Work around to combat the fraud we're seeing

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ooitzoo

ooitzoo

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I've been giving some thought to the fraud we keep seeing on the forum and I think I have a functional solution.

It is worth noting that this does not and should not take the place of basic common sense nor the forum rules and best practices. I still maintain that you should not use PPFF unless you're personally familiar with the party in question. Further, I still strongly recommend folks use PMs over email.

Taking a page out of the TOR playbook, the idea is to use a bridge email account when interacting with those that won't pony up the $10 to get PMs. Basically, you create a throw-away email account that won't be used for anything other then forwarding emails to your actual account. I've chosen to label this something super obvious like "BFCThrowawayAcct" or "BridgeACCTforBFC". Once the account is set up (using your freemail provider of choice), you simply set it to auto-forward all non-spam emails to your actual account. From there you can send along an email to the other party at will.

No one has to reveal their actual emails nor their PP addy. If someone tries to randomly email you with "please send payment via PPFF to [random scammer address]" then you know it's BS.

Any questions please let me know. Similarly, if you see any flaw here then also please let me know.

EDIT / ADDENDUM #1: Forgot to mention, someone else posted the idea of using a challenge / response system a little while back. Essentially, you send a random # or phrase in your email and post the same in the thread to establish positive ID. I like this idea and have used it. I think this is something that can be layered onto the above to add further security.
 
These scams are mostly done by people claiming to be the seller and finding the victims email somewhere in a past post on the forum.

If their objective is just to email the would be buyer to begin with, what difference does the forward make?
 
SwissHeritageCo said:
These scams are mostly done by people claiming to be the seller and finding the victims email somewhere in a past post on the forum.

If their objective is just to email the would be buyer to begin with, what difference does the forward make?
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Well yeah, you'd need to either scrub your history to remove your email address OR simply not accept those messages.

The sequence of events would go like this:

I buy / sell a knife.
If the other side doesn't have PM (and, again, I strongly recommend folks spent the $10-20 to get it)
I give him the bridge email addy. He emails that addy.
Optionally, we can do the challenge / response.
I reply to his email via my actual account.
We establish payment instructions from there.

Note, at no point has my nor the other parties emails been made public. Similarly, any scammer would just be "pissing in the wind" by emailing the bridge.

Addendum for clarification:
Let's suppose somewhere in the above chain a scammer decides to email one of us directly (using some older post to get the email addy) asking for payment. Their email would lack relevant bona-fides. For example, it'll lack the original email sent to the bridge account or the challenge / response if we decided to do that.
Let's say the scammer emails my bridge directly. I'd look to establish ID via the forum (see challenge / response).
 
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This is adding extra steps to effect an outcome that can be accomplished in fewer steps.

ooitzoo said:
I reply to his email via my actual account.
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That's the only part of this that's actually necessary.
 
David Mary said:
This is adding extra steps to effect an outcome that can be accomplished in fewer steps.



That's the only part of this that's actually necessary.
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Actually necessary for..?
If you mean to conduct the trade / sale then I agree. I was trying to be holistic in my response.
 
Only selling to paid members with PM capabilities is the best current solution, in my opinion.
 
91bravo said:
Only selling to paid members with PM capabilities is the best current solution, in my opinion.
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ooitzoo said:
Agree 👍

That works for sure but its clearly not the pattern on here. The same can be said for not using PPFF but folks still insist on using it.
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Beat me to the punch... was going to say:

Or, and just a crazy thought here. Only deal with members that can PM. Of course if in spite of having stated that in a sales thread, and someone does respond to the post with an email addy then that's a different story. I guess reading comprehension is your friend.

I Haven't sold on here for a while, but going forward it will be clearly stated that I'll only deal through PM/conversation and not to profile messages or emails.

As mentioned above, people will still leave email addys and continue to use PPFF or other cash apps.

Winston
 
As was stated earlier, only deal through members who can pm, and no PPFF.

It's always worked for me, and I've been around here for a day or two, although I don't do a lot on the exchange.
 
I get and sympathize with the idea of only dealing with folks that have a paid membership. On it's face, it makes total sense.

I do, however, worry that its a bit of gatekeeping for newer folks trying to get into the hobby. Let's face it, we were all there once. I know I was. I joined the forum in 2010 and probably didn't have a paid membership for the first 3-4 years. The folks on here are a welcoming bunch so I didn't feel left out but I wonder if that'd have been different if I kept hearing "F&$k off, you're not a paid member"

The point being that we should, of course, exercise caution but we should also leave room for newer folks to join the hobby. After all, that's how we broaden the market which, in turn, leads to greater innovation, better products, and cheaper products.
 
You're willing to take the extra steps of burner email addresses. Some others have stated they are willing to take the extra step of knocking the cost of a basic membership off their asking price. Both are valid ways to be inclusive of newcomers. Every answer is right if it's within your tolerance level, the law, the site rules, and keeps you from getting scammed.
 
There are so many threads on this topic that it is far from useful at this juncture. The points have been made umpteen times, and methodologies have been offered to limit exposure.

Or one can keep it simple and follow the very few actual practices which are known to reduce the surface area available to ne'er-do-wells.

This thread is closed.
 
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