Are scams becoming an everyday thing on BHW?

Lately I've been seeing scam-related threads almost every single day.

Maybe it's just me paying more attention, but it feels like there's always someone posting about getting ripped off, dealing with an impersonator, or losing money to a fake seller.
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I've been around BHW long enough to know that scammers have always existed, but it honestly feels like it's getting more common lately.

Most of these situations seem avoidable too. People rush into deals, continue conversations on Telegram or Skype without verifying the person, skip using a middleman to save a few bucks, or trust someone just because they have a nice-looking profile.

I think it's worth reminding ourselves that no deal is worth risking your money over.

It would also be helpful if members shared recent scam attempts, even if they didn't actually lose money. Knowing the latest tricks could stop someone else from falling for them.

Has anyone else noticed the same thing, or is it just me?

Have you ever had a close call with a scammer on BHW? What happened, and what lesson did you learn from it?

Don't pay with crypto over TG and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Two rules that will keep you safe from 99% of scams, either on BHW or any other place.

Edit:
On a side note, DR threads usually get approved at waves so this is likely what you're seeing.

BHW should launch Escrow with 2.5% fee. On-chain based system.

Unfortunately GTA 6 is coming before BHW Marketplace 2.0
That's a shame, not sure if it would include an escrow system, but it would be good

Unfortunately people are also stupid conducting businesses using the same scammy funnel: crypto+telegram+no-escrow

I've not been following any of those threads, but as someone that sells here, I think the forum has made it easier to avoid getting scammed. Every seller has been mandated to include a direct TG chat link from their BST. That way, if you want to patronize a seller, you're clicking on their 'officially' provided contact details, if you were scammed, it means the seller is a scammer. Oftentimes when people complain of being scammed it's always something different from this.

If you're very unsure of the person you're trying to patronize, keep the conversation on the forum.

Finally, there would always be criminals even in the real world. If a criminal is set out to defraud people, they would eventually be lucky to find people gullible enough to fall.


I don't think there are more scammers on the forum, I think it's the very same set of individuals running multiple schemes. Buyers need to follow the basic steps recommended by the forum, there would avoid being scammed by impersonators.

I'd say it's less a matter of there being more scammers, and more a matter of Telegram lowering the barrier to entry for a small handful of scammers.

In the old days, the common scam involved building an account, qualifying for Jr. VIP, getting a marketplace thread approved, making enough legitimate sales to build some trust, then finally doing a rug pull once there was enough money on the table to make it worthwhile. (cough Festinger cough cough)

Today, anyone can make a TG account using my name and profile photo, contact anyone who drops their own TG in a WTB thread, and leave me holding the bag. The scammer is effectively untraceable, and I'd never even know the supposed deal existed until the buyer names me in a scam/shitlist thread. At that point, my only defense would be "I've never used TG".

Venusaur said:

That's a shame, not sure if it would include an escrow system, but it would be good

Click to expand...

It will.

roydan said:

Don't pay with crypto over TG and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Two rules that will keep you safe from 99% of scams, either on BHW or any other place.

Edit:
On a side note, DR threads usually get approved at waves so this is likely what you're seeing.

Click to expand...

Agreed. "Crypto + Telegram + too good to be true" is probably the biggest red flag combo.

Dolahat said:

BHW should launch Escrow with 2.5% fee. On-chain based system.

Click to expand...

Looks like staff confirmed it's coming, so that's good news.

Hopefully it'll make the marketplace even safer.

Venusaur said:

That's a shame, not sure if it would include an escrow system, but it would be good

Unfortunately people are also stupid conducting businesses using the same scammy funnel: crypto+telegram+no-escrow

Click to expand...

Haha, that's a pretty accurate comparison.

Hopefully the escrow feature ends up being a big step forward for the community.

HenryObi said:

I've not been following any of those threads, but as someone that sells here, I think the forum has made it easier to avoid getting scammed. Every seller has been mandated to include a direct TG chat link from their BST. That way, if you want to patronize a seller, you're clicking on their 'officially' provided contact details, if you were scammed, it means the seller is a scammer. Oftentimes when people complain of being scammed it's always something different from this.

If you're very unsure of the person you're trying to patronize, keep the conversation on the forum.

