Craiglist scams

[Pesca]

Hi all,

I put my Rogue for sale on Craiglist, and now, I am puzzled on the responses I got, so I need your advice.

Yesterday, two hours after posting my ad, someone sent me an email asking if it was still for sale.
Euh, I put the ad 2 hours ago! I said to myself, OK, he might not have looked at all the details, so I answered. Ten minutes after I emailed him back, I got a long email (?), about the same bull.. about wanting him to offer this car to his son in New Zealand (Oh, that is not Africa, so that must be true!?!?!), blablabla => Another scam, forget about it.

This morning, I got a new email from "[email protected] on behalf of lindsly morris [[email protected]]" asking: "Anything else to add or the ads says it all?"
What kind of question is that?
What is the gimmick of asking "on behalf of" someone else?

So my question is: Is it another scam?

Another question is, since I protected myself by using a craiglist email address instead of mine, do they mainly try to get my true email address by sending these kinds of emails? What is their goal in all that type of [censored]?

Thanks for any help.

 

[The motor guy]

Sounds complicated and a little fishy. I would just ignore the emails until you get one that sounds legitimate.

 

[Jimmy9190]

CL is nothing but one huge scam site. People on there post fake job ads and fake help wanted ads so they can get your name, social security info, address, etc and steal your identity, open up credit accounts in your name, steal from your bank account, you name it. They post stolen and defective merchandise and items for sale, anything they can to rip people off. And I am sure they want your email info so they can spam you and/or hack into your email so they can use your info to send out spam. I guess if the crooks are really good at what they do they can hack your email and you could be their next identity theft victim. I personally would be extremely wary of any email address like the ones you listed in your post.

I have also heard of people meeting someone to buy an item they listed on CL, then the "buyer" shows up with 2 or 3 goons and assorted other dirtbags and beats the seller up and takes the item that was for sale away from him.

I stay far away from Craigslist. It is rip-off city and scammer central. Maybe post your Nissan on www.autotrader.com, if there is one for Canada.

 

[eljefino]

If the reply does not mention your Rogue by name, dustbin it. It's easy to auto reply generically without reading your description.

You could put a qualifier in your ad, like "Put Rogue in subject line", or "include your city with your email." Or just make them call your phone.

 

[PhillyJoe]

You have to be real leary on big stuff. Say a guy is selling a $10,000 car for $5,000 (needs cash for college, leaving for the service, moving across country and can't ship, just want to pay off loan). He obviously won't accept a check and wants cash. Do you really want to meet a stranger who knows you're bringing 5 big bills?

Having said that, I am looking for a car for my mother in the $2,500-3000 price range. Found a nice local Avalon, high miles, all receipts, one owner, all the right stuff. Found it last Friday and wanted to look at it over the weekend. Responded with my cell number. No response but I start getting marketing calls ever since. Maybe just a coincidence? No.

 

[ddrumman2004]

I have had to great experiences with CL.

I sold my 91 Goldwing to a guy down south of me after much dickering over what he wanted to trade for it plus cash. I had no use for a aluminum fishing boat or a older Toyota 4wd truck in great condition. So he and his wife drove 3 hours to get here and he paid me cash for it.

The other was that I bought a used set of drums to gig with from a somewhat local musician. You must do your "homework' when dealing on CL.

I also got scam emails when I posted the Goldwing. You can tell the scams from the legit replies.....I can anyway.

 

[Carbon]

Here is Cragislist's writeup on the topic: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams

 

[JTK]

Agreed. I've bought and sold outdoor power equipment, appliances and whatnot with ease, but would be leery of buying/selling a high dollar item like a newer vehicle on CL.

Selling a newer car is painful enough even with more conventional means.

Joel

 

[OilNerd]

Pesca, those are just spammers phishing for your real email address.

Usually, you'll get short messages from various email addresses with short phrases like "Interested." or "Still have it?" that could apply to any ad.

For fun, I created a junk mailbox and replied from that address. Then you get some personal-sounding pitch for the spammer. It was some outfit called biddingkit.com.

 

[bullwinkle]

CL can save & make you some money-but just be careful about who you respond to-don't use your real email address, and most of all, make sure that anybody who you deal with has a PHONE NUMBER & ADDRESS-that kills the scammers right off!

