Scams, Spam and Facebook Sleuths

I’ve been trying to get out a post here for the last few weeks. It’s been on my “to-do” list every day. But, each night I couldn’t cross it off. Today I decided it had to be a priority. I’m taking a break from fighting scams.

Lately, scams consume my life. It all started when a local Facebook group had a couple of what I called the “high dollar moving” scams. The person posts about 20-30 high-dollar items like appliances, exercise equipment, lawn tractors, and other such things as being for sale. For the unpracticed eye, the scam looks real.

I live in a small town where everyone knows everyone else. If it hadn’t been for the fact that the poster was an unknown name, I might not have even given it a second look. But curiosity got the better of me and I checked out the profile.

When I investigate a profile, I’m not one who just opens it up and takes it at face value. I want to get the dirt. When I saw that the URL name was different from the posted name I knew I was onto something. But, I didn’t really know what to do with what I had learned.  After a single post, the admins banned the poster from the group so he wouldn’t be back. Knowledge gained but I wasn’t sure what else there was to do with it.

However, it wasn’t much longer after that when a second post of the same nature appeared in the group. That’s when my hackles were raised. If these posts were hitting my small-town groups, certainly they were in bigger groups.

I knew I had to do something. How could I teach people to recognize scams and avoid them? What could I do to get my voice heard?

I started a Facebook group and it has grown to over 200 members in just 3 months. This shows that there was an obvious need for it. We have 3 admins and currently have 5 moderators.  As our numbers grow, so will the number of moderators.

“Facebook Sleuths DECONSTRUCTING Scammers” is all about teaching and fighting. We want to teach as many people as we can how to recognize scams to avoid being victims. But, we also want to fight the scams and those who post them in any way that we can.

In the beginning, I wasn’t aware of how huge an undertaking this was. Maybe because I hadn’t joined a lot of public groups and few buy/sell/trade groups I had not experienced all of the scams that were floating around. My local groups were hit with the usual “duct cleaning” or “car detailing” scams but that was about the extent of it until the high-dollar scam.

The high-dollar scam looks innocent enough if you don’t know the end game.  An interested person messages the seller, who claims to be out of town for a period of time.  But, he will hold the item of interest for an amount of money that is to be transferred electronically. If the conversation goes far enough to a meeting, the seller gives a fake address or simply blocks the person once the money is received. The money is always transferred in such a way as there is no way to recover the losses.

Of all of the scams I’ve seen in the last couple of months, this one is the most insidious. The posts aren’t all exactly the same, but they are similar enough to recognize them. Most of the time they are moving in a very short time so they try to hurry you along in sending money. I’ve actually seen a couple of them throw in a bleeding heart story: “Someone died and I have to sell these” or “I’m helping a friend who’s fighting cancer to sell these.”

The pictures aren’t all the same either. They gather random pictures from all over. That’s one of the ways you can discern a scam. The carpets and tiles don’t match. The season of the year may be wrong. In some cases, the list of items and the pictures don’t match up. But the end game never changes.

Probably the next most prolific scams we’ve been seeing are the ones we’ve called “bait and switch” scams. They post a picture with a story to tug at your heartstrings – a found/injured dog, missing person, needlecraft work not getting enough love, someone cutting off catalytic converters, timber rattler hiding somewhere ready to strike – and they want you to share it as much as you can. Unfortunately, what usually happens is that in a few hours or days that post will be switched out with a different one. And the new one will have a dirty link to click on that will steal identity, accounts, money, or something else. And if you share the original it will change when they change it.

Sadly these are just a few of the myriad scams that are prevalent online. When I say it’s a jungle out there, I’m serious. There is no place safe from scams. We have seen the high dollar item scams on Marketplace with each item being placed individually. Hacked personal profiles are posting these scams and others. One of my personal friends was hacked and his profile was used to try to collect money for nonexistent puppies.

Even if I had time to illustrate all the scams I’ve seen in the last couple of months, it wouldn’t be enough. New ones come out every day. There really is no way to stay on top of them. The best thing you can do is to stay educated.

Scam posts often have the comments turned off.  This makes it difficult to warn others. We’ve been teaching people to use the reactions as warnings. Since those can’t be removed, an ANGRY or a HAHA reaction that is inappropriate to the post will look out of place and will serve as a warning to others to avoid the post.

You may be wondering what you can do to stay safe. The first thing I would suggest is to follow my Facebook group. It’s a good place to learn which scams are circulating currently. When possible we explain how to recognize them.

But other things are necessary for safety online. Never click any links that you aren’t completely sure where they are from. Just because they “say” they are from Google doesn’t mean they are. Any links posted in any group on social media are suspect.

Work-from-home jobs posted in Facebook groups are scams. All they want to do is steal your identity. If the job is legitimate you can go directly to the company website and apply there. Or call them for application information.

Lock down your personal information. Don’t share your personal information with anyone unless they are someone you know personally. When in doubt, talk to your bank before giving the information up.

Never transfer money online. There are no safe methods. I talked to my personal bank to ask about a safe way to transfer money. The lady I spoke with told me that there is no failsafe way. The least dangerous way is by ACH (automated clearing house) from bank to bank, but there really is NO safe way.

When ordering online from a company, check out the company first. Search for reviews. If you can’t find reviews that’s a red flag right there. It means the company either doesn’t exist or is too new to have any reviews. I wouldn’t be giving them any credit card information.

This leads to the next warning: NEVER use your debit card to transfer money. There aren’t protections on a debit card as there are on a credit card. As soon as they gain access to your account with a debit card, they can totally wipe out your account in a short time.

The old adage – if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is – is still valid, especially online. Behind a screen and keyboard, anyone can pretend to be anyone else. And anyone can say anything they want but it doesn’t mean it’s true. Always be suspicious.

I could probably go on and on and on. The truth is that one can never be safe enough online anymore. It seems to be open season with scammers and hackers running wild. Yet, the world as we know it runs on computers and the internet. It’s a jungle we have to learn to live in.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/facebooksleuthsdeconstructingscammers