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scammer reporting

FORANE

Well Known Member
After agreeing to purchase a gtn 650 in the classifieds, I received the following pm from a different vaf member username gravity with 0 post count. Is there a standard means of reporting scammers?:

Not sure if you got to buy as i got one for sale

$6000 shipped

Payment - Cashapp/Zelle

In my stage 3 cancer and supposed to undergo surgery in a few days..

Procedure - 50% deposit while balance to be paid after you have received item

[email protected]
 
Scammer

This is the same modus operanda of scammer I dealt with. Same cancer excuse, free shipping and poor grammar. Guess his Venmo acct is still locked down so wants you to use Cashapp/Zelle. DO NOT do business with this guy. Mods, lock him out if it’s who I think it is please.
 
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‘Gravity’ account banned and locked down by the admin.

Thanks for the PIREP.

The info at https://vansairforce.net/UsingTheClassifiedsSuggestions.htm will help you identify and deal with scammers in this world - thanks in advance for making yourself familiar with it. It could save you some money and frustration (on this and other boards).

V/r,dr
 
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After agreeing to purchase a gtn 650 in the classifieds, I received the following pm from a different vaf member username gravity with 0 post count. Is there a standard means of reporting scammers?:

Not sure if you got to buy as i got one for sale

$6000 shipped

Payment - Cashapp/Zelle

In my stage 3 cancer and supposed to undergo surgery in a few days..

Procedure - 50% deposit while balance to be paid after you have received item

[email protected]


Oh my goodness, lying about having cancer to facilitate extorting money from people. I mean, how low can you go. Have these scammers no shame at all.

The coming of the internet has been a miracle. It has put the knowledge of the world at everyone's fingertips. But at the same time it has brought us all into personal contact with the darker side of humanity in that we are all now constantly exposed to criminals. I am not exaggerating when I say that I am personally subjected to attempted scams via my email and text messages at least 3 or 4 times every week. It's just astounding.

I know that it's better for the psyche and the spirit to have a glass half full attitude to the value of humanity rather than a glass half empty attitude....but the sheer number of these internet criminals makes it tough to remain positive. ;)
 
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After agreeing to purchase a gtn 650 in the classifieds, I received the following pm from a different vaf member username gravity with 0 post count. Is there a standard means of reporting scammers?:

Not sure if you got to buy as i got one for sale

$6000 shipped

Payment - Cashapp/Zelle

In my stage 3 cancer and supposed to undergo surgery in a few days..

Procedure - 50% deposit while balance to be paid after you have received item

[email protected]

I had a different screen-name try that about two years ago. I responded to someone about some headsets and the random person contacted me.

About a week later I responded to a different ad and amazingly I got almost the exact same message from a random screen-name who had exactly what I was looking for at a lower price.

With the high-dollar parts we deal with, I suggest always going through a broker like SteinAir.
 
Oh my goodness, lying about having cancer to facilitate extorting money from people. I mean, how low can you go. Have these scammers no shame at all.

The coming of the internet has been a miracle. It has put the knowledge of the world at everyone's fingertips. But at the same time it has brought us all into personal contact with the darker side of humanity in that we are all now constantly exposed to criminals. I am not exaggerating when I say that I am personally subjected to attempted scams via my email and text messages at least 3 or 4 times every week. It's just astounding.

I know that it's better for the psyche and the spirit to have a glass half full attitude to the value of humanity rather than a glass half empty attitude....but the sheer number of these internet criminals makes it tough to remain positive. ;)
So true, Bob. They will use any kind of story to try to scam us.

Before you give up on humanity, just remember that one scammer can contact millions of people a day due to the incredible efficiency of the Internet. These people have always been there, it's just that in the past they could only talk to 10s of people per day.

As I keep saying, if you underestimate these bad guys, they will roll you. Take care!
 
New Scammer Targeting EAA Chapters

I received an email to the chapter email from Angela Cremeans. Another chapter recevied from Rochelle Quintana. Same email, selling her plane parts because of an illness. Ridiculous low prices on some of the items. Be on the lookout. Not sure if they're targeting only EAA chapter emails or sniffing around here too. I replied to her from a junk email account to try to bait them more and see how they operate.
 
