There has been an increase in FB sales group fraud where scammers duplicate someone’s Facebook page using their pictures and copy their sales posts in an attempt to trick people into buying high-ticket items, taking their money and then not delivering the product.
As the creator of Anarchy Scuba Swap (which started all this “Anarchy” crap lol), my moderator team sees this frequently and do our best to remove these posts as they are identified/reported. Unfortunately these scam posts are posted simultaneously in many gear swap groups where they can claim multiple victims with a single post.
A friend of mine found a FB group called, “Exposing Scams and Fraud in Beekeeping” where people can report these profiles and posts. He suggested we collect and share the same data in the dive community.
We’ve created a form where you can anonymously report suspicious gear sales posts found in any Facebook group. We will review submissions and share a database of fake accounts or those who have been copied to decrease the number of successful fraud attempts.
Why not just report them to Facebook, you ask? You absolutely should. The problem the Bee Keeping groups identified was that the slime-balls committing these crimes would just make new accounts, often using the exact same names/posts and would end up back in some of the groups that don’t screen new members as well.
Anarchy Scuba Swap’s commitment to keeping you safe: We don’t allow suspicious account into the group, decreasing your chances of getting scammed. The group is not here for popularity. It’s here to provide a safe and unbiased place to purchase used dive gear from the community. Every member is screened and misconduct is taken seriously. Read/listen to “Let’s Talk About ASS” for the story about how the group (and pretty much everything else) started.
If you have a suggestion for how we can make this process better or if there are additional data points we should be collecting, please let me know.
Dive safe (and buy safe!)
Trace
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