Wow, this is really sad!

I won't say that it's a sign of the times, because that will make me sound 
like a crotchety old ham, but you do have to wonder.

Tom Behler; KB8TYJ

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John J. Jacques" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2013 8:32 PM
Subject: Fw: QRZ Online


> Hi all, thought some of you might want to see this!
>
> 73:
> John
>
> John Jacques
> Amateur Radio Station: KD8PC
> "Where Cat Is,  Is Civilization!"
>
>
> ----- Forwarded Message -----
> From: Ronald Goodfellow <[log in to unmask]>
> To: undisclosed-recipients:;
> Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 16:42:50 -0500
> Subject: QRZ Online
> Message-ID:
> <[log in to unmask]>
>
>
>
> Effective immediately, the Wanted and Trade section of the QRZ Online
> Swapmeet has been closed.
>
> The section was closed due to a high number of fraudulent responses. The
> situation has gotten so bad that your chances of getting a fraudulent
> response was nearly 100% if you were looking for anything of value.
>
> The perpetrators claimed that they had the item that you were looking
> for, and then would take your money and disappear. The items that were
> paid for would never arrive. The crooks would often not use QRZ at all,
> preferring to contact the buyers directly through email.
>
> Sadly, there seemed to be no type or amount of warning that proved
> effective in preventing loss to our members, so for everyone's own good,
> we decided to close the forum down.
>
> QRZ wants to be everything that it can for ham radio, but we can't in
> good conscience promote services that make it easy for crooks to find
> victims. We're truly sorry for the loss of this service, but at this time
> there doesn't appear to be a safe way to offer this service.
> Fred Lloyd, AA7B
>