Got scammed on IIS - Page 3

jenchris (Jennifer) · #41 22-01-2016, 11:26 PM

I ban loads of folks on astronomyforum.com just the same. People who apparently come from Washinton New Delhi and Houston Rumania. You'd be surprised.
IP addresses that show up infested or blacklisted.
Some appear time after time using a different IP. Resourceful to say the least.
We catch a lot that slip by by not allowing pms or sales until a number of posts have been produced that have proper content. Even then there's the occasional complaint.
You can't catch them all.

Nikolas (Nik) · #42 23-01-2016, 12:13 AM

I'm a mod on Netrider, a motorcycle forum with 25000 members, the amount of spammers and scammers we deal with is immense. Unfortunately the digital age is what it is and we have to be on guard all the time.

Flipster (Phil) · #43 24-01-2016, 11:21 AM

Sorry to hear that Morton.
Hopefully you get a positive outcome from Paypal.
Good luck!!

torana68 (Roger) · #44 24-01-2016, 11:35 AM

wondering if you can't ban entire regions? for example any address's that originate in India, or Europe?

Nikolas (Nik) · #45 24-01-2016, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by torana68

wondering if you can't ban entire regions? for example any address's that originate in India, or Europe?

Problem with this is that the ip addresses are borked or redirected.
So they may show they come from a certain region but may have been redirected fro another via vpn or whatever other means.

luka · #46 24-01-2016, 08:03 PM

If you paid by PayPal via credit card you could always try the CC chargeback via your bank. Not sure how this would impact your PayPal account though.

MortonH · #47 24-01-2016, 11:06 PM

It wasn't via CC in my case.

Paypal's T&C say that you can't be reimbursed twice (obviously) so if Paypal refunds the money and then your CC pays out as well you have to return Paypal's money. Not aware of any other impact.

AussieTrooper (Ben) · #48 25-01-2016, 09:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jenchris

We catch a lot that slip by by not allowing pms or sales until a number of posts have been produced that have proper content. Even then there's the occasional complaint.

This is a good idea. There would be few scammers interested in putting in the time to get 'known' on here prior to trying to scam someone.

Is this practical for IIS?

Merlin66 (Ken) · #49 25-01-2016, 10:04 AM

Sounds like a good start!
SGL have a similar restriction on their UK forum.

graham.hobart (Graham stevens) · #50 25-01-2016, 01:39 PM

That's a real shame Morton. Hope it is resolved for you.

Graham

astroron (Ron) · #51 25-01-2016, 03:31 PM

I may have missed it if you have posted it Morton, But how many posts had this person made before you got scammed

Some people can have a lot of patience and just wait for the right person to come along wanting their fictitious item.
Cheers

kittenshark (Cheryl-Ann Tan) · #52 25-01-2016, 03:40 PM

Geez, so sorry to hear... always a risk when dealing with 2nd hand goods even from reputable places/people. Aside from failing to deliver goods, there is a another risk because you don't know whether the goods were stolen or otherwise illegally acquired and you risk them being seized by the police.

MortonH · #53 25-01-2016, 03:44 PM

Ron, only 6 posts but a member since 2014. Because there were so few posts I read them all, Googled their email address and asked them some questions. Everything seemed to check out ok.

astroron (Ron) · #54 25-01-2016, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MortonH

Ron, only 6 posts but a member since 2014. Because there were so few posts I read them all, Googled their email address and asked them some questions. Everything seemed to check out ok.

Yep as I said, just probably waiting for the right time for him to strke.
Best of luck in getting your money back

Cheers

RB (Andrew) · #55 25-01-2016, 04:00 PM

Guys, you need to be very cautious.
A low post count and a deal that looks too good to be true are first signs of a scam.
This person not only sent a PM to Morton with an offer but also posted an ad that was what looked like a 'great bargain'.
The scammer was a member since 2014 and had made 6 posts.
Like Morton said, the posts looked legit but such was not the case.

