Forest of Dean

Warning of scam messages

As some of you may have seen (either in Posts made to the group or from messages you have received) some scammers worked out how to abuse the Freecycle.org system.   This issue was quickly taken on by the Freecycle.org tech team and they've already removed all the replies in My Messages and the accounts have been blocked/removed.  If a member already received an email and clicks through to the My Messages, they'll just see a replier with an account starting in "!". The exclamation mark means the account has been deleted. And, there will no longer be any spam/scammer text in the actual reply.

As ever please be alert to both suspicious messages and/or behaviour by posters and people who reply to posts.  If you are in any doubt then please do not interact with them in any way but do keep the message in case it is needed for the investigation.  You can also report the Post to your moderator if you feel that is appropriate.

You might find the KB article at https://freecycle.helpscoutdocs.com/article/119-reporting-scams-and-spam of interest.

Unfortunately it is, and always will be, a battle with scammer and spammers so keep alert but don't let them get to you.

Thanks

Bob

Lead Moderator, Forest of Dean, Freecycle.org