I was a car nut for years. Tuning turbo Volkswagens and Hondas. Lots of online sales of used car parts and such.
We always had similar issues as the recent scammer here in the ST classifieds, folks hunting the “WTB” ads and then scamming them.
One thing that seemed to help a touch was the following rule difference from ST that those sites had:
-Photos required for ALL postings of FS and including responses to “WTB” items, no exceptions. No photos, ad removed until you can do it.
-Photos must include a hand written piece of paper showing your forum login ID to prevent using stolen photos
For ST, even among known good users, I still see a lot of stuff posted with no photos or “photos on request”. Once it is “on request” the entire scam can occur thru PM hidden from view until too late.
Forcing the photos up front and on the actual FS/WTB postings, with customization to the photos, adds a bit of security.
A scammer can’t have every single possible bike part, bike, frame, and clothing sitting in their garage along WITH their custom user ID in the photos.
Just a thought.