Just this morning I banned another, same style, member since 2014 and made 5 posts, three of them today !

Well I did a search and found that the post they made this morning was a direct copy from another astro forum and it was 'word for word' practically.

Their IP was suspicious too, using a VPN so I banned them.
No doubt they were getting ready to pull the same stunt.

And it's not the first time I've busted scammers like this behind the scenes.

Now even if it was a legit person and I banned them, they can always contest it and prove their innocence and we'll allow them back on.

But you know what, they seldom if ever, do complain and prove their innocence.

Thing is I'd rather side on the side of caution and try and protect our members rather than be afraid to ban in case it's a real person.
If they're real, we can re-instate them.

Moral of the story, be on your guard and report suspicious posts, no matter how trivial and help us to keep IIS the great forum that it's grown to be.

RB

PeterM · #56 25-01-2016, 05:46 PM

Is COD through the post office still an option? Both my biggish purchases here on IIS came this way and sure you could pay the $ and find a brick in the parcel but its a lot of work for a scammer to do and they get recorded on film when sending the parcel in the post office.

dreamstation (James) · #57 25-01-2016, 06:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jenchris

We catch a lot that slip by by not allowing pms or sales until a number of posts have been produced that have proper content.

Where do you draw the line though? How many posts is considered safe? The trouble with rules such as this, is they exclude a lot of genuine people as well.

I've bought a number of items from members on here over the past 6 months all of which would have been out of the question if I didn't have access to private messaging or the classifieds. You could argue that you could limit it to for sale ads, but what happened to Morton was outside of that anyway.

For the record, Morton has confirmed that the person who contacted me about my wanted ad was indeed the same one that scammed him. The message I received mentioned using fedex for delivery which I questioned in my reply message which went unanswered (whether or not this was because they were already banned is unknown). Apart from that their post history, the message, the price and their details all appeared legitimate.

It sounds like the moderators here are already doing a great deal to keep us safe, but you can't catch everyone. Hope you get your money back Morton.

FlashDrive (Poppy) · #58 25-01-2016, 06:57 PM

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/52.../#entry7017165

This is a post made today on CN .... another Scammer ...

Col....

MortonH · #59 25-01-2016, 07:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlashDrive

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/52.../#entry7017165

This is a post made today on CN .... another Scammer ...

Col....

I see they're saying that a legitimate ebayer has been hacked to take advantage of his sales history & feedback rating.

Easy to say now, but I don't think I would buy anything expensive from anyone unless:

(a) they had extensive history AND I "knew" them, at least from private messages. So people like Flashdrive & Kunama (aka Tak unlimited) would be fine

OR

(b) I could pick up and inspect the goods in person.

MortonH · #60 25-01-2016, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dreamstation

Where do you draw the line though? How many posts is considered safe? The trouble with rules such as this, is they exclude a lot of genuine people as well.

I've bought a number of items from members on here over the past 6 months all of which would have been out of the question if I didn't have access to private messaging or the classifieds. You could argue that you could limit it to for sale ads, but what happened to Morton was outside of that anyway.

For the record, Morton has confirmed that the person who contacted me about my wanted ad was indeed the same one that scammed him. The message I received mentioned using fedex for delivery which I questioned in my reply message which went unanswered (whether or not this was because they were already banned is unknown). Apart from that their post history, the message, the price and their details all appeared legitimate.

It sounds like the moderators here are already doing a great deal to keep us safe, but you can't catch everyone. Hope you get your money back Morton.

I think our experience shows that no matter how high you set the minimum post count there will be people who are able to work round it in a reasonably convincing manner if they want to. Ultimately it's the buyer's responsibility to determine that the seller is genuine.

What I've learned from this is I should never assume an offer is genuine. Maybe it's psychologically harder to do this when you place a Wanted ad as I did, because by definition you "want" that item and that may tend to make you "want to believe" what the seller is telling you.