Craigslist Scams

[Tony B]

I ran an ad for my sailboat. Of course I am going to get response from the Scammer. When bored at work, this is how I handle it.
I really think if everyone did the same thing and we tied these people up, they may find it unprofitable and time consuming.
Here are parts of our conversations so far. Enjoy.
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From: merinda112@gmail.com
Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2012 06:31:49 -0800
Subject: Re: Allied Sailboat - 39' Ketch for sale - $46000 (Kemah)
To: sailortonyb@msn.com
Hello

Thanks for your reply and am glad to know that it is still available for sale.However i have few questions on the product you are selling.

1,I would like to know the reason why you are selling it?
2,What is the current condition?
3,What is your firm price though am okay with the listing price ?
4,Do you mind if i pay you through PayPal though,Do not worry about shipping or picking up as my pick up agent will come and pick it up from you once have made the payment to you and i will also need your full Name,address and phone number, because am not local at the moment I'm a Petroleum Engineer and currently offshore and i would like to purchase this item on behalf of my colleague as a Birth Day Gift because she did the same for me as well.If you do not have a PayPal account, you can do so by going to www.PayPal.com and set up your account it is free easy and guarantees transaction safety.Once you send me your PayPal email account, so that i will be able to make the payment, .
I would be glad if my request is favorably considered.
Kindly email me back with your paypal email address for the payment.
Please excuse any spelling or grammatical errors.

Thanks
(646) 450

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am an inspector offshore in the Gulf of Mexico
My firm price is $45,000 US Dollars.
Your pick-up agent can bring the cash.
Regards
Tony B
From: merinda112@gmail.com
Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2012 12:15:12 -0800
Subject: Re: Allied Sailboat - 39' Ketch for sale - $46000 (Kemah)
To: sailortonyb@msn.com
I wish i could come to meet you up in person and pay you with cash or send the agent/someone to come with cash or cashier check as you requested but i have told you due to the nature of my work phone calls are not allowed offshore and that's why i ask we do this through the email communication and if you don't have PayPal account you can easily visit their website on www.paypal.com to set set up your account and learn more about them over their setting up page then you can mail me back with the email used for the account so i can make the payment to you right away.

Regards.
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I would love to make this deal with you but I don't want any record of it because I don't want to pay any Income Tax.
I am sure you understand that I don't want the government to know. Do you have any suggestions on how we can make this work.
There must be some place where I can meet your agent and we can make the transfer. Please advise me.

Regards
Tony B

From: merinda112@gmail.com
Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2012 12:27:40 -0800
Subject: Re: Allied Sailboat - 39' Ketch for sale - $46000 (Kemah)
To: sailortonyb@msn.com
Okay so kindly get back to me with your PayPal email address for the payment and your location address for the pick up after the payment Thanks Merida



I was hoping I could talk you into sending your agent to meet me in Texas or New York and we can transfer
title and cash.
I am willing to drop my price another $1000 if you could make this happen.
I was hoping you had an alternative idea other than PayPal.
Maybe your agent can meet me somewhere? Texas or New York?
Regards.
Tony B

[Tony B]

This is just parts that I had not deleted yet.
These people spam thousands of people at the press of a button but they have to answer each one individually. Lets flood them with e-mails.

[Tony B]

Apparently she is not real busy today - fairly quick reply from her

I will answer her later this evening



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Re: Allied Sailboat - 39' Ketch for sale - $46000 (Kemah)‏

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4:41 PM





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To Anthony bilello



From:pikqe merida (merinda112@gmail.com)Sent:Sun 7/22/12 4:41 PMTo: Anthony bilello (sailortonyb@msn.com)









This is exactly what I'm saying, you will have the access to the cash after i send the money to your PayPal account. this is very simple and reliable, I can only Pay through PayPal because I'm not in state and i don't have the cash, moreover i can't travel with such huge amount and the money is in my PayPal account. get back to me with your PayPal email address so i can send the money now

[belizesailor]

What is really amazing is that obviously some people fall for lame scams -- if no one did then they would stop.

When I worked in the charter biz, we some times got scam inquiries. We played a few out to see where they went -- ultimately they were money laundering scams. They wanted to over pay us for a charter and then have us forward the money onto a third party. I expect if we had gone for one of these then we some how would have been left holding the bag.

[Nemo55]

I usualy just e-mail them back saying that their scam is older than Moses. and funny enough they dont e-mail back.

[Tony B]

Here is my latest reply to her:
Just think of the tens of thousands of these they send out every day and if only 50 people a day did this to her, she might just fold up her business.
If you just say you are on to her, that took all of 10 seconds of her time and that's it. My goal is to keep her busy and was hoping I could convince others to do the same.

------------------------------------------------------------
I am kind of nervous about getting a PayPal account. Some of my co-workers were telling me that the US government is now investigating
e-bay and PayPal for Income Tax Purposes.
Is there any other way to send the money before I sign the ownership papers over to you?
I am very anxious to sell and this looks like it could be a clean deal for me if I can avoid the US government.

Hopefully you can come up with a solution.

Regards

[captainKJ]

This one is GREAT

The Powerbook Prank: He wanted a Powerbook. We gave him a P-P-P-Powerbook!

[Nemo55]

OMG!! that was so cool!!! i would love to try something like that,,,serves the Bas***ds right..hahahahahah

[GaryMayo]

I understand these are cons, and I have gotten them. They are pretty easy to spot. What I do not get is how giving a pap pal account number (most people use an email account as their pay pal account number, so the con already has it) does anything? What the con needs is the password to the pay pal account. If someone would explain this to me, I would appreciate it.

