Scam Members

[boristhebold]

Is it me or has anyone else noticed perhaps an influx of new members on this forum since December who seem like they may not be legit ?

Ive spotted at least 3 recently who I suspect as not being legit.

You dont have to agree with me, thats fins, but be wary; some warning signs below which may or may not indicate a potential issue.

1. The profile details listed do not make sense
2. Language, spelling, grammar used is poor
3. They have just joined and encourage you to go to a website
4. They have just joined and are selling something and the details of the item look like they have been copied and pasted from some article or boat dealers/manuf... website especially if other language poor
5. They are very happy, more than happy to ship it over or bring with them across the sea
6. Pictures look too commercial in nature, well lit, professionaly done, or pictures of boat in x country shows the boat in a different country
7. Saying things that sound odd about their boat

lots of other tell tail signs but I wont post on here.

be carefull everyone. remember in cyberspace no one knows your a dog (refers to a person who managed to get his dog a digital certificate which then allowed the dog to digitaly sign and authenticate over the internet - a geek story)

[John Kennett]

We keep a pretty careful eye on things, but it's always possible that something may have slipped through.

Please use the "Report post" button to give us a heads up about anything that you think looks suspicious.

[steco1958]

There has been a few since Christmas, my take on this is Just don't reply to posts that I get a bad feeling about.

Scammer's crave attention, don't give it them

[Nos4r2]

I think I have an idea who Boris is talking about and to be honest the quality of what they're 'selling' is so awful you'd be bloody mental to pay for it.
One in particular that joined last night is easy to track down the Gumtree ad and the boat's FUBAR. Probably not worth the £2500 it's up for.

It's not a scam, they're just idiots. too dense to check what they're saying is true and think that everyone on the specialist forum they've tried to sell on is stupid enough to believe them.

[Max...]

I'm an old f@rt but I'm surprised the sales section (or ability to post ads) is not restricted as it is on so many forums I belong to until you have posted 10/50/100* (*delete as appropriate) 'normal' posts.

Seems that members who join here simply to make their first post a sales post can pi$$ off.

[Fenlander]

Good point Max, I'm happy to wait a month or a fixed amount of posts before getting the benefit of a sales advert, many other forums I use have that requirement.

[Bern Hanreck]

+2 ! ( another old f**t )

[willk]

Originally Posted by Max...

I'm an old f@rt but I'm surprised the sales section (or ability to post ads) is not restricted as it is on so many forums I belong to until you have posted 10/50/100* (*delete as appropriate) 'normal' posts.

Number of previous posts is a poor enough guarantee, IMO. Anyone sending cash to an "unknown" has to be either nuts, or a gambler. Different if you know the member in "real life". Quite a lot of RIB ads on here are from first posters - apparently some see a benefit in having an ad on here! Obviously one would transact that business F2F.

Boris is correct - there are dodgy newcomers arriving all the time. The forum software catches some, the admins catch a lot of stuff on the first post and then there are those that take a few posts to suss out. Most are employees being paid to "astroturf" the forum to entice you guys into a sale. Some are selling tat, some will be scammers. All pointers are welcome - as JK says, the Alert button is there to be used.

That said, the forum is already prepopulated with perfectly genuine, longstanding forum members who "resemble these remarks":

1. The profile details listed do not make sense
2. Language, spelling, grammar used is poor
7. Saying things that sound odd about their boat

So it does make the job of separating the wheat from the chaff a little more difficult.

Originally Posted by Max...

Seems that members who join here simply to make their first post a sales post can pi$$ off.

I don't understand - do you mean that they should or that they can?

[Max...]

Originally Posted by willk

Number of previous posts is a poor enough guarantee, IMO. Anyone sending cash to an "unknown" has to be either nuts, or a gambler.


I don't understand - do you mean that they should or that they can?

Yep, number of posts is not the point really though, it's just a blooming cheek to use the forum as a free ads service with no intention in joining or adding to the community. Applies whether you're a scammer or plain old freeloader. It's just common courtesy. IME it is the norm to have some sort of restriction to sales forums on most serious enthusiasts forums whatever the subject.

[Xk59D]

It is the norm on other forums i'm a member of you need X posts and wait X days before you can access the for sale section.

Maybe the mod's will review the for sale or restrict posting down to only those who meet whatever the criteria is.

IMO it has to be X posts and X days otherwise you just get 50 posts of crap in 24 hours.

cheers

[willk]

Before you lads lobby for more Censorship and Control by Central Authority, are you SURE that there's a problem?

[matt h]

I think people are bored and need to get out on the water more. Less of bored.net and whinge.net!!

[Xk59D]

only ducks are on the water more than me :-) even at that the local ones may question that!

cheers

[John Kennett]

Originally Posted by Max...

Yep, number of posts is not the point really though, it's just a blooming cheek to use the forum as a free ads service with no intention in joining or adding to the community. Applies whether you're a scammer or plain old freeloader. It's just common courtesy. IME it is the norm to have some sort of restriction to sales forums on most serious enthusiasts forums whatever the subject.

There are a numerous petty inconveniences that some forum owners inflict on their members and potential members for a variety of reasons. Examples are manually approving new registrations, moderating posts by new users, disabling PMs for new users, and preventing new users from posting in certain forums.

I have never understood the problem with people registering to post an advert. There's no need to "earn" the right to post an advert, it's a facility that's open to everyone. It's in all of our interests to have things advertised here, as we may just want to buy them. I'd much rather people just post their advert without being forced to indulge in small talk to get enough posts to pass an arbitrary test.

As ever I'm happy to review it if there is a genuine problem with dodgy adverts, but I'm not seeing it so far.

[Max...]

Originally Posted by John Kennett

There are a numerous petty inconveniences that some forum owners inflict on their members and potential members for a variety of reasons. Examples are manually approving new registrations, moderating posts by new users, disabling PMs for new users, and preventing new users from posting in certain forums.

I have never understood the problem with people registering to post an advert. There's no need to "earn" the right to post an advert, it's a facility that's open to everyone. It's in all of our interests to have things advertised here, as we may just want to buy them. I'd much rather people just post their advert without being forced to indulge in small talk to get enough posts to pass an arbitrary test.

As ever I'm happy to review it if there is a genuine problem with dodgy adverts, but I'm not seeing it so far.

You're the boss!

[Poly]

Originally Posted by Xk59D

It is the norm on other forums i'm a member of you need X posts and wait X days before you can access the for sale section.

Maybe the mod's will review the for sale or restrict posting down to only those who meet whatever the criteria is.

IMO it has to be X posts and X days otherwise you just get 50 posts of crap in 24 hours.

cheers

It surprises me we don't really get this problem but I've never noticed a new user sticking loads of stuff on all at once. Perhaps the stricter the rules the more people will try to push to the limit, and the more common sense the less need for rules.

[stevedonna]

Originally Posted by Poly

It surprises me we don't really get this problem but I've never noticed a new user sticking loads of stuff on all at once. Perhaps the stricter the rules the more people will try to push to the limit, and the more common sense the less need for rules.

As always a lot of what has been said has gone way over my head . I can't compare this forum with any other because I don't go on any other nor Facebook etc .

I do know though in life that the more secure and safe something seems ( to the user ) the less suspicious they are and therefore more vulnerable . So by being less restricted it may make us less complacent and therefore less attractive to scum .
I may be off the mark but just an onlookers view


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