Fun with Craigslist Scammers

[Adam490]

Trying to purge some photos from my phone and forgot I saved all these screenshots. Too funny not to share!

I was selling my Scion xB and had it listed on Craigslist. About 20 minutes after I posted it, I get this message:



The rest of these are the ensuing conversation (my replies are in green):

 

[Adam490]

Ran into another scammer when I listed some old early 90's Toyota trucks I had bought to steal the 4WD parts off of.

This one was via email:

 

[Hondasxs]

Love it...
I try to f*** with them too.

 

[Trademark]

It's crazy to me...you would think the guys who set up those automatic email scams would have one single English speaking friend that could proof read the message first and make it sound even 25% legit. But they all read exactly like that. Props on the replies, those are good

 

[Adam490]

It's crazy to me...you would think the guys who set up those automatic email scams would have one single English speaking friend that could proof read the message first and make it sound even 25% legit. But they all read exactly like that. Props on the replies, those are good

What amazes me is the sheer amount of these you get when selling a car. When I sold my Tacoma I bet I got 20-30 in the first 24 hours it was listed. I hate using CL but it's always been the best way to sell used cars, at least around here. I tried FB marketplace but it's a cess pool

 

[JTW]

So what’s the point of them getting your PayPal address? How do they scam you off it?

 

[Hondasxs]

So what’s the point of them getting your PayPal address? How do they scam you off it?

Several ways.
Some are password fishing via fake PayPal/eBay sites.

 

[JTW]

Several ways.
Some are password fishing via fake PayPal/eBay sites.

So like the Facebook thing asking for maiden names.. my mind immediately went to security question sourcing

 

[Adam490]

@JTW - I didn't get what it was they were trying to accomplish either so I looked into it when I started to get the same gibberish message over and over. Here's what they are trying to do:

They tell you they will gladly pay you whatever it is you are asking, and often quite a bit more to "hold it for their shipper" or whatever other BS they can come up with. They will PayPal you X amount of money and then they'll say they need you to send $1k or some other small amount to their "shipper" via Western Union to cover his travel costs because they are too busy to do it. They are hoping you are stupid enough to send the Western Union before they dispute the PayPal charge and it gets taken back, leaving you out the $1k or whatever it was you sent via WU.

 

[Adam490]

There are different forms of it as well. My dad was selling a bay boat and had a guy offer him $2k more than he was asking. Guy said he really wanted the boat and would send the $2k to hold it for him until he got back from "business". Guy paid to overnight a bogus check and then said he forgot he needed to pay the shipper. Asks my dad to send $500 via Western Union and that he can keep the $1500 for his troubles. There's always a shipper or delivery driver or something along those lines in these scams. The best part about this one was the check, it had just a first name in the top corner and was very clearly printed on an inkjet from an image someone found on a Google search. There were no routing numbers, the fonts were all different, and it was clearly the guys first time using MS Paint for photo editing.

The point in all of these is to get you to send them your hard earned cash before you realize it's a fake check or they dispute the charge via Paypal. They target older folks and must be pretty successful in it as it still happens any time I put something of value on CL.

 

[Adam490]

I had it happen to me on eBay when I was in college and they almost got me. I had a really expensive Alienware laptop that I had listed for $2k BIN, and the guy bought it about 10 minutes after I listed it. I was super excited and went to the store to get it boxed up as soon as the PayPal payment showed up in my account. Thank God I was a broke ass college kid and only had my Paypal debit card, which kept getting declined when I was trying to pay at the UPS store. F*ckin guy had waited an hour and then disputed the charge hoping I'd have it in the mail.

 

[100Acre]

In my best Hindu “ ello I am Richard Bashahamarob Stevens and I am calling about your delinquent IRS payment....” “ We are coming to arrest you unless you send us a gift card from smellslikecurry.com” ...

 

[Adam490]

In my best Hindu “ ello I am Richard Bashahamarob Stevens and I am calling about your delinquent IRS payment....” “ We are coming to arrest you unless you send us a gift card from smellslikecurry.com” ...

Lol, I get similar ones from time to time. "Hello... This is the --really long pause-- local po-lease. Your arrest is soon to happen if you do not contact us for the warrant about the po-lease".