Scammers on this forum and how to catch them
 

Hello guys,

Recently I had made a post in the member classifieds buy request section of the forum that I was searching for a used KraftWerks SC kit ready to pay 2500. Upon posting this I got a PM from 2 people stating that they had a KraftWerks kit ready to ship. I had replied to both pms with my phone number and asked for more information.

After receiving pics etc I quickly did a reverse image search and found that both people were attempting to scam me.

So I want to make this thread about these scammers and teach you guys 2 easy tips to find out if someone is trying to scam you or not. You may already know about these but if you don't then they can definitely be useful especially if you are going to make a purchase online.

Guy #1 Contacted me via pm:
http://i.imgur.com/AZiVzT5.jpg

All I did was save this image, go to google and find out that he took them from a diffent persons post and photoshopped his name into the paper.
The thread he stole the images from is here back in 2014: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69038

Here is how you can do an easy reverse image search.
Go to images.google.com then hover over the search bar and click the little camera. Then you can upload the picture. Scroll through and see if that picture has been used elsewhere.

http://i.imgur.com/kEl7uB4.png

After scrolling to the bottom I found this:

http://i.imgur.com/dTKVA9e.png



Now the second tip will come from another guy that tried to scam me. So This guy had PMed me that he was selling a super charger kit and I asked him to PM me more information to my phone. After doing a reverse image search I found found out that he was also a scammer and took the photos from a different thread as well.

http://i.imgur.com/joZDfGp.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/4rBYU5L.png

http://i.imgur.com/EeMMaxP.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/YUajNxC.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/okrmr86.jpg

After doing a reverse image search I was brought to this post: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=93400



Another tip:

Using facebook to check if someone is legit. So most people put there real phone number when signing up on facebook and you can actually just type their phone number in the address bar to find their profile. This could help verify if someones story is legit(e.g. seeing the parts on their car in previous pictures e.g.)

This is what it would look like when you type their phone number in the address bar. I used my boyfriends profile as an example.

http://i.imgur.com/7BYO0D4.png

Good info.

Thanks for posting this - I'm going to start doing the google image search from now on. Great tips!

Police have better things to do then stoping stupid people on Internet forums from scamming lol, this will not be reported to the police but just be here as a simple warning to people on this forum :)

If you are interested in reporting internet related crimes I suggest you visit the ic3 website and report it there instead of your local authorities

You can't really charge fraud on someone unless an actual agreement was made.

Good tips though, OP. This is why I won't go any farther than ebay to buy parts, and even on ebay I have to be on my toes.

I concur the police will do nothing. You should however report the guys to the Mods so they can be banned. It does not prevent them from just making another account but at least let's them know the forum is onto them so they may just go away.

When anybody responds to a WTB thread you should check out their stats before doing much of anything else. In Jake's case he made the profile on July 6 so we can presume it was for the simple act of replying to the request. Daul had one post right when he joined in March and coincidently enough it was just to say a PM was sent in response to a WTB thread. Now of course that does not mean that anybody that responds needs to have 100s of posts but in both those cases their out of the blue responses with no other activity should set off all sorts of red flags.

YEP!

Always do this background check myself! Scammed $1500 in college. Never again.

Can we make this a sticky? I'm sure it would help a lot of people out.

@ichitaka05 Can this be stickied all over the place?


Also I know you guys have a tough job already, but adding google reverse image search in your routine of checking all the posts would be awesome.

I'll make a thread & stickied with this post on it.

Tbh, I will not do Google reverse image search while cleaning up. Sound cold blooded and as a mod, I should help make thing easy for the members... but that'll bump more workload for me. Sadly, Member Classified section is maintained mainly by me. If no one report it, no other mods will clean it up. I'm already putting over 7~8hrs a wk just for Member Classified section, if I google reverse image search, it'll more than double my work hrs.

As for the OP, please PM me those two members replies and I'll perma ban both.

Thanks

ichi


Sent from my mind

I wonder what these scammers are even thinking in their heads.. With paypal and their 180 day policy, how exactly do they think they'll successfully scam people? Such a waste a time.

Unless people are gullible enough to send money as a "gift" or do wire transfers. Sigh.

Good catch though, and good tip.