BEWARE: Potential Scammer "Jonasm"

[BuckSharp]

I received the following message from new member "Jonasm" regarding my "Wanted" post for Grinling Whittlers.

Kindly contact holmes in texas,he has Great Eastern 38 Grinling Whittlers for sale in good condition
Here’s his email shastaholmes@outlook.com

After a quick internet search of "Shasta Holmes Texas", I found that this is a common scam that is being run in other forums.

This member joined on 3/14/21 and sent the message to me soon after that.

[cody6268]

I received the following message from new member "Jonasm" regarding my "Wanted" post for Grinling Whittlers.

Kindly contact holmes in texas,he has Great Eastern 38 Grinling Whittlers for sale in good condition
Here’s his email shastaholmes@outlook.com

After a quick internet search of "Shasta Holmes Texas", I found that this is a common scam that is being run in other forums.

This member joined on 3/14/21 and sent the message to me soon after that.

Twice here, involving a Moore Maker Stockman. I just ignored them as something didn't seem right.

[BuckSharp]

I've reported the message to admin to be dealt with.

[jerryd6818]

I've reported the message to admin to be dealt with.

Well done.

[cody6268]

The PM was sent on March 15. I didn't realize I could report a PM, but just did now.


Also note, there is a member "morgan1972" who sent me an email through the system with the exact same content on March 3. I am betting money this is just an alias of the same "Jonasm".

[orvet]

It really is too bad that some people think they're entitled to what other people have just based on the fact that they want it. This could be a pocketknife, this could be money or it could be pretty much anything. I'm afraid that's a sign of our culture and the times in which we live. When people don't respect themselves they don't respect anyone else either. Enough of my social commentary!

As far as this particular thread here goes the individual "Jonasm" has gone the way of all spammers, booted and blocked. It doesn't mean they can never get in again it just means they have to work a lot harder at getting back into AAPK, so watch out for people trying to sell you something, especially outside of the forum proper or outside of a store where AAPK still maintains some control. None of the administrators can read what's going on inside the stores or inside of your private messages except for Brian. Phil I don't have that access, and if we did we would probably just be dangerous with it.

So when members of our AAPK community decide to do a private trade in the private message system we are in all likelihood never going to know about it unless the deal goes bad and somebody reports it. At that point it's a little bit late for us to do much about it except kick the person off and that doesn't really accomplish much other than severing the ties by which we or anyone else can find him.

What each one of you can do to prevent this type of potential scam is exactly what Buckibbq and Cody did; report the private message to the admin team. If you can't do that for whatever reason, send me an email or a PM. My email address is at the bottom of every post I make, but a PM to me or to Philco it's probably the best method of contact.

Both of the aforementioned folks in this thread who were potentially spamming people have been removed.

CAUTION TO EVERYONE WHO ENGAGES IN PRIVATE TRADING WITH ANOTHER AAPK MEMBER

The first thing I would say is know the person you're trading with! I can't emphasize this enough.
If you don't know the person talk to someone who does know them and perhaps has traded with them in the past.
I would also always recommend that you look at the person's profile and see how long they have been a member.

See how much posting they have done and make sure what they're offering to sell is something they normally show as part of their collection. For example: if a new member is always posting about low budget knives (nothing wrong with that) and suddenly starts offering to sell $300 or $400 knives at big discount, that should make you suspicious.

If someone has has only been a member of short time and starts offering great deals on knives you tend to collect and look for, be very suspicious. For anyone who is savvy and how forums work is easy to look at what a person is posting and get a pretty good guess at what they collect and what might tempt them. Like all scam artists they tend to pray on the tendency of most of us who love getting a good deal. But most of us understand that too good a deal is probably a no deal!

There was a country-western song when I was a kid about this guy get in a divorce. I just remember one line from it, "She got the gold mine and I got the shaft." Metaphorically speaking that's probably what you can expect when you dealing with a brand-new member who doesn't post, or doesn't post much and after a few days/weeks/months of very little interaction they suddenly start offering unheard-of deals on awesome knives, just the one you were looking for! They are no longer appealing to that part of human nature that likes to get a good deal, but they are appealing to a sense of greed that some people may have. Getting a good deal is always great, getting unheard-of deal is a huge red flag to me and probably should be to all of us especially when dealing over the Internet with someone we have never met for a knife that we can't hold in our hands and examine.

Major kudos to Buckibbq and Cody for having outstanding instincts, turning down the deals and reporting them.
You guys did all of AAPK a great favor by doing that and probably saved somebody from getting ripped off.
Getting ripped off is bad for our hobby, bad for the image of our hobby and we won't put up with it here on AAPK.


If you think that you have been ripped off by someone AAPK please report it through channels to an administrator.
You can send the PM to the admin team by reporting it. The icon to report is the exclamation mark on the upper right hand portion of the PM. There should be three icons at the upper right of the body of the PM. The left-hand icon is an X which deletes the message from your folder. The middle icon is an ! that is the icon you click on to report that PM and it will provide you with a place that you can send a message to the admin team. The third icon, the one on the right hand side is a " just a large quotation mark. Click that icon if you want to quote that message back to the sender. Sometimes it's easier to respond to the message when you quote it and have it right in front of you and don't have to scroll up and down on the screen to read the PM, and then scroll back up to write.

