I sent out Jed and the boys with plenty of rope. Meanwhile, I am stoking up the fire. We'll git'em! banjered

The scammers have been using Craigslist pictures recently instead of pictures from dealer sites. If in doubt, start asking questions they could only answer with banjo in hand. That's when you get ignored or the runaround. I flagged one like that last week. The percentage of New Seller banjos being scammed is very, very high.

Wow

quote:

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Originally posted by banjered

I sent out Jed and the boys with plenty of rope. Meanwhile, I am stoking up the fire. We'll git'em! banjered

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LOL....

Hey banjered,

Let's not "take the law into our own hands" until due process has been carried out.

We'll get 'em soon enough.

Was that the H&F Huber Granada? I was very suspicious when I saw the low price and New Member caption.

At least two below-market Deerings hit the Classifieds this week from brand new members.

Here's one: A Maple Blossom for $1500.

The other was a Golden Era for $2000 or only slightly more. It's gone. Don't know if it was reported or sold.

I'm not in the market and I don't know if it's my place to paly detective on the Maple Blossom to determine the listing's authenticity.

There's an '82 Maple Blossom for $1750, listed by a member with a +11 rating, so that's a low price on a legitimate offer.

The Old Timer,  I believe so:  my banjo is a Huber VRBG, stainless frets, gold D-tuners.  The scammer had it listed for only $3,500.  (My listing on Craig's List is, of course, asking more $$.)  :P

I noticed the Golden Era for 2 k & thought it had an odd smell so for the heck of it sent the seller a couple of questions w/ no reply & now no add ?

banjered , ha! I like the way you think. ...get a rope (or two) and stoke a fire. We can "head 'em, heel 'em and brand em." That way, we'll know who the scammers are. ;)

Or perhaps the BHO needs to restrict "new members" from posting in the Classifieds until they have a bit of a track record in the BHO?  

A few days ago a Nechville Phantom popped up in BHO classifieds for only $1700. Same MO, a new user and a too good to be true price, but ... makes ya think.

I wondered if it was BS and it seems the next day when I looked the ad was gone.

Glad you caught this, kinda by coincidence that you did. Yeah, I agree, maybe some stricter control over who may join and post ads immediately ... should be in place.

Another day, another barrage of scammers on BHO. Scammer central around here it seems, and it won't stop unless action is taken by the administration.

This a great way to protect yourself from scam/fraudulent sellers and the seller's status is posted at the bottom of each BHO ad:

The Banjo Hangout Classifieds system automatically designates sellers as Verified if they 1) have made an online payment through the site in the past 90 days or 2) are Players Union members.

Sellers not meeting these conditions are designated as Unverified.

This simple seller verification setup does not eliminate the risks inherent in classifieds transactions, but it does ensure that we have payment and contact information on file for the seller in case issues arise. Scammers are very reluctant to give up this sort of identifying information, so a scammer with a "Verified Seller" designation is a rare thing indeed.

This one just showed up this evening in openbacks, and struck me as kind of fishy.  Low price, scant details, brand new user with no history.  Oh, and it's a "Mark" Ramsey??

https://www.banjohangout.org/classified/93904

Or maybe I'm just overly suspicious after reading the posts above!

Can a reverse-image search be done by google or something like that? To see if any suspicious ads are using other photos from other people? I heard of it before, but no idea how to do it.

Russ A.

EDIT: Aside from this, I thought I saw another spam add in the classifieds posted just now (https://www.banjohangout.org/classified/90659), but I just checked, and surprisingly enough, its not spam (of course), but actually is the same brand of banjo I started off on a year ago, as my first banjo. 

quote:

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Originally posted by mandobanjolibrarian

This one just showed up this evening in openbacks, and struck me as kind of fishy.  Low price, scant details, brand new user with no history.  Oh, and it's a "Mark" Ramsey??

https://www.banjohangout.org/classified/93904

Or maybe I'm just overly suspicious after reading the posts above!

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Looks like they took this one down -- in a hurry -- after I decided to report it.  Perhaps my hunch was right?  Thanks for being on top of it, moderators!  If it ends up being legit, I suppose it will appear again at some point.

quote:

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Originally posted by KCJones

Another day, another barrage of scammers on BHO. Scammer central around here it seems, and it won't stop unless action is taken by the administration.

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We do our best to catch those spammers.  Unfortunately, some do slip through.  Hopefully, members will continue to post admin reports when they see what looks like a scam ad and we can check it out.

Sherry you do a great job, you do as much as you can within your ability as a moderator.

When I say administration, I mean Eric. This website has been overrun with scammers to the point that you can no longer recommend BHO marketplace as a "safe and trustworthy" option for people to buy banjos. Caveat emptor is a fine philosophy and required no matter where you are, but to just allow the continuous onslaught of scammers without any type of acknowledgement or proactive measures is simply negligent. It's like building a pool in a neighborhood with no fence.

Just Bill - :I pity the fool

I'm glad to see you are still playing, come and join us again on Fiddler's Dream open stage. People ask who was that guy?

Isn't it funny how much energy foolery takes.

This a great way to protect yourself from scam/fraudulent sellers and the seller's status is posted at the bottom of each BHO ad:

The Banjo Hangout Classifieds system automatically designates sellers as Verified if they 1) have made an online payment through the site in the past 90 days or 2) are Players Union members.

Sellers not meeting these conditions are designated as Unverified.

This simple seller verification setup does not eliminate the risks inherent in classifieds transactions, but it does ensure that we have payment and contact information on file for the seller in case issues arise. Scammers are very reluctant to give up this sort of identifying information, so a scammer with a "Verified Seller" designation is a rare thing indeed.

I believe this is a well thought out solution.

Howdy, @Helix

Thanks for the invitation to re-join the Fiddler's Dream open stage. I would very much enjoy joining you all again. Much has been going on and "life" has once again interfered with my desire to pick. It looks like things are beginning to calm down, so will do my best to join you all in the near future. Bill

quote:

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Originally posted by BeeEnvironment

Can a reverse-image search be done by google or something like that? To see if any suspicious ads are using other photos from other people? I heard of it before, but no idea how to do it.

Russ A.

EDIT: Aside from this, I thought I saw another spam add in the classifieds posted just now (https://www.banjohangout.org/classified/90659), but I just checked, and surprisingly enough, its not spam (of course), but actually is the same brand of banjo I started off on a year ago, as my first banjo. 

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Yep it's dead easy in MS edge browser to look for images elsehwere - just click on the image so that alone appears, then right click and you will see among the list of options 'seek on web', click on that and it will bring up all the similar pics it can find on the internet. Wonderful tool.