Almost scammed

So this last week I was looking through RVs/motorhomes on craigslist. I found one that looked interesting and contacted via telephone from the reply button information and left a voice mail of my interest. I received a text reply asking for my email which I gave and there the communication continued. So far, so good.

Here is the body of the email I received:

From: Janette Milson
My name is Janette Milson and I'm emailing you about my perfect shape 1995 Fleetwood Pace Arrow 37 ft motorhome, Ford chassis, 1 owner, all original no modifications with 42,932 original miles. It is in excellent condition and clean with no issues. The V-8 230HP Gas engine runs and drives like new. RV is in excellent condition, the interior is all original and in excellent shape with no rips or stains even has original plastic on carpet. All cabinets and wood are in great condition, is free of any accidents, no liens or loans. Very well taken care of, No smoking or pets. The title is legally under my name, clear and free of any liens or loans.

The price was reduced at $2,000 because I'm in a hurry to find a buyer. Check the imgur link for pictures: imgur.com...

Best Regard

Although I felt the item with such a low price was too good to be true, I have seen some awesome but valid deals on CL which I waited too long to respond to and lost the opportunity. I have also seen some awesome but valid deals which I did respond to in a timely manner and scored! The wording in the email was a bit suspicious imho but, I made the acceptance offer and received a 2nd email: A woman who recently lost her husband, blah, blah blah. But here is the email in all it's glory.

Hi again,
Thank you very much for getting back to me but I would like to clarify some things first. I am selling the rv at this price because my husband passed away not long ago (he was very sick) and this rv brings me bad memories and that's the reason why I want to sell it asap. Another reason for selling it is because I work in military and right now I'm in a military base. We are training, getting ready for leaving the country. The rv is already at the shipping company ready for delivery because someone agreed to buy it, but in the end he never got the loan. For this reason, the shipping is already paid.I will use e Bay in this transaction for our protection. If you are not aware of this program, you should know that it will allow you to test and inspect the rv before paying me. The inspection period will be set to 7 days and I think is enough for you to make a decision about the rv. If you won`t like my rv, you notify e Bay and you send it back on my expense. But I assure you it won't be the case.
If you want to continue the purchase, please reply with your full name, delivery address and phone number so I can start the transaction with e Bay and ask them to send you the terms of this transaction. ( with no further obligation or fees).

Thank you,
Janette

At this point, I was 100% sure this was a scam but wanted to let it play out for more info because I wanted to find out all I could so I could report the scam.

Here is an image of what I received from "ebay". I have edited out my personal information.

from: eBay
reply-to: [email protected]

p1
p2 which is the bottom half of p1, wouldn't all fit on one image
p3 which is actually the 2nd page of the document

Looked valid to me. There were 2 different telephone numbers on the ebay pdf image for contacting ebay should I have any questions which I thought was odd though. So I called one of the numbers off of the ebay invoice, confirmed the waiting period of acceptance or rejection of the item and the 24 hour period in which to contact ebay with the numbers off of the green dot cards I would purchase.

Ok, so the guy I spoke with mumbled something unintelligable upon answering my call and did not sound convincing in his answers although he did answer all of my questions. He also had what sounded to me like a Jamaican accent, which raised a red flag for me because so many scams are operated from Jamaica. So I went back to my computer and did a San Jose ebay contact search and called the one telephone number provided. I spoke to a gal and explained the situation and the information I had received. She confirmed what I thought, informed me that ebay had only one telephone number in San Jose CA for all their departments and that I was being scammed. Ebay did not require purchasing "green dot" cards to purchase ebay items. Also, items purchased outside of ebays bidding process were not authorized or guaranteed. I told her I had no intention of following through and she then asked if I would send all the information to [email protected] which I did. I also went back onto the link at CL to flag the item but someone had beat me to it.

I have made many purchases off of CL and a couple from ebay though and have yet to be scammed because I listen to my gut feelings, I do a lot of questioning if any doubt, and validate to the best of my ability before any actual transactions take place. When in doubt, question, question, question. As technology advances, it's easier and easier to scam the guilable. So, be a 'lert'. Don't be a victim!

That's really common place. I almost took it for granted that others might not know.

This person is all over Craigslist. Do a small search and you'll find many threads and stories about the person.. she/he uses the same name and same story in most of the second emails.

