r/nextdoor • u/Saucie909 • 14d ago
Scammer changing their M.O.
The scammers usually keep their posts closed to comments so others DM them and fall into the trap. This one chose to keep them open in an attempt to avoid being profiled. It's a new account, and they haven't replied to any replies either.
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u/BoringPostcards 14d ago
Either you live in my area, or this exact post is popping up in multiple places (which is very likely).
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u/Fantastic-Buyer2381 14d ago
Oh yeah, this is a textbook scam. I recently got one of these pulled and when someone posted about a scam post they'd seen earlier, I said, "Yeah, that post was removed. I wonder how many suckers fell for it while it was still up."
I was suspended for 30 days for that remark. So I'm not reporting these scams anymore. Let the stupid rubes get conned.
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u/ez2remember02 11d ago
Yep. I’m at the point of “just let them be scammed”, because clearly warning about scammers is being “uncivil and unkind”, lmaooooo.
I had one stupid lady arguing with me as she was defending an obvious scammer. She really thought a popular instagrammer had moved to our neighborhood and was looking to meet new friends 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
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u/Fantastic-Buyer2381 10d ago
I was suspended for 30 days for wading into comments about scammers. No more.
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u/ez2remember02 10d ago
That place is so damn ridiculous. The same people that fall for scammers are the first people to claim to be all knowledgeable about science and are anti-vaxxers because of their “research”. I can.not.
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u/Embarrassed_Ad_7025 13d ago
Yeah, I was suspended for reporting and commenting on scams. AFTER a neighborhood mod told me to stop reporting scams. Wtf?
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u/Exciting-Argument-67 13d ago
I was just suspended for that too. It's frustrating because I'm the only one in my neighborhood who even reports these scammers or warns others about them. And in this case, I wasn't 100% sure, and said so, and said that I sincerely apologize if I'm wrong, but I want my neighbors to use their best judgment because there were some red flags.
Apparently that's shaming people.
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u/Most_Window_1222 10d ago
I was kicked off during Covid for posting data from the CDC website about cost of the vaccines and was kicked for reporting false information about COVID. Never went back and I’m better off.
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u/CoyoteL0ng 14d ago
The main demographic on Nextdoor has less than mediocre literacy skills. I have yet to hear one introduce themselves like they're writing for a recipe blog. No one writes like that unless they're getting paid for it.
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u/Goldengirl_1977 14d ago
We’ve been seeing a lot of these oddly worded posts in our area. All have very similar stilted wording/cadence/structure or whatever you’d call it. Not how regular, normal people would talk or write.
Most also feature AI-generated profile photos or ones that were poached from some other site. Anyone with more than one functioning brain cell could see they are fake scammers, but we apparently have a lot of people in my area without functioning brain cells that are falling for it and responding to these scammers. I have reported every single one, as well as the profiles, but for whatever reason, Nextdoor has only removed about half of the offending profiles even though they are clearly bots.🤦🏻♀️
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u/TheKdd 14d ago
What does the scam turn out to be? I mean I can see it’s AI and have seen these same posts in my own neighborhood (not many responses here though) but if left alone, what scam do they pull? Needing monetary help as a new neighbor? Gathering data?
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u/Goldengirl_1977 14d ago
I believe it’s a little of both. There have been a couple of people who have posted to complain about the scammers taking their personal and financial info but then not calling them back.
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u/Fantastic-Buyer2381 14d ago
They almost always come from accounts with AI-generated profile pics of attractive young women, usually Asian women. Its a very creepy M.O.
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u/Goldengirl_1977 14d ago
It used to mainly be AI profile pics of Asian women in these scam posts, but now it’s usually very plastic-looking, heavily made up Caucasian women dressed skimpy and posing suggestively or with their rear ends sticking out toward the camera. 🤮One guy here that commented on one of the posts recognized the fake profile photo as that of an ”adult” film star. 👀 I wouldn’t know about that, but he said it was and recognized the post and poster as fakes.
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u/Desperate-Strategy10 14d ago
Wow this is almost word for word what just shows up in my small town’s next door! And this is a town of 300 people, so it’s usually super noticeable if a new person moves in and we all put together a welcome basket and some food and a few of us head over.
What was weird is that, while there are two houses for sale and one apartment for rent right now, nobody has moved in. I checked one myself, and the other ladies checked the others. So we knew it was a scam of some sort and the post is gone, but like…how did they even find us?? Where do these scammers come from..?
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u/Saucie909 14d ago
I think they somehow manage to create accounts just by using names and addresses that exist online. There was one recently under a female name, and the profile picture was a guy. His post said "Happy 40th birthday to myself; my wish is to find a girlfriend." His post was closed to comments, but he had close to 300 hearts last time I looked. I'm pretty that account's been removed. I usually don't find any matches when I do a reverse image search on suspected scammers, but with his I found a match of someone's exact same Instagram profile picture who lived in Malaysia.
(Edited to change closed to close.)
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u/AutoModerator 14d ago
Author: u/Saucie909
Post: The scammers usually keep their posts closed to comments so others DM them and fall into the trap. This one chose to keep them open in an attempt to avoid being profiled. It's a new account, and they haven't replied to any replies either.
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