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I have never sold anything on Craigslist but have given things away that I hated to throw out. I don’t think I had to list my phone, I just gave it out if I got an email on the item. I figured out if you want to sell something on Craigslist sell it for free.;)
 
She's probably just another innocent victim in all this. The 859 area code is Northern Kentucky not Virginia.
One thing I've learned from being in business, you can never go by area codes anymore like we used to with all the cell phones and number porting nowadays.
 
Discussion starter · #23 ·
She's probably just another innocent victim in all this. The 859 area code is Northern Kentucky not Virginia.
Maybe......I honestly figured it was a burner phone that needed to be active long enough to confirm the fund transfer (which I believe was confirmed via cell phone for Zelle to complete the transaction).
 
Discussion starter · #25 ·
I'm Sorry you got taken.... Thanks for the warning about Zelle ... I was curious about it since my bank is pushing it. I won't use it.
Just treat it as cash. I think it's still good to use but only if you personally know and trust the recipient.
 
Here are screenshots of two scammers that I received conversations from about something I wanted to buy on GTT. Note this is the first post for both.

763760

763761
 
So sorry to hear this, and Thanks for letting us know .
 
Here are screenshots of two scanners that I received conversations from about something I wanted to buy on GTT. Note this is the first post for both.

View attachment 763760
View attachment 763761
This is excellent information. Thank you @Sharpie.

TO ALL MEMBERS WHO READ THIS: If you see a post in a thread that looks suspicious, if you receive a PM (Conversation) similar to what Sharpie posted, especially if you are looking to buy or sell something, or if you receive any PM that seems out of the ordinary, PLEASE report it to the staff. Every post has a way to report it, whether in the lower right corner of the post (as found in PMs) or by clicking the 3 dots in the upper right hand corner of the post (as found in posts like this). You can also PM one of the staff if need be. If you send a PM to a staff member, please check the box at the bottom that says "Allow anyone in the conversation to invite others". This will allow the staff to share the PM with each other as well as you.

We do not take this lightly and appreciate being notified of such situations. We can only do so much to catch these scammers behind the scenes. I know we at times complain about VS and the software we endure, but they really did do some major improvements this summer to help with the scammers/spammers. Some still get through the cracks and we rely on our members to help bring the situations to light if they arise.

No one likes to be the recipient of what member @bpop has gone through, and I know that with the great community of friends we have here, we can catch as many of these scammers as we can.


I hope a Moderator has banned these two
Let's just say that the information Sharpie provided led me to a string of over a dozen. And yes, handled.
 
or if you receive any PM that seems out of the ordinary, PLEASE report it to the staff.
I should be exempt from this as most of my PMs are out of the ordinary. I would expect every time I PM Gizmo he'll be reporting it.
:ROFLMAO:
 
......

We do not take this lightly and appreciate being notified of such situations. We can only do so much to catch these scammers behind the scenes. I know we at times complain about VS and the software we endure, but they really did do some major improvements this summer to help with the scammers/spammers. Some still get through the cracks and we rely on our members to help bring the situations to light if they arise.
A little off topic, but I really like this VS software and their Forum layout. The thing that I dislike, and that generally keeps me out of this GTT website these days, is the determined, incessant, and intrusive advertising spam that’s literally permeates the place. The spammers are a relatively minor problem that are pretty easy avoid stepping in. OTOH, when every third or fourth post here is trying to sell me Sygenta or some such...well, that’s just too annoying to me.
 
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A little off topic, but I really like this VS software and their Forum layout. The thing that I dislike, and that generally keeps me out of this GTT website these days, is the determined, incessant, and intrusive advertising spam that’s literally permeates the place. The spammers are a relatively minor problem that are pretty easy avoid stepping in. OTOH, when every third or fourth post here is trying to sell me Sygenta or some such...well, that’s just too annoying to me.
Become a Premium member for $20 (or whatever nominal amount it is) and the ads are dramatically reduced to the point I rarely notice them. That alone is worth the price of the membership.....
 
A little off topic, but I really like this VS software and their Forum layout. The thing that I dislike, and that generally keeps me out of this GTT website these days, is the determined, incessant, and intrusive advertising spam that’s literally permeates the place. The spammers are a relatively minor problem that are pretty easy avoid stepping in. OTOH, when every third or fourth post here is trying to sell me Sygenta or some such...well, that’s just too annoying to me.
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Become a Premium member for $20 (or whatever nominal amount it is) and the ads are dramatically reduced to the point I rarely notice them. That alone is worth the price of the membership.....