 

[eljefino]

If you see a car without license plates with palm trees in the background, and you live somewhere cold, it's a scam.

They also seem to like using Toyota/Honda/Nissan/VW as bait.

 

[pottymouth]

I would email that Lindsley chick. She might be cute.

Seriously, most of the actual scams I hear about on Craigslist seem to take advantage of your greed. I think a lot of people forget the old addage, "if it sounds too good to be try, it probably is." 2 year old BMW in mint condition for $3,500? Someone offers your asking price plus a few thousand for a vehicle sight unseen but you have to cash the check first and send them part of the money back? Anyone older than 14 should know way better than to fall for these.

I've sold and bough cars, motorcycles, power equipment, etc. on Craigslist with no problems. Anytime something didn't smell right, I simply deleted the e-mail and moved on to the next. You just have to use your head and avoid bad circumstances. If you behave like a mark, you'll be treated as such.

Always set up a specific hotmail account for each transaction and then forget it when the deal is over, and for god's sake don;t open any attachments sent to you.

 

[MNgopher]

One has to be able to figure out the good from the bad. The way I work it is never give a phone number out in the ad and use an email I set up for this purpose. Once I get a response from someone who is interested, usually with a phone number, I contact them back. The spam responses are usually pretty easy to figure out.

I sold my '99 F150 on Craigslist in less than a day. Out of four responses, one was spam, the other three were legit and booked to look at it. First guy in the door took it at almost asking price and we finished the transaction at the local bank.

And the usual: If its too good to be true, it usually is, definitely applies. I was looking into a Snap-on tool box that started to reek of stolen property. I walked away quickly the more it started to smell...

 

[Drew99GT]

I recently sold my Dad's Blazer on Craigslist, and yea, it was quite amusing wading through the cesspool of scammers and downright idiots. It's so easy to spot scams on Craigslist if, like was posted above, it seems too good to be true or smells fishy. In the end, after a few weeks of weeding out the scams and the bull [censored], I sold the truck to a great young couple who truly needed it for their family, and they got a great deal.

I'd say 80% of job ads on Craigslist are frauds. Here's a hint: when you find a janitor job listing $22/hr, it's probably fake.

 

[javacontour]

It's pretty easy to set up an e-mail profile that uses the temporary address given in the ad. I tend to respond using such a setup until I know it's a real live, interested party.

To the scammers, I simply respond with a please call me and I can answer all your questions and more.

The phone number I give is my Google Voice number. I can turn it off during times when I don't want calls, etc.

I've bought one car and sold three on Craigslist. You do have to work through some chaff, but there are real buyers and sellers.

Seems the new trick is to post the ad as an image and list the car for say 20% of it's value.

I've seen a couple of very personal sounding ads listed in my local CL that end up being scammers who take more time. One gave a heart tugging story about how it was her husband's car and she wants to sell it because he and their child passed away in a car accident, but not in this car...

Another good one is an Army, Navy, Marine, A/F officer getting shipped off to Afghanistan, so they need to sell quickly and will ship it from ___________.

I politely wish them good luck and indicate I won't buy a car until I've driven it.

After about 30 minutes, one should be familiar with probably 90% of the scams on the site.

 

[javacontour]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
If you see a car without license plates with palm trees in the background, and you live somewhere cold, it's a scam.

They also seem to like using Toyota/Honda/Nissan/VW as bait.


Not too many palm trees here.

Have you noticed the image ads? I.E. the whole ad is an image, including the text on the ad is part of the image.

Probably trying to get around any robots looking to correlate e-mail addresses with scammers and spammers.

The other pet peeve is even though it clearly says do not call me with commercial offers, everytime I put a car up for sale, I get a call from someone offering to help me sell my car.

 

[daves87rs]

Usually ends up being a disaster...I tried it once here, and had to pull it off after a few days.


Way too many scammers here...

 

[Pesca]

Thanks guys for all the answers.

It has been a while since I put something for sale, so it seems I needed an update.

I am not in a rush of selling the car. I set the price as I would be comfortable selling it, and if nobody is interested, I will still be happy to drive it.
That is why I chose only free ads website, except one which is quite good around here but still cheap.

We will see how everything goes.

Thanks again for the advices.