Beware of Scammer
 

There is a suspected Scammer using a Talk of the Villages account. The name he used with me is Michael Prosser. Maria Kazner

What's his user name (no members showing with that name)...and what kind of "scam?"

Forward his messages to Talk of the Villages Team.

I do when I get anything that the owners should see.

User name is. Dhinton126@aol.com. He replied to all my postings with the same wording. He wanted to know the present condition and said he would not be viewing the item for sale but would buy it anyway. I did not respond further so I don’t know his next step.

How do I reply to the team?

Please use the PM function. We have sent you a PM. You can reply to that.

Moderator

;) You could try "Contact Us" at the bottom of the page.

Yes just received an email from him. Scam written all over it!

We are still researching what happened.

In both instances cited in this thread, the person selling the item posted a phone number in the body of the ad. It is possible that a scammer who is not a registered member of TOTV is browsing ads looking for phone numbers and email addresses and then contacting the seller outside of the TOTV system.

People can browse ads and threads on TOTV without registering. They cannot post ads or post on threads nor can they send PMs if they are not registered.

This is why we advise members to only put their contact info into the designated section of the ad rather than in the body of the ad. Only registered members can see the designated contact info.

We will continue to look into this.

Moderator

Also received similar type email to an ad from the same person--Michael Prosser and dhinton126@aol.com email address.

Same person responded to my ad. There was no phone number in it. I received an email from TOV letting me know he was interested

Same here. I did not have my phone number in the body of the ad. The first contact was via TOTV best I can tell.

This person contacted me through the classifieds on TOTV, his avatar name is dhin11. I looked him up in the member's list. His email said it was sent through TOTV

The email came from talk of the villages
Hello bcswick,
You have a new message. Below are the sender's information:
First name : dhin11
Last Name : dhin11
Email : dhinton126@aol.com
Phone :
Ad link : Sleeper Sofa
Message : Hi, I would like to know if you still have your item for sale. Please get back to me as soon as possible. Thanks Michael
Sincerely,
Talk of the Villages

I also had the same person respond to an ad. Sent back a message that said meet me at the police dept. With check and would have police verify . No further messages from him sense.