• Posted 12/19/2024.
    =====================

    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

BEWARE: Scam Using Paypal

coyote

coyote

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I received an email from what looked very credibly like PayPal.

In it I was told that my account has been flagged for suspicious activity and that I needed to go to the "Resolution Center" to answer some verification questions so that I could use my account again. A link to this "Resolution Center" was provided.

I did not click on the link.
I sent the email to [email protected]
I also called customer service who verified that this IS NOT an email that PayPal would send out.

It looks VERY legitimate. None of the typical misspellings or questionable grammar that makes these scams obvious. The logo and terminology used in the email is the same as used by PayPal itself. ie, PayPal does have a Resolution Center. There is a tab for it on the account page.

I haven't tried to use my account yet, and no unauthorized use shows when I log on.

Just so's ya' know.
 
I got that one too, and also passed it on to the spoof office.
The scammers are getting better.
I like what my bank has done for their online banking (Bank of America): they have a two step sign in process that actually uses a visual code so that spoofers can't fool you into thinking you are banking online when you are actually giving out financial info to the scammers.
It's scary how real some of this stuff is..
 
They are still at it, be careful and never log into paypal from a link in an email.
Unauthorized access to your PayPal account!



We recently noticed more attempts to log in to your PayPal account from a foreign IP address.

If you accessed your account while traveling, the unusual log in attempts may have been initiated by you. However, if you are the rightfull holder of the account, please visit PayPal as soon as possible to verify your identity:

Click here to verify your account






You can also verify your account by logging into your PayPal account at http://www.securemypaypal.com/webscr/.
If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choise but to temporaly suspend your account.

We ask that you allow at least 72 hours for the case to be investigated and we strongly recommend to verify your account in that time.

Thank you for using PayPal !
The Websense® Security Labs™
Click to expand...

Notice all of the misspellings
 
I get emails like this several times a day. All having to do with Ebay, PayPal, bank accounts, you name it. I actually started filling one out for PayPal, knowing it was a phishing link, and darn if they didn't go so far as to put a credit card verification check in their page. In other words, they did that to make sure someone (like me!) didn't put in a fake credit card number! They also asked for my social security number..... :rofl:

You would think the authorities would make greater efforts to catch the people doing this sort of thing..........
 
I would like to know how our e-mail addresses are being put in the hands of these thieves...IMO...Paypal sells our info :NoNo:
 
NathanLedet said:
I would like to know how our e-mail addresses are being put in the hands of these thieves...IMO...Paypal sells our info :NoNo:
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. If they sent out emails to EVERYONE they could find, it is a real good chance that MOST would have PayPal accounts. Even moreso that most would have Ebay accounts.

One of the latest ploys is to send an official looking notice that a new email account has been added to your PayPal account, and please log in here to verify or dispute it.

In most cases, you can just hover the mouse cursor over the link and easily determine that it is not a valid URL. I send all such notices to [email protected].
 
Both eBay and PayPal will tell you not to click on any links to enter through the message system once you have logged in. I have reached the point that if it asks me to click a link to verify anything I forward it to "spoof" at the appropriate site. In the past 6 months I have probably forwarded 60+ emails and not one of them turned out to be legit.
 
My daughter told me that she received a very similar email yesterday involving her paypal account. She has never had an account with paypal or ebay.
 
I get one about every 6 weeks from Bank of America, never had a Bank of America account. Got to love the effort though!!
 
I've been scammed thru that, when they started making them real...

It was a hard and painful learning experience.

Some of my money ended up in Bangladesh and somewhere else... Something about Iran or something...

*grumble grumble*
 
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