Interesting/creative new SCAM to be aware of

[xnewyorka]

I have a brand new bass listed on Reverb. The photos show the serial number.
A scammer recently contacted the builder of the bass, gave him the serial number, and said the preamp is bad in his new bass and he needs a new preamp, and he is in Indonesia now.
The builder asked him for a photo of the rear cavity.
After that happened, the scammer messaged me on Reverb (his one and only message to me) saying:
"Hi john, Interested on this one. Can you please send me the picture of the cavity?
Regards, Aryo Pratama"
Then he forwarded my photo to the builder, to use as proof that he had the bass.
LUCKILY, the builder was smart and contacted me asking for details.
I recognized it as a scam right away.
I have contacted Reverb Support and told them they need to ban the person from Reverb. They were extremely receptive and appreciative that I brought this to their attention, and promised to take swift action.

I'm posting this so that the TB community can be aware of this scam.

In thinking about how this could have been prevented, my initial thought was that if my listing did not show the Serial Number of the bass, the scammer would have not had that critical piece of info and perhaps wouldn't have made the attempt. So I'm thinking about obscuring the serial numbers in my listings from now on.

 

[charlie monroe]

It is pretty common to conceal serial numbers from public listing.

I agree you should follow suit.

 

[Jeff Scott]

I have a brand new bass listed on Reverb. The photos show the serial number.
A scammer recently contacted the builder of the bass, gave him the serial number, and said the preamp is bad in his new bass and he needs a new preamp, and he is in Indonesia now.
The builder asked him for a photo of the rear cavity.
After that happened, the scammer messaged me on Reverb (his one and only message to me) saying:
"Hi john, Interested on this one. Can you please send me the picture of the cavity?
Regards, Aryo Pratama"
Then he forwarded my photo to the builder, to use as proof that he had the bass.
LUCKILY, the builder was smart and contacted me asking for details.
I recognized it as a scam right away.
I have contacted Reverb Support and told them they need to ban the person from Reverb. They were extremely receptive and appreciative that I brought this to their attention, and promised to take swift action.

I'm posting this so that the TB community can be aware of this scam.

In thinking about how this could have been prevented, my initial thought was that if my listing did not show the Serial Number of the bass, the scammer would have not had that critical piece of info and perhaps wouldn't have made the attempt. So I'm thinking about obscuring the serial numbers in my listings from now on.

I do not show photos of S/Ns for this very reason (scammers). Most participants in past discussion regarding this on TB made it clear that they want sellers to post S/Ns even though they realize the potential issues with doing so. Even Vintage Guitar won't post S/Ns depending on what the instrument it. I recently (just a couple days ago) read an article where they showed the back of a Les Paul's headstock and clearly stated in the photo caption that they cropped out the part of the headstock with the S/N for security reasons.

 

[rwkeating]

... In thinking about how this could have been prevented, my initial thought was that if my listing did not show the Serial Number ...

Thanks for posting this. Initially I couldn't figure out what would be the problem with postings a serial number ... now I know!