The Classifieds

[Shawn Gambrel]

How do you no if you are dealing with a fraud in the classifieds? I am selling the Washburn Jethro Burns but im not sure about this guy. Any help would be appreciated

[MikeEdgerton]

If you're not comfortable selling online you shouldn't be doing it. What is the buyer asking you to do?

[Mike Bunting]

Don't be so paranoid.

[AlanN]

If Shawn has some concerns about a transactional process made available via this website, he should feel free to ask for guidance. Name calling has no place here.

[Chris Biorkman]

Don't be so paranoid.

Agreed.

[Shawn Gambrel]

Im alright with selling it over the internet but when i got the message it said this message may be dangerous it and then and the bottom it said

The following is automatically added by the Mandolin Cafe server to assist in dealing with potential online fraud. Please review this information carefully.

PROTECT YOURSELF FROM ONLINE FRAUD:
This link: http://whois.domaintools.com/12.40.90.100 shows where this reply to your ad originated from.
Report fraud: forward this email to the site owner with all contents intact.
Sent using: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; Trident/4.0; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)

[MikeEdgerton]

It's Scott's way of telling you the IP address of the seller and to warn you that you need to be aware that there are people out there that might want to take advanatage of you. If you think someone is trying to scam you then you should send the entire message with all the content intact to the site owner at that e-mail address.

Is the buyer asking you to send it without paying for it? PM me the message if you feel uncomfortable doing it here.

[CES]

Hmmm...maybe one of the moderators or Scott or maybe one of the folks who sells often can chime in as to whether that's standard fare or a known threat???

I wouldn't go further until I got more information. If the person sees this they can always pm you with further info, arrange a call, etc...

Addendum: Sorry, Mike, you beat me to it while I was typing...

[MikeEdgerton]

The message is added automatically by the cafe. Clicking on the link tells you who owns the IP address.

[sgarrity]

As long as he's not from Nigeria, asking you to send the instrument before payment, or asking you to "cash" a large check and refund him the difference, you're probably alright. I also talk to all of my buyers/sellers before I ever ship an instrument or a check. I've probably bought and sold at least 30+ mandolins and guitars and so far never been scammed.

[Scott Tichenor]

That message shouldn't be of concern, but I would recommend it be taken seriously. It's there for the good of ad owners.

It's automatically inserted into replies made to ads. Its been there for close to going on ten years. I know this because I crafted it. When someone replies to your ad, it captures an address that can be tracked back with a service called 'whois' and tells you who to contact if you fear fraud--that's my email address. Now, it's possible to spoof that information (the IP address) if you have some technical chops, but I usually only see that happening when there's an experienced scammer involved, and we have other steps in place to block 99.99% of those. Most of the time this information is useful to tell if the reply is coming from another country. There's nothing wrong with doing business overseas, but maybe you just don't want to ship to another country, and that's every ad owner's right.

There are other multiple steps that are not advertised that protect ad users. And for the record, I haven't even received an inquiry of concern about a Classifieds transaction since mid-February. With an average of 75 ad replies per day, that's over 10,000 points of contact. The rampant fraud you see on eBay, Craig's List and other sites simply doesn't occur here, and when it does, we're small and vigilant enough to take immediate action and have an excellent track record of resolving issues.

If you have further concerns you're welcome to contact me directly.

[JEStanek]

That additional information is added, like Mike said, by the Café to marry up where the message originated from.

For added security use paypal or a money order and don't ship until the money clears the bank (not just deposited). Arrange a phone call with the buyer. If their location doesn't match the location for the IP address (following the Link added to the e-mail) be more concerned or ask why the e-mail is from one part of the country and you're talking with the person in another. If they don't want to communicate by phone, you might ought to pass anyway.

Jamie

[MikeEdgerton]

Shawn is now comfortable with the message.