Yes, it’s epidemic at the moment. Moderators are trying to keep up with it, but it’s so prevalent right now it’s hard to keep up. Personally I think there’s a few more rules each page could institute to help, but then they need to take a firm stance on enforcement. Unfortunately whenever these scam ads get posted a few people immediately comment they are interested, and message the poster, and obviously haven’t stopped for a minute to even do a quick scan of the scammers profile. The buyers need to be much more careful too. But people are trying to jump on a good deal.
Going forward, it might be a good idea to put something identifying in your pictures? maybe not necessarily personal info, but a logo, watermark, mascot, etc. Could help your friends spot the stolen pictures easier on the internet. Just a thought.
I made a post recently when I spotted some of Mean Gene’s pictures stolen and being used in a scam ad, the more of our eyes watching the better.
Sadly, since there isn’t any real penalties or repercussions when they get caught at this they often just create another fake profile and try again, sometimes even the same day.
Buyers need to really be careful about payment methods too, along with not using PayPal “Friends & Family”, unless you REALLY know the seller, research other payment methods before using, some of the other new forms the scammer will try to get someone to use have no recourse if the seller scams you.
I’ll add too, before buying anything from a particular Facebook page, try to get a feel if it’s being actively moderated, some moderators & page owners are very hands on, others aren’t being watched at all. It’s pretty easy on any Facebook page to see who the Moderators are, get to know their names, and watch if they are commenting on their page daily, those pages have a better chance of weeding out the scammers.
