Scammers on POA

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Tim Westcott

Tim Westcott

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
Dec 14, 2020
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6
Location
Forth Worth,TX
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Display name:
Boskru
I am a recent member of POA but have lurked off and on for a while. I posted on a classified ad for a flight bag and was sent a PM by another new member.

They sent me pictures etc of the flight bag I was looking and so I sent the money. Well, that was a mistake because its been a month and they still hasn't mailed the bag. Despite the user logging on almost daily, responses to my inquiries have stopped and so it appears I've gotten scammed.

I reported the user to admins in an effort to keep others from being scammed. The admins didn't really seem to care that there are scammers and its quite disappointing. I wasn't looking for any sort of refund or product guarantee, but had hoped the admins would look at the user and block them if they were determined to be a scammer.

Lesson learned. Guess you can't trust anybody these days.
 
Tim Westcott said:
I am a recent member of POA but have lurked off and on for a while. I posted on a classified ad for a flight bag and was sent a PM by another new member.

They sent me pictures etc of the flight bag I was looking and so I sent the money. Well, that was a mistake because its been a month and they still hasn't mailed the bag. Despite the user logging on almost daily, responses to my inquiries have stopped and so it appears I've gotten scammed.

I reported the user to admins in an effort to keep others from being scammed. The admins didn't really seem to care that there are scammers and its quite disappointing. I wasn't looking for any sort of refund or product guarantee, but had hoped the admins would look at the user and block them if they were determined to be a scammer.

Lesson learned. Guess you can't trust anybody these days.
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I try to stick to people that have lots of posts when dealing with transactions.
 
Tim Westcott said:
I am a recent member of POA but have lurked off and on for a while. I posted on a classified ad for a flight bag and was sent a PM by another new member.

They sent me pictures etc of the flight bag I was looking and so I sent the money. Well, that was a mistake because its been a month and they still hasn't mailed the bag. Despite the user logging on almost daily, responses to my inquiries have stopped and so it appears I've gotten scammed.

I reported the user to admins in an effort to keep others from being scammed. The admins didn't really seem to care that there are scammers and its quite disappointing. I wasn't looking for any sort of refund or product guarantee, but had hoped the admins would look at the user and block them if they were determined to be a scammer.

Lesson learned. Guess you can't trust anybody these days.
Click to expand...

Out the user.
 
I'm a sceptic at heart. I follow the advise from above - don't do business with anyone who isn't a "regular".

Sorry you got scammed.
 
Management council informed me that it requires minimum of 50 posts to post a classified thread. Does that scammer new member message counter show more than 50?
 
There's a lot that happens behind the scenes to keep scammers out, but some will slip through the cracks. Of course the MC cares about this, and we do block users sometimes -- again, behind the scenes. We recently changed the requirements for starting a thread in "Classifieds" (50 posts) in order to help mitigate the problem. But we do not "vet" anyone or any product, as described in the RoC (https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/help/RoC/), or intervene in transactions between members.

Be especially cautious of users with few posts, or who do not post at all but communicate purely by PM.
 
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PaulS said:
Out the user.
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I once bought a hard to find workout bag on a forum for them on Facebook from a guy. So I send the money via PayPal friends style( mistake) and never heard from the guy. So I fb creep on him and see that he was part of this smaller elite group of military guys in the UK. So I post on the fb page about it- someone PMs me and says that I should contact that military group online and they will handle internally. So fb creep some more I find that he was fb member on this fb group for this military group. So I left a review about the group with his name on it saying that seems like a great bunch of guys, dedicated but sucks that they have a thief as a member- within an hour I get. A message from the head of his battle group-l wanting details. Sent screenshots. He said he’d take care of it. Within another hour I get an email with shipping details and an apology from the douche.
If you sent money- you might have to work to find more details on the dude- but you might find some links and out them where it hurts. You have nothing to lose but time. For me the sleuthing payed off.
Definitely out them here for starters.
 
twasn't me. but that's only cause I don't have anything to sell.
 
Tim did the right thing by reporting the user to the MC, putting the user on the MC's radar and letting them look into it.
Additionally, we could all use a reminder of the need for caution -- and red flags to look for -- when buying and selling from strangers here. Also a good thing.

But do you really want this to become the kind of place where people publicly smear/accuse one another of things? I don't. This is why we have an MC.
Such accusations blur the boundary of the "personal attack."
My $0.02.
 
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I thought I was taking appropriate precautions. The grammar/writing skills of the scammer seemed normal and they even sent proper pictures of the flight bag when asked. Live and learn i guess.

I'm fine with outing the user. If anyone comes across the user @oyinda give em hell. haahaa,
 
Did I ever mention I'm a Nigerian prince? I've got all this gold but I can't take ownership of it unless... no, no never mind. Nobody is interested in that.
 
Tim Westcott said:
I thought I was taking appropriate precautions. The grammar/writing skills of the scammer seemed normal and they even sent proper pictures of the flight bag when asked. Live and learn i guess.

I'm fine with outing the user. If anyone comes across the user @oyinda give em hell. haahaa,
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'She' has zero posts or interactions according to her profile. And how did she send a PM without any posts?
 
BrianNC said:
'She' has zero posts or interactions according to her profile. And how did she send a PM without any posts?
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Is there a rule preventing that? As a new member the only thing I saw was I couldn’t post a link until I had 5 total posts. Others have also mentioned no classifieds until 50 posts.
 
Tim Westcott said:
Is there a rule preventing that? As a new member the only thing I saw was I couldn’t post a link until I had 5 total posts. Others have also mentioned no classifieds until 50 posts.
Click to expand...

I just assumed it was PMs too.
 
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