I got one a few days ago from "Antietam Gunshop" ([email protected]). Some googling found that a number of people have received scam offers from the same place over the last 5 years. Here's the list they sent me:

1. GTX 335 WAAS $1600
2. Stratus 2S $300
3. Garmin 530W $5000
4. David Clark headset $220
5. Horizon Instruments P-1000 Digital Tach $180
6 . Manifold fuel pressure guage $180
7. Mooney overlapping nose gear doors NEW $1500
8. Lightspeed Zulu 3 w/ New Pads $500
9. Garmin GNS 430 NON-WAAS GPS Nav C $2omm with tray $2000
10 .Garmin 300XL with GI 102A indicator $1800
11. MAC 1700/KX175B with tray $800
12 . Hartzell Top-Prop For Sale $2400
13 . KI208 for sale $200
14 . Mooney M20C exhaust $640
15 . QT HEADSET $200
16. landing gear motor actuator 3000 $4000
17.M20C Engine Gauge Cluster $200
18 . Dynon D2 for sale $500
19. Brittain Accutrack 2 $500
20 .Aircraft Jack $150
21 . PS Engineering PMA 450B $1500
22. Garmin GI275 NEW IN BOX $1500
23 . KX-165 NAV/COMM - 14V with Glideslope $900
24. GMA 340 audio panel for sale $500
 
No need to "smell" a scammer. Do your homework.

To prevent getting scammed do what people do normally when checking credit. Don't rely on price. Get copies of photo id, agreements in writing. Use an escrow agent (Aerotitle I use for $400 for larger transactions) and that will filter out about 98% of the problems.

Get three references and call them. That will handle the last 2% and it will give you some great sense of the transaction instead of a nagging worry that things are still not right.

I did a GTN transaction from a member of my website that I knew and it was being upgraded to an Xi this summer. He was still very methodical and by-the-book. He took copies of 3 pieces of photo ID, executed a contract, had me sign a receipt and acknowledge the packing slip. He had a PO from a dealer and verified the seller with three parties and spoke to everyone on the phone before I got there.

How many scammers are going to endure even the email outlining that as a condition? That's how to do your homework. Anything less is your own laziness.

Use paypal and pay the fees for buyer protection or use escrow for distant and large transactions where delivery is out of your control. Demand better checks and references as a policy when buying and expect them when selling.

paul miller
LancairTalk.net
 
If the item is near by or easily traveled to, just go get it in person. Buying a $5000 piece of avionics, I'd rather see it in person anyway.
 
2/21/22

I just responded to an used RV12 kit for sale in Santa Clarita Ca. from this email address: [email protected]
The info said "Selling my plane stuffs"

Location - Newyork
Payment - Cashapp/Venmo/Zelle/Western union

Same cancer story, and when I received an email back they said the kit is in "N. Carolina".
Anyway, too weird for me. Be careful.

Best,
Mark C.
 
Got the same gunshop email yesterday. I guess somebody needs to take a gun to the perp.
Well that is kinda mean, But ?????
My three cents worth Art
 
Don't sell without escrow

We are getting a fair amount of inquiries regarding our RV-8 for sale. Some of them show great interest, appear to know quite a bit out the RV's, but one question they ask is 'do you use an escrow company'. As soon as we say 'yes', communication stops.....
 
Stolen email addresses

FYI,
Most often, the scammer is using the email address of a person or business that they have tricked into giving info to take control of that email address. This happened to me about 18 months ago. I nearly fell for the trick. This most commonly happens to gmail accounts.
Once they know your email address, they contact the provider [gmail, hotmail, etc] pretending to be you. They say that they have forgotten their [your] password.
The email provider texts you with a code, to verify it's you. They text you on some pretext [usually that they are from the email provider], asking for the code. If you give it to them, they change your password, locking you out and they "own" your email address. They use your email address until it gets reported, then simply move on to someone else who falls for this.
 
Use paypal and pay the fees for buyer protection or use escrow for distant and large transactions where delivery is out of your control. Demand better checks and references as a policy when buying and expect them when selling.

LancairTalk.net

Actually PayPal doesn’t have any teeth. They say contact the seller and try to work it out with them. Unfortunately PayPal is a false sense of security. As soon as the seller gets paid they withdraw the money from their acct
 
Has anyone else received a similar message in response to a wanted ad you placed?

Hey, did you find any ? . In case you haven't found anything yet ,Give NAME ( [email protected] ) a jingle,might be able to help out.

I've received two of these in the last month or so, for different items I was looking for. Both came from the same user (Robdana9) with no posts. The name was different in each, but the wording and spacing were identical. Protonmail is mostly known for it's completely anonymous accounts, so it's the perfect platform to work from. I'm not 100% sure it's a scam since I didn't follow up on it, but my scam-o-meter is certainly going off:)

Cheers,
Rusty
 
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Has anyone else received a similar message in response to a wanted ad you placed?

