[Cherryville Chuck]

I just finished banning what appeared to be a con artist. He has posted 3 times, all items for sale. The last one was a Lamello tool that looked like it might be like a Domino. He wanted payment in Pounds which prompted me to do some checking. The I. P. address he was using traced to Lagos, Nigeria. I went back through his other posts and found that each one had a different I.P. location. His first post traced to London and the 2nd traced to Switzerland while claiming to be from Michigan. If you are interested in any item on the Classifieds and you aren't familiar with the seller and he isn't providing many or any personal details then you should use caution.

There are things that can be done which will help verify whether the seller is not a con artist. One thing that Mike Henderson does is to ask them to write their user name on a piece of paper and take a picture of it next to the item for sale. This verifies that the person actually has the item in their possession.

You can also check to see if their I P address matches where they say they are from. Below everyone's user name are 5 icons. The 5th one is an icon of a computer screen. If you click on it the I P address and the host service I P number appear. You can find free I P lookup sites with a web search and copy and paste the I P into the lookup service and it will show you where the person is posting from. If that doesn't match where they or their bio says they are from then it's best to not do business with them. If you are in a situation like this then use the Report This Post function so that I and the other Moderators can have a look.

 

[Nickp]

Great service you do, Charles...thank you...

 

[JOAT]

I am on a gun forum where new members must reply to ten threads before they can post a new thread themselves.

Another forum blocks all new members from posting anything at all, until they post an introduction thread, saying something about their interests, experience, tools, etc., not just "Hi, I'm new here", or jump in with a question or whatever. I think the introductions, at least, must be approved before publishing.

Personally, I'd like to see both introduced here.

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

It certainly would be a good idea to insist they fill out their bio if they want to use the classifieds Theo. That might be something the moderators want to discuss and have Cricket make some changes in the instructions for using the classifieds.

 

[woodknots]

Charles - great advice. However, I'm not seeing the icon that you are referring to (computer screen) - I'm using the (full) style.

 

[JOAT]

It certainly would be a good idea to insist they fill out their bio if they want to use the classifieds Theo. That might be something the moderators want to discuss and have Cricket make some changes in the instructions for using the classifieds.

Hadn't thought of that one, but sounds good.

Now if you can just think of some way to tell the non-attention people that this is a woodworking router forum, not for computers, BEFORE they post . Probably asking the impossible with that one. :smile:

 

[jj777746]

@ Cherryville Chuck, Hi Charles, we watched a 4 Corners episode a few nights ago about big time scams from Nigeria,& I believe the show should be watched by everyone,particularly high school kids. Just sayin'. James.

 

[MT Stringer]

Thanks Chuck for posting this.

Folks, several years ago, I advertised a camera lens for sale on the Canon Photo Forum (POTN). It was the white lens in my avatar - 300mm f/2.8, one of the best lenses Canon ever made. The asking price was $3500 USD. The interested buyer asked me if I would do exactly as suggested. I wrote my name on a card and leaned it against the front lens, took a picture, and sent it to him. He promptly sent payment and we had a done deal. I had no problem with his request.

Sometimes items for sale are expensive. Be careful out there.

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

https://screenshots.firefox.com/m1U9mJeXkJweFUwE/www.routerforums.com

Hopefully that turned out. Several people asked me for a screen shot of the icons. I just noticed that the moderators only have 4 icons under their user names and there is the possibility that anybody other than moderators can't see them. That's something I never know for sure as we do have extra privileges.

 

[Herb Stoops]

https://screenshots.firefox.com/m1U9mJeXkJweFUwE/www.routerforums.com

Hopefully that turned out. Several people asked me for a screen shot of the icons. I just noticed that the moderators only have 4 icons under their user names and there is the possibility that anybody other than moderators can't see them. That's something I never know for sure as we do have extra privileges.

I got a blank page on that link.

I am not sure what icons you are referring to.
I see under your avatar,
Cherryville Chuck's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2010
Country: Canada
First Name: Charles
Posts: 14,007
View Cherryville Chuck's Uploads
green star

then at the very bottom a green dot, Grey star, a triangle with an !


Herb

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

When I click on the computer icon below your user name Herb I get this:

The IP Address is: 73.___.___.5
The host name is: c-73-___-___-5.hsd1.wa.comcast.net Then when I do an I P lookup I get this:

IP Lookup : 73.___.___.5 (I blocked part of it out for security reasons)
Latitude 47.3050 / 47°18′18″ N
Longitude -122.2067 / 122°12′24″ W
Continent North America
Country United States (US)
State Washington (WA)
City Auburn
Postcode 98002
Timezone America/Los_Angeles
Local Time Sun, 17 Feb 2019 20:49:45 -0800
ISP Comcast Cable
Organization Comcast Cable
IP Connection Type Cable/DSL
ASN 7922 / Comcast Cable Communications, LLC
PTR Record c-73-225-188-5.hsd1.wa.comcast.net

It may be according to the comments that only the mods have access to this feature. If that's the case then members can PM us and ask us to check suspicious posts to see where the member is posting from. I was suspicious this morning when a new member posted asking about what band saw to buy. He turned out to be from Bangladesh so there is a good chance he was just trolling and not really interested in buying a band saw.

 

[sreilly]

No, don't see those in any posts under anyone's names.
Maybe it's a setting thing?

 

[Flipsaw]

I got a blank page on that link.

I am not sure what icons you are referring to.
I see under your avatar,
Cherryville Chuck's Avatar

Join Date: Sep 2010
Country: Canada
First Name: Charles
Posts: 14,007
View Cherryville Chuck's Uploads
green star

then at the very bottom a green dot, Grey star, a triangle with an !


Herb

I see the same thing on my screen as Herb does.:nerd:

Btw , I don't believe you would see the correct IP address when someone is using VPN software.

 

[Flipsaw]

There is a setting for IP verificaton under the settings and Options tab under account settings. It is the very last option.

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

You could be right JJ. I know nothing about VPN. It seems the icons I can see are only available to the moderators. I've been a moderator for long enough now that I don't remember what functions are available to someone without moderator privileges. So as I said previously, if you are suspicious about a new members location then ask a mod to check his IP location.

 

[HoweA]

I see the setting in settings: refered me to my own ip for varifacation, that's as far as it went nothing changed after varification..........must be too dumb.......

 

[sreilly]

So if you switch to Classic, lower left corner of this page where it shows --Router Forums (Classic) and a down arrow to choose Full, Mobil, Classic, it will show 3 icons. User Online (circle), Reputation (person figure), and Report Post (flag)

 

[sreilly]

JJ is correct, VPNs are designed to keep your identity and location secret. It was designed for honest people but as usual adapted very quickly fro those unscrupulous types.

 

[TenGees]

Off-topic but I got a "Friend Request" from someone with zero posts???? Maybe there should be restrictions on that too. Seems that pests are always trying to find loopholes in the system. I guess a guest can see your profile, where you have your equipment listed. If they can figure out where you live from forum posts - that could be dangerous too.

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

They are welcome to come to my place. I live out in the sticks and my fingers have a hard time hitting the 9 and 1 buttons on the phone.