Finally, there would always be criminals even in the real world. If a criminal is set out to defraud people, they would eventually be lucky to find people gullible enough to fall.


I don't think there are more scammers on the forum, I think it's the very same set of individuals running multiple schemes. Buyers need to follow the basic steps recommended by the forum, there would avoid being scammed by impersonators.

Click to expand...

That's a fair point. Sticking to the official contact details and keeping things on BHW when possible already eliminates a lot of risk.

Stavro said:

I'd say it's less a matter of there being more scammers, and more a matter of Telegram lowering the barrier to entry for a small handful of scammers.

In the old days, the common scam involved building an account, qualifying for Jr. VIP, getting a marketplace thread approved, making enough legitimate sales to build some trust, then finally doing a rug pull once there was enough money on the table to make it worthwhile. (cough Festinger cough cough)

Today, anyone can make a TG account using my name and profile photo, contact anyone who drops their own TG in a WTB thread, and leave me holding the bag. The scammer is effectively untraceable, and I'd never even know the supposed deal existed until the buyer names me in a scam/shitlist thread. At that point, my only defense would be "I've never used TG".

Click to expand...

That's an interesting perspective.

SettingSun77 said:

It will.

Click to expand...

Great to hear. I think an escrow system would give buyers and sellers a lot more confidence.

yep every second account seller is a scammer its annoying

I see great news all around ,
Hopefully,the forum help us to prepare for whatever it's bringing

It's not just you. I've noticed the same uptick, and I'm saying that as someone who actually got caught out last week, so this one hits close to home.

Mine was textbook looking back. Found a seller offering cloud and service accounts, and within a couple of messages they moved the whole thing over to Telegram. Nice looking setup, confident replies, all the right answers. I skipped a middleman to keep it simple, sent USDT up front, and that was that. Goods never showed and they went quiet. Classic advance payment play. 500 bucks gone.

The red flags were all sitting right there and I ignored every one:

Pushed me to Telegram right away. Off platform means no accountability and nothing a mod can act on later.

Crypto up front with no escrow. The moment someone pushes back on using a middleman to save the fee, that is the scam talking.

Brand new operation. The domain had only been registered a few weeks earlier. Two minutes on a WHOIS lookup would have told me that.

Multiple wallets on different chains. Turned out they were collecting on both ERC20 and TRC20, which points to an organized repeat operation and not some one off seller.

One thing that actually helped afterward was looking the receiving wallet up on chain with Etherscan and Tronscan. Anyone can do this before paying. Just paste the address in and look at the history. In my case it even traced back to an exchange deposit address, which is the thread I'm pulling now to try to track it down.

Lesson learned the expensive way. Use a middleman every single time, no exceptions, no matter how legit they seem. The fee is nothing next to the loss. And if a seller won't do escrow, you already have your answer.

Appreciate you posting this. More people sharing the recent tricks is exactly what keeps the next person from making the same mistake I did.

I'm building a Tool to detect possible fraudersters!

Becoming a thing?

Or people just not using their intelligence today, an era where people are less patient?

I've been around here around 6 years, not scammed once.

Not hard to avoid scams.

Age and reputation hold weight in any business dealings i do.

If youve been here like only 2 or 3 years or accounts not active, I need trusted references to do business OR i know i'm taking a risk.

This keeps me from being scammed

But also, location of seller makes me analyze the business a bit differently as I know some countries believe in 'run with the money' vs 'upholding a reputation' in business, even if things go bad.

Also.

1) Always keep the business on the forum / DMs
2) If pepole have a paid membership, they are less likely do fraud you if the Jv VIP membership costs more
3) If i feel there's something weird going on

It happened to me as well. A scammer used a fake Telegram account to collect money from our customers and it caused a lot of problems.

After that we created official Telegram groups and clearly informed everyone about our real username and contact number. It is always better to verify through a phone number and speak in BHW DMs first before moving the conversation anywhere else.

Yeah, I keep seeing different new accounts asking about Upwork account sharing offering compensation.

I have noticed the same. Most scams could be avoided if people slowed down a bit. Always verify who you are dealing with, don't rush into off platform payments

Yes, there are lots of scammers!
Most people get scammed because they skip the basic checks. Spending just five minutes verifying the seller can save you from losing a lot of money later.