Scammer alert

[starfire (Julian)]

Hello to everyone on IIS forum, l have just been scam by another IIS user dikman Richard from Adelaide. l bought his Astro Physics 900GTO mount on the IIS classifieds recently, sent him my money into his bank account, but he hasn't replyed back to me at all since , with countless PM's sent to him. Another IIS member also purchased a camera from dikman also and hasn't heard from this person either. l had a pm from Unipol today saying he was scammed by dikman for the same AP900GTO Mount. l have been to the local police and will have a full report on this person, and the bank account of dikman has been locked by the bank. Please be careful of these scammers.

[ronson]

I bought his ASI2600MM Pro just before Easter. He claimed he never received the money. Then, he claimed there was an issue with his bank account and the money have been returned. Unfortunately no money have been returned to my bank account so far. So there is no camera and no money.

This is a shame as he seems to have been on the forum for a while and has been somewhat active.

I am trying to get this resolved via my bank, but if this doesn’t help, police report will be the next step.

[MortonH]

Have you reported this to the IIS moderators?

[sheeny (Al)]

I'd like to remind everyone of the terms of service for IceTrade:

10. IceTrade Classifieds Terms of Service

• Persons holding out items for sale shall be truthful in their description of items for sale, and shall not be indemnified by the administrators or moderators of the site in respect of any claim that a purchasor may have against such vendor under any trade practices or sale of good legislation.
• The administrators and moderators expressly have no liability for the transactions which may occur between members of the forum, whether through the medium of the IceTrade Classifieds, or otherwise.
• Each forum member who purchases an item off another forum member does so at their own risk, and they expressly waive any entitlement to bring any claim against an administrator or moderator with respect to any such transaction.
• Creating a thread to sell an item on behalf of a third party is not allowed. The seller must register to the forums and list the item themselves.
• Items for sale on ebay or another auction/for sale site must be listed in full in the IceTrade Classifieds. An ad can not simply be a link to another auction/for sale site.
• Ads that are sold, or have had no activity for 2 months, will be moved to the Archives.
• If you've sold your item, please edit the title to include "SOLD". If your ad is older than 2 weeks, contact a moderator to do it for you.
• If you'd like your ad locked or deleted, simply ask a moderator to do so.
• Please don't post replies to someone else's ad unless it's specifically related to the item - that is, if you're asking relevant questions about it, perhaps with a view to purchasing.
• Keep off-topic and spam posts out of the IceTrade Classifieds. It's not going to help someone sell their gear if the threads contain off-topic posts.
• Think before you post - if it's simply a comment or suggestion or similar, would it be best done via a PM or email?
• Items listed for sale which breach any of the conditions above may be moved or removed.
• New members wishing to place ads in the IceTrade Classifieds must be a member for at least 1 month, and have made at least 5 posts in any part of the forum. This does not impact new members' ability to buy items, including replying to threads or sending Private Messages to users.

If you are confident you have been scammed, then by all means pursue the matter through your financial institution AND through the Police.


At this stage I am consulting with the other moderators to determine what if anything we can do to protect others from being scammed (if this is the case) without interfering with any potential financial or legal investigation.


Al.

Al.

[RB (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by MortonH

Have you reported this to the IIS moderators?

No, no one has.
Guys, please also report these matters to us directly.
Dont just post an open thread.
We dont always see every thread or read every sale.

If others were also scammed previously then why has no one reported anything so that this could have be avoided?

Al, David and I will take the only action we can.

RB

[blindman]

Shouldn't harm to have thread with positive / negative feedback of buyers / sellers - if not possible to have that as a feature / function as separate section, right?
NM

[alpal]

Originally Posted by starfire

Hello to everyone on IIS forum, l have just been scam by another IIS user dikman Richard from Adelaide. l bought his Astro Physics 900GTO mount on the IIS classifieds recently, sent him my money into his bank account, but he hasn't replyed back to me at all since , with countless PM's sent to him. Another IIS member also purchased a camera from dikman also and hasn't heard from this person either. l had a pm from Unipol today saying he was scammed by dikman for the same AP900GTO Mount. l have been to the local police and will have a full report on this person, and the bank account of dikman has been locked by the bank. Please be careful of these scammers.

