Oh! I didn't know that. When you mention reputed membersrs. It's interesting. I don't think reputed members will scam someone or post shit.
Check "Auction" sub board and go to the old days. You will find many account on auction. For example, a random page picked by me and found shorena-
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=958097.0You can see that EFS joined the auction and some more reputed members too. It was nothing secret back then. Even one of the most reputed member Bruno had a habit of building account and sell them.