wonderfinch
in
egl
Scam Update
Over the past few days, you may have heard of an incident where users were being scammed with false invoices on the sales community. If you were not aware of the situation and are interested in knowing more, you can read about it here and here.
After much investigation from both members of the mod team and members of the community, we have determined that the scammer is skybee8910, operating under the alias baby_booboo. This is not just a one-time incident, either; this user has previously used her alias baby_booboo to attempt trade scams on egl_comm_sales. Both of these usernames have been banned from EGL, the sales community, and eglfeedback as a result of this behavior. If you know of another username that this user may be employing, please notify a member of the moderation team as soon as possible. Some kind of proof (matching PayPal e-mails, matching IP addresses, etc.) would be extremely helpful in this case. If you are not comfortable posting publicly, please feel free to submit further information here. This scammer is operating using the IP addresses listed below- while this is not a conclusive means of proving a user's identity, we advise you to please compare IP addresses before making purchases to ensure that this scammer has not returned.
69.77.8.130 (most recent and frequently used IP address)
166.137.140.189
70.254.192.225
166.137.140.244
69.77.8.130
156.26.98.222
For those currently involved in a transaction with either of these users, we strongly advise you to immediately withdraw from said transactions if you have not yet paid. If you have paid and have not received proof of shipping, we advise filing a PayPal dispute as soon as possible. If your item arrives and you have any issues with it, we advise you to file a PayPal dispute and contact a moderator. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us immediately.
This incident has also highlighted another issue in the community: the practice of leaving PayPal addresses in public, unscreened locations. We'd like to take a moment to give both sellers and buyers a few tips to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
Buyers, please be extra-cautious with your PP address going forward. If a seller has not screened your PP address within a reasonable amount of time, please do not hesitate to PM a mod and we will be happy to screen it for you. To even further ensure your safety, it may be in your best interest to PM a seller your PP address (if their privacy settings allow you to do so) and comment to let them know that you have done so.
Sellers, in order to help your buyers out, you may wish to consider leaving part of your PayPal e-mail address in your sales post, so your buyers know who to expect an invoice from. For your security, though, we advise against leaving your entire address in your post (so if my e-mail address was example@fakemailhost.com, I'd want to say something like "Invoicing from exa....@fakemailhost.com").
Additionally, sellers, please try your best to be vigilant in screening your buyers' PP addresses (if left in a comment) as soon as possible. Our community settings unfortunately don't allow users to screen their own comments, so it's up to you to help protect your buyers' privacy.
If you have any further information, questions, or concerns regarding this case, please don't hesitate to contact any member of the mod team. If you would like to contribute information or ask questions anonymously, please do so here; otherwise, you may use the normal EGL or sales community ARCs.
After much investigation from both members of the mod team and members of the community, we have determined that the scammer is skybee8910, operating under the alias baby_booboo. This is not just a one-time incident, either; this user has previously used her alias baby_booboo to attempt trade scams on egl_comm_sales. Both of these usernames have been banned from EGL, the sales community, and eglfeedback as a result of this behavior. If you know of another username that this user may be employing, please notify a member of the moderation team as soon as possible. Some kind of proof (matching PayPal e-mails, matching IP addresses, etc.) would be extremely helpful in this case. If you are not comfortable posting publicly, please feel free to submit further information here. This scammer is operating using the IP addresses listed below- while this is not a conclusive means of proving a user's identity, we advise you to please compare IP addresses before making purchases to ensure that this scammer has not returned.
69.77.8.130 (most recent and frequently used IP address)
166.137.140.189
70.254.192.225
166.137.140.244
69.77.8.130
156.26.98.222
For those currently involved in a transaction with either of these users, we strongly advise you to immediately withdraw from said transactions if you have not yet paid. If you have paid and have not received proof of shipping, we advise filing a PayPal dispute as soon as possible. If your item arrives and you have any issues with it, we advise you to file a PayPal dispute and contact a moderator. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us immediately.
This incident has also highlighted another issue in the community: the practice of leaving PayPal addresses in public, unscreened locations. We'd like to take a moment to give both sellers and buyers a few tips to prevent similar incidents from happening again.
Buyers, please be extra-cautious with your PP address going forward. If a seller has not screened your PP address within a reasonable amount of time, please do not hesitate to PM a mod and we will be happy to screen it for you. To even further ensure your safety, it may be in your best interest to PM a seller your PP address (if their privacy settings allow you to do so) and comment to let them know that you have done so.
Sellers, in order to help your buyers out, you may wish to consider leaving part of your PayPal e-mail address in your sales post, so your buyers know who to expect an invoice from. For your security, though, we advise against leaving your entire address in your post (so if my e-mail address was example@fakemailhost.com, I'd want to say something like "Invoicing from exa....@fakemailhost.com").
Additionally, sellers, please try your best to be vigilant in screening your buyers' PP addresses (if left in a comment) as soon as possible. Our community settings unfortunately don't allow users to screen their own comments, so it's up to you to help protect your buyers' privacy.
If you have any further information, questions, or concerns regarding this case, please don't hesitate to contact any member of the mod team. If you would like to contribute information or ask questions anonymously, please do so here; otherwise, you may use the normal EGL or sales community ARCs.