• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

CLASSIFIED SCAMMERS

It's a good rule of thumb but we can't enforce it when someone posts a WTB add. That is how they guys are working, they are seeing people's WTB adds and just contacting them privately. Any ideas we've come up with to stop them so far would negatively affect the rest of the users of the site which outnumber the few scammers we've had. If this continues though we will have to take some more actions to try to limit them.
That has always been the nature of life. A few ruin things for the many. Archery Talk went to a minimum post count and time of membership before a new member could access the Classifieds. But scammers seem to always find a 'back door' where they bypass the site policies for their own nasty ends. It's sad that anyone would do these kinds of things to another, but especially so on a hunting forum where we are commonly united in a similar style of life.
 
(a) requiring a minimum of, say, 3 posts for new users is a good idea to me (I've been on other forums that do this). You always catch them before they can attempt to scam people because they will always post 3 quick replies to threads in succession all saying the same stupid irrelevant thing like "Good idea!" or "I like that!" or "Thanks for posting". You can smell them from a mile away really quick before they start with the annoying spam solicitations, and they announce themselves in public (more eyes on them means quicker someone can report them - if they are able to immediately start sending PMs in private, the less opportunity they expose themselves to the wider audience).

(b) Anyway we can flood their email accounts with garbage anonymous emails? ;)

(c) kinda disappointed I didn't get a PM from Lisa. I must be really ugly? :disappointed:
 
(a) requiring a minimum of, say, 3 posts for new users is a good idea to me (I've been on other forums that do this). You always catch them before they can attempt to scam people because they will always post 3 quick replies to threads in succession all saying the same stupid irrelevant thing like "Good idea!" or "I like that!" or "Thanks for posting". You can smell them from a mile away really quick before they start with the annoying spam solicitations, and they announce themselves in public (more eyes on them means quicker someone can report them - if they are able to immediately start sending PMs in private, the less opportunity they expose themselves to the wider audience).

(b) Anyway we can flood their email accounts with garbage anonymous emails? ;)

(c) kinda disappointed I didn't get a PM from Lisa. I must be really ugly? :disappointed:

I know AT requires i think 20 posts, and a time period, but that still doesn't stop them. It seems like they mostly target the "want to buy" threads and it's always the "my friend has what you're looking for" kind of message. I know even over on AT, I had posted in a thread about a release that I wanted to get one of the new releases from Scott Archery and I got one of those PMs saying his friend has what i want. I hadn't even posted a want to buy thread in the classifieds or anything.

This has been my experience anyways. Just gotta be vigilant and be careful who you're replying to.

BT
 
(a) requiring a minimum of, say, 3 posts for new users is a good idea to me (I've been on other forums that do this). You always catch them before they can attempt to scam people because they will always post 3 quick replies to threads in succession all saying the same stupid irrelevant thing like "Good idea!" or "I like that!" or "Thanks for posting". You can smell them from a mile away really quick before they start with the annoying spam solicitations, and they announce themselves in public (more eyes on them means quicker someone can report them - if they are able to immediately start sending PMs in private, the less opportunity they expose themselves to the wider audience).

(b) Anyway we can flood their email accounts with garbage anonymous emails? ;)

(c) kinda disappointed I didn't get a PM from Lisa. I must be really ugly? :disappointed:
Does Lisa have an OnlyFans? Asking for a friend. =-P

Just kidding. I'm not a simp.

Seriously, though. Everyone on here should be using good Operational Security. I wouldn't make a deal on here with anyone without speaking with them on the phone. You'll be able to quickly "read the room" in most situations with a simple phone call. Most scammers will refuse. Red flag. Be sure to encrypt your number by using apps such as Signal. Or if you want to go "all in" with it, buy a cheap burn phone for use with sellers.

This just touches the tip of the proverbial iceberg for proper OpSec. But it's the best suggestion I have right now. Too busy getting my drink on to list more.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top