Rant: It's about time Pelican does something about scammers in the Classifieds.

[patina]

I have been a part of this community for a long time and really appreciate it. I enjoy every aspect of the forum from contributing to technical discussions to following other users builds and reading really incredible first-person stories relating to Porsche history.

There is one part of this forum that has really gotten out of control and that is the scammers in the classifieds. If you look, almost every thread has been infiltrated in some capacity by a bot/scammer. Try selling something or god-forbid posting a WTB ad. It's ridiculous.

It's 2023 guys... how is this still a thing? What can be done to squash this? Paid access to the classifieds? Even if it's $1? Some type of additional security/scrutiny for new member registration? I'm not an expert on forum security but none of the other online communities (forums) that I'm a part of have this level of grift in the classifieds.

Just my 2 cents.

[Macroni]

My takeaway is the site supervision since Wayne sold Pelican has declined.

I would think this concern needs to be elevated in a manner greater than a post on the board.

[Matt at Pelican Parts]

Hi patina,


We are always trying our best to keep scammers OUT of our forums anyway we possibly can. One of the ways do this is to filter posts from newly registered members a many of these posts are fake themselves. We also do our best to catch any public postings of email addresses and phone numbers to prevent them from being publicly viewed throughout the internet. This reduces the amount of scammers/spammers we get, but it does not get rid of them all unfortunately.
As we continue to fight this battle, please use precaution with any purchases made on the site by taking extra steps to ensure the authenticity of a seller such as confirming addresses and legitimacy of the photos in the listing. If you ever encounter any scammer activity please let us know and we will do our best to investigate it on our end.

-Matt

[Unobtanium-inc]

Scammers have become Wac-A-Mole for moderators. I'm on the team for the 356 Registry classifieds and it's all the time.
But you see it everywhere, on every forum and Facebook. The scammers don't get the pro's but they do get enough people to keep going. The best thing you can do to help out your fellow Porsche people to is to point out how to spot a scam. Things like:
1. Is the part half price? Along with a bunch of other parts that are half price?
2. Are the photos all taken with different backgrounds?
3. Does the scammer want to get paid in a way that only protects them?
4. Can you call them on the phone?
5. Do they have any connection to the Porsche community, or just arrived, with a bunch of really rare parts?

If any of the above is true, it's a scam!

These guys are always coming up with ways to be one step ahead of the moderators. On the Registry they did fake ads, we shut them down, then they targeted people with WTB ads, we shut them down. It will be something else next week.

---Adam

[Restore_84]

Just happened to me Friday. The conman got a hold of my cell still can’t figure it out since I never add it to a post only in PM.

My inability to multitask put me in a vulnerable position (timing is everything) where he sent me an offer via text to sell cheaper than listed while I was on a conference call with work. Trying to handle both I offered to pay PayPal FF which he immediately jumped on with his PayPal address.

Luckily my conference call got heated so I ignored the text for a while. Luckily he got restless and rude. Which snapped be back to reality.

And all the red flags came up.

Low and behold was a total scammer dirt bag. But my instinct saved me $400….

[juanbenae]

I moderate a couple jeep pages and the internet can no longer be trusted cause it's all Nigerian Princes. There is a post or 3 a week reporting that they were scammed and it was "this" guy, "i sent him money and then he blocked me"... new account, two 1st names. and a profile photo of some old dude and his wife to make you feel assured it's good people. i tell them if you cant put hands and eyes on it it does not exist.

[FA-18C]

Adam nailed it. As I was largely away from the community and the boards for 14 years, I do not recall this being an issue in the past. However there are enough warning emails to educate buyers and sellers, not sure there is a way to handle by moderators that does not become invasive.

[touringmandan]

I am dragging it out with those F'ers until they get pissed. My last question is often "can you ship it to Lagos, Nigeria?"

[stealthn]

Just a small tip, ask where the part/car/thing is located, an exact location (city, town, etc). When they respond, respond back with “give me a minute”, then wait a minute and respond back you have a friend in the same place and they would like to come and look at it. If there is ANY pushback walk away….

[MrBonus]

They're getting increasingly sophisticated too. I was looking for a 911/01 transmission and had a scammer send me an appropriate serial number photo along with what appeared to be a realistic price. I searched their posts and sure enough, 7-8 gibberish bot posts in the for sale section.

At this point, I'm only buying from established members of the community who will take normal steps for some measure of self-identification outside of the forum.

[Restore_84]

Agree on the level of sophistication, I also feel PayPal isn’t doing enough to protect the consumer. If someone gets reported like I did in my scenario there is no follow up or additional requests like copies of my text to prove the scam.

It’s a billion dollar con game really ashame.

Wait until AI gets into the mix…..Each transaction will take a week of verification before any deals are done. Maybe even go back to the old days of only buying from people you can drive to.

What progress?

[aturboman]

Jumping on the rant. As a very longtime member and Pelican customer I love this forum.

But I am getting 4-5 solicitations a day from old WTB ads with new members saying they have what I need and trying to get me to bite. It is ridiculous and the moderators need to find a solution.

Find a way to block anyone without a certain number of posts or months of membership from replying to any WTB Ad.

Make establishing an account an actual process like a photo ID, vehicle VIN, and a few other simple things a real member would happily provide.

Contact the FBI, crossing State lines to commit fraud is a Federal crime.

As mentioned the level of sophistication is growing, people are cloning others IDs and reaching out as legit members in good standing.

Pelican / ECS Tuning are PE owned and someone is going to sue the deep pockets if they get scammed for a big amount and its bound to happen.

I'm all in to help with solutions but clearly this community is a big target.

[Unobtanium-inc]

Originally Posted by aturboman

Contact the FBI, crossing State lines to commit fraud is a Federal crime.

.

Most are overseas so they don't care.

---Adam

[budge96]

They seem to email you as soon as you post any interest on a thread offering to accept differing payment platforms without establishing shipping ?
It get pretty weird had one last week email his number which I figured he’ll let’s see who this is
Haha he couldn’t speak English and tried to keep texting me did I still want part ? Broken English !
Is there some way we can reduce their ability to email as well it looks like they don’t have post count for pms so that eliminates that avenue , it getting really bad …BR
I might get a want to buy response from this LOL

[Matt Monson]

I just reported this one, but share it as an example of how “sophisticated “ they’ve gotten. 9 year old registration, first post? I doubt it’s some sleeper they just activated. They have to be in the database, able to see these kinds of unused registration, and hack their password.

https://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-used-parts-sale-wanted/1151742-wavetrac-lsd-915-a.html#post12146680

[Mikev18]

Going to bump this. Starting to get really annoying with any WTB ad, pm box gets instantly hit scammers trying to get you.

[budge96]

A buddy of mine that’s a shop owner and not a forum familiar guy called me to ask to verify a long time member but he had already sent cash to a scammer that emailed him …this was last Monday
$500 gone !

[Matt Monson]

Originally Posted by Matt Monson

I just reported this one, but share it as an example of how “sophisticated “ they’ve gotten. 9 year old registration, first post? I doubt it’s some sleeper they just activated. They have to be in the database, able to see these kinds of unused registration, and hack their password.

https://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-used-parts-sale-wanted/1151742-wavetrac-lsd-915-a.html#post12146680

Well color me wrong. Dude appears to be a real human who registered and just didn’t post for a decade.

[917_Langheck]

Doubt you are wrong. No way someone doesn't post for 9 years, then starts up with a bullscheisse FS advert.

[Matt Monson]

930 Forum is a freaking mess, and at one point the whole first page was sexy time spam. I sent a pm yesterday around this time, and crickets…