Hey, did you find any ? . In case you haven't found anything yet ,Give NAME ( [email protected] ) a jingle,might be able to help out.

I've received two of these in the last month or so, for different items I was looking for. Both came from the same user (Robdana9) with no posts. The name was different in each, but the wording and spacing were identical. Protonmail is mostly known for it's completely anonymous accounts, so it's the perfect platform to work from. I'm not 100% sure it's a scam since I didn't follow up on it, but my scam-o-meter is certainly going off:)

Cheers,
Rusty

I just got one from this user, a response from my WTB post. The person I'm to contact is: [email protected]. Very likely a scam. I'll post back on an update.
 
Me too

Yep, I got it also. Moderators that acct. needs to go bye bye! [ed. Done. v/r,dr]

It came from Robdana9
 
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I see that "user" is gone now. Interesting to note that I got the EXACT same message for a wanted ad on the Homebuilt Airplanes forum today. Hopefully they'll be gone soon also.
Rusty
 
Same guy tried to get me. Robdana9 sending me to the protonmail address. [ed. I locked down the Robdana9 account. v/r,dr]
 
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Be aware that a George Thompson ([email protected]) has been making the rounds. He hit up our local EAA chapter with a bunch of stuff for sale. He's widely reported on other non-aviation sites to be a scammer.
 
FYI,
Most often, the scammer is using the email address of a person or business that they have [stolen]
[...]
they contact the provider [gmail, hotmail, etc] pretending to be you. They say that they have forgotten their [your] password.
The email provider texts you with a code, to verify it's you. They text you on some pretext [usually that they are from the email provider], asking for the code. If you give it to them, they [take over your email acct]
It gets worse. Some scammers are defeating two-factor-authentication by starting at your cell phone provider. They call your provider (tmobile, etc.) pretending to be you and talk the rep into changing the SIM card number on your account. Poof! Now they have your cell phone account.

You think you're safe because you've set up two-factor-authentication on your bank account, 401(k), and go through the extra hassle every time you login, right? But now those codes get texted to THEM instead of you.

It's a real PITA. People have had their accounts drained. The thieves especially target retirement accounts because people tend to monitor them less carefully/frequently than their banking accounts.
 
Not sure if all the providers have similar-


Account Takeover Protection is a free feature offered to T-Mobile customers. It adds additional security to your account by blocking unauthorized users from transferring your lines to another wireless carrier.

This service must be added to each line on your account individually.
For added security, the Billing Responsible Party will need to contact us to turn this feature off.
 
It gets worse. Some scammers are defeating two-factor-authentication by starting at your cell phone provider. They call your provider (tmobile, etc.) pretending to be you and talk the rep into changing the SIM card number on your account. Poof! Now they have your cell phone account.
.

Don't use two factor authentication that sends a text to your phone if there are other options. Use a 2FA app like Lastpass Authenticator or Google Authenticator. If you want even better security, use a YubiKey or Google Titan to secure your accounts.

I use Lastpass and YubiKey. I made a randomly named email account that is secured with the YubiKey. All my important online stuff is set to that account.

I enable 2FA using the LastPass authenticator on every account that has the option. Banking and similar accounts use the YubiKey.
 
Scammed

Disregard post of SL30 FS by me. My account was hijacked. No such item FS. Password changed.

[ed. Joe, I saw you said your account got hacked. I've locked down your account temporaily and will reach out shortly via email. We'll get you back online shortly. I deleted the SL30 listing. v/r,dr]
 
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traash

doug saw this post this morning and was pretty sure it wasnt joe. called joe this morning and alerted him . glad its resolved.
 
Got a private message from williams3 saying that someone he knew had what I was looking for, and to contact them at [email protected]. A quick google search showed that email is used for scams on several other forums.

Hilarious that williams3 profile says:
Interests:
love to sing
Occupation:
trader

Yeah, I bet...

[ed. I just banned that williams3 account. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. v/r,dr]
 
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Scammer responding to WTB

Texted me from this number: 320-349-2168

Seemed legit at first - providing basic knowledge of the equipment.

Asked for gift cards -then reluctantly provided this PayPal:

[email protected]

Provided cropped version of other’s eBay photos for “his” stuff
 
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Oh my goodness, lying about having cancer to facilitate extorting money from people. I mean, how low can you go. Have these scammers no shame at all.

