TubaForum.net

Someone let me know that scammers are impersonating me via email, reaching out through phony addresses. This was the email they received via a protonmail address:

“Hello [username] This is arpthark I Saw your comment on my post about the Bach 50BL bass trombone I’ve still got them for sale on the tuba forums is still available, where are you located?Let me know if you want to grab it

Thanks, and I look forward to hear from you.

Best regards”

This is obviously not me (my grammar is better!). I only ever reach out to folks through PM, my music gear selling email (beanhillbrass at iCloud) or my personal email (firstinitial.lastname90 at gmail). If anyone gets anything else that purports to be me and seems sketchy, please let me know. I also have an address that I don’t use, arpthark at iCloud, which occasionally iPhone defaults to for some reason, so I may accidentally send stuff through that.

Thanks, and when in doubt, send me a PM through here.

Blake

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...

(I wonder how the shady underbelly of the internet would portray me...)

Yeah if you put your email down just be prepared to receive some scammer emails. Ive received at least a dozen. Some disappointed me that it was a faker but thats how it rolls.

Good warning to post. This pattern is common on gear forums: scammers scrape usernames and items from public sale threads, then email potential buyers from a new address pretending to be the seller. The simple rule for buyers is to start every deal through a private message to the member on the forum itself, and to treat any first contact by outside email as unverified. Paying only through a method with buyer protection, never as friends and family or by gift card, removes most of the risk even when an impersonator gets through.