[sarafina]

Originally Posted by belizesailor

What is really amazing is that obviously some people fall for lame scams -- if no one did then they would stop.

When I worked in the charter biz, we some times got scam inquiries. We played a few out to see where they went -- ultimately they were money laundering scams. They wanted to over pay us for a charter and then have us forward the money onto a third party. I expect if we had gone for one of these then we some how would have been left holding the bag.

Yeah, it is amazing. Especially amazing to me is that I am one of those people. I can't tell you how embarassing it is.

I had been renting apartments for travel off of CL for years. Last year before our Europe trip I got on CL and searched out units that were in our price range and went thru the drill. I had no understanding that western union has become a partner in scamming and that making a transaction thru them to a party unknown to you PERSONALLY is about the same as wiping yer ass with c-notes and then flushing them...

We wound up out almost 2K, with no place to stay, literally days before leaving SF for London.

Can't even begin to describe the experience of dawning realization that something "was not right", thru to the final revelation that I was taken in by a savvy scammer and that if I had known to google their email before having anything to do with them I would have easily avoided the whole ugly experience.

Scamwarner.com is a good resource.

I got caught up in a phishing email from a Faux paypal/ebay problem. I reported it to paypal and then, as directed by them, I reported it to Ebay. Ebay promptly closed my 10(?) year old account and banned me for life from ebay as a "security risk".

Go figure.

[Tori]

If you give them your PayPal email they then create an email that appears to be from PayPal which says you have been paid but your money is on hold temporarily. Those not familiar with PayPal often fall for this and transfer the item or they pay some sort of shipping fee to the scammer. The emails that appear to be from PayPal are quite convincing as I have received one in the past.

[Tony B]

Originally Posted by GaryMayo

.....What I do not get is how giving a pap pal account number (most people use an email account as their pay pal account number, so the con already has it) does anything? What the con needs is the password to the pay pal account. If someone would explain this to me, I would appreciate it.

I have no idea. I am thinking the next step would probably require me to front money to them or maybe it is a way of finding out more about you and stealing your identity. I have no idea.
One thing is for sure, they really dont want a boat.

[GaryMayo]

Originally Posted by Tori

If you give them your PayPal email they then create an email that appears to be from PayPal which says you have been paid but your money is on hold temporarily. Those not familiar with PayPal often fall for this and transfer the item or they pay some sort of shipping fee to the scammer. The emails that appear to be from PayPal are quite convincing as I have received one in the past.

I get links from fake eBay web sites, claiming this or that. Once you click on it, and it asks you to punch in your password, then the con has your password.

I fell for it once, but quickly realized what I did. I went to eBay and pay pal and that very second and changed my passwords. If I had not realized what I did wrong, I would have been raped.

I do not always follow my accounts as close as I should. A few years ago, we realized Country Wide had taken $3500 out of my business checking account two years before we caught the transaction. My bank would do nothing about it. Country Wide denied taking the money. I had never done business with Country Wide. Now they are out of business for pulling scams on people. I keep better watch now.

[GaryMayo]

Originally Posted by sarafina

Yeah, it is amazing. Especially amazing to me is that I am one of those people. I can't tell you how embarassing it is.

I had been renting apartments for travel off of CL for years. Last year before our Europe trip I got on CL and searched out units that were in our price range and went thru the drill. I had no understanding that western union has become a partner in scamming and that making a transaction thru them to a party unknown to you PERSONALLY is about the same as wiping yer ass with c-notes and then flushing them...

We wound up out almost 2K, with no place to stay, literally days before leaving SF for London.

Can't even begin to describe the experience of dawning realization that something "was not right", thru to the final revelation that I was taken in by a savvy scammer and that if I had known to google their email before having anything to do with them I would have easily avoided the whole ugly experience.

Scamwarner.com is a good resource.

I got caught up in a phishing email from a Faux paypal/ebay problem. I reported it to paypal and then, as directed by them, I reported it to Ebay. Ebay promptly closed my 10(?) year old account and banned me for life from ebay as a "security risk".

Go figure.

eBay sucks anymore. I sold 8 camera flash units. All worked, all looked like new. $2500. Great deal for the buyer. What does the buyer do? He opens each flash taking out good flash units, and replacing them with worn out flash units. Then he complains to eBay that my flashes were defective. He wanted to return them for a full refund. I went round and round with eBay. They finally sent me my refund, plus $800. That does not make up for a box of junk I now have I can not sell. That cost me a couple grand.

I have sold on eBay ten years, no more. I have 5 stars, have sold $10,000 items. 100% positive feedback. Now they want a copy of my DL, SSC, and a copy of my birth certificate. Screw that! I quit eBay. I only use it to buy now. I now use crags list and keep all the commission fees I no longer give to eBay and a double whammy to pay pal.

[denverd0n]

Funny thing about most e-mail scammers is that they actually WANT it to be an obvious scam. They work on numbers. They send out tens of thousands of e-mails at a time, hoping that one or two gullible people will bite.

If it is not an obvious scam then they'll get thousands of responses that they will have to deal with. On the other hand, if they make the scam obvious, then the only people who will respond (usually) are the ones who are most likely to fall for it. That actually makes their job easier.

So, yeah, stringing them along some, even when it is painfully obvious that it is a scam, is a good way to make it unprofitable.

Of course, there are still a few who will really try to fool you.