URGENT - Classified section scam!!!! FORUM STAFF NEEDED IMMEDIATELY

[all1knew]

Hello all,

I received this message:

I want to purchase your item is still available for sale,What is the last asking price,I will like to pay using PayPal,After payments has been made,I will arrange for the pick-up and will you let my pick-up agent to come to you house for the pick up?Because i don't want you to worry yourself about the shipment,Kindly get back with more pictures.

Regards

If any of you are familiar with the Nigerian scams over eBay this is a blatant imitation of such, they happen on Craigslist as well. Message came from lewistellflol@gmail.com

I just wanted to bring this to the attention of forum staff and hopefully an alert can be sent out to avoid these guys like the plague!

William Kramer

[Adrian]

Hi William,

Thanks for the heads up. For the benefit of those of us who are blissfully unaware of the Nigerian scams, can you tell us how they work please?

From the message it seem like you will get the money and then wait for someone to collect the item which sounds quite harmless.......

[AmericanKraut]

Maybe they use or hack your email / paypal account?

[jeeeensy]

Heads up on another Scam,,,,

There is a Polish con artist on the loose and the con goes like this..

you bid on an auction,
you come second and do not win the item..( yeah we've all been there )
Next you get a e-mail saying the high bidder has cancelled so you can have the item at your bid price ( all appears Ok as the mail is from the seller )
you pay as you would,,
:
:
:
the seller then or should i say the bogus seller has opened an account with an identical name as the original seller all bar one letter or a comma so that you assume it is from the seller in the auction you were so wrapped up in and give it no second thought,, so you pay...... and then the ........cant post these words here,,,,,,,,, closes his bogus account!!!! and ta-ta along with your cash !!


just beware if you do not win and you are propositioned as the second in line on an auction site,, please check all emails with the original seller.

[edelweiss123]

The problem i see, is you have someone who knows you have a valuable collection, who knows your address. so it wouldnt be to hard for them to work out when you are and aren't in. A small amount of money is worth it if they know those details....

[Adrian]

The problem i see, is you have someone who knows you have a valuable collection, who knows your address. so it wouldnt be to hard for them to work out when you are and aren't in. A small amount of money is worth it if they know those details....

Does the address of the seller flag up on PayPal? Surely if you didn't want someone to know where you lived you would arrange the pick up from another location? Or ask that it is collected by courier?

[edelweiss123]

And this website is a great way for people to suss out the items you have.

[edelweiss123]

Does the address of the seller flag up on PayPal? Surely if you didn't want someone to know where you lived you would arrange the pick up from another location? Or ask that it is collected by courier?

Very true, if ever i sell an item i always courier it or drop if off and just use the excuse that "i am in the are". I also dont tell anyone who knows my address when i am going on holiday. I'm not a very trusting person to be honest

[MD Helmets]

Usually they want to send you a money gram or cashiers check. Somehow they use the information, and your personal information, name and mailing address, and somehow get the actual funds. I'm not entirely sure the intricacies of this type of scam. Usually they offer to buy the item for te listed price with no negotiation or haggling. The other dead give away, besides the horrible grammatical errors, is the offer to arrange shipping through a private shipper. This is an annoying scam on Craig's list. Nice to see it has found it's way here *sarcasm*

[bigmacglenn]

About 4 days ago I received a message asking me what I had for sale, which I thought was odd as I don't have anything for sale at the moment...
I had a bad feeling and didn't respond...
cheers, Glenn