estebon Posted January 9, 2015 Share #1 Posted January 9, 2015 Advertisement (gone after registration) Received the following from clintonbrain@outlook.com: "I'm interested in your item,How long have you owned it and how much are you asking for it?please i can only pay using Paypal.email me pictures." Per an internet search, this is a rather common, albeit feeble, attempt at scamming. I'm a bit frustrated that Leica User Forum is unable to filter out more of these cyberparasites. This is the second scam attempt in as many months that I've dealt with on this website. Are my experiences unique, common, or am I just naive? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted January 9, 2015 Posted January 9, 2015 Hi estebon, Take a look here ANOTHER SCAM ATTEMPT. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
pico Posted January 9, 2015 Share #2 Posted January 9, 2015 Why are you surprised? New to the 'net? I'm a bit frustrated that Leica User Forum is unable to filter out more of these cyberparasites. Do you know any site that does? How about your own e-mail filter? If you can't make a filter (very simple) then you might consider another provider.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasticman Posted January 9, 2015 Share #3 Posted January 9, 2015 Why are you surprised? New to the 'net? Do you know any site that does? How about your own e-mail filter? If you can't make a filter (very simple) then you might consider another provider. . Why the knee-jerk rude response? There are a number of things that this site could do to minimize fraud attempts. One simple step would be use the same ID for the Buy&Sell as for the rest of the forum, and also utilize the same PM system so that everyone can ascertain (with a modest amount of certainty) who is communicating with whom. As it is now, I could email a seller posing as (say) jaapv-at-gmail.com - ie: a long-established and respected member of the forum - and no mail filter would help. Anyone can contact a seller now - when selling here in the past I've been contacted by unserious and possibly dishonest 'buyers' several times. It's very annoying and could be minimized if the site instituted a few more checks before prospective buyers can contact sellers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pico Posted January 9, 2015 Share #4 Posted January 9, 2015 One simple step would be use the same ID for the Buy&Sell as for the rest of the forum, and also utilize the same PM system so that everyone can ascertain (with a modest amount of certainty) who is communicating with whom. Interesting. We can use the same ID in the classifieds and forums, but the forum person database is not used as it could be. It is separate in that regard. A shame, really. As it is now, I could email a seller posing as (say) jaapv-at-gmail.com - ie: a long-established and respected member of the forum - and no mail filter would help. Posing as another in the email address would mean the receiver could not respond. Correct? In any event, my mail server has filters and I can filter based upon text in the sender and/or subject and/or body. Literally thousands of junk mail and scams have been put directly to the Trash folder. FWIW, and interestingly of my three e-mail addresses, the address in these forums is attacked all the time. OP - I was strident. Did not mean any disrespect. Thank for the nudge, plasticman. . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasticman Posted January 9, 2015 Share #5 Posted January 9, 2015 Interesting. We can use the same ID in the classifieds and forums, but the forum person database is not used as it could be. It is separate in that regard. A shame, really. Posing as another in the email address would mean the receiver could not respond. Correct? In any event, my mail server has filters and I can filter based upon text in the sender and/or subject and/or body. Literally thousands of junk mail and scams have been put directly to the Trash folder. FWIW, and interestingly of my three e-mail addresses, the address in these forums is attacked all the time. OP - I was strident. Did not mean any disrespect. Thank for the nudge, plasticman. . No problem Pico. Incidentally, with the 'faked' mail address, I meant that the scammer would choose (and acquire) an address that simply seemed to relate to another member: harder to do with gmail admittedly - so my example was a poor one - but the principle is the same with other, easier to acquire, addresses. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandokan Posted January 9, 2015 Share #6 Posted January 9, 2015 Hi Estebon, From that one line - the only thing that tell me it is a scam is ... nothing. As a pernickity old fart, I take exception to the poor grammar, but that does not confirm it is a scam. So yes, my radar increases from a "I want to sell" to "I want to make sure I receive the money before I ship". There are numerous technical ways to also increase the risk awareness of the system; GeoAwareness from the IP address, logical email address and the email reply path. If fyou post the full email with full header information, I can help ascertain that this is a fraudulant attempt to con you. However, I do not believe there was an email but a mail from the L-Forum system, which would not show these inconsistencies. It is good to have your awareness raised with the poor formatting and grammar of the mail content, but as only 3/70 of the world's population has English as the first language it is not a guarantee that the mail was fraudulant. As an example, even if I can speak Hindi I would never attempt to communicate with anyone in roman characters in Hindi as those that have grown up with it would immediately spot I am a foreigner. How would you program in clear logical steps, the parameters to determine a fraudulant attempt to buy? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted January 9, 2015 Share #7 Posted January 9, 2015 Advertisement (gone after registration) Very simple using an email address substituting site like Blur (AKA Abine); gmail can never verify your real identity Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LUF Admin Posted January 10, 2015 Share #8 Posted January 10, 2015 Received the following from clintonbrain@outlook.com:"I'm interested in your item,How long have you owned it and how much are you asking for it?please i can only pay using Paypal.email me pictures." Per an internet search, this is a rather common, albeit feeble, attempt at scamming. I'm a bit frustrated that Leica User Forum is unable to filter out more of these cyberparasites. This is the second scam attempt in as many months that I've dealt with on this website. Are my experiences unique, common, or am I just naive? Hi, I warned all advertisers of the Buy & Sell one hour before you posted this. Didn't you receive the mail? I'm sorry but I'm not able to filter out all scammers. All measures would cause collateral damage (i.e. banning innocent members) or would need too many personal data of you members. And wouldn't be perfect too... If something looks strange, please inform me instead of posting such accusations in public: - The concerned member might be innocent (not in this case) - All affected advertisers do not read here - I can inform them in a few minutes (like I did) Thanks Andreas Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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