Scammer alert

[Brad Miller]

Recently the forum had someone register by the name of Robert Armstrong who has turned out to be a known scammer. He is part of a vaguely elaborate scam where they DM users on forums about niche items, tell you to email mikerohner2@gmail.com and then they get you to buy whatever it is and send the money through PayPal.

If you google that email you will see that it comes up with loads of people saying they are a scammer. Also if you reverse google image search the photos sent to you, it will likely turn up to be random photos from the internet he grabbed as a means to convince you to send money. One person on this forum who reported this got scammed already.

There was another guy (or possibly the same one) on facebook masquerading as “Frank Paul” making the rounds several months ago. His facebook account has since been terminated.

The rule of thumb on these sort of deals is to either meet in person to purchase the item, or instruct the seller to prove themselves by standing in front of the item (or at least their hand) and take one photo with 3 fingers out and pointing upward and another photo of the item from a DIFFERENT angle with two fingers out and pointing sideways. (Change it up each time.) If they can do that, THEN at least you know the item is real and the person you are talking to has actual direct access to the item. If they state it’s elsewhere, tell them to have whomever is watching over it perform the photos. If they refuse or try high pressure “someone else wants this” just walk away because the odds are that you will be sending you money into a black hole.

The Robert Armstrong account has been deleted, but it’s still entirely possible that the scammer will re-register under another name.

Thanks,
Brad

[Ivan Casajús]

Oh, that's a pitty I wasn't in this forum in July.
Thanks anyway

[Ryan Gallagher]

The rule of thumb on these sort of deals is to either meet in person to purchase the item, or instruct the seller to prove themselves by standing in front of the item (or at least their hand) and take one photo with 3 fingers out and pointing upward and another photo of the item from a DIFFERENT angle with two fingers out and pointing sideways. (Change it up each time.) If they can do that, THEN at least you know the item is real and the person you are talking to has actual direct access to the item. If they state it’s elsewhere, tell them to have whomever is watching over it perform the photos. If they refuse or try high pressure “someone else wants this” just walk away because the odds are that you will be sending you money into a black hole.

I know the intent of replies being disabled in the WANTED and FOR SALE categories is for them to behave like classified ads, and encourage direct communication via DM and off site methods after. But I wonder if enabling replies would provide a level of litmus testing. If the seller did not reply in the forum, and has never posted in the forums in general, it might be cause for pause when dealing with scammers.

If they do start replying in those categories at least we have more eyes involved to spot scammer tells. Maybe?

I feel with some of these hard to find items people are more likely to let their guard down in such a specialty industry. The volume of traffic here certainly doesn't seem like a fruitful target for scammers, but alas.