WARNING: Recurring scam in Classifieds
Paul Moxon alerted me to another press scam a few days ago. He said there was a Vandercook SP-15 offered for sale on the Briar Press classifieds well below current market value, and one of the supporting photos for the press showed Henry Morris standing at the press. Henry retired some months back and Paul and I helped him sell his equipment so we know this guy is at it again. The listing has been removed. Beware of any price especially on Vandercooks that is too good to be true. I maintain the serial number files for all the US made Vandercooks and Paul has a record of all known current owners of Vandercooks world wide. Don’t be taken by a scam—contact us to get some verification.
Fritz
Fritz and Paul
Thanks for looking out for all of us.
LD
I had emailed about this press and the poster told me it was a photo of his Dad at the press. What a scumbag. I’m glad that there is a watchful eye on this list!
Fritz, Paul, bowerbox: Many thanks to you all.
We removed the ad and blocked the user as soon as Paul alerted us to the scam. Two days later, a new Vandercook ad appeared that bowerbox has identified as originating from likely the same scammer.
Using different usernames each time, this person has made at least four attempts — and possibly more — to scam potential buyers.
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What can you do to protect yourself from becoming a victim of a Classifieds scam?
1. If buying a Vandercook, check with Paul and Fritz. Their offer to help (see original post, above) is a fantastic resource.
2. Run a Google image search on any images provided. Sometimes scammers reuse images that Google can identify as duplicates. http://www.google.com/imghp
3. Find out what you can about the seller by clicking on his or her username. A seller who joined Briar Press yesterday may not be a scammer, but members who have an active history here are more likely to be trustworthy.
4. Scrutinize the email correspondence you receive from the seller, and try to speak with the seller on the phone. Be very wary of strange shipping arrangements.
For more tips, check our page on scamming.
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Scammers are becoming more sophisticated. Reducing their activity on Briar Press is one of the main reasons that we’re building a new version the site.
The best tool that exists to combat scams, as the people on this thread have already demonstrated, is the knowledge that we share as a network. Please add to this thread if you have other tips to share.
Eric
Eric,
We haven’t had a discussion of the updated sight in quite a while. Since you instituted the “flag this posting” system there have been very few spam posts that have gotten through; and those that have only last a few hours.
The discussions the week about the Tour de Lead Graphitti and my proposal of a section for posting work in progress or interesting work and topics might be the starting point to renew the funding discussion. In my mind it would not be the classified and certainly not just ads, maybe some thing more like a gallery where you might pay a fee to post your sale able work.
Keep up the great work,
s
I’m having trouble posting pictures. Can anyone explain in detail what the issue could be. Jpg. Pictures
Short names, no spaces, letters and numbers only, no special characters.