EVOMMM

I’m appealing to the moderators to find a solution to the steep increase in internet theft occurring here
i have been scammed 3x this year and this week 4 others have been scammed buying the same DSC controller
most of the sales are coming from people with numerous posts and feedback
maybe a registrations style system with photo idea

PV997

Pontificating here but this is why I don't pay for membership. Internet Brands is a huge multi-billion dollar corporation and they can't spend some money to police this stuff? And I'm not talking about the regulars here who moderate because they are good guys, but paid moderators where this is their job.

People pay good money for membership to get Marketplace access. There's an expectation that IB will do their due diligence in weeding out frauds, yet this type of stuff seems to happen repeatedly.

sandwedge

Low or non-existent priority across the board these days. Am I the only one who keep getting junk with an "unsubscribe" link to something I never subscribed to in the first place. Unsubscribe "successfully" and in many or most cases the junk just keeps coming. I registered my cell phone number with the "do not call list" 2003 which I confirmed recently. Still registered since once signed up it never expires unless you request it. Still, I sometimes get five or more scam calls in a day and I have every app I can find installed on my phone to further block all this junk.

I've reported a number of these calls in accordance with the do not call website but I guess they're just overwhelmed with violation reports to the point that they can't enforce the violations which carry sizeable fines. The violators know this so they just keep harassing people knowing they can do so without facing any kind of backlash. I'm in constant amazement at the incredible volume of people who completely ignore rules and laws of not disturbing people with scams and fraud. I'd be shocked to learn that anyone has ever been forced to pay a red cent in fines for violating the do not call list or for attempting to defraud people on websites like this.

EVOMMM

There are solutions but I’m guessing the Renn organization really don’t care and are taking a wait and see attitude
unfortunate and not a good long term bus model

PV997

Exactly. Same stuff with phone companies, they have ways of telling when callers are using mass robocalls or spoofed caller IDs. The could dramatically reduce this stuff if they actually wanted to, but they don't. Policing it will cost them money and there probably is some potential legal consequence if they happen to block a legitimate call. Running it on the cheap and CYA are the business model, customer inconvenience is a price they don't mind paying. They don't seem to mind seeing your elderly parents get fleeced by a crooked overseas call center either.

So Internet Brands won't get a nickel from me. It's bad enough that I produce unpaid content that draws eyeballs to the site and makes them money. Why would I voluntarily give them money on top of that with this stuff going on?

groovzilla

Isn't there a RIppoff Thread where these scammers can be listed?

BHMav8r

I was taken by a guy from South Florida who was actually from Puerto Rico.

Sold me some bent wheels. Got half my money back through credit card.

Researching after the fact, seems he had a bad reputation. Shame on me. I usually look first, but he seemed OK here.

Anyhoo . . . some here did some impressive IT sleuthing and disappeared him from here and some other sites. I'm sure he's back under another name.

RL aint what it used to be.

sandwedge

I'd be curious to know what they're waiting for. It's pretty bad already but I guess not bad enough to clean things up. PV997 makes a good point though. Why support a website provider with membership fees if they continue to ignore scammers and obvious fraud attempts? I may just become a "user" when my membership expires after having been a paying member since 2007.

EVOMMM

I’m contemplating the same about my renewal if my membership $ is wasted why bother

Astur

I honestly feel bad for you for having been scammed.

Having said that, I'm somewhat perplexed by the quoted comment. Namely, that the guy who scammed you was from South Florida but can not understand your reference to his race/birthplace/ethnicity.

I'm a Spaniard who lives in Puerto Rico and I personally don't place or would ever want blame for any misgivings on my homeland. I hope that your comment was just an extension of your frustration and not a racist manifestation.

workhurts

Are these mostly hacked accounts with user history or fresh accounts? The latter are easier to spot. Not sure what you do about hacked accounts except force a password change at least every year.

ICNU

The majority of the classified ad scams originate from scam factories in Nigeria and Eastern Europe. Most of the "I have a friend" who just happens to have exactly what you want in your WTB ad scams are the same guys sending out the Nigerian Prince scams. The Phone numbers they are using, and all other contact info is spoofed so that data is useless to track them down, and easy to generate and constantly reinvent themselves. They have hundreds of fake accounts scamming all over the net in various forums just like this just fishing for that one payout

Their newest twist is to watch the classifieds and wait for another member to post publicly "I'll take it". Then they start searching the classified OPs username to see if they have posted their contact info publicly anywhere. They will then spoof their number and send their Paypal info to the prospective buyer posing as the thread OP, many times agreeing on a lower price to reel them in even faster. Then within days you have the buyer calling the OP a scammer for taking his money and never shipping, so both the seller and the buyer end up getting taken.

NEVER post email or phone numbers publicly on any web forum! It defies common sense, but I see this every day. If the scammers dont get you as described above, then the web crawler bots that look for this info on the Web for spam/scam list will. Its also possible for scammers to access your contact info directly from most forums profile page, and many of them have this visitor contact functionality turned on by default with most users having no idea its even possible. I advise everyone to go into their User CP settings to make sure random strangers do not have the availability to contact you by email or texts outside of the forum

The best way to avoid any of this is do not agree to purchase anything from anyone that is asking for PP Friends & Family, Zelle or any other form of unsecured payment where you have no recourse if something goes wrong. Every single situation I have seen like being discussed in this thread occured because they all willfully handed their money over like this despite the red flags everywhere.

Prairiedawg

This is a shame and IB should absolutely take it more seriously. If not,it will destroy the RL Marketplace if there's no confidence in it. I have bought several things over the years though mostly under $500 each. Not sure I can trust it anymore. It seems a lot of these frauds are using hacked credentials. Many with members with long histories and market sales.

PV997

Good grief, people are allowed to mention a criminal's location when they are lying about it. Since being tarred a racist is about the worst possible epithet these days, you might want to use a bit more discretion before making such scurrilous allegations.

groovzilla

Unfortunately scamming has been going on for way too long. There are numerous Threads in many Porsche Forums regarding scammers, one who has ripped off the Porsche community for over $1,000,000 with bogus car sales and now selling parts on EBay and stealing business logo's/etc and setting up parts for sale websites..
I thought there was a designated "Scammer" Sticky on RL??
Would be good idea OP listed the scammers that have preyed upon him.