The coming of the internet has been a miracle. It has put the knowledge of the world at everyone's fingertips. But at the same time it has brought us all into personal contact with the darker side of humanity in that we are all now constantly exposed to criminals. I am not exaggerating when I say that I am personally subjected to attempted scams via my email and text messages at least 3 or 4 times every week. It's just astounding.

I know that it's better for the psyche and the spirit to have a glass half full attitude to the value of humanity rather than a glass half empty attitude....but the sheer number of these internet criminals makes it tough to remain positive. ;)

Actually it's very helpful of them to provide another clue that they are a scammer :) It's surprising to me that they continue to use tactics that set off alarm bells for most people, but I guess it must work for them some of the time.
 
this smells fishy

I posted a WTB in the classifieds and received this PM:

You have received a new private message at VAF Forums from morrisondarren239, entitled "PS Engineering PMA 450B".

This is the message that was sent:
***************
Hey, I got mine from coaviator360.He has some PS Engineering PMA 450B. if you need. He goes by coaviator360 on here and you can email him at [email protected].
 
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Possible scammer as well

I responded to an ad for a prop with a very similar theme - cancer treatment and having to sell everything. Got one set of pictures of the prop and very vague about records. Next set of pictures were of a different prop.
 
Scammer

I posted a wtb ad in the classifieds, I get a pm from morrisondarren239 telling me he bought some items from coaviator360 and gave me an email link. I emailed and got a suspicious sounding offer for a cyl. No idea of hours or info about it, just a will you purchase question at the end. I see this morrisondarren239 guy in another scammer post. Just wanted to put it out there.
 
I posted a wtb ad in the classifieds, I get a pm from morrisondarren239 telling me he bought some items from coaviator360 and gave me an email link. I emailed and got a suspicious sounding offer for a cyl. No idea of hours or info about it, just a will you purchase question at the end. I see this morrisondarren239 guy in another scammer post. Just wanted to put it out there.

I just banned that account. Thanks for the heads up!
v/r,dr
 
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Hi Folks,

I have received PM’s from a couple of folks today saying that they had posted WTB adds, and gotten a response from “Brody1” that they had such an item they had bought from me. If you get a note from that person, it is most definitely a SCAM - thatID just recently joined VAF, has no posts, and I don’t have anything for sale at this time. They have not logged in as me, or stolen my online identity, they are just using my name.

Paul
 
'Brody1' account banned. Sorry for the trouble, dr

Hi Folks,

I have received PM’s from a couple of folks today saying that they had posted WTB adds, and gotten a response from “Brody1” that they had such an item they had bought from me. If you get a note from that person, it is most definitely a SCAM - thatID just recently joined VAF, has no posts, and I don’t have anything for sale at this time. They have not logged in as me, or stolen my online identity, they are just using my name.

Paul
 
Yep, let me add my two cents on the Brody account.

I need a right aileron for my -8 badly, and I got a private message as below. I'm not sure if it listed this person as banned at the time, but the deal was worked in a way that it appeared to be Paul Dye.

After a ever-weirdening chain of emails, I gave my number and asked for a phone conversation. Heavy accent person, and they wanted to the money sent to a Lisa Fauser (his "mother") at a gmail account that looked every bit a scam.

The guy actually called me! After my Spidey senses maxed out, I hung up. And he called back two more times! Persistent little ****er.

Be careful out there.

[ed. Thanks for the PIREP. Account banned. Yes, question everyone. FaceTime via smartphone is your friend. v/r,dr]
 

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Scam Frhi802

Here’s another one trying to scam me with the same trap as last week from Brody
 
Frhi802 ?

I don't see that account name in the system. If it's an external email contacting you, can't help, but if you can give me a username here on site I can lock it down. v/r,dr

Here’s another one trying to scam me with the same trap as last week from Brody
 
More Scammers

I posted a WTB and I cant believe the number of scammers. The first was username Brody1 using the email [email protected]. Profile said he was banned but still was able to send me a private message.
The second was Frhi8302 using email [email protected].
The message from the second one was identical to the first so I'm thinking it is a change of identity of the first one.
 
Just deleted the 'Brody1' account. Found the 'Frhi' account also - they had changed the email address. Deleted that one too just now. Thanks for the heads up. Also added the IP address that they came from to the 'never allow' field.

Never ending battle. Buyer beware and never spend more than you're afraid to loose.

v/r,dr


I posted a WTB and I cant believe the number of scammers. The first was username Brody1 using the email [email protected]. Profile said he was banned but still was able to send me a private message.
The second was Frhi8302 using email [email protected].
The message from the second one was identical to the first so I'm thinking it is a change of identity of the first one.
 
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