Craigslist scam & spam

[Guest]

If you get these responses within hours of CL posting, it's a red flag. 

The keywords give it away. 

 

"I'm interested in the  2012 Coleman Powersports XT550 Trail Tamer ATV - $4500 (Fayetteville)  you listed on Craigslist Do you still have it for sale ? 

Ok thanks i just want  you to give me more details about it and an assurance that it has not been poorly used ??? i am currently away for an offshore assignment at work and really need to get this for my Dad asap, i only have access to online payment whenever am at work so PayPal will be the payment option i will use and i will have a courier come to you for the pickup after i sent the money to you .. Also i want you to remove the posting off market so i
can be sure you have consider it sold to me alone as i am very serious with this and I will add $200 to your asking price for doing that ... so send me your paypal details so i can process the payment to you now and plan for the pickup after payment ..Thanks and get back asap"

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

Welcome to selling things on craigslist.  Got a few of those per day when i sold my truck. Always a text of email.  I just put call only no text or email

[MOsmallies]

There's another one I've been getting lately where they are looking for large items that would need to be picked up by a "mover". They ask you for a price and name/address to mail a cashiers check to. They tell you they will include extra for you to pay the movers with. Their hope is that you get the check, deposit it (which your bank will do), and then they ask you to hurry up and wire the movers fees to the "movers". If you do that, you have paid them with your own money as a day or two later their check will not clear and that "money" you deposited will be removed from your account.

It's pretty blatant to see, but I guess there are enough naive people out there for it to work sometimes. I usually have a little fun with them at their expense. Have them send the check which costs them like $6... Then tell them you lost it and have them send another one (another $6 for them). Then cut em loose and tell em to F off

[ollie]

Yep, that is more obvious than most I have seen, but like someone said, there must be a few fools out there that fall for this everyday.

[Guest]

This particular dude forgot he sent me this message. After i told him not to contact me again, he resent the exact text again from the same number a few hours later. 

Its ameteur hour on CL during the holidays.

[mzrealfish]

I have a "catering chef" story on the same line.  not enough time to post it right now.  back on tonight to give the full details.  it was nuts!

[mzrealfish]

Okay, just  dropped my oldest at soccer practice so I have 45 minutes to type...hope it doesn't take that long.  I hadn't even thought about this story in years.

 

7 years ago I began working for my current company Bistro Kids.  We do healthy lunch programs at schools and teach culinary arts to the students.  The founder owned a succesful catering company as well.  She received an email inquiry from a "potential client" looking for a chef to cater a family moving to Kansas City for 6 months from Dubai for business.  She was too busy and asked me if I'd be interested in doing it on the side.

I contacted the client and got the details.  It was a huge opportunity for me.  I spent about 40 hours preparing a 4 week cycle menu for a family of 4 and emailed it to him.  He had me make a few revisions which is to be expected, and then gave it his final approval.  I told him I would need 40% down and he said "no problem".

Then it got weird.  He told me the company he would be consulting for was based out of Pittsburgh so they would send me the check.  He also told me that they were hiring a driver service for the duration of their stay but the company wanted to cut 1 check for both services.  "They trusted me to pay out the driver service" :).

I received the check for a massive amount of money and took it to my bank and deposited it.  My bank told it would take 7 days to clear but would probably have access to the funds in 3 days.

 

On the 4th day my "client" contacted me and said the driver service needed payment ASAP and he needed me to write them a check for their share.  I had already begun to think I was being bambooooooozled, but now I knew.  I contacted my bank to notify them so they began a query. Turns out someone broke into this company's office and stole a checkbook.  Total debacle just not in my Royal Debacle.

I have to give them credit for their creativity!

 

Mark

[Guest]

The keywords always give it away. 

I've seen at least 50-100 of these in the past 10 years. If you list something north of $1,000 you should expect them to start sending spam. You can have some fun at their expense too. But I just block them & move along. 

[Guest]

I should screen shot each new spammer as they reply to my stuff. Then post it here so yall can see the pattern. 

I need a way to send spam back to them after they forget about me. Start a collection of spammers, like a spam directory.