PistonHeads Classified Scams

[Shambler]

Why is it that if you search for a car on the classifieds between £2-£10k that roughly 25% of the adverts are scams. I think its a shame for genuine sellers as it is very off putting for a potential buyer.

[Bushi]

I did report these this morning:

http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/dealer/7728...

Clearly the scamsters know no one works the weekend.

[Shambler]

Yeah, Likewise I reported the Lady selling a Range Rover and ML for pocket money.

[northandy]

I do wonder if PH could take on some extra moderators purely for classifieds over a weekend, with only the ability to suspend bogus looking ads.

[randomman]

I thought the Jag looked a bit overpriced?

[carinaman]

There was a red V6 Brera on Autotrader for £2800.

How difficult would it be for the software to filter adverts with text saying 'Don't telephone only Email.....' and checking for a webmail email address?

Something like:

IF PRICE LOOKS LOW + ADVERT STATES 'DON'T TELEPHONE' + EMAIL ADDRESS IS WEBMAIL + ADVERT IS MODIFIED ON FRI, SAT OR SUN = REFUSE ADVERT?

Or, if advert meets the above then charge twice as much for the advert.

Are these legitimate trader's accounts that have been compromised?

[Steffan]

I dislike these scams as much as everyone else on PH. However I think PH are probably doing as much as they can. The real problem is the ease with which such criminal activities can infect the web. I do not think that there are any easy answers. I always caution that any bargain that looks too good on the web probably is and should always be avoided. I do think web users need to adopt due care in looking at adverts. I also think that the policing of the web and consequences of engaging in fraud need to be much better managed and the penalties severely stiffened. Prevention is always better than cure.

[MattDell]

carinaman said:

How difficult would it be for the software to filter adverts with text saying 'Don't telephone only Email.....' and checking for a webmail email address?

I'd rather not go into too much detail about the specifics of our fraud checks (for obvious reasons), but we do this already.

[SV8Predator]

MattDell said:

I'd rather not go into too much detail about the specifics of our fraud checks (for obvious reasons), but we do this already.

Well it obviously doesn't work!

[MattDell]

Doesn't it? We catch the majority of scams before they go live.

Do you think a 100% success rate is achievable?

[dowahdiddyman]

Is it not possible to stop once and for all these pain in the butt scammers. That stupid bint `Linda` has flooded them yet again with cars at silly low prices. We all know it`s a scam but it ain`t half bloody annoying.

[Krikkit]

No, the spammers are too good to be 100% stoppable. Every site on the net wages constant war on spam, sometimes you see it, sometimes it's kept out of sight.

[jeremyc]

dowahdiddyman said:

Is it not possible to stop once and for all these pain in the butt scammers. That stupid bint `Linda` has flooded them yet again with cars at silly low prices. We all know it`s a scam but it ain`t half bloody annoying.

Have you reported one (or more) of the ads using the 'report' link?

This is the best way of having someone look at sorting them out.

[MattDell]

Even better, write a detailed e-mail to Katie at [e-mail]. She has the power to investigate and then remove ads, bar accounts, etc.

[Shambler]

Thanks for that Matt. Whilst realising that the majority of readers on here would spot a scam a mile off it is quite often the most vulnerable in society that get caught out by these bds.