I think I have about exhausted the subject and I hope I haven't confused more people than I have helped. Feel free to ask questions in this topic if you're not clear on the procedure.


A Word of Caution: Please be mindful that misunderstandings do happen between people. We have probably all had them if we've been here very long and most of them worked out just by giving someone little understanding and little grace everybody ends up getting what they wanted, usually. Please do not trash a member in good standing in the public forum without the due diligence of reporting it the problem to one of the members of the admin team, myself (orvet) or Philco. We along with Bryan are the current active members of the admin team. Please do not contact Brian because he has a ton of stuff to do and those of you've tried to contact him before know that you may wait a long time before you get an answer. If you wonder why that is, reads Brian story, I think it's in the AAPK History topic, or at least links to his story are there. Miller Bros`is also an administrator, I don't want to forget him but his time is somewhat limited here due to duties he has elsewhere. I think his preference is to come in and fix things that I screw up and take out the trash that accumulates. (You wouldn't believe how dusty those little bytes of data are!)

[BuckSharp]

Thank you very much Dale for your help in this matter. If something seems too good to be true, then it probably is. I've been around here for quite awhile and post occasionally, but not as often as I should. AAPK is a first class operation and I enjoy doing a lot of reading here. Every member that I've had contact with has been friendly, courteous and kind and I appreciate that. The admin team is A1 and I can't thank you enough for all your work.

Bryon

[CamMan21]

[quote]Sent: Fri Mar 19, 2021 6:09 pm
From: thomeric88
Recipient: CamMan21

Have you checked with regis via betterlife7244@ aol.com,he has a Camillus 707Y he wants to part with.[/quote][/b]

[BuckSharp]

[quote]Sent: Fri Mar 19, 2021 6:09 pm
From: thomeric88
Recipient: CamMan21

Have you checked with regis via betterlife7244@ aol.com,he has a Camillus 707Y he wants to part with.

[/b][/size]
[/quote]

Just got the same email...in regards to my in search of post for Bose suede pouch AND the GEC 98 Whittler. This “Regis” must have everything!!!

[CamMan21]

This “Regis” must have everything!!!

I bet he does!

[TazmanTom18]

Same guy, same verbiage, same crap on my HK Skorch post. Emailed me this am to push sale, great price too, go figure. God'll get 'em. Tom

[TazmanTom18]

Also sent Imgur link. Identified as "Osbey Regis", same betterlife7244 email. Anybody feel like a road trip... Taz

[TazmanTom18]

He hit me up today mad because I didn't buy the knife. The madder he got, the more broken the English. "Almost" funny. Tom

[TazmanTom18]

I then remembered another weird post, March 3, same content, to contact "Osbey" at small7world@aol.com. Another email to avoid.

[Drukai]

Yeah just was contacted recently with the same content a quick google search of “Osbey Shasta” Spring Texas guy has hit Auto Parts, metal detector and instrument forums scamming people. Luck is going to run out sooner than later!

[kootenay joe]

Is it possible to get your computer 'infected' from just opening an email ? (not an attachment)
kj

[just bob]

Is it possible to get your computer 'infected' from just opening an email ? (not an attachment)
kj

Good question Roland. I wasn't sure but apparently the answer is no.


https://www.howtogeek.com/135546/htg-ex ... ening-an-e

[cudgee]

Good rule of thumb. Never open " Anything " you're not sure of. And if it smells iffy, good chance it is iffy.

[jmh58]

Good rule of thumb. Never open " Anything " you're not sure of. And if it smells iffy, good chance it is iffy.

John

[BuckSharp]

Add new member (as of this morning) "Roberthadji" to the list of scammers. I just received an email from him in regards to my last Wanted Ad that I had posted for a GEC 98 Whittler. Says he's got one he's looking to sell. Seems that he must have joined this morning just to help me out!!!

[texoma]

I received 2 today,

email

from Roberthadji and I just turned email option off

and a PM from another new user, lyonww99, so add that one to the list.

GEC 352216
Sent: Wed Apr 28, 2021 11:29 am
From: lyonww99
Recipient: texoma

Have you checked with Calloway via callo7way@ aol.com,he has a GEC 352216 he wants to part with.

[Railsplitter]

This hobby used to be fun.

[texoma]

new user lyonww99 posted a want to buy ad yesterday so now I'm wondering, is he for real or not, if he is I apologize

WTB: Camillus #66 Pocket Knife
Post by lyonww99 » Tue Apr 27, 2021 5:49 am

Hello!

New to the AAPK forums. I would like to purchase a NIB (or as close to that condition as possible) Camillus #66 Stockman pocket knife.it appears the handles came in either a smooth ivory or a slightly textured ivory. I am interested in one with the smooth ivory handles.

Kind Regards,

[zzyzzogeton]

This hobby used to be fun.

It still is. I have just added a new aspect to the hobby. I simply string the scammers along, asking for more pictures, a better description, close ups of ricasso stamps. Eventually, they catch on and quit answering me.

When you're retired, you get your entertainment any way you can.

[TPK]

This hobby used to be fun.

It still is. I have just added a new aspect to the hobby. I simply string the scammers along, asking for more pictures, a better description, close ups of ricasso stamps. Eventually, they catch on and quit answering me.

When you're retired, you get your entertainment any way you can.

Too Funny! No, way too funny! And when they stop answering, you send them this.

LOL!