For Sale BUYER BEWARE Zelle

[The Chairman]

can you isolate the IP and block it?

They are using a VPN, so they show up all over the place.

 

[johndiver999]

I've always had good experiences selling and buying gear on this site. It would be disappointing to shut down the classified section.

Perhaps it would make sense to also request to speak with the seller on the phone before completing the transaction? That might introduce another level of security and comfort, especially if the individual it unable or unwilling to speak knowledgably about the product.

 

[rmssetc]

They are using a VPN, so they show up all over the place.

Why not moderate all new (ie. non-reply) For-Sale posts, so they require approval before being visible to the public?

As the offender was using a hacked admin account, it must be assumed that he or she has created multiple accounts for future scamming, so this will continue to happen beyond the "Zelle" account.

A quick glance suggests that there were about 53 new posts across all the "For Sale" forums since April 1, so the moderation effort (<5 posts/day) shouldn't be too bad.

 

[Wookie]

Why not moderate all new (ie. non-reply) For-Sale posts, so they require approval before being visible to the public?

As the offender was using a hacked admin account, it must be assumed that he or she has created multiple accounts for future scamming, so this will continue to happen beyond the "Zelle" account.

A quick glance suggests that there were about 53 new posts across all the "For Sale" forums since April 1, so the moderation effort (<5 posts/day) shouldn't be too bad.

The offender created moderator accounts. S/he was approving their own posts and new users.

But I like the way you think. It took us a day to figure that out.

 

[The Chairman]

As the offender was using a hacked admin account,

It was a hostile take-over attempt, but we fended them off. He did better than rec-scuba ever could.

 

[Curious_George]

Yes, please don’t get rid of the classified.

Most anything could be faked via the internet. And some deals are real, although may appear too good to be true. One mans junk and all - I bought a petrel for less than $400 off our classified not too long ago.

If you can’t meet in person or via phone, just pay the PayPal 3% insurance, unless it’s something cheap.

 

[-JD-]

... and use a password manager like "Free Pass" to keep track of multiple passwords

I'm not familiar with "Free Pass, but I'll take a look.

I was using the free version of LastPass, but they recently changed the model so it was free on mobile/tablet OSs -OR- free on desktop OSs.

I exported the DB to BitWarden (you can pay as donation or if you want a multi-user & storage feature set). I have been using it on Android and Win10 and it is almost as good.

 

[The Chairman]

I was using the free version of LastPass,

My bad... it is Last Pass and yes, I noticed that too. I also have a password manager with my antivirus as well as with Chrome. I think I prefer Chrome.

 

[Geo7]

This was incredibly sneaky... Well done handling this!

So I assume all active moderator acounts have now been vetted for, so at least you only have to deal with the newly created user accounts? And the newly created users will fall into a narrow time window, so can be either put under observation or vetted in another way?

 

[Akimbo]

I use Dashlane and a neighbor uses 1Password. Both sync to the cloud and are encrypted. Dashlane integrates very well with Chrome, but is not free.