SCAM ALERT : User S MOG (smithmog17@gmail.com / knolespaul@gmail.com)

Do not trust this account.

Made the dumb mistake of jumping at a good deal, paying the price for it now.

S Mog reached out, offering to sell an old, worn set of ice tools.

After sending funds there has been 0 communication or shipping updates after a week of waiting.

I know it's on me for getting tricked, but I wanted to make the forum aware. 

Do not trust user or associated email of knolespaul@gmail.com

Sorry this happened to you. 

I would caution anyone posting "Want to buy" ads on this forum to be very careful - they reliably attract scammers.

Daniel Kay wrote:

Sorry this happened to you. 

I would caution anyone posting "Want to buy" ads on this forum to be very careful - they reliably attract scammers.

Yupp, exactly the scenario. Jumped at it cause the deal was great. 

I urge everyone to strictly follow the guidelines posted at the top of the page, even though I failed to do so myself. 

Also just heard from this scammer, did a bit of sleuthing on Google and ended up right back here. My communications with them were extremely detailed – they sent me multiple pictures of the item I wanted, from different angles. It's possible they might actually have the item in their possession, and just had no intent of actually shipping it to me. Here is their profile, just to reduce ambiguity even further. I came really close to throwing away $100.

Notably, they've never posted on the forums – they PMd me in response to my WTB posting. This means I can't flag their posts or comments. I don't see a way to flag their profile itself, but if anyone knows of this, or can get a moderator involved here, that'd be a great service to the community.

h j wrote:

Also just heard from this scammer, did a bit of sleuthing on Google and ended up right back here. My communications with them were extremely detailed – they sent me multiple pictures of the item I wanted, from different angles. It's possible they might actually have the item in their possession, and just had no intent of actually shipping it to me. Here is their profile, just to reduce ambiguity even further. I came really close to throwing away $100.

Notably, they've never posted on the forums – they PMd me in response to my WTB posting. This means I can't flag their posts or comments. I don't see a way to flag their profile itself, but if anyone knows of this, or can get a moderator involved here, that'd be a great service to the community.

Thank you so much for responding.

Attached are the images they sent me.

The tools clearly say charlets and they emailed me saying they were nomics. Again, big oversight by me.

This user also reached out to me after I made a WTB post, although I didn't take them up on their offer.

I’m really sorry about that. They also reached out to me on a wtb page offering to sell an ice axe a couple of days ago. They provided photos and details but their style of emailing and the fact that they had no forum posts made me suspicious. I’ll also add that the Venmo account that they wanted us to pay was @joseph-blakc (not a typo). If a new user pops up and tries to sell using that Venmo handle DO NOT TRUST IT.

This user also reached out to me on a wtb post about some climbing shoes. The pics they showed me seemed legit and the only reason I didn't go thru with it is because I already had an eBay bid out on some shoes and was waiting for that to expire. I lucked out, sorry that happened to you.

Glad to see so many people reaching out about this.

Let's run these scammers off whenever we can, even though the slimy bastards will work their way back in eventually. 

Id just like to pop in here and say that I took the picture of the scammers profile picture. The guy in the picture that I took has his own mountain project profile and none of those emails are his. He doesn't even own his own ice tools. The crazy thing is that picture is only posted on mine and his Instagram meaning whoever the scammer is ripped it right off Instagram and made it his own. Scary world. I emailed the scam account asking why they are using a picture I took of my friend and I don't expect a response but well see!

Tim Wheatley wrote:

Id just like to pop in here and say that I took the picture of the scammers profile picture. The guy in the picture that I took has his own mountain project profile and none of those emails are his. He doesn't even own his own ice tools. The crazy thing is that picture is only posted on mine and his Instagram meaning whoever the scammer is ripped it right off Instagram and made it his own. Scary world. I emailed the scam account asking why they are using a picture I took of my friend and I don't expect a response but well see!

Get'em Tim!!

Pagan GOBLIN wrote:

Get'em Tim!!

You gotta admit though the pic is tough though.

Tim Wheatley wrote:

You gotta admit though the pic is tough though.

Probably why I was so easily fooled haha. 

It is a killer pic.

This account also reached out to me after I posted a WTB for a belay parka. We had quite a long series of messages and I was prepared to send payment, but I started to get a little suspicious and asked about their climbing background and if they could provide a video of them wearing the jacket. They never responded after that. So sorry to hear you had this experience. It sucks!

Same experience with this pos after posting a WTB. 

Tim Wheatley wrote:

You gotta admit though the pic is tough though.

I am both proud of Tim for taking such sick pictures but also disappointed and horrified to see a scammer catfishing as me

I also made a WTB post for ice tools. He reached out, was very specific about answering my questions, sent multiple matching photos, and obviously knows about ice climbing gear and the details of it.

He also told me he was using his fiancé’s Zelle account, so the email and payment names wouldn’t match. Fair enough (though sketchy, I know) — I’ve done lots of transactions with shared accounts like that and also just completed a different successful MP transaction with differing names/emails on the same day. I personally don’t use my real name here either. 

So many good people on MP, I hate the ones who make it bad. 

Ry C wrote:

I also made a WTB post for ice tools. He reached out, was very specific about answering my questions, sent multiple matching photos, and obviously knows about ice climbing gear and the details of it.

He also told me he was using his fiancé’s Zelle account, so the email and payment names wouldn’t match. Fair enough (though sketchy, I know) — I’ve done lots of transactions with shared accounts like that and also just completed a different successful MP transaction with differing names/emails on the same day. I personally don’t use my real name here either. 

So many good people on MP, I hate the ones who make it bad. 

The thing that makes this all the more worse is that if the scammer is able to answer all these questions accurately regarding the gear, then they are likely a climber. It saddens me to think that somebody in the community would stoop so low. 

Alright guys so the lore here goes deeper I thought the scammer pic was one I had posted but it’s actually another pic that was posted on my story meaning it was only around to the public for 24hrs. This is terrifying.

Good rule of thumb- if you post a WTB, only respond to users who begin by replying directly to your WTB thread- maybe even state directly in your OG post that you'll only respond if they reply to your thread.  It seems one commonality with these WTB scams is that they hardly, if ever post in the original WTB because they want to keep their visibility as low as possible.  

And if you get the heebie jeebies, do like Nate did upthread and ask for a video, facetime, zoom call or no deal.  

AI is only going to keep getting better and ANY image you see could be faked.  Any conversation could just be an keen scammer using an LLM.  Live video will be one of the last ways to verify reality digitally, and it's not long before even that will be able to faked.

Kudos to everyone here raising awareness about these scummers.

What's truly terrifying is the wider implications of all of this tech and the fact that so many people are OK defrauding others.

Crazy 

So...

Craigslist and in-person is going to be the safe way to purchase now?