The Chainlink

Craigslist Fraud

Alright so a few days ago my brother put a bike up for sale on craigslist. He got an offer from a guy that was on a "business trip" and had to pay with a money order. The guy offered him 50 bucks more than what he was selling it for. Which to me sounds very odd. My dumb brother agreed to it. Then he gets another email from the guy saying that his "assistant" sent him a check that was way more than the price of the bike, and that he wanted the difference sent back to him to pay off a shipping company for the bike's shipment. A few days later my brother got two checks for $985 each. He went on and deposited them to his account. When I found out about this whole transaction I told him not to send the guy any money. I'm pretty sure in a few days the bank will find out that they were fake money order checks and remove the money from his account. I thought this was a pretty interesting transaction. Has this ever happened to any of you? 

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Permalink Reply by MagMileMarauder on July 20, 2012 at 11:19am

I received this little gem not too long ago while posting a bike for sale on CL. Enjoy!

Mary Raymond sey.cc.beee1987@gmail.com
Jul 8 (12 days ago)
to me

Hello...

I really appreciate your response to my mail.I want you to
consider that its sold, pls do withdraw the advert from craigslist to
avoid disturbance.I want you to know that i will be paying via
certified check .I will need you to provide me the following
information to facilitate the mailing of the check

1.....Full name to write on the check
2.....Full Physical address to post the check
3.....Home & Cell Phone to contact you

*** Note that the payment will be shipped to your address via UPS NEXT DAY
SERVICE and I will like you to know that you will not be responsible
for shipping i will have my mover come over as soon as you have cashed

the check** Have a blessed day.

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on July 20, 2012 at 12:12pm

So rather than gloat over others' "stupidity" howazabout a little education here?

I'll start: In reference to the response below, NUMBER ONE (among many) is:

=Any response to a craigslist ad that does not make reference to that specific item is probably a scam.=



MagMileMarauder said:

I received this little gem not too long ago while posting a bike for sale on CL. Enjoy!

Mary Raymond sey.cc.beee1987@gmail.com
Jul 8 (12 days ago)
to me

Hello...

I really appreciate your response to my mail.I want you to
consider that its sold, pls do withdraw the advert from craigslist to
avoid disturbance.I want you to know that i will be paying via
certified check .I will need you to provide me the following
information to facilitate the mailing of the check

1.....Full name to write on the check
2.....Full Physical address to post the check
3.....Home & Cell Phone to contact you

*** Note that the payment will be shipped to your address via UPS NEXT DAY
SERVICE and I will like you to know that you will not be responsible
for shipping i will have my mover come over as soon as you have cashed

the check** Have a blessed day.

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on July 20, 2012 at 12:17pm

I did not pick up on the failure to refer to a specific item--good point!  I would have been skeptical because of the writing style which sounds a lot like other scam/spam e-mails I have seen.

Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on July 20, 2012 at 2:27pm

No, he got the joke right.  In, I believe, the 40's there was a huge rash of real estate scams involving 'prime real estate' in Florida which ended up being worthless swamp land.  Much of it was sold over the phone or via ads in local papers in areas far away from Florida with a sales pitch of how it was only going to become more valuable due to the massive land grab going on in Florida at the time.

Andy Pielet said:

LOL @ Duppie getting the joke wrong.  It's prime oceanfront property..in a landlocked state ;)

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on July 20, 2012 at 3:01pm

Typically these messages will refer rather awkwardly to "the item," but this one is a hair more sophisticated in avoiding that particular flag.

Writing style is number two, but probably a bit hard to explain to someone who has not already seen a bunch of these.

What's number three?

Lisa Curcio said:

I did not pick up on the failure to refer to a specific item--good point!  I would have been skeptical because of the writing style which sounds a lot like other scam/spam e-mails I have seen.

Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on July 20, 2012 at 3:23pm

Is PMO Postal Money Order?

I ask cuz no-one local seems to want my awesome Niner frame but a dude in Georgia is interested. I'm pretty sure he is legit as he has asked a bunch of questions that only a biker  cyclist would ask. 

For a local transaction, I know cash is king, but what do people do for out of state selling? I've sold a few items on eBay and the eBay - PayFailPal thing has always worked fine for me, but I kinda hate PayPal so I'm curious about other less expensive methods. Advice?
 
James BlackHeron said:

+1

If you deal with PMO's then take them to the PO. As far as I know they don't charge  you when they are bad.  There are still a lot of folks who legitimately deal with PMO's because they refuse to deal with PayPay.  

