Don’t Get Scammed!

The first rule is “If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is”

Scammers are out in full force lately. Especially marketing themselves on social media like Facebook and Instagram and are learning the products so they aren’t as obvious.

Some social media flags would be: (including but not limited to, and not always 100% indicative of a scam, as there could be legitimate reasons for these, so look for multiple flags)
1) Price is too good to be true
2) Brand new account
3) Seller posts a listing and immediately turns off commenting
4) Will only use a payment that can’t be reversed like zelle, cashapp, paypal friends and family, venmo, wire transfer, etc
5) Do a google search on images…see if they stole them from someone else’s ad
6) Google a block of text from their ad, listing or website. Also try with the phrase in quotes…see if you get a direct hit of plagiarism.
7) Poor English/spelling/grammar – Spelling check as cheque
8) Typical scam language – “please kindly”, “do the needful”
9) Paying over agreed amount and getting some sort of refund for doing so
10) Selling for sick friend/relative, and/or seller is out of town/country and dealing with some 3rd party.
11) Repeated excuses like shipping delays

You can also check out known scammer lists on other platforms. (I do not maintain these, and not responsible for damages caused by false positives. It is hard to tell as some are just blatantly stealing and copying photos, websites, similar domain names, etc from legitimate businesses.

1) Pinside Forum – Beware of scam game seller websites – comprehensive list of known scammers, and tactics to identify them

2) Aussie Arcade – Big list of known pinball Scam web sites