I just wanted to post an FYI that there appear to be scammers contacting users by private message since it appears I'm not the only one being contacted.
I was contacted by an account (which has been since deleted) about a "stale" for sale post I inquired about. They told me that I could contact the user by email, which I did. Over email the person on the other end was "nice" and accepted my offer and then told me they had the item all packed up, and provided a paypal address to send the money to. I tried sending the payment by the standard "goods and services" method over paypal, including the extra for the fee (since I was using my credit card), and then the payment was inexplicably refunded. I contact the "seller" and they asked me to try again with "friends and family". I was a little sketched out at this point and sent it again the normal way, and the paypal was again refunded, and the person emailed me insisting that it be friends and family (even though I had covered the fee). I made the mistake of saying "what the hell" and sent it again with the friends and family option (paying the fee on my end). The last response I got was "Thanks I'll keep you posted"
Everything was fine until I saw another post about someone running scams by contacting via PM.
Lessons Learned:
1) If someone contacts you by PM about an ad you responded to, make sure that they are actually the original person posting the ad, and check their account "messages" history to make sure it's not a brand new "burner" account with no posts, especially if the ad was not responded to immediately.
2) If they also give you an email contact not listed in the for sale ad (per the forum rules), be suspicious,
3) After the above red-flags, if they also insist on a payment method with no buyer protection (Paypal Friends and Family, Zelle, Venmo, etc) and you suspect they might not be legit, be *very* suspicious and insist on a payment method that is protected
After realizing what I'd done, I reported it to Paypal, but they won't do anything about a "friends and family" charge unless it was due to unauthorized activity on your account. Fortunately, I had used my credit card and the charges were still pending, so I called the credit card company and told them about the pending charges. Basically the only option at that point is full scorched earth. They froze the charges, canceled my card as "stolen" and are sending me a new card. If the charge has already posted and not just pending, it's a little more difficult, but your card company might still be able to do a chargeback.
Buyer beware - make sure you know who you are buying from. People on the forum generally seem to be good people, but there are apparently people out there running scams and trying to make sure we can't have nice things.
I was contacted by an account (which has been since deleted) about a "stale" for sale post I inquired about. They told me that I could contact the user by email, which I did. Over email the person on the other end was "nice" and accepted my offer and then told me they had the item all packed up, and provided a paypal address to send the money to. I tried sending the payment by the standard "goods and services" method over paypal, including the extra for the fee (since I was using my credit card), and then the payment was inexplicably refunded. I contact the "seller" and they asked me to try again with "friends and family". I was a little sketched out at this point and sent it again the normal way, and the paypal was again refunded, and the person emailed me insisting that it be friends and family (even though I had covered the fee). I made the mistake of saying "what the hell" and sent it again with the friends and family option (paying the fee on my end). The last response I got was "Thanks I'll keep you posted"
Everything was fine until I saw another post about someone running scams by contacting via PM.
Lessons Learned:
1) If someone contacts you by PM about an ad you responded to, make sure that they are actually the original person posting the ad, and check their account "messages" history to make sure it's not a brand new "burner" account with no posts, especially if the ad was not responded to immediately.
2) If they also give you an email contact not listed in the for sale ad (per the forum rules), be suspicious,
3) After the above red-flags, if they also insist on a payment method with no buyer protection (Paypal Friends and Family, Zelle, Venmo, etc) and you suspect they might not be legit, be *very* suspicious and insist on a payment method that is protected
After realizing what I'd done, I reported it to Paypal, but they won't do anything about a "friends and family" charge unless it was due to unauthorized activity on your account. Fortunately, I had used my credit card and the charges were still pending, so I called the credit card company and told them about the pending charges. Basically the only option at that point is full scorched earth. They froze the charges, canceled my card as "stolen" and are sending me a new card. If the charge has already posted and not just pending, it's a little more difficult, but your card company might still be able to do a chargeback.
Buyer beware - make sure you know who you are buying from. People on the forum generally seem to be good people, but there are apparently people out there running scams and trying to make sure we can't have nice things.