But when someone "overpays" and wants a return/refund that is always a scam.  

h' said:

This may be a no-brainer to us, but there are still plenty of people out there who are not able to spot the most generic Nigerian Scammer methods.  Many, but not all are members of cutures/sub-cultures that have only recently spanned the digital divide. I worry for them, but how to educate them?  The explicit warnings on every damn page of the Craigslist classifieds are clearly not cutting it.



in it to win it said:

Seriously??
Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on July 20, 2012 at 7:31pm

Yes.  PMO = Postal Money Order. 

I've found that if I need to purchase or sell bike stuff out of the area that CL is not the best method. I used to use PayBay but quit using it due to it sucking and becoming part of the PayPay scam.  

I have had good luck going through BikeForums.net or having someone from BF facilitate with out-of-town purchases.  There is a great bunch of guys there (especially in the Classic & Vintage subforum) who will go out their way to help with this kind of stuff. 

In the end though, Chicago is a huge bicycle market.  For the most part if you can't sell something here for X price you might be asking too much.  The big exception is Japanese collectors trying snap up the latest vintage fad over there.  Those guys sometimes will go on a kick on certain things and will pay crazy money for it. 

Tony Adams said:

Is PMO Postal Money Order?

I ask cuz no-one local seems to want my awesome Niner frame but a dude in Georgia is interested. I'm pretty sure he is legit as he has asked a bunch of questions that only a biker  cyclist would ask. 

Permalink Reply by Joe Willis on July 21, 2012 at 8:18pm

Got this one today

Hello and Thanks for writing back but I'm sorry I won't be able to come see
> it anymore.
> Had thought i was going to be in your town to come check it out but my plans
> got changed impromptu as am embarking on a few weeks business trip to NY
> tomorrow morning but However, am still interested in purchasing the item
> anyway.
>
> Am actually getting it for my cousin for as a birthday gift. If you could
> sell it to me, I will mail you a bank official check to cover the cost and
> also add funds to cover the shipping to where it will be needed  as soon as
> i get to New York.
>
> I'll also make arrange for a shipper/mover to handle the pick up and
> delivery after you might have confirmed you have your cash at hand in
> fairness to both parties.
>
> You can Email me back with a name, address and your phone number to whom and
> where the check be drawn to.
> I'll be more than glad if it can be sold to me.
> Write back soon.
> Thank you

Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on July 21, 2012 at 9:58pm

In descending order of 'flag:'

1) Does not refer specifically to item

2) Non-local/potentially foreign buyer

3) Bizarre boundaries- no legitimate response will be this chatty-- and in the rare case of a chatty response that's legit-- run like hell anyways.

There was an interesting article on the nets a few weeks ago about how the scammers may actually make their overtures extra dumb so that they only have to devote time to the most gullible recipients for the best return on investment, but I can't find it...



Joe Willis said:

Got this one today

Hello and Thanks for writing back but I'm sorry I won't be able to come see
> it anymore.
> Had thought i was going to be in your town to come check it out but my plans
> got changed impromptu as am embarking on a few weeks business trip to NY
> tomorrow morning but However, am still interested in purchasing the item
> anyway.
>
> Am actually getting it for my cousin for as a birthday gift. If you could
> sell it to me, I will mail you a bank official check to cover the cost and
> also add funds to cover the shipping to where it will be needed  as soon as
> i get to New York.
>
> I'll also make arrange for a shipper/mover to handle the pick up and
> delivery after you might have confirmed you have your cash at hand in
> fairness to both parties.
>
> You can Email me back with a name, address and your phone number to whom and
> where the check be drawn to.
> I'll be more than glad if it can be sold to me.
> Write back soon.
> Thank you

Permalink Reply by Apie (11) on July 23, 2012 at 10:49am

Ah.  I stand corrected.  In any case, I now have a bridge I'd like to sell.....

No, he got the joke right.  In, I believe, the 40's there was a huge rash of real estate scams involving 'prime real estate' in Florida which ended up being worthless swamp land.  Much of it was sold over the phone or via ads in local papers in areas far away from Florida with a sales pitch of how it was only going to become more valuable due to the massive land grab going on in Florida at the time.

Andy Pielet said:

LOL @ Duppie getting the joke wrong.  It's prime oceanfront property..in a landlocked state ;)

Permalink Reply by Samuel Diaz on July 26, 2012 at 1:48pm

The guy has threatened my brother to report him to "the authorities". I'm guessing he's just trying to scare my brother into sending him some money? I thought it was pretty funny. Seeing as how the checks did come out to be counterfeit and were bounced from my brothers account.

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on July 26, 2012 at 2:00pm

Does your brother have enough information to report him to "the authorities"?

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