r/Scams – posted this in response to a retail scam in another…

this was my comment on one today verbatim. edits you see are from the original comment and not this post:

(cue this comment being massively downvoted by other scam/spam accounts)

edit: aaaaand they deleted their entire account or blocked me rather than responding and defending themselves lol. avoid any links that may be posted in this thread after this comment.

edit 2: since actual real people are upvoting this now, i want to add context to how this works for others who might not be familiar:

an account with limited history posts something “cool” in a vague way to invoke organic comments like “where can i get this?”

if nobody asks in a reasonable amount of time, 2 or 3 other fake accounts come in to ask and answer the question, providing links to the shifty or downright scammy site “selling” the product

if you actually pay, you will not get what you ordered. it will either be a shittier product, counterfeit, or you may just never receive the item.

these groups are fly-by-night, so if you have a dispute, you’ll never find them again. if you call them out on their post, all of the fake accounts they use will downvote you in hopes people don’t scroll down far enough to see your warning. be prepared for that and call it out in advance. actual regular users aren’t stupid.

these are really easy to spot by checking post histories when you see something cool or interesting that triggers that “i want this, how do i buy this?” reaction in your brain. if the post history seems like a real, normal person, proceed with your own judgement. however if you only see comments in really generic subreddits and a single post, and all of the comments supporting the post have the same kind of history, DO NOT CLICK ANY LINKS.

if the account was created months ago but suddenly only has content, including comments recently, that’s a huge red flag. they make these accounts in advance to establish an account age before they start using it to spam/scam. they make the cheap comments recently to fake being real users on reddit. with that fake established history, it’s time for them to make their scam/spam post without much scrutiny.

you will be out of whatever you spend, whether it’s because you received a shitty product not as advertised or because you received nothing at all.

when you think you are the first person to notice this pattern on a post on reddit, please be the first to comment about it. the worst they can do is downvote your comment. report it as soon as the “buy it here” link is posted. they may block you but you can use guest or incognito mode in your browser to monitor the thread without being logged in for more updates from the scammers and edit your comments accordingly.

for more information on how to protect yourself and loved ones from scams, please subscribe to r/scams (i’m not affiliated or anything, just a big fan of education and awareness)

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