I found a post for a Toyota Tundra a few weeks ago here in NY and came across the same person. Whoever it is hasn't been caught and some of the stories I've read have been from early 2016..

Most of the stories are about a woman who is selling cheap because she is moving to Montana or something after her husband died. Send the money through pay pal or something,

I'll see if I can find my old email and share..

ETA.

Roberta Bunker!! Do a search and see for yourself.

"Hi Jason,
Thank you for contacting me about my 2001 Toyota Tundra SR5 V8 4WD that I have for sale. This truck is in great shape (110k miles, Engine: 4.7L V8, 4WD, Automatic, VIN #5TBBT44121S149432). It has no damage, no scratches or dents, no hidden defects. It is in immaculate condition, meticulously maintained and hasn't been involved in any accident...I do have the title, clear. I am selling it at this final price of $1,500 because my husband died 1 month ago (he had a heart attack) and it brings me bad memories and I, along with my daughter decided to sell the house and so we moved in Montana trying to start a new life. That's the reason why I want to sell it asap and my last price is $1,500 including delivery to your home address.
Let me know if you are interested, email me back.
I have attached the pics below...

Thank you,
Roberta Bunker

It doesn't sound as if you were almost scammed, sounds like you were onto the scam early on.
It's good information, worth the story so people are aware that it's better to see what you are buying and meet the seller, 2 thousand dollars, worth putting in a bit of effort in first

If it looks like it's immaculate and flawless, and it only costs 2000$, its a scam.

a reply to: StoutBroux

If you live in the states contact your state attorney generals office to report the scam.

originally posted by: TarzanBeta
That's really common place. I almost took it for granted that others might not know.

Since literally BILLIONS are scammed each year from Americans alone, scammers are obviously reaching and hooking their targets. Here are a couple snippets regarding their effectiveness.

Low-tech Internet scams harvest billions of dollars

These sites look completely legitimate -- and, adding to the scheme's plausibility, many of the spoofed websites even have working customer service phone numbers with "operators" on the other end of the line who will gladly take your money.

Another stealthily and fast-growing attack is called "spear phishing": sending e-mails to specific recipients from spoofed addresses that look completely legitimate. The attacks often appear to be from loved ones, claiming to be in an emergency situation and asking for money.

These schemes show that Internet scam artists, who had long been thought of as too unsophisticated to be considered real "hackers," are venturing into the realm of some of the more expert cybercriminals.

"Now, there isn't a very big gap in their capabilities," said Dave Aitel, president of security firm Immunity Inc. and a former computer scientist at the National Security Agency. "Re-shippers and check fraudsters are now just an arm of organized cybercrime."

money.cnn.com...

Online fraud: When scams cost billions
Posted on:August 2, 2016
Posted by:Christopher Budd (Global Threat Communications)

Online fraud affects a startling amount of people.

In today's internet-connected society, communication has become easier and knowledge of nearly everything is at our fingertips. But this new collaborative internet age comes with a price: Cyber criminals are always trying to scam people out of their hard-earned money. Online fraud has impacted a staggering number of people, and it seems like each time a new piece of ransomware or new scheme comes to light, twenty more replace them.

blog.trendmicro.com...

a reply to: Xcathdra

Will do on Monday. Thanks for the prompt.

StoutBroux

Real estate scams as well... and they look legit, until you go to move in and find out the house is already being lived in..by its real owners. Moving from state to state for their jobs, often they will buy off Ebay or craigslist sight unseen. A friend of mine who works in law enforcement was telling me about a few that happened last year locally. I have never purchased anything off of CL and only once off of Ebay... missing out on some good deals I suppose..

Anyhow.. a excerpt about the scam:

How this Scam Works The con man pulls legitimate listings of homes off an online real estate site, and re-posts them on eBay or Craigslist as if he owns these properties. When he has an interested buyer, he requests a down payment or deposit to hold the property until the potential buyer can inspect it. He will sell this property as many times as he can before he disappears with the deposits he has collected. This kind of scam also works as a rental property as well. For example the scam artist will find properties for sale and simultaneously advertise it somewhere for rent. The rental rate is typically to good to be true and will attract a number of interested parties. The scammers goal is to get the potential tenant to send them their first month rent. Often times the scammer is able to get money out of multiple people. They try to pull of this scam by asking legitimate questions of the potential tenant. When the tenant asks similar questions a tenant may normally ask, the scammer is all to helpful in being ultra cooperative. They will go along with almost any request the tenant has including allowing things such as smoking, pets and other things that not all landlords would allow. The goal is to get your money at all costs.

more

Thanks,
blend57

This is a very common scam on craigslist, I had the same thing a few months ago when looking for a car on craigslist.

