Beware of Latest Craigslist Scams

Just a quick post to warn Craigslist users of a trend I am seeing lately on Craigslist. This is happening on my local Craigslist, and so it is probably happening elsewhere. The scammers are becoming more educated on the scam products they are selling.

What they do is research a product, find its competitive price, and a local picture of it from another location, then act like they own it and advertise it used much much cheaper- like way cheap. Remember if it is too good to be true it probably is. In this case I have some guy advertising a motorcycle at a VERY good price (too good), for its make, model and year, claims he is in the US Navy, and will have it shipped to me for free and I can pick up at my local airport.



Umm... yeah...right.



God I hate scammers and spammers.

So beware the price. Beware the scam.

Even so, I love Craigslist and use it often. Just gotta watch out. No different than anywhere else in real life...

Yea its happening a lot with rental properties in the area I live right now. I was just in the market to rent a new house, sent out a few Emails to potential houses that seemed good. They actually check local housing ads from realtors websites, and use locations that are actually for sale but not owned by them.

Their weakness is the idiotic stories they concoct and the "cut and paste" reply. Its amazing how many people advertising their rental property on craigslist were "In africa working as a doctor" or "In africa checking out oil properties" or "in africa building houses for poor" or "in africa" for some reason or another.

I'm surprised that these scammers still even get any marks... I'm pretty suspicious of anyone thats trying to sell me something from africa.

The number one rule on CL. Deal locally to avoid scams. I have seen plenty of offers like that, I just flag them and move on.

reply to post by Slanter


That EXACT thing happened to me recently, from an ad on CL. Cheap rental property, dude claiming to be some missionary dentist working in Africa....Send him the rent money, and he'll send you the key.



"But sir, I would like to see the inside of the house first."

"Nope, cannot show it cause I am in Africa."

Originally posted by sonofliberty1776
The number one rule on CL. Deal locally to avoid scams. I have seen plenty of offers like that, I just flag them and move on.

Damnit! It was YOU who flagged my fully furnished 3 bedroom condo for $600.00 a month, please just wire me a $1,000.00 deposit through Western Union and you can move in the first of next month! Totally legit. I SWEAR.

I'm just in Africa working as a doctor, which is why I can't be there to personally show you around the place...

reply to post by TrueAmerican


There is also another one that I've come across.

We got an email a few weeks ago asking if an item was still available, we replied yes. Next day we get an email asking if "this item" is ours, that it looks like a duplicate. The "this item" was of course a login link.

Yeah, I never login to any website using a link in an email.

Thanks for the heads up TA!

OiO

Originally posted by seeker11

Originally posted by sonofliberty1776
The number one rule on CL. Deal locally to avoid scams. I have seen plenty of offers like that, I just flag them and move on.

Damnit! It was YOU who flagged my fully furnished 3 bedroom condo for $600.00 a month, please just wire me a $1,000.00 deposit through Western Union and you can move in the first of next month! Totally legit. I SWEAR.

I'm just in Africa working as a doctor, which is why I can't be there to personally show you around the place...

Might have been. I have flagged sooooo many.

OT: I have a friend in vegas, my old high school sweetheart lives there now. She asked me to come out there a few times, but it is way too far from the ocean. How do you like it there?

I posted the other day about scame I found when trying to buy a tractor with a loader several months ago. Such deals! Fully loaded with multiple attachments and a ridiculous price. Also, they would not use the CL form of email, deleting that capability entirely but included a phone number, usually with a female name, "Lisa." And the picture would frequently show in the background a part of the country that obvious was not central Texas.

Remember the old saying: When a deal is too good to be true...that is probably a correct assessment.

I have an even better scam that they are doing in my town... Just met a lady who hired movers off of craigslist to move from one house to another. Well, she thought she was hiring an acutal moving company, but these people showed up with their large moving van and loaded her whole house up. She was going to let them follow her to the new house, but they said they would just put her address in the gps becasue they were going to stop along the way for something to drink and to fill the truck up with gas. Well, they never showed back up and stole her whole entire house full of stuff. The cell phone she had been talking to them on no longer worked and she had no way of tracking them down. Everything gone in a blink...

Now that's sucks.

Originally posted by JohnnyFever
I have an even better scam that they are doing in my town... Just met a lady who hired movers off of craigslist to move from one house to another. Well, she thought she was hiring an acutal moving company, but these people showed up with their large moving van and loaded her whole house up. She was going to let them follow her to the new house, but they said they would just put her address in the gps becasue they were going to stop along the way for something to drink and to fill the truck up with gas. Well, they never showed back up and stole her whole entire house full of stuff. The cell phone she had been talking to them on no longer worked and she had no way of tracking them down. Everything gone in a blink...

Now that's sucks.

WOW !! that does suck..and a very hard lesson to learn...which is be very careful of who you trust.

and people wonder why some have become so paranoid... ? sadly there is a good reason for it.

So you are saying the three dollar back rub by four beautiful Persians wearing leather thongs is a scam? I am shocked and appalled, for crying out loud I have already bought the baby oil and everything!