Demise of Motorhome Buy & Sell Facebook group

[wivvy's dad]

Is there any future in trying to duplicate that helpful page in some way on Fun?

It got quite animated at the end with Admin banning (or trying to) the posts drawing attention to motorhome scams on the internet, something I thought was useful, if not to me, at least to 'newbies' who might be buying for the first time.

Your thoughts........?

 

[Jim]

We already have the the classified forum here http://www.motorhomefun.co.uk/forum/categories/motorhomefun-classifieds.297/ At least as easy to post items for sale as facebook and 100x better to search for and respond to such items

 

[trophychap]

We already have a for sale section personally I don't see a need for a facebook type page, there are lots of scams going on out therefor every product you may ever want or need.

I work on the principal that if it looks too good to be true it probably is!

Caveat Emptor.

 

[Jaws]

What is of concern is that the people who are/were running the farce book set up objected to folk pointing out scams !

That to me points to only one thing.. They had something to gain by them NOT being mentioned ..

 

[tonka]

Just when you thought all the crap was over...

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[wivvy's dad]

Indeed we do Jim. I didn't see anything similar here, and Trophychap, you are correct. But judging by some of the posts in that group, there have been an awful lot of people conned out of £5k or more through scams - not everyone is as savvy as we (hopefully) are.

Buster Jack in particular devoted a great deal of time alerting folk to the daily scams.

Just opening up discussion is all.........

 

[Jim]

Just when you thought all the crap was over...

Have you been getting grief mate? Best out of it if that's the case.

 

[Jim]

@Terry was letting us know about eBay motorhome scams for ages, he spots them from a mile away. Maybe we could have a forum section dedicated to it.

 

[tonka]

Wivvy.... To clear this matter and also as i know many Funsters were members so it will give them the answer.

I started and ran the group for the sole purpose of buying and selling motorhome realeted items, with almost 4,000 members it was getting popular and I worked hard to keep the site focused.
Buster jack joined and started to post, however his posts started to take up a lot of space and were becoming daily pointers to his site. I spoke with him and asked if he could limit the number of posts. Also that when people clicked the links the information was usually out of date ie the van had been removed off ebay etc.. I asked if he could instead develop a better post that gave information for new buyers on how these scams were worked and beat ways for people to be safe. Nothing came, he went off the members list for a while, own choice I assume as not removed by me ( sole admin). I am aware that other groups had issues with his continual posts.
He returned recently under the name Jack Buster and started to repost.... Again I pointed out that a better format would be more helpful to give people the information on scams. After people then started to share his posts the group page was getting full and taking space that I wanted for buy sell items.. I took the decision to stop the posting of this type of notifications...
Then all I received was "shit" ......
For those who may already know I am recovering from a recent heart attack and awaiting a decision on heart bypass... This whole thing caught me at a low point and I thought "f*#^. it". I closed the group and stated to delete everyone.. Some people were still posting and even trying to join the group.. To save it all getting out of control I deleted new posts while I continued the member deletion..

There you are thats the story, nothing against Buster Jack and if you ever read my posts on Buy sell, MCC, Autotrail or any other Facebook group you will know that I am first in line to advise people to watch for scams.. BJ. is not the only saviour against these scammer, I have reported may and I know forum members have done the same..

For Funsters who were on Buy Sell, sorry but it's all over.....

 

[Jaws]

Cheers for the explanation Tonka.. really appreciate it mate

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[wivvy's dad]

Cheers Steve. Nice to see the whole thing properly explained.

I did like the group, and recommended quite a few people to join, just sad to see it finish.

Best of luck with your health issues.

 

[joncris]

Buster Jack has been doing a great job trawling through various websites and identifying these scams I imagine, in fact I know he's saved consumers £1000's of pounds who could have fallen victim to these scams. The MO of the scammer's is, contrary to popular belief, very sophisticated. However their methods are now well known to BJ and others resulting in them being identified very quickly and the Websites warned by him.
Others involved with BJ advise the banks who's accounts are being used to launder the scammers ill gotten gains.
As soon as the victim transfers the payment its withdrawn immediately in cash from a number of ATM's mainly in London AND their favourite bank appears to be Barclays although they do sometimes use others

 

[Jaws]

It has to be Barclays as they run no proper checks on new accounts.. Bunch of thieves them selves..

 

[Puddleduck]

(Drastically cropped for brevity)

Wivvy.... To clear this matter and also as i know many Funsters were members so it will give them the answer.


He returned recently under the name Jack Buster and started to repost.... Again I pointed out that a better format would be more helpful to give people the information on scams. After people then started to share his posts the group page was getting full and taking space that I wanted for buy sell items.. I took the decision to stop the posting of this type of notifications...

I really really hope you soon leave all your health problems behind you and I think you made the correct decision. When you are not well you don't need any more grief.

For what it is worth a simple "suspect a scam if...." type posting repeated on a regular basis would have been better than "This item on ebay is a scam" for every item spotted. Ebay are pretty good at taking down items that have been reported to them.

Buster Jack has been doing a great job trawling through various websites and identifying these scams I imagine, in fact I know he's saved consumers £1000's of pounds who could have fallen victim to these scams.

Don't want to knock Jack or anyone else who does a good job of warning of scams but perhaps it would have been better if Jack Buster (or Buster Jack) could set up his own group pointing out scams and allowing others to do the same then everyone would benefit. There is no need to hijack another group to do this..... a simple message as suggested by Tonka repeated every month or so would have been sufficient I imagine. It would have made Tonka's life more pleasant in any case.

Memo to all (myself included): If you wouldn't say it to someone's face then don't post it online.

