Lovehanger is his name

Require a voice phone call before completing any transaction, buy or sell. This will prevent scamming in 99.99% of cases.

Check my sticky on the Swap Shop to see if the person's account has been locked. Go here: banjohangout.org/topic/389395 Contact a moderator to look into the new member and see if they agree with you.

We've had a spate of them lately and some of the same ones coming back with new usernames, new e-mails, so we appreciate it when members let us know about them, it helps us catch them quickly.

Thanks Moderators for running a list of the scumbags as they are discovered. They are definitely getting more and more brazen lately. It seems the most dangerous ones are the ones that hack accounts and use personal information to sound legit. Again, the one thing to look for right up front is the price being too good to be true though some have figured out that too low does not always work so scam prices seem to be creeping up to seem more legit. Another thing is compare any phone number offered to where the real account owner actually lives. They usually don't match up though this is certainly not fool proof. Like someone said above, request a person to person phone call and that will weed out most.

I would like to ask Eric/Moderators this: Why does BHO keep accounts open that haven't been active or accessed in years in the database? That would seem to open up the forum to way more opportunities to be hacked. Out of the thousands of accounts on BHO it seems only a very small fraction actually participate or are even active anymore. Is there money to be made just by keeping all these inactive accounts? Seems like an open invitation to be hacked. An occasional purge would seem prudent to reduce the exposure IMHO. Enlighten me.

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Originally posted by banjoez

Thanks Moderators for running a list of the scumbags as they are discovered. They are definitely getting more and more brazen lately. It seems the most dangerous ones are the ones that hack accounts and use personal information to sound legit. Again, the one thing to look for right up front is the price being too good to be true though some have figured out that too low does not always work so scam prices seem to be creeping up to seem more legit. Another thing is compare any phone number offered to where the real account owner actually lives. They usually don't match up though this is certainly not fool proof. Like someone said above, request a person to person phone call and that will weed out most.

I would like to ask Eric/Moderators this: Why does BHO keep accounts open that haven't been active or accessed in years in the database? That would seem to open up the forum to way more opportunities to be hacked. Out of the thousands of accounts on BHO it seems only a very small fraction actually participate or are even active anymore. Is there money to be made just by keeping all these inactive accounts? Seems like an open invitation to be hacked. An occasional purge would seem prudent to reduce the exposure IMHO. Enlighten me.

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Regarding spammers, I think a more effective solution would be making certain fields mandatory when an account is created.

I had to deal with one of these spammers a few months ago, and the very first thing that tipped me off was their account being devoid of any info in the "My Instruments" section. What real member here doesn't have THAT filled out? Or at least a few tidbits about themselves in general?

Please stop asking the mods about the structure and policies of Banjo Hangout. We do not create them, nor can we do anything substantive beyond the forums and locking members. We do set some approaches to enforcement of the posted rules for the discussion forums. We can lock out miscreants, but beyond that and policing the forums, we can’t work with other areas of BHO, such as blogs and the classifieds. We are volunteers and derive no benefits from our work.

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Originally posted by Bill Rogers

Please stop asking the mods about the structure and policies of Banjo Hangout. We do not create them, nor can we do anything substantive beyond the forums and locking members. We do set some approaches to enforcement of the posted rules for the discussion forums. We can lock out miscreants, but beyond that and policing the forums, we can’t work with other areas of BHO, such as blogs and the classifieds. We are volunteers and derive no benefits from our work.

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That's understood but perhaps you could forward these concerns to whomever DOES have control over such things. No one is blaming you guys for doing a thankless job for free. It's much appreciated  what you do control. It just gets frustrating when there seems to be some obvious things that could be implemented from member suggestions to protect its own that seem to never go anywhere.

Im glad this thread was posted. Ive noticed accounts that have been around for years are selling scam banjos...and foing decent descriptions.

I checked on a couple deceased members, their accounts are still active just awaiting a hacker. Not sure how to fix it, facebook is worse and they have tons of employees.

Webmaste and BHO owner Eric Schlange is who you need to contact. Choose Forums from the left-hand column. His email address is under Moderators. That’s the same way we mods contact him. No special backdoor.

Hubertone wrote:
"the very first thing that tipped me off was their account being devoid of any info in the "My Instruments" section. What real member here doesn't have THAT filled out?"

I've been a member here for more than twenty years now, and never "filled that out."

Some folks like to keep their most valuable stuff confidential.

Would you post your address -and- the fact that you owned a Loar (if you were a mandolin player that owned one)?

Just sayin'...

Banjoez,
If you were selling ads to sponsors, which sounds better, 10,000 members or 500 ? I made those numbers up as an example, to make a point. I have no idea of membership numbers, but still probably answered your question.

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Originally posted by J.Albert

Hubertone wrote:
"the very first thing that tipped me off was their account being devoid of any info in the "My Instruments" section. What real member here doesn't have THAT filled out?"

I've been a member here for more than twenty years now, and never "filled that out."

Some folks like to keep their most valuable stuff confidential.

Would you post your address -and- the fact that you owned a Loar (if you were a mandolin player that owned one)?

Just sayin'...

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They do not ask for an address in your member profile, so that's an unsuccessful analogy. They do ask for your location. You have "filled that out" as you clearly state you're in CT.

And your profile photo is a banjo, and not a generic photo either. You've been playing since 1964. 73 years old. A member since 2003. There is enough info in your profile that you "have filled out" that if you inquired about a classified ad, I would have no trouble believing you were a real person with real interest in my ad.

These scammers fill out nothing and some of those fields should be mandatory; perhaps then scammers wouldn't go through the hassle. I may take Bill's advice and suggest some of this to Eric.

I can tell a scammer by the way they write their message … you can also ask few banjo related questions , they know nothing about banjos , and they won’t be able to answer … ask to talk on the phone … and last , but not least , ask to meet in person … it is worth a drive if you’re buying/selling high end banjo …

Just ask to meet in person even if its a bluff. Scammers just stop talking to you or keep making exscuses. I had a scammer tell me 3 different places they lived, when i was willing to meet them anywhere in the us, they stated they dont want strangers in their home. I said police stations allow transactions and we can meet there. Dead silence after that.

I just bought a banjo off BYO from a super nice guy.  I called him, we both played the banjo over the phone and talked music for 30 minutes.  Thats the key.

THEY WILL NOT MEET YOU