Hey All,
With the holiday season coming up, the prevalence of scammers will also increase. After seeing a few threads discussing members being scammed here, I figured it would be worth while to put pen and paper on the process I go through before I buy anything online from a private party. While most of this is obvious, it could be a beneficial reminder to some members.
Questions that I ask myself prior:
1. Did they contact me from outside of the forum?
2. Are they asking to send payment through PayPal as a gift?
3. Is it a new member or someone without a reputation?
4. Does the post / offer seem too good to be true?
Investigations that I do to try and narrow down if it's legit:
1. Run the email address / phone number / user’s handle through Google.
I hope that I didn't miss anything. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll be happy to answer!
With the holiday season coming up, the prevalence of scammers will also increase. After seeing a few threads discussing members being scammed here, I figured it would be worth while to put pen and paper on the process I go through before I buy anything online from a private party. While most of this is obvious, it could be a beneficial reminder to some members.
Questions that I ask myself prior:
1. Did they contact me from outside of the forum?
2. Are they asking to send payment through PayPal as a gift?
3. Is it a new member or someone without a reputation?
4. Does the post / offer seem too good to be true?
Investigations that I do to try and narrow down if it's legit:
1. Run the email address / phone number / user’s handle through Google.
a. Can you find reference to them on other forums that is concerning?
b. Can you find any social media accounts linked to their email / handle?
2. Are the pictures they used found anywhere else online? Many scammers will steal photos from other posts or forums.b. Can you find any social media accounts linked to their email / handle?
a. Perform a reverse image search via google - Search for images with reverse image search - Google Search Help
3. Run the picture(s) through an EXIF viewera. This can be super helpful. If the picture is taken from a device that supports geolocation (most cell phones default to this as on), you can see where the photo was actually taken. Otherwise, you can still get date / time and other useful information from this!
4. Search the phone number through an online lookup toola. I use this tool - View Exif data online, remove Exif online
a. Whitepages is a decent start - https://www.whitepages.com/reverse-phone
a. The most important thing to note here is the type of phone number. If the number shows as Type: Non-Fixed VoIP, then be very cautious. Non-Fixed VoIP numbers are typically tied to a 'burner' service. There are many app developers (Google Voice, TextNow, Textfree, TextPlus, Burner, 2ndNumber). While this isn't always indicative of a scammer, it definitely pushes them towards that direction.
b. Note - most free online lookup tools will have the wrong information when it comes to the carrier. However, the Type will be accurate more often than not.
b. Note - most free online lookup tools will have the wrong information when it comes to the carrier. However, the Type will be accurate more often than not.
a. A note regarding 'burner' numbers. There are legitimate reasons to use a burner number, such as privacy; I wouldn't want my cell phone number listed on public sites. Reason being, the burner number can be changed quickly and companies will not give out information on their users.
b. If you do find someone scamming with a burner number, do the community a favor and report it to the app developer. They don't want their users doing nefarious things with their apps, so they will shut the account down and do their best to block them from using their services again.
b. If you do find someone scamming with a burner number, do the community a favor and report it to the app developer. They don't want their users doing nefarious things with their apps, so they will shut the account down and do their best to block them from using their services again.
I hope that I didn't miss anything. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll be happy to answer!
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