MTFCA Forum

He joined in July…..Ford Fanatic

Don’t forgot his lead in pal, that emails the hook about “my dear friend Richard in New Mexico with the Ford Focus has the (xxx) part your needing”, Mr. Casey Cardella cardellacasey@gmail.com

They tried to sell me 3 different windshields, none of them brass nor model T.

Tried with me I believe.
threw me off. What one is he referring to? Joined the same day he sent the message. Out of the country location? I don’t think so. Watch out!
Bryant

So, I wish I had seen this.
The scammer Richard Armstrong strikes again.
He got me for a bit over $100.

Can the powers that be ban this stain on our board please

South Park Zephyr wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 20, 2025 11:57 am

So, I wish I had seen this.
The scammer Richard Armstrong strikes again.
He got me for a bit over $100.

Can the powers that be ban this stain on our board please

I feel your pain, he got me for $325. Luckily, I had paid with Paypal (Goods and Services) and was able to file a claim and got credited back.

Yeah, i should have been more diligent about checking into him. Got me for $125 but I did friends and family, so I’m out of luck

I alerted Admin to revoke his User ID

I alerted Admin to revoke his User ID

He got me for about $95 a few months ago, first time I've been scammed here. He seemed legitimate to me and even had a conversation. In hindsight, I should've been suspicious when I 'convinced' him to drastically change the price and there was no pictures. I guess I should refer to my own 'signature ' ...

Better to ask for an old fashioned telephone call.

Always request photographs! A phone call will usually always do it but a photograph gives you the best od's. Then make sure that it's not a picture of the item that you actually own or that maybe a friend owns. In looking for rear end parts for my 1924 Chevrolet 1 Ton truck, I received.... "a picture of the truck that we're parting out, we'll sell you the rear end assy.". It was a picture of the truck that I own.

Ed aka #4

I’ve had several NEW users contact me with a friend that has the part I’m looking for. I asked for pictures and received AI generated pictures, so I was NOPE , not doing business with them. I only do PayPay and never friends and family unless I know you or I’ve bought successfully from you in the past.

Be careful, the low life’s are out in force !!!!

I was traveling with a 7 hour time difference and responded to a private message. The price was fair for what I was looking for and i pulled the trigger without much thought, other than “ whew, I finally found what i was looking for”.
Ive been active here for about 4 years and have met many fine people.
Mark Chaffin sends parts before I can get a check in the mail to him. When I met him face to face I asked why he does that. He said Model T people are honest.
Richard Armstrong is not worthy of being a Model T person. I only hope his transgressions catch up to him at some point. It just isn’t up to me (us) to decide when or how he pays the piper.

All that aside, I’m still looking for a gas pressure gauge

Scott

Double post

My initial post was in July I think, surprisingly he hasn’t been removed

If we don't know about potential scammers, we can't do anything about it. We can't possibly read every thread of every forum. Someone needs to alert us. Thanks for this one Frank.

He's been banned and removed.

One question: Is he a club member?

"Richard Armstrong" probably wouldn't know a Model T from a Pinto.

Why is he able to contact members? Members that pay for this website?

no restrictions on contact.

AdminJeff wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 26, 2025 2:57 pm

no restrictions on contact.

Don't understand your response. If a member is not providing the parts ordered & paid for that would be theft. If the buyer mailed a check then it would be mail fraud which is a Federal crime. So why should his account me left open?

Forum Rules
You agree, through your use of this forum, that you will not post any material which is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, adult material, or otherwise in violation of any International or United States Federal law. You also agree not to post any copyrighted material unless you own the copyright or you have written consent from the owner of the copyrighted material. Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are also forbidden on this forum.

Our forum doesn't prevent anyone from sending another member messages unless we (admins) block them or delete them and we (admins) do not police what type of transactions occur here. That is up to individual members to do. If you don't want to buy or sell on the forums, that is your decision.

That account was deleted as soon as someone notified us about it. That is the best we can do.

We do the best we can with the software we have and try and keep hackers & scammers out. I personally vette every new member the best I can, but with all the new AI tools hackers have available to them, some of them fool even me and get by. I've pleaded for literally years now (seriously) that we need to spend some money and upgrade the forum software. Its fallen on deaf ears. You're welcome to also contact the board of directors and give them your thoughts.

AdminJeff

How about if you’re not a PAID CLUB MEMBER you can’t become a forum member.
The club pays for the website, members pay the club.
Why do we let people who aren’t members post and sell stuff on the club website for free. Let them go to Facebook and deal with the scammers there.

