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K9CCH
08-24-2013, 06:15 PM
How does someone hijack a call sign?

And why is this crime so prevalent in this hobby?

I have bought and sold thousands of dollars of photography equipment through online transactions and I've never seen the amount of fraud that is within the amateur radio community. I was approached by a 'hijacked call sign' after posting my WTB: ad on eham.net. Thankfully I'm smart enough to immediately do my homework and was able to find out that it was a scam within just a few minutes. But hearing the horror stories of people loosing a few hundred, to a few thousand dollars is scary.

Its bad enough that we have to guard our social security numbers, and credit card data so closely, but now to have to guard your call sign?

How do you do that?
WX7P
08-24-2013, 06:31 PM
Scammers cycle through our lives in every venue. It's just now the time for ham radio, probably because the trust factor in ham radio has always been pretty high. When scammers see that, they swoop in.

I'm probably sounding like a broken record on this one, but that's why it's important to listen and get to know the jargon and methods of communication that hams use. I'm not genius, but I'm 99% sure whenever I see a scam email. There's certain language that's used and a non-ham dialect usually.

For example, if I get an email in response to something I'm selling with weird sounding foreign like phrasing from a "4" station, I'm immediately suspicious. I usually don't answer. If they write back, I might consider it, but at that point I'm asking for a phone number. If they won't give it, then NEXT!
K7SGJ
08-24-2013, 06:32 PM
Get an unlisted call.
K9CCH
08-24-2013, 06:36 PM
Get an unlisted call.



Hows that work?
K7SGJ
08-24-2013, 06:38 PM
Beats me, it usually works for the telephone, though.
K9CCH
08-24-2013, 06:43 PM
Smartass. :stickpoke:
K7SGJ
08-24-2013, 06:43 PM
Smartass. :stickpoke:

That's my job.
W3WN
08-24-2013, 07:59 PM
Smartass. :stickpoke:He's like that. Besides, it's much better than being a dumb ass...
K7SGJ
08-24-2013, 08:01 PM
He's like that. Besides, it's much better than being a dumb ass...

That's true. Being a dumbass comes very naturally to me. Being a smartass, now that I have to work at.
WX7P
08-24-2013, 08:07 PM
You're not a dumbass, Rata.

A desert rat, yes.
KG4NEL
08-24-2013, 08:58 PM
The only time I've ever been scammed in a private party sale was on QRZ.

Bad news for the guy though, he was using his actual call sign, and it turned out he was fairly active under that call on a local EMS message board...
kb2vxa
08-25-2013, 05:43 PM
QRZ's Dumbest Criminals tonight at 9 on Spook. Not reality, actuality.