[alphaphoenix]

Is it just me, or has some head-fier accounts have been hijacked and purposely used to fraud other head-fiers by selling vapor stuff?  Is head-if easy to hack into?  I bring this up because I'm a frequent seller and lurker in the forsale threads and find a lot of sour deals, some are from head-fi ID's that defy the sour outcome.  I wonder if inactive, but mature accounts have made it into the hands of sour apples both domestic and abroad. 
 
In any case, good luck and be cautious.  Unless you've recently dealt with the seller before, if a visual proof can't be provided, I suggest passing up the deal, especially if it sounds too good to be true.   I see absolutely no reason for visual proof to be provided regardless of the excuses posted in some sketchy forsale threads.

 

[anthem-00]

The worse part is as a new user, people think your either a hijacked account or a spammer of some sort as well. .. 

 

[alphaphoenix]

Yeah.  That's the other end of the stick.  I suggest providing credibility by adding another source of feedback such as eBay or Audiogon.  Also, don't beat around the bush with photo requests and be very upfront and prompt with any questions.  It may take a few transactions to gain credibility and confidence, but just do the right thing, and it will happen.  Good luck.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Quote:

Is head-if easy to hack into?

It depends on how hard it is to hack passwords.
 
I don't think the site itself is being broken into.

 

[Currawong]

Unless someone had set a stupid password, such as just "password" and someone is going around brute-forcing accounts it's highly unlikely.  You'd possibly notice as their writing style would suddenly be radically different to normal.  I have seen (on other forums) people desperate for cash or leaving the country (was a local forum) who suddenly decided to sell everything (or maybe they were pretending to sell everything) collect money and run, despite having been a forum member for years with 1000+ posts.
 
It's always a good idea to pay via Paypal, not sending the money as a gift. Then you have a possibly recourse should a transaction go sour.

 

[logwed]

Quote:

 
It's always a good idea to pay via Paypal, not sending the money as a gift. Then you have a possibly recourse should a transaction go sour.

Never do gift, just man up and cover the fee if it's not covered by the seller (as it is supposed to be). Gift is a great way to get screwed.

 

[Mr.Sneis]

Honestly,
 
In my exp. the "protection" you get from not gifting is worthless anyways....  but I suppose that's another discussion.
 

 

[Nebby]

Crappy "protection" is still better than none at all, IMO

 

[Mr.Sneis]

No.  Not really
 
You get screwed on a deal via PP and you're totally effed, bank doesn't care, pp doesn't care, police don't care, courts kinda care but will cost you too much to get anywhere.  Plus all the time you end up wasting.
 
If you pay via CC at least the CC company/bank will try to recover your funds.  Paypal usually gives you an excuse as to why they can't do anything.
 
Yes I hold a grudge, or two, or three...

 

[logwed]

Based on your team-leadership, you have bad luck all around, dude... Sorry to hear about the bad stuff.

 

[rawrster]

I haven't noticed anything different or any recent scams and such but I only click on ads that I'm interested in.
 
I don't know about hacking but passwords would depends on how easy the password is to guess. If it's something like "password" or 12345 or anything silly like that it would be pretty easy but other than that I'd probably say no.
 
Have you been unlucky lately with your deals and such? Of course I'd hope the answer is no..

 

[alphaphoenix]

So far, I've haven't been scammed or experience sour deals where the item is vastly different of what's advertised.  Most of us who has responded to this thread started their accounts where there was a 50 posting criteria before selling stuff.  Since after the change, there's been a flood of newly created accounts selling expensive gear. 
 
Times are tough and getter tougher for some, which makes honest people a little less honest and creating opportunities for thieves.  I just hope unlawful and immoral activities done on eBay such as account stealing and abuse don't breed like rabbits here on head-fi. 
 
Bottom line, I guess - caveat emptor!

 

[Currawong]

If you think a sale is suspicious, eg: A usually eloquently-posting regular who hasn't posted for a while suddenly re-appears posting expensive gear for sale in broken English saying Western Union payment to Nigeria only, then please click the red flag below the post and report it. 

 

[Edwood]

Selling the interface from acoustic transducers to central auditory nerves of humans to commence...
 
Present and arrange transaction in manual format problematic...
 
....................mmmmmmmmmmmmbrap..............................

 

[project86]

I think it is likely that people are getting their email accounts hacked in general, and then it spirals from there. Someone gets into a yahoo account, it likely has emails from HeadFi. So the hacker comes here and tries the same password. If it works, they can do whatever they want.
 
Think about it. Many people belong to various hobby forums, all of which have a for sale section. If they use the same password each place, they are wide open for scams.