Scam Alert ... E5-2667 v4 (Pair)

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cmmh

Member
Feb 26, 2021
35
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The "timestamp" requirement in the reddit forum for homelabsale is a great one to enforce. Essentially, it requires the seller to take a picture of the item they are selling with their forum name and the date. Doesn't completely prevent fraud, but at least it provides one more layer that they likely have the item, their forum name, and that its current.
 

WANg

Well-Known Member
Jun 10, 2018
1,302
967
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46
New York, NY
@Patrick @Marsh eh, you guys might want to implement some kind of a "earned reputations" feature for the sales/offers forum. Maybe keep new members from posting deals or private messaging users here until either they earn enough points participating here, or after a certain time period has elapsed.

As always, be careful when it comes to any private deals or messages on any forum - especially anyone with a low reaction score or posting history.
 

BlueFox

Legendary Member Spam Hunter Extraordinaire
Oct 26, 2015
2,059
1,479
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It's really on the involved parties to perform their due diligence. Nothing stopping one from requesting time-stamped photos or anything else for that matter today. Even with 15+ years of feedback on Heatware and extensive history here, I've still had people occasionally request that from me, which I've been happy to provide.

While I can't speak for Patrick or the moderators, a reputation score can be a bit of a slippery slope for them potentially. Should someone with a high score try to defraud another party, they might get blamed as the other party may have done less due diligence on account of the score than they would have otherwise.

In the end, there are risks involved with any kind of transaction and you should undertake whatever steps are necessary to mitigate them to a level that you are comfortable with.
 

WANg

Well-Known Member
Jun 10, 2018
1,302
967
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46
New York, NY
It's really on the involved parties to perform their due diligence for any transaction. Nothing stopping one from requesting time-stamped photos or anything else for that matter today. Even with 15+ years of feedback on Heatware and extensive history here, I've still had people occasionally request that from me, which I've been happy to provide.

While I can't speak for Patrick or the moderators, a reputation score can be a bit of a slippery slope for them potentially. Should someone with a high score try to defraud another party, they might get blamed as the other party may have done less due diligence on account of the score than they would have otherwise.

In the end, there are risks involved with any kind of transaction and you should undertake whatever steps are necessary to mitigate them to a level that you are comfortable with.
Well, reputation score is not a cure-all, but it can serve as a deterrent against low-hanging-fruit, low-effort scam/spam attempts (we do see some of that here).
I would like to think that well known forum members with high reputation scores would not endanger their profile within the STH community by underhanded acts, especially since most have $dayjobs, access to pricy gear/expense accounts and have a professional reputation that that would be worth much more than the potential financial gain of pulling a fast one here. Of course, private transactions can go sour even with the best intentions (i.e. people who overpromise/underdeliver, people who does a sloppy job packaging their items up, pricing disputes).
 

dexvx

Member
Mar 6, 2014
43
4
8
There is already heatware that exists in terms of trading reputation.

Taking the time and effort to implement a STH specific solution doesn't seem optimal when you could more or less ask Heatware for participation.
 

gb00s

Well-Known Member
Jul 25, 2018
1,175
586
113
Poland
No matter what solution you bring in here, the real problem here and as a forum owner/admin/mod is if you lack of communication to the problem you are not doing a bid mistake only, you are running literally blind. The real problem here is that a forum software has a serious bug which can be used and security settings are bypassed. So what else is wrong? You can have 1000 super reliable, trustworthy and serious ‘traders’, if your platform has just a little doubt of security, who i am talking to?

My own not careful and maybe naive actions, were part of the issue and my own mistake. But my trust here was build on a forum (security) setting, which was bypassed.

You can leave everything as it is. Some sort of requirements from the law will be implemented soon where forums have to implement some kind of KYC. There are too much issues with these kind of trade/knowledge forums. To much scam/fraud and PayPal barely helps in reality. People will complain about it publicly. These trades avoid purchase taxes every single government needs now. These forums have privacy issues and surveillance issues. Important gear is traded without knowing who has gear, able to be used as threads against governments, in his possession. Just examples. Im with @BlueFox .

I don't care about the above at all, I just don't trust silence.
 

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
7,625
2,043
113
It's really on the involved parties to perform their due diligence. Nothing stopping one from requesting time-stamped photos or anything else for that matter today. Even with 15+ years of feedback on Heatware and extensive history here, I've still had people occasionally request that from me, which I've been happy to provide.

While I can't speak for Patrick or the moderators, a reputation score can be a bit of a slippery slope for them potentially. Should someone with a high score try to defraud another party, they might get blamed as the other party may have done less due diligence on account of the score than they would have otherwise.

In the end, there are risks involved with any kind of transaction and you should undertake whatever steps are necessary to mitigate them to a level that you are comfortable with.
Agreed. It's up to buyers\sellers to determine their comfortable risk level and what they want to know\research before making a decision.
If you can't risk losing the $ don't jump on deals from strangers and don't buy from new members or those with very low post counts.