And/or use an addblock Pugin on your browser.
 
The scammers (thieves actually) hang out on the ham radio site qrz.com looking in the want to buy section, members have been getting scammed there for years in spite of warnings. Typically the thief insists on using PayPal Friends and Family which has no fraud protection.
 
I would definitely report this information to the law enforcement in the Virginia town where the address was provided. Many of these thieving scum get lazy and use the same information over and over. If the municipality where the address is located has a small law enforcement agency, it might be advised to also contact the county or parish or other law enforcement agency in that area who may have the resources to have a full time financial fraud investigator. It can't hurt to ask.

Also, the thieves have to have links to a legitimate bank account to receive the Zelle payment and every bank transfer of funds leaves a trail. I wouldn't be a bit surprised that the people involved have ties to the Virginia town. People use what they know. There is a reason for the selection of that Virginia town, etc. I doubt very much it was random.

There is a sad truth to these types of fraud which everyone needs to be aware of. First, the majority of the thefts and scams are rarely reported beyond an initial complaint to the financial institution. When people don't get any response to their complaints which resolves anything, most simply move along.

Also, most people who are victims of all types of fraud are reluctant to let others know because of the potential embarrassment, etc. Some older people are concerned their families will use this as a reason to gain control of their resources to "protect them" from others and sadly, in some cases, this is when the real stealing from the victim begins from those who claim to be "watching out for them."

Another sad reality is that over 70% of people who are victimized in a financial fraud will be victimized yet again during their lifetime in another financial fraud. There is something in one's personality which is attracted to "the really great deal" and this is precisely what the scammers play upon. In fact, there are lists of reported victims which are sold to scammers, because they often tend to fall for this type of fraudulent activity again, at an alarming rate.

Those who exploit the vulnerability of others sell this information to one another, so those who have been victimized often are contacted soon after the first theft, by the same or other scum in another attempt to defraud them, so be alert. Often, this is done by the scammers posing as "Recovery Agents" or even as Law enforcement, attempting to "recover previously stolen funds". Now they are exploiting the desire for revenge and this is one manner in how the 70% of those victimized are taken yet again.

Just as we are talking about this on this forum, there will be someone searching for a discussion about being a victim of financial fraud and their online information will be noted by those who conduct this type of nefarious activity. It's a jungle out there.

When you use Zelle and any of the other "nearly instant methods" of electronic funds payments like Venmo and others and send someone money, it's in their account within minutes and in some cases, seconds. It's the electronic equivalent of handing someone cash from a security standpoint. Once the funds have been handed off, they are gone. Such services are usually pretty clear that their money transfer method provides no recourse or recovery and should only be used with those people you know well and trust.

Perhaps there should be a minimum number of posts on GTT required before they can post in the Swap meet or even Conversation with someone. I will say I have had three GTT members just in the last few months, with very low post counts (in fact 0 posts with at least one member) send me conversations and end up buying items from me. Maybe it should be a minimum length of time as a GTT member before being able to post in the Swap meet section. I will leave that to the brain trust who knows far more about the system operations than I ever care to.

Bottom line is be vigilant and when it looks too good to be true, well, it usually is. And don't let one's desire for vengeance turn them into a victim, yet again.
 
Since we are talking about scammers, I thought I would post another scam trick that is the first I have ever heard of. About 3 months ago, I was looking for a Milwaukee hedge trimmer and a google search turned up one for $99 complete with battery. Well, that should have been a clue right there as that was considerably cheaper than anywhere else. The web site was mostly womens clothing, which was another suspicion. Well, I went ahead and ordered it using PayPal for payment as requested. A couple of weeks went by and I received a notice from PayPal that it was shipped with a certain UPS tracking number, which tracking showed delivery. No package and my security camera had no record of anyone being here at that time. The info from the tracking number did show dely to someone in the town nearby with the same zip code, but a different shipper, so I tracked them down, thinking it was a mis-dellivery, but they did not know anything about this. I even talked to the local UPS driver. So, I filed a loss claim with UPS, which they denied as was expected, so I then contacted PayPal. After a few days, they refunded my money, which really surprised me. Then I discovered that the web site had been taken down, so it obviously was only used as the base for the scam. I don't think the scammer was expecting someone to work on getting their money refunded as hard as I did, but they did not know who they were dealing with.

