I’ve been a member here for 12 years. I am also a member on several other forums, as well as some Facebook car groups.

I do buy and sell things on marketplace, as well as Craigslist. I’m the guy who almost never sends money electronically. My motto is cash in hand in person only.

A few months ago, I put a wanted ad for a 61 through 66 bench seat cover in our classifieds. This supposed member sent me a pm telling me that another member here had what I was looking for.

I contact that person who seemed extremely legitimate. I always have my spider senses up dealing with money. Maybe I missed it, but I’ve never seen any warnings here about classified scams.

Not blaming this site at all, it’s all on me. Just wanted to share this with you all. I did contact the person who had the seat cover directly at their email, which was not smart. I’m hoping that the administrators of this site can let all the different sub forms know about this.

I paid with Zelle. The scammer also asked for my phone number. He said the bank needed it. I thought that was a little bit strange, but I was hooked in by then.

I guess scammers try to use your phone number to change your phone number and access your bank texts. Already took the steps to fix that.

Lesson learned. I dropped my guard down and got nailed and that’s very hard to do with me. The email I’ve been sending to is something like dieselgarage@outlook.com.

That really doesn’t matter. Just wanna let you guys know— be very cautious. The person that scammed me is a member here, but it only has four posts through the years, probably to make him seem legitimate.

But I’m sure that the scammers just use that person’s handle.

Fool me once…….. and the funny thing is I’m always protecting my mom from scammers and talking to her about it. She gets about 10 phone calls a day telling her she won the lottery.

Other than that, it’s a great day.

oh, one more thing. If someone knows how to contact the administrators here so they can pass this to other sub forms, please let me know. I’ve been looking and I can’t find any way to do this.

 

I only ever buy from members that are fairly long-time members here. Admins do try to weed those other guys out, though.

 

Please post a link to the posts involved or use the "Report Post" function.

I check for Marketplace scammers all the time but I need more info on this one.

Thanks.

 

@85e150

 

@85e150

Could you please put a warning on all the forums about this because I’ve never seen any warnings about scammers on this site.

And I am sure that they are putting a major focus on the classic truck people because we are typically older—like myself.

Maybe you could just do a mass sharing of this thread on all the classic sites, please.

 

Bump in case anyone missed this one. Important for my friends on this site to know this information.

 

About the first thing I’ll do when contemplating a purchase through our classifieds is, unless I know the seller, check his profile and join-date. Joined that morning? Radar activated, skeptical. Read their past posts, if any. Found one guy that only ever replied when a member was in need of a part, asking them to go to PM’s. He was weeded out.

This has been standard procedure for me, and I think many others hopefully, for a very long time.

 

@ibuzzard Good advice. If my mistake can help one or two or 10 people I am always the first person to tell the story.

Like I said, we have nine cars in our family and this is the first time at 60 years old that I’ve ever been burned.

I am always the guy who meets in cash in person only. eBay is the only place that I 99.99% purchase something online.

This scammer’s game was so tight.

 

Additional details remembered. When you put a wanted ad out on the classifieds here you will get the scammer right away. They don’t come later. They come right away.

They prey on new listings

With that said they will probably now change up their procedure.

Additionally, you are going to see a lot more scammers because people cannot find jobs anymore.

It’s not like when I was 16 years old and I could pretty much get a job anywhere. Lol but true.

 

“ Additionally, you are going to see a lot more scammers because people cannot find jobs anymore “

Well, I live in what’s considered a very low income part of the state of Commiefornia. In a very small town.

There are plenty of jobs even here, but not enough people want to work for the money offered. Or work at all. And this is a conservative area, by Cali standards.

If you want to work, you will.

I am 66 years old. Besides paper routes - remember those? - my first job was in a converted dining car/restaurant, washing dishes and bussing tables. I was 13 years old. I worked pretty much full time since age 16, since it could get me out of school early. I am still working, for about the next year, I think. Then I get to work for just my wife, myself, my kids, and my grandkids.

I have worked through downturns, even recessions, in the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, 2000’s. There is always work to be done, always jobs.

You may have to change your real estate to find work. I left home, age 19 in 1979, driving my 1962 Mercury Comet, with about 1800 bucks , and all my accumulated crap in the back seat, and headed for California. . Did I want to move from my small town, surrounded by corn and soybean fields , to a land of mountains, trees, and the Pacific Ocean? ? Heck yes! But, I’d have left even if I DIDN’T want to move. Migration for economic reasons has been happening in this country , and around the world for - well, forever.

There is work and opportunity somewhere, always.

 

They replied with the exact wording of what you were looking for copied from your post- instant red flag

"Contact him to know" is not a phrase native english speakers use. 95% of these kinds of scams are from outside the US, especially on facebook groups.

 

Good—I’m glad we have a dialogue going here. This is really for the people that don’t know about the scam situation on this site.

Not the experts that know all about it, but thanks for your input.

 

Never use Zelle, never use PayPal friends and family unless it is a friend or family.

Most of the world thinks stealing is fine from a rich American if you can do it.