All, After reports of what appears to be an attempted scam, I have deleted a recently signed up member. The details: One of our members was looking for specific parts for his wagon. In a private message, the newly sign up member told this member that "such and such has the parts you are looking for, email him at, <this email address>." Our member did, and received a reply that yes, he had the parts, they were $55, and included a picture of said parts in the email reply. Our member sent a money order to the address listed, and heard nothing back. He contacted his bank who stopped payment on the money order. His son then sent him an eBay link which had the parts listed for sale, including the exact same pictures he had been sent in the email. Based on these details, I have deleted the recently sign up member. Please report any instances of this you have encountered, as we do not monitor PMs. One tip that may help when buying from other people privately: Ask for pictures of the parts, and request that a handwritten note with the persons name and date be in the picture. This will help ensure the parts are genuinely in possession of the seller. We will protect our members from fraud any way possible. If you encounter any of this behavior, please report it using the "Report" button at the bottom of the message. Thank you to you all for your diligence.
That's rampant over at FB, and there's almost NO oversight there. One guy has a collected group of 70-71 Torinos, and fraudsters use his pictures WITH NO CHANGES to take peeps for a ride.
Facebook is a joke as far as 'ads' go. The great majority are fake ads, claiming to offer unheard of deals from name brand stores and companies, like Home Depot or DeWalt, but if you look closely at the link they want you to click on, it's actually some other place, 'dressed up' to look like the real deal. But if you give them your credit card info, you're never getting what you think you bought, and you just might see your card collects a bunch of other fraudulent charges. I got taken once, thankfully for only $25 or so, and the wife clicked on something she shouldn't have and got taken for $50 or so, but she appealed to our credit union, and they reversed the charge. So the blanket rule should be - Don't buy ANYTHING off of a FB ad link.
Thanks for your work HRR. There will always be jerks out there looking for ways to make a dishonest buck.
It is in the buyer's best interest to exercise due diligence, but, there are honest ads on Facebook as well. Likewise, Facebook Marketplace can have scam ads just as Craigslist does. At least with Facebook Marketplace, you can view the seller's profile, visit their page to view their posting history, and decide if the ad is likely real or a scam. I believe more vehicles and possibly parts are advertised on Facebook Marketplace now, than there are on Craigslist. I just bought a car that was on Facebook Marketplace, and I'm pleased with the result. I had my white Belvedere wagon advertised on Facebook Marketplace though, and got more scam responses to the ads than I did real responses. Again, at least you can view the prospective buyer's Facebook history before responding. Buying or selling, you gotta be careful using social media.
Frankly, that's all that's left, is social media. No more nickel fish wraps, no more Vatotraders, everybody went en masse to social media to sell cars because the ads were FREE. At least until CL began charging, the bahstidges.
Nope nope nope. Absolutely will not use FB to buy anything. Will not use FB for anything but sharing with personal friends and family. Anything beyond that will be exploited by shysters and hucksters.
Over here, ebay is still free, if you're a private seller. If a Facebooker runs a parallel ad on ebay, that's a pretty accurate litmus paper test, usefull for weighing honesty, given ebay's rather strict oversight. In which case, he's more likely to get trusted. On ebay, at the upper right of the seller's page, a satisfaction percentage is always posted. Most of the time, it's abouve 98%. Some of the complaints are trivial and often unavoidable for a seller. for example, delivery delays for which he has no influence upon. So far, I've had mostly good luck with them, except for one time when a large company tried selling me a used color laser printer as a new one. I accidently caught it, after it only made it to 20 prints, before the black toner ran out. Under threat of getting in trouble with ebay and losing their market base, they promptly refunded my money. But "forgot" to refund my shipment, of which I'll have to get around to dealing with it sometime. I also had a run-in with a company selling dashcams directly shipped from Japan of which mine took delivery in July. It wasn't their fault that it never got here, though. FedEx stored it in their warehouse and didn't bother delivering it, before sending it back to Japan. I'm still negotiating with the company. It's taking them awhile to answer me, probably because they're trying to negotiate with FedEx. Otherwise, I've only experienced satisfying transactions, there. Facebook is still usefull for information which is difficult, if not impossible, to dig up elsewhere, though. I'm presently using it for tracking down a problem with an abandoned washmachine and have been getting honest advice there: https://www.facebook.com/groups/155...701090772648701¬if_t=group_comment_mention Of course, without money changing hands. Despite that, Facebook-Germany takes the crown, when it's about the internet's percentage of estrogen-overdosed disrupters and downright self-legendaries. But, you hardly see them in technical threads, luckilly
Some say that "Freedom is not Free." I tend to think "Freedom can easily be taken away, if by very small amounts." And what I think, is that the powers that be havd been taking our freedoms here, in small doses, and we accept that. The upshot, though, is it also erodes our ability to fight the bad guys, because the bad guys have been changing all the rules. The One Percenters have been taking for decades, and prevent us, the Ninety-Nine Percenters, from the ability of getting our day in court. I dunno if I sound like a kook conspiracy theorist, but hey, it only takes two to tango, and it only takes two to conspire.
We have the means, at our disposal. Flash mobbing makes it happen, elsewhere. Once refrigerators stay empty, that's when torches and pitchforks get broken out
Well, Hi there to all. I am the aforementioned "scamee" that HRR mentioned. He was good enough to contact me and research things . A BIG thank you to him, and we have been in touch thru PM. If it helps others, I used my bank money order ( small community bank) and they were able to stop payment thru fraud. I imagine had it been a postal MO or otherwise I would probably be out the 55 bucks. I am new to this forum stuff and it makes me even less interested in it.... but reading what you have written gives me hope. We need to always fight back against those who lie, cheat , and steal. In case I have not put it in the right place my project car is a 55 Ford Country Sedan 4 door. The original SUV, no computer chips, no back up camera. GOD bless the USA !!!
Ah, cool, it's rare cars that are mid-Forties or older show up anymore. Of course, if you haven't already, pics are always wanted.
This year, I've been made an Admin at a small guitar forum and a moderator of 3 Facebook Groups for Guitars. I had to delete over 400 Spam posts, somewhere north of 200 each, for 2 of the Facebook groups. Yeah, FB is rampant with it. The most egregiously stupid one, though, was the first one I noticed. I almost let him go to look at something else in the group, but I recognized the instrument and then I was just curious enough to image search it. And so, I found the original real sales ad that was still up, and had been for about 4 - 5 years. The shyster was "asking" $1,000 for the Bass Guitar, and the ad is at $4,400. As it turns out, re-posting images of a one of a kind instrument (or one that's of a very rare finish for that instrument) makes it incredibly easy for me to track it. It was a Blue Mosrite Combo model Bass, and I've only seen that one example in Blue. The original ad said it was one of a kind, and I'm not sure if it is, but it's still the only Bass of that model that I've seen in Blue.
At least, spam posts in Facebook's English-language forums are being moderated. German-language Facebook is a kindergarten. Moderators there are too lazy to weed out spammers and other disrupters who don't heed to the basic guidelines there. Instead, they close the entire topic's thread containing usefull imput. Facebook sux altogether, because to access your own thread, you'd need to scroll down past all of the needless invitations and friendship invites which are mostly sexual solicitations (Twitter, also) or, at least, alternative bait to some other scam
