I had a WTB add posted on a motorcycle forum for some simple stock parts that I figured someone might have laying around. Add had been up a few weeks. In those weeks, I probably had 8 different scam attempts on my add. Always the exact same setup...account that had joined within the last hour, immediately posted an extremely rudimentary intro in the new members area, something like "I'm Bob and just bought a Y1000 happy to be here" and then follow that up by sending a message to everyone with a WTB add that says "Hey my buddy Jake has what you need. Email him at iamascammer @ gmail. com". The name and email address was always different but it was always the same basic setup, and I have seen this trick so many times on other forums, including on this one back during that short period when the scammers were bad. Every time I got one of these scam message I immediately reported the messages and accounts while also sending a hate filled message to the scammer, since they are the lowlife scum of the earth. The admins on that board would take days, even weeks to ban these guys, and in the mean time, other members would respond to the basic intro message they had posted, showing that their fake account was working in thier favor. Of course the scammer never responded, but it provided legitimacy to the fake account.

Anyway yesterday I got another scam attempt and did what I always do. Report the scam message, send the scammer some words about how they can delete themselves from this earth, and then ignore the account. I was greeted to a ban email a few minutes later. These admin clowns to WEEKS to ban scammer, but banned me for "abusing" scammers within minutes. What a crock of shit.

I know what you mean. A few years ago, also on another forum, a guy was selling some items that he claimed were hard to get / rare / blah blah for a premium price. Several people were responding to his ad. I responded, saying the exact same item was available at several retailer chains, for at least 20% less than what he was asking. Next thing I know, I was banned - he was one of the admins for the forum.

It makes you just appreciate SF all that much more, huh?

quote:

I responded, saying the exact same item was available at several retailer chains, for at least 20% less than what he was asking.

That should have got you banned, stepping in and screwing with the buyers sale post is a no no here as well as on most forums.

Had a friend selling some gun stuff on Reddit’s GAFS sub. Got some scammers, he told them to fuck off and reported them. Reddit deleted the scammer profiles and also temp banned him for harassment for a few days, IIRC.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
It makes you just appreciate SF all that much more, huh?

The more time you spend on other forums, regardless of the special interest involved, the more you appreciate SF.

quote:

Originally posted by PorterN:
Had a friend selling some gun stuff on Reddit’s GAFS sub. Got some scammers, he told them to fuck off and reported them. Reddit deleted the scammer profiles and also temp banned him for harassment for a few days, IIRC.

That place is an absolute joke. They have the dumbest rules of any place I have ever tried to buy or sell. Absolutely tyrannical mods, complete nonsense rules, and allowing other users to openly mock the sellers items or prices. Plus the subs mods "mandate" (as though they have any business in a private transaction that people use paypal goods and services. Its absolutely laughable. And that's just in the sub itself. As your friend found out, Reddit at large is an atrocious place.

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:
The more time you spend on other forums, regardless of the special interest involved, the more you appreciate SF.

Amen.

A couple of years ago, I started spending time on a retirement forum. For a while I was on there almost as much as I was on Sigforum.

They made a big deal about “no politics” and were quick to lock and delete posts/threads that even got close, with public scolding of the violators.

That was until someone started a thread trashing Trump. When I saw it, it had been up for a couple od days, and was two pages long with lots of posters showing their Trump Derangement Syndrome.

I flagged the thread and it was deleted without comment. But, the fact that it had been up for so long spoke volumes about the hypocrisy there. It was another example of how this place is so unique.

I got banned from an investment forum.

The moderator there was selling investment newsletters for like $300 per year, and claimed unreal investment results. I pointed out that his results were from buying high beta stocks at the exact market bottom in 2002, and selling them at the exact market high of 2007. Something which would be impossible to actually achieve, or at least a very low probability event. He was cherry picking his results to make his returns look good.

We went back and forth on this point for a while, then he banned me.

Lesson learned: beware of forums where the moderator is selling bogus products.

Thou shalt have no other forums before Sigforum.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

quote:

I responded, saying the exact same item was available at several retailer chains, for at least 20% less than what he was asking.

That should have got you banned, stepping in and screwing with the buyers sale post is a no no here as well as on most forums.

I'll clarify. It was like the guy was buying hamburgers from a local chain and reselling. Commonly available items.

If he had been selling truly rare / unobtainium type stuff, I wouldn't have commented.

Backstory I should have mentioned - this guy also had bad feedback ratings on several other forums in regards to sales.

One of the jackass mods at another gun forum banned me for basically having a different opinion than him and a few others . He must have gone nuclear on me . It's been several years and I still cannot register a new account with a different email . They aren't worth the trouble of a workaround .I've done without them for this long ...

quote:

Originally posted by CoolRich59:
<snip>
They made a big deal about “no politics” and were quick to lock and delete posts/threads that even got close, with public scolding of the violators.

That was until someone started a thread trashing Trump. When I saw it, it had been up for a couple od days, and was two pages long with lots of posters showing their Trump Derangement Syndrome.

I flagged the thread and it was deleted without comment. But, the fact that it had been up for so long spoke volumes about the hypocrisy there. It was another example of how this place is so unique.

A number of years ago when I still did Facebook, there was a buy and sell forum I used occasionally. One of the rules was no religion. There was this one guy (can't remember if he was a mod or not) who constantly posted evangelical Christian stuff, and it was never policed off. Now I'm Christian, but this bugged me - he joined the group knowing the rules.

So I started trolling him, big time. "How much for Jesus today? If I pay cash now, how much of a discount? I'm selling some Islam today, any takers?" That sort of stuff. I'm probably going to have to account for it when I hit the pearly gates. Didn't take long for me to be banned, and his behavior continued. Double standard - his religion was OK, others weren't.