Hi,
I’m replying to your post on craigslist for your listed item,is it still up for sale?
Let me know.
Thanks
This legitimate-looking email came from Sara Jason <skittysara2 [at] gmail [dot] com>. Generic enough — nothing to be concerned about. I replied: “Yes.”
Her response:
Good day ,
I’m much interested in buying it, I want it for my cousin.. So am willing to offer you $420 plus shipping via USPS (EMS) express mail to him, he schools in a missionary in Nigeria and I’m presently out of town a the moment so you’ll arrange for the shipping handling..Get back to me as soon as you can so I can arrange to send the money through my paypal account,so send me your paypal account address so i can send you the money there… I’ll wait your reply.
Thanks Sara
I just came across the site FakeChecks.org.
They have videos where a guy tries to pull Internet scams in real life. They’re ridiculous, and he does it in such a way that it’s obviously fake.
The goal of the site is to prevent these scams from tricking people. But I think these videos are actually a disservice, because of the exaggerated way they are done. People fall for these scams because they seem reasonable. The scammers often won’t contact you not unsolicited, but rather in response to something you have for sale, on Craigslist for example. In the videos, the guy posing as a scammer approaches people out of nowhere, a complete stranger, and makes very little attempt to establish a connection beforehand. And the offer itself is just ridiculous. $70,000 when people are buying fruits at a grocery stand? For a car, maybe. Or a house. But not in that context.
Sure, the videos are meant to be ridiculous. They’re meant to showcase the absurdity of it. But based on these videos, people will think that the scams are easy to identify. It’s easy to think that you need only be careful of obviously fake checks of ridiculous amounts.
The scammers will choose smaller amounts. It is still easily worth it to them.
In these countries, people earn less than $200 a month at a full-time job. Spending lots of time on an elaborate scam is easily within reason for them.
And, of course, these things don’t happen in real life. They happen online. So when this guy tries using Internet scams in real life, it’s obvious they won’t work (although they do work in just 1 rare instance). There are real-life scammers, too. But they adapt to the situation.
People are spending more and more time online. And people are being born every day, unaware of the risks and the scams. They don’t teach this in school. Common sense is not common.
The online scams are far trickier than the real-life ones.
If you post an ad on Craigslist, there are lots of legitimate people who may contact you.
But there are also lots of scammers, too.
Use Craigslist for any significant period of time, and you will definitely get an email from a scammer. Guaranteed. No question about it. Scammers blanket email everyone who lists something of any significant value (more than $100) on Craigslist.
I got a fake money order from someone on Craigslist, who asked me to wire some portion of the money back to him. I didn’t even bother depositing the money order (or cashier’s check), because I knew it had to be fake.
But you cannot tell by its appearance.
It exactly duplicates a legitimate cashier’s check.
Physically, there is no difference whatsoever.
The bank can’t even tell. In fact, the check will “clear”. But that does not mean it was good.
Weeks or months later, the bank will discover it was a bad check, and take the money back.
In the case of “Sara”, above, it’s a PayPal scam.
If you accept, you’ll receive a legitimate-looking email from “PayPal” saying that the funds have been received and secured, and they are waiting for you in escrow. You just need to verify your account info (or some personal info) to receive them. A bit of a twist, and no fake check involved this time. But still a scam, this time of a type that would be classified as a phishing scam.
There are some good parts to the FakeChecks.org site, like the Victim Interviews. Some of them are actually quite interesting. If you don’t already consider yourself an expert on Internet scams, they’re definitely worth a watch.
I just got an email from someone wanting to buy a tractor we are selling. It immediately sent up red flags. The sad thing is, we called paypal, and they said go ahead with transaction, he can’t do anything to our account. While the scammer may not be able to do anything with my account, there are other ways to scam, otherwise this would not be attempted as often as it is. Here is our email conversation:
Them: Thanks for mailing back,i am a marine engineer and i am buying this
for Dad as a birthday gift, i am at sea right now, I can only pay
through PayPal at the moment as i don’t have access to my bank account
online,but i have it attached to my PayPal account, and this is why i
insisted on using PayPal to pay,If my mode of payment is accepted
kindly email me with the information below to proceed with the
payment.
1) The pictures
2) What is the condition?
3) Are you the First Owner?
4) Your PayPal Email Address
5) Your Picked Up Location Address
if you don’t have a paypal account yet,its pretty easy to set one up
at http://www.paypal.com.,i will be expecting your email.I have a pick up
agent that will come for the pick up after payments.I will to have
communicate and discuss this via Phone but due to the nature of my
work, phone calls making is restricted so that was why i have prefer
to communicate more through Mail …
So kindly get back to asap..
Stay Blessed.
– I will like to know if this item is still, for sale..? Thanks..
ME: Carl,
I will need more information from you. Where is the tractor going to go? Who is the agent that would pick it up? You would need to send me a cashier’s check, as this sounds too fishy.
If this is legit, I am sure you will have no problem supplying more info about yourself.
Thanks,
THEM: My Father is from Kansas and i have a pick up agent that will come for
the shipping of the item.I want to buy this for my dad as a birthday
gift and i want to make it as a surprise for him cos i don’t want him
to be disappointed .So consider your item sold to me and get back to
me with your PayPal email address or an invoice from PayPal so that i
can transfer the funds immediately.
Waiting for your reply soon.
– I will like to know if this item is still, for sale..? Thanks..
ME: Send me your paypal email address and I will send you an invoice for payment.
That was the last I heard from them. We weren’t going to send our information, we wanted to see how far they will go. One thing I will note however, they never sent an email asking if it was still available, and we never replied that it was. Beware on paypal to.
I would love to hold someone accountable. It seems almost impossible though, as every scammer that as approached me on craigslist wanted the item in question sent to Nigeria or some other African nation. I feel that Paypal themselves should have to be liable for something, as they are providing the service, but that seems highly unlikely. Oh well, I suppose for now we just have to be on our toes, because it’s not getting any better from my point of view- it’s getting worse- the only 2 inquiries that I had for my last item (a camera) were out-of-the-country scammers, and I sent them packing. It just
I have also received such a response, first I received a e-mail asking me if it was still available from one person and when I responded yes I received a second e-mail from a different e-mail address with the pitch like above “Thanks for the prompt response.. I am ready to buy it now but i am not
in town at the moment as i am a marine engineer manager and due to the
nature of my work, It hard to make a phone calls and visiting of
website are restricted but i squeezed out time to check this advert
and send you an email regarding it. I really want it to be a surprise
for my dad so i wont let him know anything about it until it gets
delivered to him, i am sure he will be more than happy with it. I
insisted on paypal because i don’t have access to my bank account
online as i don’t have internet banking, but i can pay from my paypal
account, as i have my bank a/c attached to it, i will need you to give
me your paypal email address and the price so i can make the payment
asap for it and please if you don’t have paypal account yet, it is
very easy to set up, go to http://www.paypal.com and get it set up, after you
have set it up i will only need the e-mail address you use for
registration with paypal so as to put the money through. I have a pick
up agent that will come and pick it after i have made the payment…
Thanks.”
I’m just curious what is the pay off? I never went further then the first e-mail. do they actually send someone to pick up the item (in my case a motorcycle) or do they somehow trick you into sending them money. has to be more then just a bogus PayPal deposit.