DAMN IT GUYS STOP HELPING THE SCAMMERS

First topic message reminder :

If you have a scammer contact you, then tell an admin ASAP.

Do not ignore them, do not forget about it, do not worry about it later., do not turn it into someone else’s problem.

We post up something about scammers and then immediately folks follow up with “That guy tried to scam me too!”  Who knows how many other folks have not posted about it.

Why the hell did you decide to HELP THE SCAMMER by not reporting them BUT NOT HELP ANYONE ELSE by reporting the scammer to an admin? You don’t have to make a thread about it, just send us a message and it gets dealt with discreetly.  

STOP STAYING SILENT.  Do you know we get almost zero help from the people that have scammers contact them? For some reason they just feel that the problem went away for them, so it is not their problem any more.

GROW UP PEOPLE.  This is not tattle-tales in kindergarten.  People are stealing from you and your friends, but you don’t care enough about them to help?

Since YOU keep quiet, we have watched them multiply here like cockroaches.  This was almost never a problem, now it is 90% of my job.

I am mad as hell about this.  I cannot believe you folks would stand by while these people try to ruin this forum.

It’s like someone try to rob your house.  They don’t succeed and break in next door.  Do you just stand there and watch the robbery while saying to yourself, “I sure took care of that guy.”

BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

You want to be ”the good guy with a gun”, but not “the good guy with a keyboard”?  There is not a large enough eye rolling emoji on this forum.

Thank you for sharing that.

So far all of the scam attempts we have had lately involved a new user claiming to know of an item you want and offering a phone number to text.

For each of the scammers we have banned, none have complained that we banned them incorrectly. 

Thank you and the other users for reporting suspicious solicitations like this.

Wobbley wrote:Since you’re a retire prosecutor, do you know if this is ever prosecuted?  I know mail fraud is prosecuted, but there doesn’t seem to be much prosecution of internet scams.

l prosecuted this kind of case agressively and sent more than a few scammers to state prison. However, many scammers are in other counties (on other continents) and effectively beyond the reach of law enforcement in this country.
I turned several cases where the scammer was not in the U.S. over to the FBI, but nothing ever came of those cases.

I was scammed on eBay once for $25.00. I had mailed a check and the guy had deposited it into an account. Communication with eBay said that he had committed numerous incidents and was banned. I reported it to the FBI Fraud Department via their web site thinking that nothing would become of it. I got a phone call from an FBI agent stating that I wasn't the only victim asking for a copy of the check which I sent to him. A year or so later I got a letter stating that the guy was sentenced to five years in prison for charges including mail fraud since the check came to him via USPS.

I was quite surprised to see all of that happen!

The threat of mail fraud is the best part about sending a MO/check to pay for something.

Post count doesn't show up in PM's, so it's not always the first clue that something isn't right when someone offers something.

Using the "memberlist" function will allow you to see all sorts of statistics about a user including join date and number of posts.

No matter what, ANY unsolicited contact that says "I'm not the seller, contact the actual seller via-off platform method xxx" is the red flag that users should look out for.

zanemoseley wrote:The threat of mail fraud is the best part about sending a MO/check to pay for something.

Zane, if only that were true. I tried on more than one occassion to get the USPS law enforcement branch involved in a criminal prosecution. While this was some time ago, I doubt things have changed; I found them to be worthless.

When I make a purchase or sell something I want to talk to the person on the phone. This is where I vet the sale/purchase. It is a pleasure to talk to real shooters and they are easily vetted by their knowledge and passion.  I have not encountered a scammer/scum of the earth yet and if I did I would make the appropriate information available to the community.

Banned another scammer today.  Thanks to our users for looking out for them.

I also made a new NRA classification: Banned Scammer