FAO mods...(More scams in the classifieds)

[rpla102]

I know it is Saturday evening but can these be taken off....?

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/300911.htm

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/300907.htm

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/300904.htm

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/300903.htm

Have a good weekend all!!!

rpla

[mickk]

You dont fancy grabbing a bargain then?

[Kinky]

At the top right of each ad is a Report to Administrator link.

And guess what .... it does exactly as it says on the tin

K

[tybo]

Had my eye on that 550 for twelve n' half grand

[rpla102]

Moved already....

Yeah i'm always one for a cheeky bargain, but it gets a bit much when the first 5 of 10 of the 'whats new cat' are clearly dogey!!

[Killer2005]

Is it worth reporting a skyline thats in the classifieds?

Its not that its a scam but there's about 10 ads for the same R32 GTS and gets a bit annoying when looking through the skyline section and theres a page or so of the same car

[rpla102]

Sorry Kinky!!

[Kinky]

rpla102 said:

Sorry Kinky!!

Hey - no worries at all

K

[Stu R]

Perhaps one for RacingPete and co, but;
While we're on the subject of scams in the classifieds, wouldn't it be an idea to add the option of "Suspected Scam" to the options you're given when you do report these ads to a moderator / administrator in the drop down menu?
Given that if they're not already, this type of report is likely to be the most common complaint from the classifieds unless something can be done to verify it isn't a scam, it might be an idea.

[Paul RN]

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/300969.htm
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/300890.htm
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/300957.htm
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/300952.htm

Seems worse than ebay for the amount of scams! All reported via the link in the top right of the ads.

Edited by Paul RN on Sunday 25th November 12:18

[Podie]

Serious question...

When you submit an ad it says it's off to be checked by soemone BEFORE it gets posted... so that'll be the teaboy that's checking them then..?

[im]

Y'all won't be happy - but perhaps some kind of fee for placing an ad might help deter scammers - or even some kind of 'enhanced' PH membership requirement, erm, a known history of (say) at least 6 months or like the TR forum you must be known to others or have a recommendation etc...

I don't know the answer really...just floating some ideas on how to get a handle on this and stop the opportunist hustler.

Cheers

im

[uk_vette]

im said:

Y'all won't be happy - but perhaps some kind of fee for placing an ad might help deter scammers - or even some kind of 'enhanced' PH membership requirement, erm, a known history of (say) at least 6 months or like the TR forum you must be known to others or have a recommendation etc...

I don't know the answer really...just floating some ideas on how to get a handle on this and stop the opportunist hustler.

Cheers

im

,
,
Sounds good,

Classified's only available to post if you have time and post's criterea?

Who does check them "quite so obvious scams" ?

[Captain Slog]

A lot of these dodgy ads are placed for whatever reasons, by the same person it seems, most Bulletin Board's like this one have IP blocking so it shouldn't be too hard to put a ban on the culprits IP address. Not only would they not be able to place an advert but they couldn't even view the site. Payback

[Mr Will]

Captain Slog said:

A lot of these dodgy ads are placed for whatever reasons, by the same person it seems, most Bulletin Board's like this one have IP blocking so it shouldn't be too hard to put a ban on the culprits IP address. Not only would they not be able to place an advert but they couldn't even view the site. Payback

We have ip blocking in place, and it is done as a matter of routine for any scammers.

unfortunately it is quite simple to change your ip address and get around this.

we are working on new solutions to this problem, but unfortunately it is not as simple as it sounds.

[Captain Slog]

Hi there.

I'm assuming you are talking about an IP proxy workaround to defeat IP banning, which means someone, for whatever reason, needs to place hoax adverts at all costs? (Basically someone accesses PistonHeads using a surrogate Internet service)
I can't for the life of me see why but that seems to be the goal. If the adverts are due to 'script kiddies' using off the shelf bulletin board posting scripts, then use a good 'CAPTCHA' protocol, (these are the ones where you have to read and type the image display before you can post)
Using such a measure means standard spamming postings get defeated.

At least it deters the Saturday night drunk from causing problems.

[RacingPete]

Podie said:

Serious question...

When you submit an ad it says it's off to be checked by soemone BEFORE it gets posted... so that'll be the teaboy that's checking them then..?

Manual checking of every advert submitted has been turned off for a few years now, instead we have a list of rules that the submitter must pass to allow the advert to be submitted. Unfortunately these scammers keep changing IP addresses, Email addresses etc so they get harder to stop... obviously we don't want to block genuine advertisers so have to be clever about how we do this.

im said:

some kind of 'enhanced' PH membership requirement, erm, a known history of (say) at least 6 months or like the TR forum you must be known to others or have a recommendation etc...

On a commercial sense this isn't viable as the amount of people allowed to submit adverts would be very very small and thus the classifieds would not be the predominantly large and useful directory it is now.

There is a news story going up today to explain about these scams and what PH is doing about them.

[Furyous]

Pete
What should have been added to the scam article was to to get folks to actually report the ad using the button, rather tha clutter up the forums with posts about scam items.


Theres a lot of noobs about at the moment, maybe you nned to highlight this feature as well ?

[Garlick]

Good point

I'll chat with Pete tomorrow, and we'll highlight the report function. Maybe we should redesign the report functions entirely?

[Furyous]

Garlick said:

Good point

I'll chat with Pete tomorrow, and we'll highlight the report function. Maybe we should redesign the report functions entirely?

Sounds like a plan !