No Scammers

[coolformula]

Lots of good ideas in this thread....

Suggestions:

• I like the extra buttons for lifetime supporters such as good deal and "not a great deal".
• MIN post count of 25 and account age of 30 days, before any account can PM or engage in the classifieds area at all. (they need to interact with the community)
• For any new members after Jan 1st 2025 require a one time payment of .99 cents to post to classifieds or pm. (this is in addition to the previous MIN requirements)
• Purge inactive accounts after X days. (send reminder emails before purging, for passed members maybe a "Legacy" Banner)
• Block any member from sending a PM to a new account that don't meet the above requirements. (I see some threads a top comes up and somebody will say I'm interested PM Me, that would be abused by spammers)
• Require some sort of "MFA" this will at least minimize good accounts from being "stolen" and used by bad people. (even if its the code to your email and make that good for 30-60 days)
• No Cell phone or Email address in the classifieds section. This can be done in PM by trusted members.
• Ban non US IP's? (I know they are ways around it, but every little bit helps)

At the end of the day its only such much you can do. We can't ever stop spam 100%, but don't mean we should not try. People must follow best practices online to protect themselves.

We appreciate all the hard work the mods are doing its a thankless never ending job.

 

[BIKER13]

Lots of good ideas in this thread....

Suggestions:

• I like the extra buttons for lifetime supporters such as good deal and "not a great deal".
• MIN post count of 25 and account age of 30 days, before any account can PM or engage in the classifieds area at all. (they need to interact with the community)
• For any new members after Jan 1st 2025 require a one time payment of .99 cents to post to classifieds or pm. (this is in addition to the previous MIN requirements)
• Purge inactive accounts after X days. (send reminder emails before purging, for passed members maybe a "Legacy" Banner)
• Block any member from sending a PM to a new account that don't meet the above requirements. (I see some threads a top comes up and somebody will say I'm interested PM Me, that would be abused by spammers)
• Require some sort of "MFA" this will at least minimize good accounts from being "stolen" and used by bad people. (even if its the code to your email and make that good for 30-60 days)
• No Cell phone or Email address in the classifieds section. This can be done in PM by trusted members.
• Ban non US IP's? (I know they are ways around it, but every little bit helps)

At the end of the day its only such much you can do. We can't ever stop spam 100%, but don't mean we should not try. People must follow best practices online to protect themselves.

We appreciate all the hard work the mods are doing its a thankless never ending job.

Some good suggestions but they are never hip to good suggestions.

 

[Blue bio balls]

 

[hkmp5g17]

Boggles the mind how you could fall for such obvious bull ****

Most scams rely on people wanting something for nothing (or less than it's worth) and the person being scammed believing they are smarter, more attractive, more important than they are.

Lots of people DESPERATELY want to believe they can date a model or get rich with no work no skill, no sacrifice, no adding value.

It's the only reason people think the Russian supermodel (who is likely an overweight guy in Belarus) is attracted to them... and why they send their life savings to Nigerian barristers to get their "lottery winnings"

 

[Blue bio balls]

You're kind of painting me in a box here..

 

[yellowhammer]

I`m not particular what path you guys take. I only do face-to-face. I`ve wasted gas a few times, but enjoyed the scenery. In my instances the picture never looked like the real item.

 

[GC Josh]

Requiring moderator approval for listings, and comments on listings, by anyone with less than 25 posts and less than 60 days join date is low hanging fruit and would solve a lot of scams before they arise. Snipershide does it without any issues.

 

[Allsmiles]

I miss the boner pill add and THC gummies that I used to report when I worked night shift. Not much else to do a lot of the time at night. A little common sense goes a long way on deals. If it seems like too good of a deal from a "new" member; meet up at a police station and save yourself a from a Craiglist holdup. I also double check and see if the poster has commented on other threads. First post selling something dirt cheap is a red flag to me.

 

[basstracker89]

I`m not particular what path you guys take. I only do face-to-face. I`ve wasted gas a few times, but enjoyed the scenery. In my instances the picture never looked like the real item.

So was item better than pic or worse?

 

[VHinch]

Requiring moderator approval for listings, and comments on listings, by anyone with less than 25 posts and less than 60 days join date is low hanging fruit and would solve a lot of scams before they arise. Snipershide does it without any issues.

Actually that would solve virtually none of them. The overwhelming majority, probably north of 95%, are one of two things:

Scammer sees you post interest in an ad, sends you a PM that says something along the lines of "PM the seller at such and such email address for faster response" and if you do, they act as if they're the seller and ask for a deposit to hold it for you.

or

Scammer sees you posts interest in an item, does a quick post search to see if you've ever posted your phone number and if you have they send you a text pretending to be the seller

And you'd likely be shocked how many people fall for both of those.

At the end of the day, what solves 100% of the scam attempts is don't ever send funds via CashApp, Venmo, Zelle, whatever unless you know the person personally and can be sure who you're sending it to. If you never send them money, you can't possibly get screwed.