FYI: SPAM email

[C17LVFD]

Receieved the same email to two different email addresses:

“Hi,
Would you be interested in buying some of these emergency warning items as i am letting go of them on affordable prices... selling due to surgery reasons.

Whelen Legacy, Amber, 54", Full Flood DUO $100
Whelen Charger Inner Edge TA $190
NOS Megathread $190
Federal Signal Corporation PA300 100 Watt Siren Amp Control Unit w/Mic Lot i $120
CHP Spec Whelen Liberty $850
Advantedge 4400 $180
Southern VP SVP SA400 Siren w/mic $200
Code3 Dash Laser w/mirror. $130
Federal Signal Jetstream $300
Sireno Condor Clear Domes used $170

I am open to serious offers

Prices include shipping”

Came from two different email address.

Beware
Seth

 

[Tony P]

Did this happen through the PM system or your email accounts?

 

[NIACO]

I received the same email. It was sent to the email address that I use for this site.

 

[Tony P]

I received the same email. It was sent to the email address that I use for this site.

Again I ask, was it through the PM system or direct to your email address?

 

[Tony P]

@NIACO and @C17LVFD both of you have publicly posted email addresses in the forums which is why I am trying to differentiate if this came from a member to you using the PM system which triggered an email from elightbars informing you of the suspicious PM or if a scammer simply found your publicly posted email addresses and directly emailed you.

If it is the latter, this is not a site issue.

 

[C17LVFD]

Sorry Tony, was out mowing.

Mine were sent to two email addresses of mine. One that is primarily affiliated with this account and a past email address affiliated with my acct here.

Mine we NOT through the PM system, directly to my email address by different email addresses. Same content.

First time I’ve seen this, and wanted others to be aware. This is the only place I list lighting items, and the content looks like it was cut n paste from an ad.

The support forum likely wasn’t the right place for this but I didn’t see a better place to put it when taking a Quick Look at the various forums.

Seth

 

[Tony P]

Thanks for the reply. I have moved this to the off topic area as it is more of an FYI to other members.

 

[C17LVFD]

Thank you Tony!
Seth

 

[NIACO]

Hi Tony, just so you know, it was sent direct to my email address that I use for this site. Thanks

 

[JohnMarcson]

We have not had any compromised user data or any breeches, how ever that doesn't prevent public data rom being harvested. We have had spam, spoofing, phishing, and similar attempts from info gleaned off public posts on and off the site in the past.

Users should use caution with any direct email solicitation because it is somewhat easy to automatically pull thread topics and associated emails into a spam a database with simple search tools and scripts. I usually ask the person to PM me on here or otherwise confirm their identity.

I received an email not long ago that was a word for word copy from a Facebook group sales post looking to sell a collection. I still don't know if the Facebook post was also a scam or if that person simply had the text of their post stolen for scamming purposes. The names didn't match, but that's not always super relevant.

We also had someone steal pictures of a collection off Instagram and try to sell it to users using copied text from a different thread. It's frighteningly easy to steal images, text of posts, and other info to put together and mass blast out to every related email address that can be found.

Please use caution when dealing with any "cold call" solicitations off of the site from people you don't recognize or cannot confirm. Also consider not posting your email address in plain text in posts. As always feel free to contact me to confirm anything you find suspect.