How to spot a community scammer 101

[PhilipDAth]

If you regularly participate on public forums you will eventually have someone try and scam you.

I recently received this private message from Dominika:
"how are you i want to share important discussion with you write me message or send me your email for more discussion (dominikaenos@hotmail.com) what language you speak? i wait for your message through my emai"

Things to look for:

1. Often scammers have brand new accounts, and often have never posted, or posted a few times.  In this case, the scammers account was less than 1 hour old, and has zero posts.  Tick.
2. They supply a message which is "bait".  You can tell bait messages because they contain no actual facts (such as what the problem is, what company they represent, etc).  Sometimes they include a sob story.  It may include a link to something external.  Tick.
3. They use a free email address.  Tick.
4. They try to get you to start communicating via another a different method.  They do this so that they can not be observed by moderators.  They can't be cut off (once they have you on the hook).  Tick.
5. They use a profile photo of an attrative person (not actually them of course).  No tick.

If you get a private message which scores 4 out of 5 on this scale - ignore it.  Don't reply.

[BrechtSchamp]

I received it too and reported it.

[CarolineS]

Thank you, Philip! We're looking into ways to make it a bit harder to spam people via private messages — keep an eye on this thread for updates.

[NolanHerring]

He also sent me a message, but I replied and now he wants me to give him only $500 USD and I can help him to finally unlock his family fortune that has been held up with court documents, and he promised me 5 Billion in return.

I mean....how can I pass up on that kind of an offer!!!

[BlakeRichardson]

You mean I don't have millions of dollars waiting for me an I just need to pay a small fee to release it? 

I was going to use that money to buy some Meraki gear as well! 

[PhilipDAth]

You have a small number of kudos waiting, you just need to put in millions of hours to release them.