aftriathlete
WKR
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2022
- Messages
- 432
Time to air the hate in my heart. This is a long post, but it’s therapeutic. Read and heed to see how I got duped by a scammer on the forum here, because I think there are lessons everyone should learn from this.
It pains me to say it, because I don’t want to give this guy credit, and I am 100% confident the keyboard warrior that scammed me is sitting here reading this right now from the other profiles he has developed on this site over the last several months. But he got me. I’m an educated guy in my late 30s, relatively tech savvy, that has successfully avoided getting scammed online I’d say dozens of times over the years.
I was contacted by this guy about my WTB ad Tuesday night. At this point, with what I have seen in the last few days and the rash of attempted scams utilizing WTB ads as the in, I would hope no one considers posting WTB ads any more because you are only inviting shit-stain scammers into your life. It’s also probably all the same guy pushing the button to use all the different profiles he has created at the same time because he knew that it would quickly raise the collective hackles on this forum for the use of WTB ads in general.
This guy opened a profile 6 months ago. He has engaged on the forum 23 times, including starting two threads that many of you replied to. Real, normal threads, like asking about tips to beat insomnia, and asking about graduation gifts for his son. He had a feedback rating from another username on the site. The pics of the optic he sent me could not be found anywhere else on the internet by Google Reverse Image Search. The name and email addresses provided for payment info did not yield anything by Google search. And as a hallmark of scammers we are all familiar with, this guy did not have awkward, difficult English, full of typos. It was normal, conversational American English with no red flags. In all his content on the forum dating back 6 months, as well as in his PMs to me. The picture he sent me of the scope with a sticky note showing the Wednesday’s date did not look photoshopped, even at high zoom.
So the scammers have gotten better. This is likely one profile of many this guy has developed and is still developing on this forum to convince you they are legit. There are no tell-tale signs of scam any more that used to make it easy to identify.
So what raised my hackles on this? On Wednesday, hours after I paid this guy, when McCrapper posted that he had just been contacted that day by a scammer as well with a picture of a rifle the scammer was supposedly selling that had a yellow sticky note with the date on it to show it was current and legit. Except in this picture the sticky note was more clearly photoshopped in, and also McCrapper was able to find the photos this scammer was using on another hunting forum classified ad from years ago. I also did not originally catch that the 1 feedback rating he had on the forum here was from another scam username that doesn’t even exist on the forum any more.
I asked moderators on this site to look into this guy’s profile, and their feedback is they had indications that this guy is a scammer from whatever it is they can see, his PM activity or log-in activity or whatever in addition to what I can see. I then asked the seller to FaceTime me to show he was legit, and they have since gone radio silent and stopped logging into their account. They are gone like a fart in the wind.
So good job man. You got me. There is no getting my money back because my initial attempt to pay with Venmo froze my account for the fact that I was attempting to pay for something firearm related, so I then paid with Zelle. That's on me. $500 from a fixed-income, single-income family active duty military guy. Who now doesn’t have the funds to purchase another scope, setting me back for an unknown amount of time to get out and hunt. But enough sob story. **** you, Rokslide username “Sky.” I know you’re reading this from another scam username, so I hope you get cancer and your dick rots off.
It pains me to say it, because I don’t want to give this guy credit, and I am 100% confident the keyboard warrior that scammed me is sitting here reading this right now from the other profiles he has developed on this site over the last several months. But he got me. I’m an educated guy in my late 30s, relatively tech savvy, that has successfully avoided getting scammed online I’d say dozens of times over the years.
I was contacted by this guy about my WTB ad Tuesday night. At this point, with what I have seen in the last few days and the rash of attempted scams utilizing WTB ads as the in, I would hope no one considers posting WTB ads any more because you are only inviting shit-stain scammers into your life. It’s also probably all the same guy pushing the button to use all the different profiles he has created at the same time because he knew that it would quickly raise the collective hackles on this forum for the use of WTB ads in general.
This guy opened a profile 6 months ago. He has engaged on the forum 23 times, including starting two threads that many of you replied to. Real, normal threads, like asking about tips to beat insomnia, and asking about graduation gifts for his son. He had a feedback rating from another username on the site. The pics of the optic he sent me could not be found anywhere else on the internet by Google Reverse Image Search. The name and email addresses provided for payment info did not yield anything by Google search. And as a hallmark of scammers we are all familiar with, this guy did not have awkward, difficult English, full of typos. It was normal, conversational American English with no red flags. In all his content on the forum dating back 6 months, as well as in his PMs to me. The picture he sent me of the scope with a sticky note showing the Wednesday’s date did not look photoshopped, even at high zoom.
So the scammers have gotten better. This is likely one profile of many this guy has developed and is still developing on this forum to convince you they are legit. There are no tell-tale signs of scam any more that used to make it easy to identify.
So what raised my hackles on this? On Wednesday, hours after I paid this guy, when McCrapper posted that he had just been contacted that day by a scammer as well with a picture of a rifle the scammer was supposedly selling that had a yellow sticky note with the date on it to show it was current and legit. Except in this picture the sticky note was more clearly photoshopped in, and also McCrapper was able to find the photos this scammer was using on another hunting forum classified ad from years ago. I also did not originally catch that the 1 feedback rating he had on the forum here was from another scam username that doesn’t even exist on the forum any more.
I asked moderators on this site to look into this guy’s profile, and their feedback is they had indications that this guy is a scammer from whatever it is they can see, his PM activity or log-in activity or whatever in addition to what I can see. I then asked the seller to FaceTime me to show he was legit, and they have since gone radio silent and stopped logging into their account. They are gone like a fart in the wind.
So good job man. You got me. There is no getting my money back because my initial attempt to pay with Venmo froze my account for the fact that I was attempting to pay for something firearm related, so I then paid with Zelle. That's on me. $500 from a fixed-income, single-income family active duty military guy. Who now doesn’t have the funds to purchase another scope, setting me back for an unknown amount of time to get out and hunt. But enough sob story. **** you, Rokslide username “Sky.” I know you’re reading this from another scam username, so I hope you get cancer and your dick rots off.
