craigslist is getting as bad as ebay for scammers

[69charger2002]

i was listing on graigslist here lately with pretty good success. trucks and whatever. but the scam emails are getting more plentiful..     i finally got sick of deleting them, so to make me feel a LITTLE better i wrote one guy back.. here goes.. enjoy. first his email to me, then my reply.
trav



Hello Seller,
How are you doing today?....i was going thru your ad listing and i must say that i am really satisfied with the condition of the item....and i am ready to pay to you with a Bank certified cashier check...but i would like to ask you few question about the item you...................

1)Is the item still very much available for sale

2)what is the present condition of the item like

3)what is your final asking price for the item..

5)can you be trusted?

6)For how long have you owned the item and are you the righful owner ofit?

7)i also want to knwo if you have current pictures of the item..If yes send me some

Get back to me with this details as soon as you can so we can proceed with the transaction ok..Hope to hear from you soon..Thanks

Regards...



MY REPLY:

i am SO glad you are satisfied with my truck
it is VERY much available.  i wish to sell immediately. please tell me your final purchasing price you are willing to pay.
can YOU be trusted?
i would LOVE a bank certified check, in fact, make sure it's one that doesn't exist, but i will definitely ship you the car first, so no worries if it bounces or is not real.
i could be the rightful owner, my cousin gave it to me but it was his dad's brother's, so the title is a bit messed up
i was asking $2150 but since you want it so bad how's $3150? sound good?
get a life you stupid scam bastard
regards...

[A383Wing]

 

Can I use that?

Bryan  (wish I could think of stuff like that.....hurts to think)

[Harlow]

I've noticed that too. Also a guy posts ads in the local online newspaper classifieds. The number he gives is an east coast area code and when he replies to an email its an obvious scam.

[69bronzeT5]

  Thats a good one Trav. I posted an ad on craigslist (I posted about it on here a while ago). It was a WANTED ad and I got emails from scammers saying they want to BUY my item. 

[69charger2002]

Thats a good one Trav. I posted an ad on craigslist (I posted about it on here a while ago). It was a WANTED ad and I got emails from scammers saying they want to BUY my item. 

not surprising. i think they just hit the reply button to all ads, they don't even read what you're buying/selling. it's like it's a standardized email they send
trav

[TK73]

You should make up a "template" to copy and paste in replys... hell, if they are gonna waste your time, waste some of theirs...

[Troy]

You guys actually think a real person is sitting there responding to ads? Scammers are lazy! It's all automated. What they're most likely doing is checking to see if your email address is real so they can sell it.

By the way, have any of you noticed all the ads for really nice cars at $2900? I don't think they are scams (unless they harvest emails) - I just don't think the cars exist. Highlight the ad and you'll see text hidden in the background between the ad and the pictures. They use white text on a white background to hide keywords and what appears to be quotes or other nonsense. I haven't quite figured out the purpose yet and since there's no link it can't be an SEO tactic.

Troy

[69charger2002]

i have noticed the nonsense wriitings. it's a paragraph of babble and run on sentences that just end in the middle of a sentence. wonder why they show up like that. apparently craigslist has a good spot for that, as the yare usually flagged for removal fairly fast.. and troy i know no one is behind their computer typing that ad over and over, but i just had to get it off my chest. MAYBE, just maybe, one of those idiots will at least read my reply and laugh?
trav

[moparstuart]

i have noticed the nonsense wriitings. it's a paragraph of babble and run on sentences that just end in the middle of a sentence. wonder why they show up like that. apparently craigslist has a good spot for that, as the yare usually flagged for removal fairly fast.. and troy i know no one is behind their computer typing that ad over and over, but i just had to get it off my chest. MAYBE, just maybe, one of those idiots will at least read my reply and laugh?
trav

it's all code for the drug dealers , when to come get your drugs and where .

[Charger_Fan]

Highlight the ad and you'll see text hidden in the background between the ad and the pictures. They use white text on a white background to hide keywords and what appears to be quotes or other nonsense.

Cool idea, I'll have to give that a try.

[Hemidoug]

You guys want to have some laughs? Go here...http://www.419eater.com/.
It's a pisser!

Here is the video page....http://www.419eater.com/html/video.htm

And the scam page...http://www.419eater.com/html/letters.htm

[chargerman68]

i have gotten several of the same emails reguarding my parts for sale..its fun to let them get excited and have them send checks 

[Brock Samson]

those videos are AWESOME!   

[derailed]

I ve noticed an increase also in the spam on there. I like craigslist alot and have bought and sold a bunch of stuff on there. This is the reason your not suppose to advertise in more than 1 location at 1 time. I guess its how they track there generic spam messages which show up in numerous places in a search.