 

[Debs]

Wivvy.... To clear this matter and also as i know many Funsters were members so it will give them the answer.

I started and ran the group for the sole purpose of buying and selling motorhome realeted items, with almost 4,000 members it was getting popular and I worked hard to keep the site focused.
Buster jack joined and started to post, however his posts started to take up a lot of space and were becoming daily pointers to his site. I spoke with him and asked if he could limit the number of posts. Also that when people clicked the links the information was usually out of date ie the van had been removed off ebay etc.. I asked if he could instead develop a better post that gave information for new buyers on how these scams were worked and beat ways for people to be safe. Nothing came, he went off the members list for a while, own choice I assume as not removed by me ( sole admin). I am aware that other groups had issues with his continual posts.
He returned recently under the name Jack Buster and started to repost.... Again I pointed out that a better format would be more helpful to give people the information on scams. After people then started to share his posts the group page was getting full and taking space that I wanted for buy sell items.. I took the decision to stop the posting of this type of notifications...
Then all I received was "shit" ......
For those who may already know I am recovering from a recent heart attack and awaiting a decision on heart bypass... This whole thing caught me at a low point and I thought "f*#^. it". I closed the group and stated to delete everyone.. Some people were still posting and even trying to join the group.. To save it all getting out of control I deleted new posts while I continued the member deletion..

There you are thats the story, nothing against Buster Jack and if you ever read my posts on Buy sell, MCC, Autotrail or any other Facebook group you will know that I am first in line to advise people to watch for scams.. BJ. is not the only saviour against these scammer, I have reported may and I know forum members have done the same..

For Funsters who were on Buy Sell, sorry but it's all over.....

Thanks for this - I wasn't a member but Les was and had mentioned that the page seemed to have disappeared.

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[gus-lopez]

It has to be Barclays as they run no proper checks on new accounts.. Bunch of thieves them selves..

A company in Suffolk that supplies my wife with work opened an account for her with Barclays ( even though she had accounts with other banks) when she first started & without her even being in the UK.
They used the office address to start with & then my wife changed it to the address of our daughter in Devon.
I can't recall my wife being asked to show anything or even give our Spanish address. I commented on it to her at the time it was opened.

 

[Gizmouk]

Thanks for the explanation Steve - I did wonder why I'd been "banned" lol

FYI - Buster Jack went quiet because Facebook banned his account. He got caught in the Facebook cull of "not a real person" accounts a few months back. He's back under another name (Jack Buster?). However, I like many, have him blocked - whilst he's well meaning, he has a habit of flooding FB Groups.

I can fully empathise with you and your decision to close the Group. I, and a small team, Admin a number of FB Groups, and have recently taken the decision to ban for first offence - such was the level of crap we were getting.

I wish you all the best, and hope you make a full and speedy recovery asap.

 

[Peter & Elaine]

Sod em all steve do what's right for you and yours

 

[Zains Pops]

Thanks for the explanation. I used to visit from time to time, just to see what was about. Best of luck with the medical stuff.

 

[Scattycat]

Take care Tonks.
Just remember the old adage
'You're not always right and when you are right some folks will say you're wrong anyway'

Look after yourself and let us all know how you get on healthwise.
Any chance you might make it to The Benicarlo meet?

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[Terry]

I have never been on FB to see scams on there but I spent a lot of time spotting the scams on ebay -made it my personal thing to spot and warn others of scams after I nearly got caught out with one -plus it gave me something to occupy my time through the day when Ann was alive-Now I spend my time converting vans (Ann would not let me ) so I find myself with little time to trawl ebay, in fact I find I am not on the forum as much -usually first thing on a morning and an hour come tea time.I still look at ebay for prices on vans etc but find I have a lot less time to kill.If anyone wants to set something up spotting / warning of scams I could/can easy send/post the scam links again
terry

 

[tonka]

Look after yourself and let us all know how you get on healthwise.
Any chance you might make it to The Benicarlo meet?

Fingers crossed, have a consultant meeting on 2nd January !! Hope they are all sober by then

I can drive now but "recommended" to stay in UK...
Bank and other travel insurance have both withdrawn cover regarding any heart related problem.
As it's so early I think I need a longer period and the official details on where it's all heading before I can get cover.
There is always the good old EHIC as a very last resort....

 

[joncris]

Re Buster Jack, I'm surprised people on here are knocking the guy. I agree he does tend to get about a bit posting on various sites but that's only because he's trying to ensure as many consumers as possible get the message
To date and since April 2014 he's detected and reported to ebay alone 14,000 for the avoidance of doubt that's FOURTEEN THOUSAND VERIFIED SCAMS in under a year on the ebay website alone.

Also the scammer's scam is identified by various means and when possible the UK bank account they are using is also identified so the bank can be notified they're helping a scammer to defraud consumers + all identified scams are reported to 'Action Fraud' daily. Not forgetting that the guy spends many many hours on the internet identifying these cretins scams AND he does all of this for no monetary reward whatsoever
Last but not least whilst ebay have got better in recent months they can still be slow to respond in removing the ad in some cases leaving them up for hours thereby allowing scammer to ensnare further victims before the listing is removed

 

[Wombles]

Look after yourself Tonka - your health is the most important thing. Putting ourselves out there on the web can be very rewarding but can never please everybody no matter how good our intentions are. We used to follow your Facebook page & were a little disappointed when it closed down so helpful to know why but regardless it was your perogative. Best wishes for your recovery & being back on the road with the Funsters again

 

[Bailey58]

I know nothing of the FB page but just wishing you well and hope things look up in the new year.

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