Did anyone else receive an PM from Benson903? He suggested contacting someone at the above email for the parts I'm looking for. A quick Google search revealed that this is likely a scam.

Maybe not that “person” or email, but I get them all the time when I list a WTB. I used to flag them but I don’t think the forum cares.

I did too. Filed it away in my “nice try ISIS” spam folder.

Wow. I received a post recommending georgerust34@gmail.com on an Alfa Romeo forum just a couple days ago and sent email. After reading this I googled georgerust34@gmail.com and see that it's another scam. Wasn't expecting that. I think the admins should clean up the riffraff around here and get rid of fake users.

Whoa. Yeah, got a PM from Benson903 to email the same guy.

Just checked and yep, that Benson is a zero post recent joiner. Didnt even occur to me to check join date and post count in this case.

Me too...I just received a pm from Benson903 to contact a person in ref to a wanted post I posted...

The person I received email from directing me to a scam email on the ALFABB forum was banned within 24 hours. Is there not a moderator to report this to? I have reported 3 of the posts above as identifying a spam account, hopefully moderator will ban the person.

I always report suspected scams on this forum to Dmitry with Pelican. He normally responds within one day.

Through what mechanism do you report them? The little red triangle thing in the corner of each post?

Same here. I too received a PM from Benson wanting me to send an email to that same "person".

I have learned over the years when you do a wanted ad on about any forum they always PM you. Usually something Like, Email me at xxx@hiothi for the goods you need.

I send a PM directly to Dmitry.

I experienced the same hustle from him and MANY others lately. It's always a brand new ID/zero post count saying that someone off-site has the item I'm looking for with an email address. I was excited on the first one but then it ultimately came down to them using the payment processor Venmo which I wasn't versed in or a PayPal account of 'a friend of theirs' that could ONLY receive money via 'friends and family' which means zero recourse. After that I started reporting all posts and id's in which someone with a zero post count answered my ad by relaying contact information off-site to a non-member. At first I'd ask them why their friend didn't make a new forum id but they'd never answer that one.

How about an algorithm that prevents brand new members from entering an email address into any communication window. Even for legit new members don't sign up solely to use us to sell parts. At the very least sign up and type 'Hi' first.