She said she wasn`t in town so I couldn`t come and meet her, I sent a message back saying,
thats ok I`m not in town either I`m on my way to Arizona to look at some beach front property that I bought real cheap and then I`m heading to new York to buy a bridge real cheap too.

needless to say I never heard back from her again

ETA:

Here`s the E-mail I got

Hello, my name is Jessica.
Thanks for your interest regarding my 2002 Nissan Maxima.
The price I'm looking for is $1000 with shipping included. Let me give you a few details about it: very good shape, no mechanical issues, no loan or lien, no scratches or dents, with a clean title and it has never been involved in any kind of accidents! Has only 118k miles, its automatic, with a 3.5L V6 engine. I am selling it at this price because this was my daughter's car and she passed away three months ago due to cancer. The car brings me a lot of memories that make me suffer and this is the reason for what I want to sell it as soon as possible. I know she would never have sold her stuff but for the past months the car has been packed and no one to use it.
Due to my job I'm away and I've decided to make this deal through Amazon Auto Sales, so if you want to move forward please let me know so I can explain you how amazon works.


Thank you!

a reply to: StoutBroux

I am truly shocked that people fall for these things. I suppose they wouldn't keep going if it didn't work, but I always assumed an extremely ignorant minority which miraculously learned how to turn on a PC fell for this kind of stuff.

No offense meant, it just seems so obvious.

a reply to: StoutBroux

You performed a great service to all internet purchasers here. Your situation does come in 1,000 ways with 1,000 different items all day, everyday.

I did notice in your re-printing of the correspondence...that the English wording and sentence structure was a little off in the way the messages were constructed. (The infamous "Nigerian" scams are like that in structure as well...even in the email headers....) Usually, that too is a dead giveaway.

Im so glad you caught this, and shared it with those who live their lives through online purchasing...Its not worth the risk. Thank you again!

Best, MS

a reply to: mysterioustranger

Fair enough. Maybe I assume too much that others can see through the veil.

a reply to: TarzanBeta

You know how many people order things and find them online now-a-days? Millions. Its always good to get out the info in the O.P.

Zillions of folks dont think twice...they just click and fall for things like this topic.

Getting info out is always a good thing! Thanks for the reply......

MS

originally posted by: mysterioustranger
a reply to: TarzanBeta

You know how many people order things and find them online now-a-days? Millions. Its always good to get out the info in the O.P.

Zillions of folks dont think twice...they just click and fall for things like this topic.

Getting info out is always a good thing! Thanks for the reply......

MS

One of my sins is giving people too much credit.

Another is giving them too little.

Craigslist is bad for purchasing pets too! It was emotional hell dealing with the scammers, who never had a dog. When I pushed hard, they would tell me it was sold to someone else, but less than a week later the same dog and story was put back up! Egad! Ended up just going through the humane society. Yes, a lot of paperwork and hoops to adopt, but at least the dog was there!

Edit add: I have order a lot of things from eBay and have been thrilled at the deals. Perhaps, I have been lucky to begin my search directly from the secured eBay site.


Edit add2: not to say that there aren't awesome deals out there from really desperate but stupid people. In Idaho, I had purchased a 14x70 3 bdrm trailer for $1500. The man wanted to sell fast to go to NC to marry his online Girlfriend. She apparently wasnt what he expected and a week later returned to tell me his hard luck story. I was already moved in with my 3 daughters...so lesson learned for him!

Glad you didn't fall for the scam.

I purchased 2 new Seadoo Personal WaterCraft using an Ebay ad. It was offered by a dealer at the end of the season, so overall we saved 5k total on the purchase price since they had to turn over their inventory. I acquired airline tickets and made the cash purchase and got both units along with the Manufacturer's Certificate of Origin so we could title them at home. After expenses hotels, fuel and purchasing a tow rig to resell upon arriving home we ended up saving money and had a mini vacation where we stopped at several lakes and rivers along the way home - the highlight being the Colorado River including Lake Havasu Az.

Wow! The scammers are really going the extra mile nowadays!!! If they only put that much effort into a real job...