# Reverse Image Search



## applepieforbreakfast (Sep 29, 2021)

I guess it's time to reverse image search all BST postings, along with searching for some of the text in the post.


Was about to send the money over, but some things came up so I was a little too slow to get scammed.

On the left, a legitimate post from last year.
On the right, today's excitement with pictures and description pulled directly from thread on the left.


----------



## TSF415 (Sep 29, 2021)

Theres been a string of these over the last few months. The dead give away is the PayPal F&F in the post.


----------



## iandustries (Sep 29, 2021)

That persons profile has so many messages and reactions - all fake?


----------



## xxxclx (Sep 29, 2021)

iandustries said:


> That persons profile has so many messages and reactions - all fake?



My speculation is that people don’t really use a secure separate password for KKF and forums in general so that it’s really easy to compromise a vulnerable account


----------



## ian (Sep 29, 2021)

Yea. Hope rick figures out how to come back on here soon.


----------



## Luftmensch (Sep 29, 2021)

Wow... both members seemed like decent people to me. Particularly rick. Right on @ian, I hope he can find a way back here soon. @xxxclx - that sounds like a plausible hypothesis

@Admin (@Angie, @daveb, @Matus, @Nemo).

@rickbern being banned is a shock! Bad faith behaviour is not consistent with my understanding of him (unless something twigged). He seemed like a gentle and thoughtful member to me. Having your account hacked (if thats what happened) is an alienating enough experience. Having your account banned because of it is very depersonalising - throwing salt on the wound.

Perhaps @Admin could reach out to him via his private email? I know that is more work... but it would be a shame to lose the @rickbern I knew  Perhaps I am stepping out of line defending him? After all, I dont know what caused him to be banned.... but it would be a shame (and cruel) to lose people _if_ their account was hacked.


----------



## HumbleHomeCook (Sep 29, 2021)

This is totally bizarre. I don't even think I ever saw @rickbern selling on BST. He was always an active, engaging, generally supportive contributor. The most controversial thing I ever saw him do was defend electric stoves. This just feels like some sort of mistake, or hack as has been suggested.


----------



## Luftmensch (Sep 29, 2021)

HumbleHomeCook said:


> The most controversial thing I ever saw him do was defend electric stoves.





_Coil_ electric stoves.  I did consider reporting that thred...


----------



## applepieforbreakfast (Sep 29, 2021)

My money is on a compromised account as well.

This thread is merely to demonstrate the importance of doing a little research.


----------



## Lars (Sep 30, 2021)

#freerickbern


----------



## ian (Sep 30, 2021)

To be fair, banning an account after an incident like that seems like a totally appropriate response, regardless of whether it was hacked (as I assume) or not. I mean, you don't want a compromised account to continue to exist. Hopefully Rick will reach out, or someone that has communicated by non-KKF means with him at some point can contact him and let him know what's up.


----------



## Greenbriel (Sep 30, 2021)

Just this week I had a nice exchange with Rick in the welcome forum. I’m new here but given that exchange and his long pedigree here I’d bet he was hacked Too. Good advice to reverse image search BST posts.

And use a password manager y’all!


----------



## coxhaus (Sep 30, 2021)

TSF415 said:


> Theres been a string of these over the last few months. The dead give away is the PayPal F&F in the post.



I am not wise in matters like this but why is PayPal F&F a dead give away?

I liked Rick, he helped me in improving my Italian cooking.

I use a small notebook with all my passwords. I can't remember them and I am old school.


----------



## ian (Sep 30, 2021)

coxhaus said:


> I am not wise in matters like this but why is PayPal F&F a dead give away?



You'd require that if you were trying to cheat someone out of money, so they can't open a claim to get it back. Also, it's not allowed to require F&F on BST.

The dead giveaways that it's a hack are:

1) The post was obviously made by someone that knows nothing about knives. If you were going to suddenly decide to try to cheat someone on the forum out of some cash, would you just copy something from another post while decreasing the price by $100?

2) Rick speaks english natively, and yet the one sentence in the post that was not copied from the previous post was grammatically very problematic.

3) It's Rick. Give me a break.


----------



## chefwp (Sep 30, 2021)

ian said:


> 3) It's Rick. Give me a break.


alternatively: 3) It's not Rick. Give me a break.


----------



## ian (Sep 30, 2021)

chefwp said:


> alternatively: 3) It's not Rick. Give me a break.



Ah, yes. It all depends on the meaning of “it”. Good clarification.


----------



## HumbleHomeCook (Sep 30, 2021)

coxhaus said:


> I am not wise in matters like this but why is PayPal F&F a dead give away?
> 
> I liked Rick, he helped me in improving my Italian cooking.
> 
> I use a small notebook with all my passwords. I can't remember them and I am old school.



"F&F" is Friends and Family. It is a means by which you can give money to a friend or family member without paying the usual PP fees. However, you also don't receive the usual PP protections.

"G&S" is Good and Services. It is meant for business type transactions. You pay the fees but also get protection.

F&F is a controversial subject but I would need a long history of trust with someone before I used and not sure even then I would. Things happen.


----------



## TSF415 (Sep 30, 2021)

coxhaus said:


> I am not wise in matters like this but why is PayPal F&F a dead give away?
> 
> I liked Rick, he helped me in improving my Italian cooking.
> 
> I use a small notebook with all my passwords. I can't remember them and I am old school.



