Classifieds -- Increase Caution RE Scammers

[wright brothers]

Blacked out warning.
Did I do something wrong?
Pay per view only?

 

[Kracken McGraw]

Scroll up a little and the warning banner will go to the bottom.

 

[madmixerman]

It's a reminder to everyone to watch out for scammers.

 

[Dead Eye]

It would be nice to be able to close the warning out after initially opening the classifieds. It makes the remaining screen pretty small on a phone even after moving it to the bottom.

 

[D Coots]

Probably the Boss' last resort to get folks to pay attention.

Many of his other scammer warnings were not working.

 

[6.5 forever]

It's there for your protection.

 

[bugman]

Probably the Boss' last resort to get folks to pay attention.

Many of his other scammer warnings were not.

It is called "caveat emptor", and members should be given the choice to accept or deny this repeated warning to the small percentage of naive individuals.
Constantly displaying the warning is the administrators prerogative, but members should have the option to close it.

Forum Boss: The upper warning can be removed with the "x". The lower warning has been changed from a floater to two lines at the bottom of the page. If you are still getting a "floater", you should log out then log in.

Here is the deal -- I have made over 10 threads about the possibility of scammers, telling people to NEVER EVER use F&F or ZELLE, and explaining how you should ALWAYS do a voice phone call -- yet a very high percentage of users still ignore these cautions.

The situation has heightened because scammers are now attacking multiple gun forums -- so they can find a user name on one forum, and then search the web to find a phone number and/or email address.

 

[1K6BRA]

Probably the Boss' last resort to get folks to pay attention.

People pay attention? Shoot, half the people that I run into each day don’t even look like they’ve combed their hair when they got out of bed this morning let alone think about paying attention.
Only time some people pay attention is when they have sent money on either something they chose to or they get ripped off on something. And even then a certain percentage of them are still clueless.

 

[D Coots]

It is called "caveat emptor", and members should be given the choice to accept or deny this repeated warning to the small percentage of naive individuals.
Constantly displaying the warning is the administrators prerogative, but members should have the option to close it.

Thinkin maybe the Boss gets tired of cleaning up others messes.

 

[Forum Boss]

Quote: Thinkin maybe the Boss gets tired of cleaning up others messes.

FORUM Boss: Indeed true. Just the other day I found one guy who used the same Forum name (with his real last name) on 5 gun/outdoor forums. He had posted his real email and phone number on all of them -- which could be found with a Google search. Then he still sent money after receiving a phone text from an area code NOT the same as the state of the seller. No voice call, no attempt to contact the real seller via PM.

Bottom line -- if you receive an unsolicited text, you should assume it is from a scammer.

Regarding the notifications. I have made this visible because there has been an order of magnitude increase in scamming activities on multiple gun forums. We believe the scammers are now using AI to search multiple forums simultaneously. They are aggressive because e-payment systems like Zelle offer NO buyer protection.

You can use PayPal "Goods and Services" but NEVER EVER use PayPal (or Venmo) Friends and Family. F&F is favored by criminals and it has absolutely no buyer protection.

I advise that you NEVER use Zelle for any transaction whatsoever, whether on this forum or elsewhere. I also strongly recommend you disable any Zelle connection on your personal bank accounts.

Zelle is now the subject of a massive class action lawsuit for good reason. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been lost through fraud.

 

[TTE]

Maybe a type of disclaimer (so to speak), with a box that the member has to 'check' that they have read it, click the box and the black warning goes away

 

[bugman]

It is called "caveat emptor", and members should be given the choice to accept or deny this repeated warning to the small percentage of naive individuals.
Constantly displaying the warning is the administrators prerogative, but members should have the option to close it.

Forum Boss: The upper warning can be removed with the "x". The lower warning has been changed from a floater to two lines at the bottom of the page. If you are still getting a "floater", you should log out then log in.

Thank you for the information

 

[DHuffman]

You guys who act like you have a say in how a man runs HIS forum crack me up

 

[pdog06]

Forum Boss, thank you for doing everything you can to look out for the members of this site! It’s one of the many things that make this site the best one around!

Just thinking out loud here, but is there a way to have the pop up alert come up and be agreed to(via say a “ok” box) for a person to post an ad. Like before the ad posts they have to read and agree to the alert?
And possibly have the same thing happen for anyone who replies to the ad? That would also cut down on the number of comments on each ad.
Doesn’t bother me either way. The current box take up some room on a mobile device but it’s doable and worth the cause. Just thinking of more ways to get the point across when this still doesn’t get thru to some…Some people just can’t be helped…lol

 

[perazziguy]

Thank you @Forum Boss for your diligence!

 

[SSL]

Guess I don't understand the problem. On my phone, the warning comes in at the top of the page and disappears upward as you scroll down. No issues at all on my laptop. Am I not seeing something? Either way, it's the Boss's decision to make.