SPAM, no not meat in a can!

An awful lot of groups and places on FB are full of spammers and scammers. And I am not talking about the meat in a can either. I am talking about just post after post of a someone trying to take advantage of someone. Maybe with a deal too good to be true? Or a special offer on something like duct cleaning! That is one that I have seen over and over and we took steps to prevent it from happening on our group.

I sure don't claim to be an IT guy or a expert in digital security but there are some common sense things that you can do to prevent getting taken advantage of. Because unfortunately scams have become pretty prevalent in our digital world.

On our group we work really hard to keep out spammers. Many other groups not only allow anyone to post whatever they want but they don't even monitor things that are reported. We have had a handful of post from members that have slipped by us. So no we are not perfect but at least we are making an effort to keep people off that are trying to take advantage of someone. There are tools that we use that are somewhat frustrating at times as it will not publish a post or a comment until we approve it. But there are some things we look for and can use this tool to help prevent the post or comment from ever even showing up on our group. This takes a good amount of time to monitor things like this and again it isn't perfect. 

A couple of things you can look out for is when someone makes a listing or a post advertising something for sale or to contact them and they have shut the comments off. Or shut the comments off and says DM me for more info. That is most likely a scam. I have seen so many people share posts about pets that are scams. Look if you don't know the person or someone you know doesn't know the person it is a scam... Public groups that are not monitored are a cesspool of these types of people. If you could see the numbers of people that we get that try to join our group from other countries and their whole objective is to scam people. Seriously weeding them out and keeping them off of our group has become an activity of daily living for me it seems. It is never-ending.

If you are asking for recommendations and you start getting messages from someone be extremely careful what information you give back. Just because someone says they saw that you were looking for an electrician or plumber doesn't mean they are an electrician or a plumber. And with rare exceptions most electricians and plumbers probably aren't on a computer or their phone responding to FB  posts all of the time. If I get a message from someone the first thing I am going to do is look them up before responding to them. If they are a business or a business owner I should be able to tell that pretty easily. If I have a hard time figuring that out then they are probably doing it on the side or could be trying to pull of some sort of scam and you might want to think twice about giving any information at all.

In a way I think these spammers can actually help our local businesses. It has made people much more skeptical to do business with someplace they have never heard of. So name recognition and a strong brand of a local business certainly means something. If you are calling around looking for a product or service you are much more likely to use someone that you have had friends that have had good experiences with. And you can trust that someone who has a good reputation in our local community got it because they are treating people the way they should be treated. Our group is a fantastic resource for finding people that can help but it is only one resource. We have encouraged people countless times to check on insurance and licenses, etc. As well as other review sites.

But when it comes to scammers and spammers here are just a few more tips. Don't give out personal information to enter contest. Don't give people you don't know routing and account numbers or credit card numbers. If you get a message from a friend and it seems strange it probably isn't them and it is a cloned account.

And before I share some tips from FB since I started this off talking about SPAM I have to share pics of my smoked SPAM. It is out of this world. Erica won't touch it but that's OK that means there is more for me!!

Here are several other indicators that you might be dealing with a scammer from FB.

Someone you don’t know asks for money.

Someone you don’t know asks you to send money or gift cards to receive a reward.

An unverified Page claims to represent a large organization or public figure.

Someone misrepresents who they are, such as claims to be a friend or relative having an emergency.

Someone misrepresents where they’re located.

Someone asks you to move a conversation off Facebook to a less public or less secure setting, such as email.

Someone directs you to links to claim a prize.

Someone sends messages or posts with poor spelling or grammar, or atypical terms, such as “private message,” “DM me,” “inbox me,” “bitcoin,” “forex,” “BTC,” “friend request,” “congratulations” or “you win.”

And here is a longer read about ways to protect your account: https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/lessons/how-spot-avoid-scams

David

Shop Local Delmarva

Shop Local Delmarva Barn B Q

Save the Date June 3rd 2023 for the first ever Shop Local Delmarva Barn B Q! There will be live music, competitions, food, fun and so...so many of our local businesses and vendors out for you to see. Learn more by visiting our website www.shoplocaldelmarvabarnbq.com

We still have a lot more to tell everyone about this awesome event so stay tuned on our group Shop Local Delmarva! 

And don't forget our Supporters, Partners, and Sponsors.

In addition to helping us put on our Shop Local Delmarva Barn B Q you may notice certain businesses are highlighted and standout not only in the directory but we highlight them on our Facebook Page as well as our group. This ever growing list of businesses help us promote  a lot of great things in our community. Many of our blogs which you can find right here are focused on our community and our local businesses. And they are always helping with our community givebacks just like our Shop Local Delmarva Scholarship.

Many of these businesses are helping us promote other local businesses. Which really is what Delmarva is all about. I am asked quite often how a business can be part of Shop Local Delmarva. If you are part of our group you are part of Shop Local Delmarva. If you like the group and like the concept of a digital type of media that we share blogs, videos, highlights and features and want to be part of it we would love to have your support. You can find out more information here. All of our supporters, partners, and sponsors are on the rotating banners on most of our blogs just like this one.

If any of our supporters, partners, or sponsors have upcoming events we encourage them to let us know so we can help them promote them as well.

The whole idea of Shop Local Delmarva is all about our local community supporting local businesses, and our local businesses supporting our local community. It goes round and round.

Above & Beyond HVAC - www.abovenbeyondservices.com
Abbi Custis

Artisan's Aromas
Barefoot Baby Boutique
Bathing Bee
David Clayton Barone - Barone Built
Baywater Farms
Jccp Vinyl & Graphics 2019
Coastal Comfort Heating and Air Conditioning
Cawood Construction Company
Cool Runnings HVAC

Copier/Printer RejuvenatorS
Delmarva Auto Glass & Accessories - Joe Stonnell (Mod)
Delmarva Quality Pressure Washing

DoCo Axe Co
Catering By Chef Stewart of Flannery's
FLC Energy
Gary K. Marshall Insurance Agency - David Galeone (Admin)
Hebron Savings Bank www.hebronsavingsbank.com
MoJo's
Kellyn's Kafe
Kuhn's Jewelers
Kylan Barn
SouthBound Alley
Tyler Accounting & Tax Services, LLC
Market Street Inn Restaurant & Pub
Muddy Paws, LLC
Mike Alford - Realtor with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage
Salisbury Pizza

Shore Smoke Seasonings
Simpson's Towing Svc Inc
The Corner Grill
The Village Lactation, LLC
The Hair Show
The Tiki Hut Shaved Ice
Two Scoops Ice Cream & Waffles
Williams Market