Warning when selling or buying items - PLEASE READ

[Scream And Fly]

This applies to anybody that is selling or looking to buy anything here



If you receive a PM from a person claiming to 'have a friend that has one' or 'knows somebody looking for' an item you're selling, be very skeptical unless it's a well-known member here.

Usually, if you're looking for an item, this sort of scammer will send you a PM, indicating that they 'have a lead on' or they 'have a friend' with what you're looking for, and an email address to contact. Do not conduct business this way.

Please always be prudent and cautious with any online sale. Whenever possible, use any means possible to verify the legitimacy of a potential transaction. As a rule, when in doubt, pass on the item and report any suspicious messages to me.

For the last several years, I manually approve all new registrations on the site. As you may imagine, that is an extremely tedious process, however it also prevents nearly all potential scammers from entering the forums here. I verify IP address locations, as well as the many patterns that automated registration software uses to scour the internet and target very large message boards like this one. However, inevitably, some of these scammers will slip through the process because a few of them are pretty smart about how they present themselves.

Please PM me anytime with any suspicious activity.

Greg

[rock]

And don't be afraid to ask about a member. If they are worth a rats a** you will be told. If they are crap you will be warned. If they are offended by your asking there is probably a reason and you should be glad you asked.

Rock

[tnelsmn]

This should be made a sticky.

[mr fun]

this is exactly what happened to me with a kid in georgia, friend had a motor bla bla bla , when he got around to asking for earnest money up front I just blew him off, still think I have his PM's , Ill get his name up if I do

[Scream And Fly]

This should be made a sticky.

I agree, I will do that right now :)

[22R]

Greg just a " Thank you " for all you do and keeping this site up for us. It is great to have such a great place to learn and enjoy about high performance boating.

22R

[Progression24XL]

Hello, Im new to the site. Its a little tricky figuring out how do I post and Ad to sell my boat on here? Do I have to become a team subscriber first to post an AD? Any help or insight Please

Thank you

[DangerNewb]

Not sure of the criteria for listing a for sale ad. Greg or somebody may chime in. Don't think you have to be a supporting member. May be a minimum post count.

For everyone else, it's always a good idea to click on someone's user name and review some of their posting history before doing business. You can get a good idea if someone has been reasonable to work with in the past. I've never had a deal go bad on here and I've bought many props, other random parts and a few motors without meeting in person. But I've always checked out someone's history before sending money. Yes, thanks Greg for a great site.

[Agarn2]

Second this. I've been contacted twice. watch out

[Scream And Fly]

Not sure of the criteria for listing a for sale ad. Greg or somebody may chime in. Don't think you have to be a supporting member. May be a minimum post count.

For everyone else, it's always a good idea to click on someone's user name and review some of their posting history before doing business. You can get a good idea if someone has been reasonable to work with in the past. I've never had a deal go bad on here and I've bought many props, other random parts and a few motors without meeting in person. But I've always checked out someone's history before sending money. Yes, thanks Greg for a great site.


There is no specific criteria to list items for sale, though I may change that.

One of the quickest ways to spot a suspicious offer is if somebody PMs you with an item you posted that you're looking for. This person will always give you an email address or phone number in their first message. They do this to move communication off S&F as quickly as possible so they can continue with their fraud outside of the site when they're banned here. They will typically say either they have the item, or they have a friend that has it. This is one of the main reasons I do not permit third-party ads here, though this new breed of scammers originate in the US, and they study the contents of the forum they're trying to scam so they can appear as legitimate users when registering. For example, when registering here, there is a mandatory question that asks what kind of boating interests the registrant. Most potential spammers or fraudsters do not answer this appropriately, and are easy to spot. It's a very easy pattern to identify. But this new wave of scammers will typically provide a very plausible answer, such as "Allisons", etc.

To reiterate, do not ever use payment apps like Cash App, Venmo, or the 'send to a friend' option in PayPal. But any member receiving a private message from a new member without any posts should report it to me. I have been working to identify some of these scammers.

Another issue is that these scammers are running riot on Facebook. I've been contacted by many people that had been victims there, and Facebook allows these people to register new accounts with impunity. Furthermore, there have been a few cases where the scammers actually used Facebook's anti-harassment rules to have victims' accounts suspended!

This is something I am working very hard on to mitigate. And as always, please contact me with any communication that appears suspicious in any way.

Thanks all,
Greg

[trivialpursuits]

Just got a PM from a scammer, I really hope nobody falls for this stuff. Also not sure why a new member with 0 posts has the ability to send PMs?

506397

[rjdubiel]

The old my buddy has one trick! haha. Good catch!