E-mail Scam Attempts

[madcap_magician]

Wondering if we can start up a thread to keep a record of e-mail addresses doing the e-mail payment/sale thread hijack scam. Just a simple list of e-mail addresses requesting fraudulent payments.

As a reminder, the scam works like this:

1. Scammer harvests e-mail addresses posted on Bladeforums.
2. The scammer monitors sale threads and then reaches out by e-mail when a compromised member posts in a sale thread or a WTB thread requesting payment for the knife.
3. Compromised victim doesn't verify that he or she is actually talking to the true seller and pays.

Obvious red flags:
1. Requests F&F, Zelle, CashApp, or other non-G&S payment methods.
2. Reaches out by e-mail instead of DM.

I sold a Les George VECP the other day, and the member who purchased, I inu222003 , was contacted by the e-mail address sconiehk@gmail.com requesting payment, which is not my e-mail address. Fortunately, he DM'd me asking about it prior to responding to the scammer because I have a standing sale discount of $10 for non-paying members to buy a basic membership for DM privileges.

 

[Peter Hartwig]

I think
A. It would be very long, since the scam has been used for years now.
B. If you still fall for this scam, you don't read warning threads in GBU
Not against it, but not sure it will help .
There are simple steps outlined many times to avoid this scam., yet the scam lives on.
I thought there was such a thread, but if so I don't know what has become of it- I couldn't find it.
IMO the individual scammer email addresses are of little importance. Undrrstanding the scam, not eesponding to emails without werification of the source and other prevenative methods such as DM's and PP G&S payments are the answer- but this has all been said before.

 

[Bigburly912]

They generally don’t use the same email address. Change it constantly so they don’t get caught. Won’t help anything.

Bottom line is to communicate through DM or just don’t post your information on a public forum

 

[Blues]

We had another one this morning. It never ends. And apparently folks are more than willing to continue to roll the dice...

Makes it hard to maintain sympathy for those who do. Especially when there is a fairly simple and inexpensive step available that would take care of most issues.

But you guys already know this. The others won't read this until they've been burned.

 

[Whisperstealth]

For 8.219 cents a day you can get a Gold Membership. I didn't want to cough up the cash either, but the cost/benefit is exceptional. Membership has it's privileges...

 

[Peter Hartwig]

For 8.219 cents a day you can get a Gold Membership. I didn't want to cough up the cash either, but the cost/benefit is exceptional. Membership has it's privileges...

A $10 basic membership is all that is needed to have DM's and avoid needing to use email. Though a gold is even better.
I actually don't mind paying for my gold membership( I get loads of use of the forum), but there are plenty of things I pay for that I wish I didn't have to, but just make better sence than not paying.
Members can work around the lack of DM's, but it takes time and effort to go through the email verification process, which doesn't make sence to me for $10 and DMs.
I rarely even post in a sales thread, thus the scammers don't even know I am interested in the item.

 

[inu222003]

To add to this, it's been many years since I've bought off a forum. Used to buy and sell on Bladeforums and USN all the time back in the day . Luckily a red flag and alarms starting going off when the person emailed me to use Cashapp because "PayPal won't do buyer s protection when dealing with knives and weapons" or some BS like that. I know that isnt true either. I reached out to Madcap about what was going on, luckily he responded quickly and explained the scam and what was going on. At the end of the day my decades in the knife dealing game would have saved me, but for someone new or ignorant it could have been a bad day.