, having kids, getting chemo, changing priorities, in over their heads (we'll see more of this as youtubers make it all look easy), who lost a relative building a car they have no interest in but who want some kind of assured legacy, who want to get rid of stuff or see someone finish what was started.

Post away, hopefully good stuff that promotes conversation and engagement here. Telus popups? Nobody gives a f*ck...because the value of the site content is greater than the price they gotta pay. The porn here is in the foreplay of contributing to the excitement, getting past the hard stuff, and being voyeur to others' climax by watching their amps flow....huge, hot, amperes.
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Our greedy, materialistic, narcissitic society (at least mine) has starved out even decent people
Agreed, though I was pointing out other forums which use this platform have rules like this. Seems like you wold be a good Moderator @remy_martian but I would guess you have other things to do.
I have never seen a pop-up on any of the other sites, and its likely not something VerticalScope agrees to. So anything goes, and the larger the platform, likely, the worse it can get.
In my opinion you should put that user's information here. To avoid the same situation happening to other members. In addition, transactions related to money in my opinion you should transact through an intermediary. This will reduce the possibility of fraud
It’s a sad sign of the times. I have had two scammers approach me on a wanted add. One on the thread who probably got caught right before I tried to contact him/her, and one via PM (JackR.O) who couldn’t offer any pictures and wanted payment via PayPal friends and family.

sad.
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I have had continuous pop-ups from Telus, so have switched browsers. This doesnt happen on many independent sites. Oops, heres another, Mods, Admin. Ive contacted VS each time, they never email back.
JackR.O also contacted me on my wanted post for a Brusa charger. I never responded, since his note was odd. I think he forgot to replace "title" in his scam template with the item I am looking for 🤣

Hi buddy i have title for sale in good shape if you still looking to buy
Send me a mail
[email protected]
Best regards,
jack.
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Friends and family on PayPal, for those who don't know, doesn't have the fee paid by anyone (it's a modest fee, no big deal unless you're a money hoarding psychopath where every penny is sacred and you lose perspective that the price is more arbitrary than the fee) and does not have buyer protection in terms of getting a refund if no goods are shipped.
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I got a private message on another board regarding a WTB post I've made suggesting I email some dude. I emailed him, he replied back asking for what I exactly was looking for and where I was, and after that there was no follow up. I assume for these scams to work there is some kind of set of parameters, once you exceed them they lose interest.
Oops, heres another, Mods, Admin. Ive contacted VS each time, they never email back.
If you click "report", it goes to the moderation team which is currently... me.

I'm not exactly sure what gets sent back, sometimes I write notes on the report and I thought it's supposed to send that annoucement to the person who reported if I click the box, but maybe it doesn't.
I think it copies the rest of the mod team.

Let me know if you need a hand - I've modded another forum for over a decade and counting. Up to you - I'm not looking for more to do, but willing to help out if you need it.
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