Too many Scam emails in classifieds

[585bhp]

This week so far I've had [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail].

emails "Hello, I'm interested in this car. Is it still available?"

Not sure if PH can run some simple AI filter to remove this opening gambit and warn users of Phishing.

I don't seem to get this on any other sites where I have the car advertised - its always PH?

[jeremyc]

Likely to be linked to the well known scam discussed here.

[585bhp]

Agreed but why are they just targeting PH users?
Autotrader, Collecting Cars, Carwow and EbayMotors - I just don't get this level of phishing traffic -

[jeremyc]

585bhp said:

Agreed but why are they just targeting PH users?
Autotrader, Collecting Cars, Carwow and EbayMotors - I just don't get this level of phishing traffic -

They're not just targetting PH:

Ben Lowden from PH said:

Unfortunately the whole industry is plagued by these scams at the moment - they seem to be targeting any private car sellers, so we're not aware of any more specific targeting than that. But thanks for the insight!

[Ben Lowden]

Yes unfortunately this is a widespread issue affecting the whole industry, not just PistonHeads. We're taking steps to try and reduce the spam but as they start out as what seem to be genuine enquiries, it's very hard to detect them. While it's a shame we have to do this, all private sellers receive a warning email as soon as they list a car for sale with us about this scam.

[Killer2005]

Posted a new ad today, had a scam message within half an hour.

Thankfully it's obvious which are the scams so quickly deleted and ignored.

[Agent57]

If I look at any car for sale on PH it defaults with my email address and a default message of: "Hello, I'm interested in this car. Is it still available?"

If one were to accidently click on the big green box below, that would be the message that gets sent.

Looks like a website design fault to me... or am I missing something?

[Ben Lowden]

Agent57 said:

If I look at any car for sale on PH it defaults with my email address and a default message of: "Hello, I'm interested in this car. Is it still available?"

If one were to accidently click on the big green box below, that would be the message that gets sent.

Looks like a website design fault to me... or am I missing something?

That's our standard pre-fill text but obviously you can change it to whatever you'd like to ask, so no fault.

[Mr Pointy]

Ben Lowden said:

Agent57 said:

If I look at any car for sale on PH it defaults with my email address and a default message of: "Hello, I'm interested in this car. Is it still available?"

If one were to accidently click on the big green box below, that would be the message that gets sent.

Looks like a website design fault to me... or am I missing something?

That's our standard pre-fill text but obviously you can change it to whatever you'd like to ask, so no fault.

Well it could be considered a fault if your standard text is the same as is used by many scammers. Change it to something else like "Default Text" then recipients would know the reason they are getting the message - someone has pressed the green box by mistake.