All the prior hacked profiles that posted bst said “PayPal FF only”

Nothing wrong with using FF but that should be discussed with someone you trust. Hard part here is that the last 2 scams were done with active profiles people held in high regard.

If someone is forcing FF than it’s just not worth it. It’s a huge red flag.If it smells fishy than it probably is. I prefer receiving fundsFF and will discount the price. But if someone’s not comfortable with that then thats fine too. I just won’t discount but as a seller I want the buyer to be happy and comfortable with the transaction.


----------



## tostadas (Sep 30, 2021)

A super low price + "F&F ONLY" generally points to a scam. 

The paypal fees on a $100 sale is only a few bucks, so the seller isn't gaining a whole lot from F&F over standard G&S. The main reason they will do it that way is so they can quickly steal your money and run.

If you think the price is really good, you can offer to pay the difference in paypal fees, and keep it as a G&S sale. If they refuse, then it's almost definitely a scam. No legit seller is going to *require* payment via F&F.


----------



## daveb (Sep 30, 2021)

The mod team is going forward with assumption that Rick's account has been hacked and hope he will contact us through admin channels to get back onboard with us. He's always been a supportive member and I personally enjoy his posts.

When it appeared someone was posting on his behalf the first measure is to ban the account and then sort it out as quickly as possible. No sense giving a hacker access to the forum. And of course there is always the small chance that he's gone off the rails and may have even become a Cutco rep....


----------



## Luftmensch (Sep 30, 2021)

ian said:


> To be fair, banning an account after an incident like that seems like a totally appropriate response, regardless of whether it was hacked (as I assume) or not. I mean, you don't want a compromised account to continue to exist. Hopefully Rick will reach out, or someone that has communicated by non-KKF means with him at some point can contact him and let him know what's up.



It depends on the tools available to the mods. If it is the only tool in their box (as I suspect), you are right. 100% agree.

It would be nicer if there was a 'locked' option. The mods could lock an account and force a password reset. So long as the associated email account has not been compromised , the true user could reset the password and the mods could release the account. I have never seen evidence of a feature like this... so I doubt it exists 

'Banned' just seems so dishonourable and permanent you know?? I hope when Rick rejoins, his old account can be restored... or his old content can somehow be reassociated with the new account. I am lukewarm on my name, but I'd be pretty upset if I was disassociated from my past posts and photos - I put thought and care into a good number of them.


----------



## Greenbriel (Oct 1, 2021)

coxhaus said:


> I use a small notebook with all my passwords. I can't remember them and I am old school.



That works fine as long as it’s never lost or stolen and every password is unique and very difficult to guess or brute force. Having a password manager (and two-factor auto wherever available) makes me feel a lot safer, especially after looking myself up on http://haveibeenpwned.com - I recommend it).

Of course there’s always the nagging worry that if the bad guys hack my password manager I am ROYALLY screwed, but the vast majority of people who know much more about such matters say it’s the way to go.


----------



## Michi (Oct 2, 2021)

Greenbriel said:


> Of course there’s always the nagging worry that if the bad guys hack my password manager I am ROYALLY screwed, but the vast majority of people who know much more about such matters say it’s the way to go.


I work in that industry and we deal with incidents on a daily basis. 1Password or a similar password manager is the way to go. For truly important accounts, especially banking, I strongly recommend to check whether your bank offers two-factor authentication. If they don't, change banks.

PS: There is no way that Rick posted this, IMO.


----------



## Greenbriel (Oct 2, 2021)

Michi said:


> I work in that industry and we deal with incidents on a daily basis. 1Password or a similar password manager is the way to go. For truly important accounts, especially banking, I strongly recommend to check whether your bank offers two-factor authentication. If they don't, change banks.


Thanks Michi.

1Password is the one I use, its great. And yes, I use 2FA everywhere it’s offered, and my bank does.



Michi said:


> PS: There is no way that Rick posted this, IMO.


I agree.


----------



## MarcelNL (Oct 3, 2021)

The mods/admin probably can see the IP address from which Rick usually posted and compare that against the latest posts, that might give some more insight (unless he always used a VPN or IP spoofing of course)


----------



## rickbern (Oct 6, 2021)

I didn’t know this thread existed after I came back in from the wilderness, I’m pretty touched. Feels like one of those Netflix shows where you get to go to your own funeral. 

I have to say, the mods were super gracious with me (shoutout to @Matus and @daveb) and immediately took appropriate action. I’ve turned into a crusader against PayPal f&f, but other than that I’m relatively unscarred. 

Thanks for all the support and confidence everyone


----------



## Luftmensch (Oct 6, 2021)

Welcome back @rickbern! 

Glad to have you back 

I hope nothing else sinister happened to your digital life!


----------



## Dhoff (Oct 6, 2021)

welcome back mate. Remember to change passwords all other places if the same was used


----------



## Michi (Oct 6, 2021)

Good to have you back on board!


----------



## Greenbriel (Oct 6, 2021)

Hey look at that, now I get to welcome YOU to the forums.  

Glad you're back Rick, sorry you had to deal with that .


----------



## coxhaus (Oct 6, 2021)

Hey Rick, nice to have you back we will have to do some Italian cooking.


----------