I'm sorry to hear that.
Wow - the advert is here:
https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/....php?p=1607958

He has made 292 posts so you'd think he'd be OK.

[RB (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by alpal

I'm sorry to hear that.
Wow - the advert is here:
https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/....php?p=1607958

He has made 292 posts so you'd think he'd be OK.

It was the first time he’s posted items for sale and the first time he created new threads in two years.

He’s account could’ve been (most likely) hacked.

Caveat emptor can not be stressed enough.

Originally Posted by blindman

Shouldn't harm to have thread with positive / negative feedback of buyers / sellers - if not possible to have that as a feature / function as separate section, right?
NM

No, that’s not going to happen on IIS.

RB

[alpal]

So - was dikman's (Richard's) account hacked?

[RB (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by alpal

So - was dikman's (Richard's) account hacked?

Don’t know but it could be, it’s happened before.

RB

[alpal]

Don’t know but it could be, it’s happened before.

RB

OK - I wondered where the 2 photos in the advert were found?


I did a Google and TinEye reverse image search
and I also checked out Astromart -

but I couldn't find any pictures the same.
So - I wonder where the 2 pictures came from?

[RB (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by alpal

OK - I wondered where the 2 photos in the advert were found?


I did a Google and TinEye reverse image search
and I also checked out Astromart -

but I couldn't find any pictures the same.
So - I wonder where the 2 pictures came from?

I have no idea.
The account has been banned until and if the member is willing to contact Mike and explain.

RB

[Leo.G (Leo)]

Andrew as a moderator your hands are tied beyond banning the account/IP.
You could possibly do an IP search on what-is-my-IP:


https://whatismyipaddress.com/


It will give you a general location though most ISP's like the one I use have a generic bunch of IPs. You could however compare the last X amount of posts with older entries by the original member.


Financial matters are beyond your control (and the boards control) and is a matter for the banks and police though, I'd strongly suggest if anyone has lost money to this scammer they contact the relevant authorities and try to recover some if not all of it.


Every bank account in Australia theoretically requires several forms of ID and the person behind this should be in jail (sorry, gaol, I'm an Aussie).

[RB (Andrew)]

Yes thanks Leo.
I do check IPs regularly.
I've banned many, many spammers, even before they finish registration sometimes.


Cheers
RB

[EpickCrom (Joe)]

Thanks for the heads up, any individual carrying out a scam and defrauding people should be in jail.

[Leo.G (Leo)]

You can also ban a range of IP addresses known for spamming but the general problem with banning any range of IPs is you can get a lot of members caught in the middle of the range. I found it's a use carefully feature. I used to be Admin on quite a large international forum (non related with a few million registered members. It was a nightmare and a lot of stress. i got asked to take over when the forums owner had a child and could no longer commit with work and family. From mod to global mod to Admin.

I've banned many, many spammers, even before they finish registration sometimes.

But I need my Viagra, it keeps my ice cream firm during summers. Haha

[ronson]

Unfortunately, there is little hope any money will be recovered. Hope at least the perpetrator doesn't go away unpunished.

With this type of online transactions, there is always a risk. Given this is a small community, we are probably not a prime target compared to say Gumtree or FB Marketplace, but still random incidents like this happen and will keep happening.

In terms of protection, IP addresses are disposable, so blocking them has very little to no effect.

Having Captcha or another technology to prevent bot registrations is a good thing.

Having the restrictions on new accounts is a good way to make it harder for people to misuse.


It's good, if for inactive accounts (say more than 12 moths since last login), the user is requested to reactivate via email link before being allowed to use them again.


