Scam going around forums

OHRider

XS650 Junkie
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Details of scam

1. You post in the "Wanted" section that you are looking to buy an item, could be anything.
2. You receive a personal message from a member saying that they know of someone else who is selling that item and suggests you contact then. A name and email address is provided.
3. Basically you then drop this person an email and yes they are selling such an item (lucky you...). A price is agreed and you are asked to pay for it via PayPal friends and family or more likely an anonymous payment method like 'cashapp'.
4. Of course you never receive the item in the post and you have little recourse via the payment provider.

This all sounds pretty obvious but the difference is that the member refers you to someone else who is external to the forum. No doubt one of the same of course.

Note that the forum member who makes contact usually has few posts, and those posts tend to be vague. They send pm's to multiple members posting in the "Wanted" section.

Advice

1. If you get responses to your "Wanted" post then check out the member(s) who respond. Have they been a member a long time ? Do they have a decent number of posts ? You can check out each by clicking on their username.
2. Treat referrals to third parties as very suspicious.
3. We advise that you do not use PayPal friends and family as you have no recourse if it goes belly up. Any anonymous payment methods are asking for trouble.

From the Tiger 800/900 forum
 

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Even I can't look into PMs without some effort (searching the database directly which is quite cumbersome). Report new accounts with vague posts and I'll look into it as much as I can. Best advice is to be diligent and follow the suggestions in the first post of this thread. If things get worse, I may have to limit or even turn off private messages for new members.
 
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