Scammers upping their game

[decling]

I wanted to share an issue that almost got me scammed on Facebook. I follow a lot of the Ford groups there and there are a lot of folks selling stuff. They seem to be plagued by scammers quite often. They have implemented rules that you have to write your name and the current date on a piece of paper and put in the picture.



One individual had a steering wheel I was looking for and he sent me extra pictures with his name and date. I almost fell for it, but the add went away. 1st red flag. But, he had sent the picture with date and name. Then when it can time to pay he didn't want me to use PayPal. We agreed on Venmo, but he said I had to do friends and family. I refused and said it left me with no protection. He pointed back that how could he be scamming me if his name and date were in the picture. I told him no sale to many red flags.


So I went back and zoomed in on the pictures and saw that he had edited in the steering wheel. He tried to ad some shadowing, very poorly now that I looked closer at it. The attached pictures I have circled the areas that are edited.

So, if you are a buyer look at the pictures closely as the scammers are learning to add in a name and date to make it look legit.

 

[KiWinUS]

It’s rampant. I always tell them I ONLY pay with regular PayPal. That will run scammers off every time.

 

[Bored&Stroked]

The good news is that he/she spent quite a bit of time creating that photo - only to not correctly finish the job . . . so you caught them. I hate scammers!

 

[rockfla]

One trick I always use IS 1st). i don’t tell them where I am located 2nd) I ask where they are located (Exactly, state & town). 3rd) I always have a best friend, brother, cousin or brother -in-law that lives exactly where they are and can meet up face to face and buy it at a local police station or Fire Station.

 

[Robz51]

It is rampant. FB is too worried about censoring speech to police this stuff. I got scammed for $200 a couple of months ago on FB. Beware of someone posting pics of a car saying to contact for parts and insist on pics of the part you want. I pissed off a legitimate seller doing this but it's too risky not to.

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[flatford8]

It is rampant. FB is too worried about censoring speech to police this stuff. I got scammed for $200 a couple of months ago on FB. Beware of someone posting pics of a car saying to contact for parts and insist on pics of the part you want. I pissed off a legitimate seller doing this but it's too risky not to.

Enviado de meu SM-G960U usando o Tapatalk

I may also have pissed off a legitimate seller.....wanted my credit card # for payment to a closed business....only payment he would accept....I realize most CC companies have fraud protection but I don’t have time to deal with all of it...it wasn’t a part I needed, just gonna set on the shelf so I passed.....Mark

 

[Fritz]

One trick I always use IS 1st). i don’t tell them where I am located 2nd) I ask where they are located (Exactly, state & town). 3rd) I always have a best friend, brother, cousin or brother -in-law that lives exactly where they are and can meet up face to face and buy it at a local police station or Fire Station.

Excellent. I investigated a lot of white collar crime when I was a detective. This method is fool-proof.

 

[TonyM]

Scammers recycle photos from your favorite FB pages. Look through a FB groups previous photos to see if that photo was used on the page in the past. We busted a couple of scammers on the 1937 Ford FB page a couple weeks ago using that method.

 

[TJ]

They also steal photos from Craigslist and from V-8 parts catalogs.I tell them I want a USPS money order only and you don't hear from them again..

 

[BigJim394]

I agree
It’s getting out of control
I have almost given up on Craigslist as so many replies seem to be computer generated.