Dan

that may make sense in one regard but at the very moment of this posting, there are 15 people on the Forum and only 1 of them is a member. You'd lose a ton of traffic and I'd wager that the Forum would soon cease to exist, leaving Facebook to be the be-all and end-all for Model T communication and sales. Since the demise of the Forum on MTFCI, this is the only game in town and it would be a huge disservice to the hobby to ban 1/2 of the Model T owners just because some Forum members are in love with the opportunity to do business with people who have "zero" posts to their name.

Agree with Scott. It benefits all of us to encourage forum participation regardless of membership status. More info, more parts available etc.

Limiting postings to MTFCA members only will encourage non-members to join the club and pay the dues. I typically see only a few actual members on the forum, most are guests. Perhaps the guests have worn out their welcome, or worse, are driving away the actual members.

This site is as good as it can be in an imperfect world. Any time you buy or sell, in any venue, you had better proceed with caution. Doing business with persons or businesses unknown to you carries risks. Beware!

The information about Mr Armstrong was available, I should have be a bit more diligent in looking at his account.
I will, going forward be inclined to pay via PayPal using goods and services and adding the fee to the total, that way I a better chance and recovering my funds when someone is up to no good

Best to avoid getting scammed altogether. Getting compensation, if you can get it at all, will be a hassle, and you still won't have what you were seeking to begin with. Beyond that, every successful scam encourages and rewards scammers, even if the scammed person can recover some or all of his losses.

I have reported two that both joined on the same day as messages sent for item I am looking for. Funny but both have the same year that they have been board members, 2011 but are different names.
Suggest looking at potential buyers or sellers profile, if they have non consistent info or joined the same day, huge red flag in my book. I would not suggest communicating with them. Report them. Communication with them, they would then have your confirmed email address.
Stay safe out there.

This was an easy topic to avoid responding to other than my previous posting, until the post suggesting that somehow non-member guests have worn out their welcome or were otherwise driving out members.

The following is posted with respectful annoyance...

In the past, I've been members of both big clubs and started what is now a very large and active club in FL. I have run many local, regional and National Tours and been active in the Hobby for many years. Over those years I have tried to give back to the hobby in the form of supplying products for sale - not someone else's rusty junk, but real, useful, new or refurbished parts. I now live pretty much in isolation, do no touring and have almost zero contact with any "T" owners...have never traveled to a big flea market and likely never will...and yet, I serve the hobby in ways that in my opinion, far exceed the value of annual Club Dues - so the question is, "are the dues more valuable and supportive of the hobby than the parts that come from my shop?" If they are, the choice is simple, I'll pay dues, save myself a ton of trouble, and make stuff just for me and no one else (that is a very tempting idea).

If as a non-member/guest, I or any other guest/non-member has worn out their welcome as has just been suggested, please just say the word. The tiny group that will remain on the Forum can spend their bandwidth congratulating themselves for cleansing the hobby of the rabble. Be careful what you wish for.

Maybe a few folks could exercise some self-reflection and a ask yourself if a little less of the snarky "DO YOUR HOMEWORK!" sort of admonitions to new members asking honest questions (and thereby ARE doing their homework) are not perhaps taking a harder toll on membership than do the guests who supply your parts.

And all this because a very small number of folks inadvertently overlooked the nearly obvious fact that the seller/buyer they were dealing with had a Forum History of less than 1 week. Those folks admitted they "goofed" but interestingly it's not them blaming "guests", some of who have been around for many many years.

Trust but verify

Phone calls are a must, sceen shot photos are a big red flag!
I advertised on the HCCA.org website several years ago for an open valve block.
Magically a young man from Los Angeles had just what I needed... a great story about his grandfather collecting them and had several. When I wanted to have a friend close by come take a look with the cash, suddenly things got difficult. He even suggested I send him the money first, then have my friend come over..
Ya right, I don't think so!

Ask lots of questions

AdminJeff wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 26, 2025 5:55 am

If we don't know about potential scammers, we can't do anything about it. We can't possibly read every thread of every forum. Someone needs to alert us. Thanks for this one Frank.

He's been banned and removed.

I thought that's what I was trying to do. I sent you an email on Sept 17, 2025. Your response to me was (That's between you 2. We don't get involved in Buyer/seller transactions.) I guess I don't understand.

Caveat emptor.

For some unknown reason, I'm going to make a reply. I'm a non-member. The boss man who owns the T-parts I've sold here is a member. I believe I'm close to 1400 post. When someone answers an add , I get their address and mail the part , which yes includes me paying the shipping costs. I believe I have been taken twice. One for 20.00 the other for 10.00. (high rollers) T- people are different - they are older. I've gone a different route here lately making top irons and bows for model-A and 32 roadsters. Completely different crowd! I still try to believe in the world and mail stuff before I'm paid. I'm sure I'll be bitten sooner or later. Thank you mtfca, you are the top notch club! Thank all of you that have purchased from me in the past. Ctleonard64@gmail.com