The point here is, this appears to be a new scam, using what appears to be a valid web site, so be on the lookout. The entire web transaction was exactly as you would expect. There were no flags in the processing of the order. That takes a lot of effort to set up a web site complete with order handling. I am an old retired guy that has set up a number of web sites, but a site with order handling is beyond my capability. Also, it requires a lot more resources than a simple web site. It is getting pretty scary, when they can do this. How can we trust any company on the internet anymore. On-line shopping has exploded and someone with the capability of creating fake web sites like this is pretty scary.

Dave
 
A normal smaller town police dept isn't prepared to deal with online scams. These investigations can get big and complicated fast. That's why many states and the Feds do a lot of it. Many scammers aren't just a couple guys trying to do a quick hustle for a few hundred bucks. It's normally like a small business of interconnected people, more like the mafia of scammers. Usually it's international. The days of just being able to chase IP addresses is long gone.

Part of the game is doing smaller scams for under $1K. It attracts less attention from law enforcement as it's not a huge loss. This is made up in volume by the scammers.
 
OP - Thanks for sharing, good luck with your perseverance in at least making the poo heads life a bit uneasy. I doubt they are even stateside, though.

A few comments to help everyone protect themselves from this and a suggestion for the site as a community sounding board....

1) When transactioning on FB/CL/Want/sell on forums, check the users profile for other activity on the site/interactions. Are they real? Do they have an interest in the topic?
2) My inlaws were scammed with the "we'll send you a [fraudulent] check too big just send us a refund for the difference" - My wife asked my opinion before and I said it was 100% fraud. We'll the MIL response "But they're really nice, they can't be fraud.". She lost several hundred dollars, had a returned check fee from her bank from depositing a fraudulent check and was suprised because they were so nice.
3) Red flags: Its not uncommon to have a red flag due to inexperience in selling/buying over the various virtual marketplaces. If there's a single red flag, do some googling of user name, phone numbers, emails, etc. See if there are more red flags. A community like this (and I only recently started posting regularly) has many known members and active administrators who are (not liable) interested in the success of the community, a DM/PM can't hurt if there's a red flag. If there's two or more red flags, trust your gut.
4) Excuses/paying to other parties/etc. The more complicated the deal becomes (even though they are nice) are all the red flags.
5a) Payment: Never send checks - the routing number/account number is on the bottom of the check and is basically a free pass to your checking account.
5b) Payment: Use things like PayPal when there are buyer protections - PayPal cash has no buyer protections (Cause in theory you're sending a "friend" cash.) I personally can't stand PayPal and their "policies" but as mentioned earlier its an extra level of protection. My website (Shopify platorm) for my side hustle accepts CC's directly, Amazon, Amazon pay, Google pay, and PayPal. PayPal is 50% the payment types (Cc direct is the other 50%) which I'm guessing/assuming is because people are skeptical of tiny businesses that's arn't a "trusted" BB/Amazon store. I do the same thing with PayPal, and while I hate paying the PayPal fee's as a merchant, I get it.
5c) Credit Cards/Debit cards: Use a credit card whenever possible for online purchases, 99% of credit cards have excellent fraud defense/protections. - Avoid using debit cards/Check cards - their fraud protections are limited and are tied to cash on hand, not "credit" which if emptied/exploited can take a long time to recover potentially impacting the ability to pay obligations (tractor/mortgage/rent payments?) from that account.

Finally.. Admins/community- What are you thoughts on a "Liability Free, fraud check thread" thread Where if someone in the GTT community is considering a private purchace/transaction for anthing - post in there to see if there are flags/prior experiences with that website/seller/etc. It could be tough though, since we're all always looking for some new "toy" and by posting the item/seller, there could potentially be adding competition for the same item - the whole integrity thing comes in to play, but this is a public forum and a free market.
 
The worst part is the forks are not much more on Amazon. I have bought and sold a lot of stuff on forums. Never had a problem. But I only deal with people I see on them all the time with high post counts. I bought a shop manual on here from a member we see all the time in the MCUT thread. It went smooth as I expected it would. I have bought and sold a lot of stuff on the Corvette forum. Again only people I see all the time and have high post counts. Never 3rd party. It has always gone as expected. It works as long as you look for the signs of scams. The other red flag for me would have been that can only be shipped by freight. Anyone who is not a regular freight coustomer would pay more than that just for freight all the way across the country. Titan ships every day and gets like 80% or more discount. The best you will do online is 60%. That's what the freight company gets and the 3rd party getting that rate will mark it up some. That's going to be about a $300 minimum. Then add residential delivery and lift gate if needed and you are over $400. I am a driver in that industry and I see the charges. That's why most people list something like that as local pick up only. The freight is more than it's worth. I can get the freight cheap if I arrange it with my employer but most people can't.
 
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