Caveat Emptor - Confirm your seller | Scam Prevention Reminder

[Cyclofiend Jim]

General reminder to list members
Most transactions go off without a hitch. That is due to the fact that most buyers and sellers are active list members and good honorable folks. 

However, there has been an upsurge in folks preying on WTT/WTB/ISO posts. 

The most common scam vector has been a direct email contact with well-worded pitch regarding the bicycle frame or model someone was seeking. They will usually provide photos. It will seem "legit enough" with the right descriptions and reasonable explanations. 

Before proceeding, I strongly encourage you to check to see if they are a group member. You can do it one of two ways (and it's easier through a computer than through mobile). First, go to PEOPLE and click on MEMBERS. At that point, you can enter their email address and search to see if they are members of this group. 
The other test is to simply search for their email in the "Conversations" section of the group. 

Here are two key points - 
- If someone is not a member of this group, they cannot see your email address and would be unable to contact you. 
- I suspect that there are some nefarious "members" who are able to see your email address and then using another identity to contact their prey. This allows them to disappear with your money.

If someone is not a member of this group but magically has the ability to contact you, it is almost certain they are attempting a scam. 

Thanks for reading!

- Jim  / List Admin

[John Rinker]

As always Jim, thank you for your efforts to keep this a 'good, honorable' place for bike folk to mingle and share.

Cheers, John