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Meso

Important -- New Scam Tactics

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It seems that there has been an active effort by scammers to try get a better scamming conversion rate. Up until now they would typically use very generic writing in their original response and their replies, but it seems the replies have become a bit more developed and they are starting to sound as though they may actually be skydivers.

There have been several scammers of late who claim that their rigger will come and collect the gear for inspection after they have sent the cheque. And they have even referenced which dropzone they 'jump' at, and there was even one that managed to put forward a USPA license number (which belonged to someone else).

While they have managed to figure this out, their English remains fairly bad and that can still be used as a tell-tale sign. Look out for basic spelling and grammar problems that you wouldn't expect from an English speaking person, especially when the buyer claims to be from a primarily English speaking country.

It will remain good practice, especially in cases like these to call the dropzone that they reference and see if the DZO knows the 'jumper'. This is usually where their scams fall apart.

In short, it is no longer safe to assume that if a buyer gives you a license number and a DZ name that they are a legitimate buyer. If you suspect at all that they may be a scammer, follow up with the dropzone and make sure. Though these cheques that they send are almost always for a larger amount of money than the product and also remains a big alert that the buyer is a scammer.

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'144826'.
Hello! That is the Ad number of Daniel Feess May 18,2013 I sent him the amount $565.00 and emailed him 2 days ago to see if he already has received the Money Order but I did not received any reply and I checked the Ad from him and it says Error??? Cannot find the Ad anymore.....What is going on?Did I get Scammed???[:/]

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Belmonte

[email protected]
scam seller



He goes by "Richard Morgan" on here with a paypal address of [email protected]

Cell phone number is 9045676349. He'll claim he has hearing loss and can't talk hear you and that you should only text him. When trying to talk to him it's quite obvious he's not a "Richard Morgan" but definitely a foreigner claiming to be selling a rig located in Missouri yet that phone number is directed from Florida.

Don't be fooled.

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Meso,

Just curious as a new jumper and new forum member...what are the scammers hoping to accomplish? Are they trying to get peoples' bank information? Or email addresses or what?

I just dont get what they hope to accomplish with either fake ads or even stranger fake offers to buy.

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Hey,

Seller scammers are in it for the money directly, while buyers obviously have a few different agendas depending on the scammer. Some may actually hope to achieve being sent the gear, so they can then resell it. Since some of them pay via what seem like reliable avenues, and then only after a couple of days once the item has been sent, will the money payment be flagged as illegitimate and reversed.

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Also it is important to keep an eye out for the commercialized scams. Chutingstar.com is a great example of that. Albeit their merchandise is for real, there information in selling is misleading and borderline life threatening. They claim no responsibility for their lies on their gear through not accepting returns. Also if they send you faulty hardware, and you send it back, they fix it and then deny any refund to your money. Scams can come from many different places, not just private sellers. Be very wary of purchasing any products from chutingstar that will be used as life saving devices. They have no quality control in place and they are not willing to take responsibility for any misleading or deceitful actions or words expressed by their employees

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Amyr

Brian Juddo, When you say all you got are crickets, are you talking about the tiny bugs, or is that slang for something else?



That's an expression that means he heard nothing in reply. Like sitting outside on a quiet night when all you can hear is the crickets chirping. He didn't actually get a box full of bugs. I hope!

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Scammer buyer alert.

David brown [email protected]

Thanks for your prompt response ,I was just about to book the pick up schedule with the pick up agent when i had a problem about their payment method. They are only accepting payment through Western union money transfer but i am currently on sea due to my status of work, soi want to add the pick up agent pick up fee to your item cost price credited to your Paypal account and the pick up fee is ($600.00) so i will be crediting the total amount of($2,492.00), the extra ($50.00) is for the Western union transfer fee for you to transfer the pick up agent fee through Money gram. Once i have these done and you have pick up agent fee sent to them, the pick up arrangement will be scheduled,just wanted to let you know before i proceed with the payment, please advice and i please advice and i will be looking forward to read from

---------------------------------------------------------
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway !

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hjortur

"i am currently on sea due to my status of work, soi want to add the pick up agent pick up fee to your item cost price credited to your Paypal account"



Watch out for username jimmy35, [email protected], too. He's also unable to coomunicate via phone or Skype "because am presently working offshore". He's been fishing for my mailing address and PayPal information.

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Wow, why so many scammers now? I bought gear through DZ.com 18 months ago and had a great experience. Now, things have changed. In trying to buy gear last year, I encountered two scammers.

Now, I'm selling gear and have had tree scammers trying to phish info out of me. It's getting ridiculous. Maybe it's time to start a new, verified membership program. :(

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It's definitely something that we've been exploring and while I'm unable to give you much more information, as we haven't yet started working on the concept - I imagine it's only a matter of time before we implement a way to make the classifieds much more secure. It would require a change in our software, so it would require some planning, but we have some ideas about how we'd go about it already.

Unfortunately without doing that, it's quite difficult for us to prevent these scammers. They are registering using proxies that hide their IPs and are constantly changing them while posting. So even though we catch and ban most of them the same day that they register, they just register more.

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Thanks for the update. Although scammers have been around for a while it is easy to pick them out. Remember the fake Post Office money orders a few years back. Currently I am trying to sell a Stiletto 107 and I am pretty sure I just picked up a scammer. So I will do what I did before. Lead them on. Get as much useful information as I can so that their scam can be exposed and the skydiving community can stay informed. Then scare the hell out of them in an attempt to discourage them. Which may or may not work. It worked for the money order scam.

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New SCAM Tactic:

This one is pretty ingenious and detailed. It involves an unknowing middleman.

Step 1. Scammers run an ad hiring a patsy to collect donations for them. They set up a BS charity and the patsy waits to receive paypal payments.
Step 2. Scammers run ads for gear and direct payments to legit paypal account (patsy's account)
Step 3. patsy receives $$ he thinks is a donation, keeps a small % for himself and forwards the remainder to the charity (the fake business)
Step 4. Scammers contact buyer and say...."the paypal recipient is actually a business associate who is now disgruntled and keeping the $$ and the gear." Scammers advise you to file a paypal complaint against the patsy and elevate the complaint as soon as possible.
Step 5. Scammers have received the skimmed portion of the transaction and you elevate a complaint freezing patsy's account. He can neither recover $ from scammers or make any other transactions.
Step 6. Patsy is responsible for $$, you may or may not be refunded by paypal..........
Quote



Scammer Name to be aware of: Zach Porath Ph. 9406038405

This is gonna hurt...........

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Quote

This one is pretty ingenious and detailed. It involves an unknowing middleman.

Step 1. Scammers run an ad hiring a patsy to collect donations for them. They set up a BS charity and the patsy waits to receive paypal payments.
Step 2. Scammers run ads for gear and direct payments to legit paypal account (patsy's account)
Step 3. patsy receives $$ he thinks is a donation, keeps a small % for himself and forwards the remainder to the charity (the fake business)
Step 4. Scammers contact buyer and say...."the paypal recipient is actually a business associate who is now disgruntled and keeping the $$ and the gear." Scammers advise you to file a paypal complaint against the patsy and elevate the complaint as soon as possible.
Step 5. Scammers have received the skimmed portion of the transaction and you elevate a complaint freezing patsy's account. He can neither recover $ from scammers or make any other transactions.
Step 6. Patsy is responsible for $$, you may or may not be refunded by paypal..........




Wow. Do you know how they recruit the middleman? Is that done through DZ.com or through mass emails?
=========Shaun ==========


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