A big issues for this, and other forums, is hijacking genuine/established accounts where the user has used a weak password or reused passwords that have subsequently leaked in other compromises. This will really affect the credibility of doing any business as everyone will be paranoid if the person they communicate with is genuine or a scammer, regardless of how old the account is or the number of their posts. To counter this, mandatory multi-factor authentication is a very effective security control. Some might think it's pain in the rear, but once setup, it makes it very hard for an attacker to get access and they usually just move to the next easier target.
Worst case scenario is if the database of this forum is compromised and all our credentials leaked, and some decrypted, and all the personal info exchanged via direct messages is leaked, then this would be a big issue, which I have flagged a while ago as a risk ISS using a very old outdated forum version with known vulnerabilities and unfortunately it seems this is not being rectified anytime soon.


What this means for me personally, is that from now one, if I am buying anything on this forum, I will have to scrutinise people a lot more before sending any money. Possibly using a middle man platform such as PayPal as an extra protection. Apology to everyone in advance, and I realise this might deter some from doing business with me, but this is the reality, and I will also understand if you scrutinise me if I am selling something.

[RB (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by ronson

Unfortunately, there is little hope any money will be recovered. Hope at least the perpetrator doesn't go away unpunished.

With this type of online transactions, there is always a risk. Given this is a small community, we are probably not a prime target compared to say Gumtree or FB Marketplace, but still random incidents like this happen and will keep happening.

In terms of protection, IP addresses are disposable, so blocking them has very little to no effect.

Having Captcha or another technology to prevent bot registrations is a good thing.

Having the restrictions on new accounts is a good way to make it harder for people to misuse.


It's good, if for inactive accounts (say more than 12 moths since last login), the user is requested to reactivate via email link before being allowed to use them again.


A big issues for this, and other forums, is hijacking genuine/established accounts where the user has used a weak password or reused passwords that have subsequently leaked in other compromises. This will really affect the credibility of doing any business as everyone will be paranoid if the person they communicate with is genuine or a scammer, regardless of how old the account is or the number of their posts. To counter this, mandatory multi-factor authentication is a very effective security control. Some might think it's pain in the rear, but once setup, it makes it very hard for an attacker to get access and they usually just move to the next easier target.
Worst case scenario is if the database of this forum is compromised and all our credentials leaked, and some decrypted, and all the personal info exchanged via direct messages is leaked, then this would be a big issue, which I have flagged a while ago as a risk ISS using a very old outdated forum version with known vulnerabilities and unfortunately it seems this is not being rectified anytime soon.


What this means for me personally, is that from now one, if I am buying anything on this forum, I will have to scrutinise people a lot more before sending any money. Possibly using a middle man platform such as PayPal as an extra protection. Apology to everyone in advance, and I realise this might deter some from doing business with me, but this is the reality, and I will also understand if you scrutinise me if I am selling something.

All valid points Ronson.
I don't think Mike and Terry will be updating the forum atm.

Guys, please exercise extreme caution when dealing with others.
Personally, I couldn't hand over money for an item simply because I'm dealing with another IIS member.
Unless it's face-to-face or I'm 100% sure who I'm dealing with then no way will I purchase.

Further investigations into dikman's account indicate to me that the original account was hijacked.

A reminder to check the strength of your passwords and change them now and then.

Also, I'll repeat myself here, I can't understand why other members who delt with dikman and had problems, didn't alert us so we could've acted sooner.

Well, there it is.

RB

[ChrisD (Chris)]

I've noticed in the past that the forum platform is based on VBulletin 3.8.7 which was originally released in 2011 and reached "end of life" in 2017.

I'm no expert but maybe the latest version provides better protection options like 2FA?

[JA]

Originally Posted by ChrisD

I've noticed in the past that the forum platform is based on VBulletin 3.8.7 which was originally released in 2011 and reached "end of life" in 2017.

I'm no expert but maybe the latest version provides better protection options like 2FA?

Two factor authentication has recently been put to the test and failed against some new criminal techniques / recently released hacker software. It involves intercepting the info and then reposing as a fake site, or similar. So best be careful at all times there's still no substitute for a cash in hand transaction where you can inspect and test the goods for sale. Nowadays you can have fast and convenient transactions, they're just not as safe as they could be.

Best
JA