"Bank Cheque in your Full Name and total amount of £150.00 with immediately effect."

And you were asking for £380 !

I've had a similar message today and looks the same name for my staking tools told him cash only on personal collection.

Seems this adverts site is being scammed

Edited By Windy on 24/06/2016 14:35:44

I am worried as Windy's ad is two months old. I have emailed every advertiser since the beginning of April, but I have no way of knowing how far back the scamming rat will go:

Dear Forum User,

I am an administrator on the Model Engineer website and editor of Model Engineer.

I have become aware that a scammer is contacting advertisers on this website using the name Patterson and saying they will get their secretary to send a cheque, in a rather badly worded email.

This is definitely a scam. Do not reply, just pass any information they send you direct to the police using this website:

http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/report_fraud

Please treat any response to your classified ad with care.

Regards

Neil

Hi Neil,

Is there any reason why the classifieds could not be made visible to the forum registered users only?

Ed.

I had one on wenesday,all it said was could you send me photos and whats your asking price,and that was it,deleted straight away.

Search for threads with 'scammers' in the title and its all explained, it's a well known scam that hits you in several ways.

Neil

Thanks to those who have replied to my email, it seems that a fair few people have been contacted, and not always for high-value items.

My worry is that this person will come back, so if anyone gets a suspicious response to an ad, please let me know.

Neil

Neil as anyone can register without our approval would it be safer if only members who have had a first post approved or better still made say 5 posts before they can get access to the classifieds? This is quite common on other forums. Though doubt if the sofware wil stretch to that.

Hi Neil,

Thanks for warning me of the scammer who had obtained my e-mail address as a result of advertising a book on Model Engineer. Unfortunately, since then, I have been inundated with spam, including ones advertising a product to add 3" to my 'John Thomas' (do you think that if one rubs it onto a 5"g. loco it will grow to 7 1/4?). The spam catcher usually catches all this crap but at least a dozen a day are getting through – has anyone else noticed a sudden increase?

Ray.

I'd suggest that you don't open the emails Ray or if you do open them in plain text and no html.

Generally they load something or the other from the web and that tells the spammer that it is an active email address. It's ever so easy to do.

Not sure if all email packages can be set like mine is. It's set in plain text. Many read fine like that. If it's an html email I have the option to display it in that format without loading external references. Then if I want I can click again to load those as well. I may do if it's from say a tooling company that sends me offers every now and again – just to let them know I have read it for if they check this way.

This set up has other advantages as well – those infuriating bank, paypal and what ever they think of next ones. These do generally check for active email addresses and the daft links to sign in are more obvious.

One of the interesting aspects of Yahoo's email service is no html. Plain or rich text only. The above in part is why.

John

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