Identifying Scammers

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Identifying Scammers
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flag deannec
O+
Posted: Jul 9, 2008 at 9:44 Quote
Seems as though there are a few people out there that have no clue when a scammer is contacting them. There are a few things to watch for when you have something on the buy/sell.

1. If the messages says "Dear Seller" it's almost always a scammer. They send out mass e-mails so it's mainly kept generic.
2. They keep refering to your item for sale as an "item". Take a hint when they don't say what you're selling in your post.
3. The item you're selling is always in bold, brackets or quoted. eg. I'm interested in your (fork), I see that you have a "bike" for sale.
4. Double check their join dates/forum posts/comments/friends. Odds are if they joined up 1 hour ago with no friends, forum posts, or comments they've just come on to scam you.
5. They're from Nigeria and buying it for a friend.


Just keep your eye out. You don't want to be giving out your phone number and address to just anyone on the internet. Try using paypal as much as possible so if you do get scammed out of your product you might be able to get your money back. Any other red flags you can think of just post them up.

Thanks, the pinkbike team
flag safeer
Posted: Jul 9, 2008 at 9:46 Quote
sounds like ur typical ebay message Wink
flag gary1
Posted: Jul 13, 2008 at 4:47 Quote
If your buyin

'They will be out of town for "A While"'
flag gobs13
Posted: Jul 15, 2008 at 17:56 Quote
the first four seem like characteristics of a bot
flag patmcc
O+
Posted: Jul 17, 2008 at 20:34 Quote
If you are a potential buyer, here are my tips for finding if its a scam:

1. Ask for a phone number. If the seller gives you one, call it and confirm that the person on the other end is the seller. If the seller doesn't (if its a scam the seller probably won't)you can assume the seler is a fraud. A fraud doesn't want you to know his or her number.

2. If the deal is too good to be true, it probably is.

3. Get the seller to send you a specific picture of what you are interested in buying. If you don't ask for a specific picture a fraud could send you pictures of the product that were taken online. If you ask for a specific picture the seller would have to take the picture him/herself, meaning the seller does infact have the product. Most frauds, especually for expensive items, do not actually own the item themselves.

4. Raise your concern about fraud with the seller. If you get a long response from the seller about how your concern about fraud has insulted him/her there is a greater chance you are dealing with a fraud.The average person will understand your concern.

5. Frauds will often claim they live far away from you, often overseas.

6. Fast e-mail responses or responses at times that would be strange for the seller. For example, Lets say you live in Toronto Canada, and the seller lives in London England. England is 5 hours ahead. If you send an e-mail at 11:00, the seller would be recieving it at 4:00 his or her time. If you get an e-mail back soon after you can be sure he/she is a fraud. Anyone living in London would be asleep during that time and you can assume the seller doesn't live where he/she said. Many of these scams come from Asia where your e-mail would have come in the morning or afternoon in that example.

7. Words spelled wrong. Many scams come from Asia where the english is not the first language. Spelling errors are usually present. There is a difference between spelling errors and typos however. If "ship" were spelled "shuip" it is probably just a typo, the "u" and "i" keys are next to eachother. However if the word "moved" is spelled "muved" then it could be a fraud from somewhere where english is not the first language.
flag r00th00k3d
Posted: Jul 18, 2008 at 19:19 Quote
patmcc wrote:
6. Fast e-mail responses or responses at times that would be strange for the seller. For example, Lets say you live in Toronto Canada, and the seller lives in London England. England is 5 hours ahead. If you send an e-mail at 11:00, the seller would be recieving it at 4:00 his or her time. If you get an e-mail back soon after you can be sure he/she is a fraud. Anyone living in London would be asleep during that time and you can assume the seller doesn't live where he/she said. Many of these scams come from Asia where your e-mail would have come in the morning or afternoon in that example.
Thats not always true, usually i'll reply within a few minutes because i'm surffing the net at night when people are sleeping, because i work midnights.. am i a scammer? NO! i'm also a typical ebay buyer, not so much of a seller.

but if any of you do buy from the buy/sell categorie, try to use PayPal !
flag iggz
Posted: Jul 18, 2008 at 19:26 Quote
patmcc wrote:
scams come from Asia

Hhahahahahahahahahha
flag princeofthenorth
Posted: Jul 18, 2008 at 19:34 Quote
r00th00k3d wrote:
patmcc wrote:
6. Fast e-mail responses or responses at times that would be strange for the seller. For example, Lets say you live in Toronto Canada, and the seller lives in London England. England is 5 hours ahead. If you send an e-mail at 11:00, the seller would be recieving it at 4:00 his or her time. If you get an e-mail back soon after you can be sure he/she is a fraud. Anyone living in London would be asleep during that time and you can assume the seller doesn't live where he/she said. Many of these scams come from Asia where your e-mail would have come in the morning or afternoon in that example.
Thats not always true, usually i'll reply within a few minutes because i'm surffing the net at night when people are sleeping, because i work midnights.. am i a scammer? NO! i'm also a typical ebay buyer, not so much of a seller.

but if any of you do buy from the buy/sell categorie, try to use PayPal !

same.. most of time often within seconds i reply at 4 am. if the person wants to send a msg at 4, then ill respond at 4
flag Graphxxx
Posted: Jul 19, 2008 at 11:32 Quote
Well i got a hell of a weird case lol. Got a fork from a guy in Edmonton, something screwed up with shipping and i was starting to worry about getting scammed. The guy said he had shipped it with Canada post, it was going to take from 6 to 10 days and i was at the 9th day and still had no fork... Guy didn't reply much so i got really worried then he replied back, we talked a bit he went to the postal office and told me they hadn't shipped it because information was missing... Eum kind of weird if you ask but, then again, i said to myself if he was scamming me, why would he reply to all my messages and everything then he gave me a tracking number and shipped the fork xpress post 2 days.

I checked the tracking number and its from edmonton and the time and date of the the first update is the same as when he brought it so i was wrong about him.

So some times don't be to quick to judge someone though.
Just always make sure you get a tracking number to make sure he really shipped an item!
flag ezekiel
Posted: Jul 19, 2008 at 11:45 Quote
Graphxxx wrote:
Guy didn't reply much so i got really worried then he replied back, we talked a bit he went to the postal office and told me they hadn't shipped it because information was missing... Eum kind of weird if you ask but, then again, i said to myself if he was scamming me,

I've had that happen when I bought my frame, the individual didn't fill out a dollar amount on the shipping slip. So for whatever reason, it could not be processed and shipped until he wrote a declared value.
flag Graphxxx
Posted: Jul 19, 2008 at 11:51 Quote
Yeah me he said he needed for full name and phone number... The phone number is never needed but a name is at least needed that i know.
flag foxracing1621
Posted: Jul 30, 2008 at 21:30 Quote
ilikemybike011 wrote:
patmcc wrote:
scams come from Asia

Hhahahahahahahahahha

lol sad but ture
flag tajpatel
FL
Posted: Aug 13, 2008 at 19:15 Quote
thanks for notice! Big Grin
flag skippy888
Posted: Aug 14, 2008 at 5:50 Quote
Buying from the States and Canada? Any one had any problems?
flag Graphxxx
Posted: Aug 14, 2008 at 7:26 Quote
skippy888 wrote:
Buying from the States and Canada? Any one had any problems?

Well i odered many things from the States, never had a problem, got stuff from people all around Canada only got one problem but was quickly solved. Its when you buy something out of America that you take risks.
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