There are marketplaces where forums\accounts are sold ... people will register and 'age' accounts for this purpose, don't be fooled just because they're a year or two old. It's also not hard to register a user here with the same as reddit and copy their items and pretend to be their reddit user, heat user, etc... if it seems off, and you don't want to risk it and deal with paypal, then do not do it. The deal is rarely worth the hassle or losing out on the $, especially if paypal doesn't refund you... that one deal could potentially make all other deals you got for the year not so great.
 
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Sable

Active Horse
Oct 19, 2016
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Interesting how it almost seems political EU vs USA. One expects people taking care of themselves while the other expects others to take care of them.
 
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gb00s

Well-Known Member
Jul 25, 2018
1,175
586
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Poland
Interesting how it almost seems political EU vs USA. One expects people taking care of themselves while the other expects others to take care of them.
I don't think this reflects the forum software issue here I'm referring to only. If somebody can bypass a 'block' to be contacted from outside, what else can be done?

Anything else seems just to be a misplaced comment.
 

Sable

Active Horse
Oct 19, 2016
379
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I don't think this reflects the forum software issue here I'm referring to only. If somebody can bypass a 'block' to be contacted from outside, what else can be done?

Anything else seems just to be a misplaced comment.
Also you:
1. Just fits into other costly experiences as a buyer here.
2. Yes, with this incident together I lost 1871EUR dealing with 'members' here in the last 18 months
3. And the forum operator stays quiet here providing a platform feature that is used against me/us.
4. I as a board admin/moderator would immediately investigate the issue.
5. This doesn't solve the issue the forum software obviously has. It seems that a specific 'security' setting is not respected/can be easily bypassed.
6. No matter what solution you bring in here, the real problem here and as a forum owner/admin/mod is if you lack of communication to the problem you are not doing a bid mistake only, you are running literally blind.

Tons more to get here. When you feel criticized you tell us that you we're only talking about this software issue. Yet, you criticize the forum mods with being quiet on purpose, rather than them not wanting to put any time into an issue that can easily be worked around by simply creating an account and scamming you that way. I recall having a private conversation with you before and what i have noticed is that once you get focused on one thing you tend to completely shut off your brain to anything else, causing you to get trolled to the moon and back by some half drunk stranger on the internet. Now i read it back i feel bad for trolling you so my apologies again, it wasn't professional and i should have known better.
 

T_Minus

Build. Break. Fix. Repeat
Feb 15, 2015
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Mods have no access to private information such as IP address, which are all but useless anyway, what do you want a mod or forum owner to do with an IP address? Just like ebay no one will hunt down an IP address unless the level of fraud is off the charts $$.

I'm not sure about the "guest" being able to send a message, this could have been a registered user who was deleted but their name is still visible to you, and instead of saying "Deleted" or "No longer a member" it was changed to "Guest" but when they did message you they were a member.
 
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Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
12,511
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Hey guys. It is not a forum software issue. The OP kylelewis0789 was banned the morning before gb00s's screenshot which kicks the user out of being a registered new user status. Perhaps this is a status issue but is not a software bypass issue.

These folks are bouncing off of servers with different IP which makes them hard to track. The anti-spam software usually catches them, but sometimes they get through. Then they need to be reported/ caught/ banned. When they are banned, they are no longer a valid new member.

As with anything, please take normal precautions when executing transactions.
 

gb00s

Well-Known Member
Jul 25, 2018
1,175
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Poland
Hey guys. It is not a forum software issue. The OP kylelewis0789 was banned the morning before gb00s's screenshot which kicks the user out of being a registered new user status. Perhaps this is a status issue but is not a software bypass issue.

These folks are bouncing off of servers with different IP which makes them hard to track. The anti-spam software usually catches them, but sometimes they get through. Then they need to be reported/ caught/ banned. When they are banned, they are no longer a valid new member.

As with anything, please take normal precautions when executing transactions.
That's cool. Same simple info 1 week earlier and there would be no discussion/worries. It's all about communication. Thanks.
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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One week earlier I had 4 hours of sleep over 2 nights as we were preparing and getting last-minute changes/ adds for the Milan launch article/ video.

Chasing down this kind of stuff takes time. We are using a major supported forum software so odds are any bug like alleged here would have been found many times over. Tracking phantom bugs takes time which is why I did not prioritize it.
 

gb00s

Well-Known Member
Jul 25, 2018
1,175
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Poland
I guess a "Guys, we are checking the issue and will update you on this whenever I/we can" is taking a minute or two. I have full understanding this has no priority. But I think you will agree that two minutes of your time would have silenced everyone and everything. Phantom bugs are what they are after you figured out what happened. Not before ....

Case closed from here. Good night.