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scammers on BMWLT

2K views 16 replies 10 participants last post by  XMagnaRider 
#1 ·
I've got my 2012 RT for sale in the classifieds. Yesterday I got an email from someone that I suspect is a scammer. Has there been a history of BMWLT classifieds being infiltrated by scammers? I would like to look up this guys user name, is there a way to do that?
 
#2 ·
I found his user name and he joined yesterday just before he sent me an email about my bike. Doesn't want to see the bike, accepts the price without negotiating, is asking for name an address to send payment and won't talk on the phone. Nope nope nope. Sorry johnsoncater25.
 
#5 ·
Jharpphoto is 100% right. This is an obvious scam to take your bike and leave you with nothin'.

I have banned the member, to clarify his name is johnsoncater35 in case anyone else received anything from him.
I assume that if the scammer tries it again, he/she would sign up with a new member name anyway. Anyone selling or buying something here must still pay careful attention to the details to avoid being scammed.
 
#4 ·
I have banned the member, to clarify his name is johnsoncater35 in case anyone else received anything from him.
 
#6 ·
Craig's list is lousy with scammers. I suppose it was only a matter of time finding that crap on this forum. Anywhere there's buyers or sellers....
Anymore you have to pay extra diligence & vett who you're dealing with. I find it's a little easier to vett a seller than a buyer. But both the buyer and seller scammers LOVE to stipulate wire transfers. Money disappears instantly with no recourse if you're duped.
Many instances on the internet. www.scam.com
Bob
 
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#11 ·
As a long time member & moderator of this wonderful forum I have to say we have far less problems with spammers now then in the past. We try very hard to keep spammers out but they find new ways to get in. As of late a "real" person has been signing up as a member then either posting spam them selves or they have found a way to turn that new member name over to a spam bot to inject the spam. In the last few weeks there have been 5 or 6 new members sign up only to post the same spam link in a thread. We ban the name & the IP address but they just use a different name & IP address & hit us again. This ad spam is just another way they have found to get in.

We ask if you see a post or thread that looks like spam just "click" the triangle with exclamation mark located in the bottom left of each post to send us a message about that post. We will ban them ASAP.

If you think a spammer is hitting your classified ad PM one of the moderators or admins. Here are a few you can PM

Admin
Katnapinn
Scottydawg
 
#12 ·
When I was looking for my KLT, I had an instance (not on this forum), of a fraudulent ad where a given bike didn’t even exist, as evidenced by the seller refusing to meet with the buyer. And claiming the bike was in a Google shipping facility in another state (wyoming). This is patently ridiculous. Google has no such facilities, being an e-commerce co. The scammer typically spoofs the Google Wallet paperwork and requires that a buyer wire the cash while claiming affiliation with GW.

In this case, I tried to test the seller who was in michigan (supposedly), by telling them (lying to them) that I had a business trip to their town in a couple of days and asked them to meet with me so I could inspect the title before puchase.

They refused to meet with me, saying that they already gave me terms of the deal. Major red flag.
Another Red Flag instance while shopping bike ads was noticing the exact same photo on an ad was from another ad in a different state. Many fake ads come with a sob story about military deployment or a death in the family. Always a reason why they won't meet you coupled with a demand for wired cash before sale. Money evaporates along with the seller.

Despicable "so called" people.
I ended up finding zippy_gg on this forum, who was easily vetted as a real person. Bought my LT from him. Made a nice adventure of the purchase/ride home.

Bob
 
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#14 ·
I had a similar experience one time. Found a bike on flea bay and reached out to the seller. I was told some story about how it had belonged to her husband who died. She said the bike was in a warehouse in Birmingham Alabama, crated and ready to ship after I made payment. I live in Atlanta and Birmingham is a fairly short drive for me. I offered to meet her there the next morning with cash in hand, she could save the shipping cost and I would take the bike myself if it checked out. I told her that if it didn't work out I'd pay her $100 for her time. She told me that I had to do it her way out there would be no deal. I immediately forwarded the email chain to the fraud department at flea bay and replied to her that I had done so. She had some choice words for me that I won't repeat in polite company. :D

I won't buy anything sight unseen over the internet for more money than I'm willing to give away. Once the price hits four figures, you and I are going to meet face to face and do a cash transaction or it ain't happening. A real seller wouldn't have a problem with that.
 
#15 ·
Caveat Emptor.
Although the term was originally about letting the buyer beware of low quality goods. There should be a better term for this problem.
Maybe "caveat no freakin' goods emptor". My Latin sucks.

Bob
 
#17 ·
(Somewhat off topic, but related.)

There is an epidemic of people spamming the sister site k-bikes.com. It is probably one person or a small number of coordinated people. It would not surprise me if they are from India, because that's where the first spam links pointed. They have the same modus operandi - sign up with a new account (which may stay dormant for a while), create new threads or comment on old threads, where there is always a link in the signature. The link in the signature is the spam.

Lately, others are posting ads for iPhones, etc. in the text of the posts themselves, but the same MO - new member posts spam.

The posts may try to be relevant but are often just "cut 'n' paste" from something unrelated. They always miss the mark some way. Gullible people may actually respond to generic posts such as "Which helmet is best?"

If you list the member accounts that are posting the spam, they have the following properties:
* New members in the last few months.
* Location information is "lazy" or simply wrong (e.g., "Las Vegas, CA")
* Names try to look "Western" but just don't fit.
* Never a photo or icon. (But many real members don't have photos.)
* Zero or a small number of posts. Some accounts are obviously intended for this "signature spam" but have not yet posted.

Examples:
User Name: brettconnor, Real Name: david, City: kw, State: kw, Country: kw

User Name: allencolins, Real Name: allencolins don, City:Las Vegas, State: CA, Country: United States

(There were a lot of members who joined with the username "xyz" whose Real Name always ended in "don" e.g., "xyz don".)

To see the list, got to the forums, click on Member Info->Member List, click on the Join Date column to sort it, then click on the tiny icon next to Join Date to sort by latest member.)

Many of the new accounts are real members who have joined, but not yet posted, so don't jump to conclusions. Most of the spammy ones are pretty obvious, where something in the member info is simply wrong. (Or they actually post spam, of course.)

What a hassle.
 
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