john stones 1 - Moderator Posted December 11, 2023 Share Posted December 11, 2023 Please be very careful if receiving PM's or messages in a thread trying to sell you things, be very suspicious if it mentions a third party having what you're looking for, if any doubt, don't commit to buying. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antony R Posted December 11, 2023 Share Posted December 11, 2023 I had this very thing last week, reply to my wanted ad made by a member who'd joined the forum 5 mins before sending his message, said he knew someone who had what I was after and to email them on the email he supplied. No thanks, I'll pass Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RottenRow Posted December 11, 2023 Share Posted December 11, 2023 Also be careful if buying from the BMFA classifieds. A long-established scammer from Norfolk is once again preying on the unwary. Brian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Harris - Moderator Posted December 11, 2023 Share Posted December 11, 2023 Be especially aware if someone asks you to pay by PayPal Friends and Family - you will lose any protection that is afforded by the normal (in my experience reliably safe) PayPal service. This is a very common part of such scammers MO - it’s the equivalent of putting banknotes in the post… 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin collins 1 Posted December 11, 2023 Share Posted December 11, 2023 4 hours ago, Antony R said: I had this very thing last week, reply to my wanted ad made by a member who'd joined the forum 5 mins before sending his message, said he knew someone who had what I was after and to email them on the email he supplied. Had this a couple of days ago, contacted from a wanted ad by someone who gave me an email address of another person who was selling the kit i was looking for, i emailed the 3rd party and asked for pictures. He sent me three of a built model, i replied i was after an unbuilt kit, he then sent two of a 3/4 built model, i again repeated i was looking for an unbuilt kit, his response was that this was not built but the parts pushed together without glue to show his son how kits were built and that he could dismantle it and put the parts back in the box! The model was obviously glued together as the front end was sheeted with quite a tight radius, the wings were fully built as was the fuselage, i declined again and said i was looking for a pristine unbuilt kit, he then said a friend of his had one which he could get for the same price the other two had been offered at, again pics were sent........No thanks! I then did a Goggle reverse image check on the pictures he had sent, the fully built plane pictures had come from a German r/c site, the part built ones were from one of those sites which show previously sold Ebay items (the ad had long since gone though) and the unbuilt kit pictures were off Pickilic (not correctly spelled but something like that).......I declined, buyer beware, i am sure it would have been a Paypal friends and family or something similar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted December 11, 2023 Share Posted December 11, 2023 Another giveaway is that the person that the scammer wants you to contact has a throwaway email address, though with the usual lazy lack of invention I've seen the same combination of mikescott <insert four digit number here> @ email provider several times. If you do a reverse google image search on the images provided on some of these scams, like Martin did, you will find that they are stock images or lifted from previous ebay sales. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antony R Posted December 12, 2023 Share Posted December 12, 2023 A couple of Facebook motorcycle groups I'm in ask that if you're selling something you place a piece of paper with your name mobile and location in one of the pictures of the item to show that it is a new picture that you've taken and you do own the item for sale. If you don't do this the mods delete your posting. Seems to work ok. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Colbourne Posted December 12, 2023 Share Posted December 12, 2023 On 11/12/2023 at 08:53, RottenRow said: Also be careful if buying from the BMFA classifieds. A long-established scammer from Norfolk is once again preying on the unwary. Brian. It is worth mentioning that in most cases, seller names, images and locations have been hacked from legitimate and unaware victims. This may not be the case with the particular individual to which you refer Brian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Colbourne Posted December 12, 2023 Share Posted December 12, 2023 5 hours ago, Antony R said: A couple of Facebook motorcycle groups I'm in ask that if you're selling something you place a piece of paper with your name mobile and location in one of the pictures of the item to show that it is a new picture that you've taken and you do own the item for sale. If you don't do this the mods delete your posting. Seems to work ok. Handing one's mobile number out to the whole world may not appeal to a lot of legitimate sellers. Ok as a privately sent photo once the prospective buyer has made contact and maybe verified themselves somehow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antony R Posted December 12, 2023 Share Posted December 12, 2023 That's the rules of those particular Facebook groups which are private if you're not a group member, the aim is to put prospective buyers a bit more at ease that the pictures are not grabbed from somewhere on the net. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Wagg Posted December 12, 2023 Share Posted December 12, 2023 I have a Fbook friend asking me, again, to be his friend. I presumed that he had lost the contact? Next thing I received a PM asking how I was doing and I asked him how he is? etc. After answering him I got another message:- Him - Am doing pretty good as well hear to nothing to complain life is Good. i saw your name on PCH list,Have you heard about them? Me -Not heard of them. Him - Publish Clearing House SWEEPSTAKES (PCH) is giving to all People to take care of kids ,buy houses, retired, unemployment pay rents to Maintain the standard of living did you hear from them yet? Me - No! Probably a scam. Him - They compensate me with some cash when i applied for it and it's not refundable,I think you should contact the agent that is in charge. so you could claim yours. Did you no how to apply for the program? Now definitely a scam. Blocked. I rang him later and he confirmed he had shut his Facebook after other people had warned him. Turns out his page has been hacked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Bowers Posted December 12, 2023 Share Posted December 12, 2023 2 hours ago, John Wagg said: I have a Fbook friend asking me, again, to be his friend. I presumed that he had lost the contact? Next thing I received a PM asking how I was doing and I asked him how he is? etc. After answering him I got another message:- Him - Am doing pretty good as well hear to nothing to complain life is Good. i saw your name on PCH list,Have you heard about them? Me -Not heard of them. Him - Publish Clearing House SWEEPSTAKES (PCH) is giving to all People to take care of kids ,buy houses, retired, unemployment pay rents to Maintain the standard of living did you hear from them yet? Me - No! Probably a scam. Him - They compensate me with some cash when i applied for it and it's not refundable,I think you should contact the agent that is in charge. so you could claim yours. Did you no how to apply for the program? Now definitely a scam. Blocked. I rang him later and he confirmed he had shut his Facebook after other people had warned him. Turns out his page has been hacked. I've had that a few times, friends sending "new" friend requests. Always they've been hacked. As I don't have many FB friends, and most are real world friends too, it's easy to keep track of and seek verification by other means. One has to stay alert! