How to spot a community scammer 101

PhilipDAth
Kind of a big deal
Kind of a big deal

How to spot a community scammer 101

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.

 

5 REPLIES 5
BrechtSchamp
Kind of a big deal

I received it too and reported it.

CarolineS
Community Manager
Community Manager

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.

Caroline S | Community Manager, Cisco Meraki
New to the community? Get started here

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!!!

 

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Nolan Herring | nolanwifi.com
TwitterLinkedIn

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! 

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

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