IMPORTANT NOTICE RE: SCAMMERS IN OUR FORUM!

[Alpine 1789]

Greggers has worked very hard over the years to keep scammers off of our forum and he has, up until recently, been successful. Every application for membership is manually screened by Greg and any that look suspicious are not approved. This process has sometimes generated ’false negatives’ but people incorrectly flagged generally contact us and we’ve been able to resolve the issue.

As I said, this worked until just recently. A member (I’ll call him Member 1) has alerted us to a problem he had. He’d posted about a part and Member 2 sent him a private message telling him a friend had just what he needed and was willing to sell it for a reasonable price. Money changed hands (with the ‘friend’) but no part was ever received.

Member 2 can claim to be innocent in the process - it was his friend, not him - but other data we have access to from our forum software suggests that he isn’t who he claims to be and we’ve taken steps to remove him from the forum. But, I’m sure there will be others.

It is getting harder and harder in today’s world to protect yourself from spammers and, obviously our current process isn’t 100% foolproof. Greg and I had already been working on a way to strengthen our filters but I’m sure it still won’t be perfect. So, here are a few suggestions to help keep you safe:

• Beware of anyone who tries to bypass our restriction on non sponsoring members selling items via the forum. That restriction is not just there to bring in more money for the club!
• Before sending any money to another member you don’t know - or a ‘friend’ of that member - use the forum tools to check out the member. How long has he been here? What else has he posted? Is he knowledgeable or attempting to learn more about Sunbeams? Member 2 has been here for a while but never posted anything.

it is alway easy to see these things in hindsight but, sadly, we all need to be extra vigilant these days. Let’s all be safe out there!

 

[Gordon Holsinger]

The scammers are all around and are a nuisance

 

[dwolff706]

Thanks for yours and Greg's continued vigilance. This is a pain but one we need to rise above.

 

[Warren]

So are these scammers paying up 5 dollars to list a for sale item or is it a cross posting of a car for sale? Another forum has a paywall like the Southern Border.... It only works to prevent new ad submission not a resurrection of an old thread. I'd say don't ring the fire bell without being able to tell the location...

 

[Alpine 1789]

So are these scammers paying up 5 dollars to list a for sale item or is it a cross posting of a car for sale?

No, they are replying or PMing to threads where a member mentions needing a part. As far as we know, no one has paid the $5 to be able to post items for sale. That is why we advise members to be very careful sending money to anyone unknown member who responds saying "I have one for sale" or even worse (and apparently more common), "A friend of mine has one".

 

[Warren]

Thanks for the reply. I would add to the membership some facts.

Even if you go to a swap meet things have changed. Pickers that go to yard sales and estate sales focus on their niche items. For me it's garage stuff... R12 etc. But the point is everyone of those sellers can easily click on or picture an item and find its relative value. So there's no more bargains or I would colloquially say not going to pick a picker...
I learned this several years ago at a San Diego major swap meet. Arriving at 6AM asking a items price the seller was furiously clicking away and said I'll let you know in a couple of minutes... By that time I was on the next aisle.