Beware of Scammers

[loveabull]

For those of you new or even those of us who have been part of the community for awhile. Beware of scammers on this site. There are moderators, but not enough of them to keep the kooks out. Remember these are open boards and open groups.

[WendyB]

If you see something then use Flag post under  the offending User  name. It will get taken care of

[SunsetRunner]

The flag post under the username of the user to the left of the corresponding post, otherwise flagging your own post..

[MatthewFitbit]

As has been noted by other posters here, the Moderator team makes every effort to prevent any solicitation or unfriendly correspondence on the Community. If you notice a post on the Community that raises concern, you can use the "Flag Post" link to let us know. If you receive a private message you'd like to report, you are welcome to message me or any other Moderator.

You can review the Community Guidelines if you are unsure of what appropriate Community content entails.

[SunsetRunner]

I have received a friend request from an attractive young lady.  I’ve accepted those with a full profile page, steps and posts.  Then comes the message saying hello. Then the second texts is usually asking me to talk to her via text or WhatsApp or another means outside of FB. When I state I’m here for fitness and don’t text folks I don’t know outside of FB, I get deleted as a friend.  Haha!

I’ve met some really nice fitness minded people on FB app so it’s a shame when these folks ruin it. 

[MarciM]

Hi @SunsetRunner Thanks for sharing your story. Unfortunately there are many lonely people in the world looking for anyway possible to connect. 

[SunsetRunner]

I don't think they are so much lonely as trying to pose as someone else to scam.  Numerous numbers matching the area code and first three digits are all from scammers telling a sad tale trying to get money from us kind FitBit folks. 

[WendyB]

@SunsetRunnerI blocked them. Blocking gets rid of them .

[SunsetRunner]

These aren't lonely people posing as models and personal trainers. The majority of these profiles are created by Nigerian romance scammers stealing photos from Instagram profiles. Fitbit is completely aware of what is going on but continues to do very little about it. Fitbits solution is to restrict and ban legitimate users who continually report fraudulent profiles and when that doesn't work we post about them. Guess who gets restricted? Not the scammer who doesn't even have a device synced to their account but the legitimate consumer who actually purchased a Fitbit tracker!

[SunsetRunner]

John you are absolutely correct in thinking they are frauds. The lonely people are the ones being lured in by these scammers. How many Thomas Lindegaard Madsen profiles do we have to report before Fitbit stops the rampant fraud. Or the Stolen Valor that occurs daily!! No one should be allowed to use a military photo without being a verified service member. How many Malcolm F Frost, General in the United States Army, profiles will they allow?

[ChimeneO]

Too funny, I received the same type of message from a guy. I was being nice and gave a cheer or something, the next thing I know I get a message with his phone number and him saying "I don't use Fitbit much text me through his number..." I was like (thinking to myself) "I'm not looking to text, I'm looking to be inspired" Then I unfriended him along with all the other guys in my friends list that didn't have a filled out profile. 

Well I'm glad to see it happens to men as well... 

[sailorbear510]

This happens too much on Facebook too and other platforms. Not surprised it happens here. Good thing for moderators though. 

[BEANRUNZ]

I get many young girls who want to talk to a 63 year old guy. Oh well I thought I was just one popular guy

[sailorbear510]

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@BEANRUNZ wrote:

I get many young girls who want to talk to a 63 year old guy. Oh well I thought I was just one popular guy

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Yeah its spam bots that try to get you to websites to see their pictures and so forth. It is nothing but a scam to try and extort money from you. Best it block and report them. I just got one the other day.

[BEANRUNZ]

I get them every day sometimes I just like to have a little fun with them

Sent from my iPhone

[SunsetRunner]

I've had three requests in the last two days...two scammers and someone who is likely not a scammer but has scammers in their friends list. I usually tag anti-scammer friends to confirm...and we report when we find out which Instagram/Facebook/Twitter account they're using. Once we report them, we block them!

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@

Too funny, I received the same type of message from a guy. I was being nice and gave a cheer or something, the next thing I know I get a message with his phone number and him saying "I don't use Fitbit much text me through his number..." I was like (thinking to myself) "I'm not looking to text, I'm looking to be inspired" Then I unfriended him along with all the other guys in my friends list that didn't have a filled out profile. 

Well I'm glad to see it happens to men as well... 

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[BEANRUNZ]

I’m getting pretty good out of figuring out who the scammers are, and the easy fix is to unfriend them.

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

[SunsetRunner]

I'm also getting pretty good with finding them but then again they do report my comments and then I end up getting put on a limited account. This is the third time and if this doesn't get resolved soon, I will need to focus my posts on Stridekick where some of us already are. Is it just our impression or does the Fitbit Support team actually respect scammers more than they do us? Why are we the ones being penalized for harmless comments? 

[BEANRUNZ]

Really I never had that happen
What kind of comments do you post

Sent from my iPhone

[SunsetRunner]

Fitbit says anything that violates their copyright policy such as shared pictures of known scammers. We can mention them by names we know them as but by posting their pictures we are violating the same copyright laws as they are.