The picture above also shows what I look for. If they are a new user I won't do business with them. Frank405 joined Jan 13 2021. That's a flashing red light to me.
This is true, and fraud/fake memberships is not exclusive to this forum, we have a fair amount of this in the UK, even more so since the Covid thing.
I go by the above, check them out, lets face it all you have is a members posting name and email.
I go by, have I met them personally?, have they sold before? , and was the feedback good?, just because member A knows member B, I take it with a pinch of salt, member A could be gullible and just soak up everything member B says, they might not have ever met them, if not for making a purchase it can be for other deception.
I am in the process of making a big purchase off a forum in the UK, I did all my research, and found out (it takes a while but it's not to difficult to find info on the net) the guy knows a friend of mine.
But even so before I cough up the money I will be meeting him face to face, I will never pay that much online.
All I can say is if you do pay online, as above use a CC (in preference to PP) and just before you press the final button, take a step back and have a think, what am I about to do?!
A red flag to me is evasiveness as well, I learnt from this via a purchase I made a few years ago, I thought it was a large company, it wasn't, luckily the CC refunded me.
Last year my MIL fell victim to a scam, that took me a week to sort out for her, after digging around I found some info and passed it onto the authorities, they preyed on the elderly, scum bags!
The inter web can be a dangerous place, but thankfully it can also be great place, just be careful.
Cheers
Richard
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