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin Colbourne Posted December 12, 2023 Share Posted December 12, 2023 (edited) 41 minutes ago, Graham Bowers said: I've had that a few times, friends sending "new" friend requests. Always they've been hacked. As I don't have many FB friends, and most are real world friends too, it's easy to keep track of and seek verification by other means. One has to stay alert! Your friend's original account may be untouched. The scammer can simply create or modify an account using a copy of your friend's profile photo. The scammer then contact the original friends wanting to re-friend them, as this adds an air of legitimacy to the new account. I did a bit of amateur sleuthing recently on a Facebook profile of a person in the UK who was allegedly scamming people by responding to wanted adverts and taking payment without supplying the goods. It turned out the cloned account had started as a person in East Bengal who had left his original profile picture at the very bottom of his list of photos. Not only that he still had some of his local contacts in Bengal as followers. Edited December 12, 2023 by Robin Colbourne 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Wolfe Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 I have been advised that this site is suspect RC groups link for OS engine spares so be careful. * Chris * Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Wolfe Posted December 18, 2023 Share Posted December 18, 2023 How many people would purchase an OS Sirius for this price? Bargain * Chris * Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Wolfe Posted December 19, 2023 Share Posted December 19, 2023 If one is not very Sirius, then this one looks like a bargain OS Pegasus $88. I want 4 for a scale Lancaster. I wonder if they come with postal tracking and spares support 🙄 * Chris * Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Engine Doctor Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 (edited) On 11/12/2023 at 10:11, Martin Harris - Moderator said: Be especially aware if someone asks you to pay by PayPal Friends and Family - you will lose any protection that is afforded by the normal (in my experience reliably safe) PayPal service. This is a very common part of such scammers MO - it’s the equivalent of putting banknotes in the post… Double edged sword as the seller also also looses any comeback from a dodgy buyer and there are plenty of those about . If in any doubt whatsoever don't enter into any dealings on BMFA, FB or Gumtree unless you can collect in person and still beware . Personally I have bought and sold on the BMFA site and never had an issue . Edited December 20, 2023 by Engine Doctor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Stephenson Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 I just received this minutes ago. It went into one of my alternative mail accounts and why would I need to reply to a Brazilian website to sort out a local delivery, I immediately smelt a rat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dickw Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 (edited) The Hotmail email address it came from is also a bit suspect! Dick Edited December 20, 2023 by Dickw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Davis Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 There is an old boy called Percy, a South African who has a chateau near to my home. He's married to a French lady and spends the nortern hemisphere autumns and winters in South Africa and the spring and summer here in France. While not a member of our club he usually donates some money to the club and likes to see us fly. Earlier this year he brought along an electric powered control line stunter which he'd built and he flew it at our field. While looking on Facebook this morning I received a friend request from Percy. "Funny I thought, are n't we already FB Friends?" I accepted anyway then got a message in Dutch or Africaans asking me whether I'd heard the good news. As a youth I studied German to A Level and as all three languages are similar I worked out the meaning and replied in German asking Percy to tell me about his good news. I got an immediate reply in German to say that he'd won 400,000 Rand on a Facebook Prize Draw and my name was on the list of prize winners too. I should have smelt a rat before this because I've only ever spoken to Percy in English though he does speak French, so I replied, "Sounds like a scam." Percy then posted on our club website to tell us to ignore any friend request purporting to come from him. Someone appears to have hacked his FB account. How do I report it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Day Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 I've had a few scam messages resulting from my for sale or wanted listings. Always the same, someone who has just signed up has a friend who wants or has the item of interest and a email address. Facebook marketplace, someone who clearly has no knowledge of RC is sending a cab/uber with a sealed envelope of cash for the listed item DPD, Parcel force delivery scams, You werent in or package underpaid Computer issues scams from India nearly everyday +91 international code this is the number today +91 99044 54914. Just need all your login details etc! I also have £££££££££££££ tied up in a African goldmines that just needs £££££ to release it to me. Normally Charles or Edward contact me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Harris - Moderator Posted December 20, 2023 Share Posted December 20, 2023 5 hours ago, Andy Stephenson said: I just received this minutes ago. It went into one of my alternative mail accounts and why would I need to reply to a Brazilian website to sort out a local delivery, I immediately smelt a rat. Had a little giggle at the hyperlink at the bottom but shouldn't it read https://fell4it.com etc... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Stephenson Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Oh really how stupid do they think we are! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 They, correctly, never underestimate the carelessness of the public. They only need to catch a fraction of a percent of the baited lines that they toss out, in order to make it worthwhile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J D 8 Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 Over the last couple of months I keep getting emails from my former club chairman. I do not open them. Sadly Reg died nigh two years ago! Scum of the earth they are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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