1) Someone replies to your Craig’s list AD with a very vague email. In most cases, they always call your product you have for sale an “item” but they usually never call it by it’s specific name. Some examples:
“is the item still available for sale”
“I am interested to buy, please get back to me with the condition of the item asap”
“You got this item for sale?”
“Top of the day, I’m interested in buying this post, Do you still have it
for sale?”
“hey how are you his this item is still available let me know the condition okay “
“I am interested in buying your item please notify me with your fix price.hope the item is in good working condition?”
2) When you reply that your “item” is still for sale, they will give you a scripted reply that they are not in the area any longer, and need to ship it to a friend or relative overseas. The Shipping location is usually Nigeria, but other locations have been used. They also may add that they want to use Pay Pal to pay for your listing.
“Thanks for getting back to me, i want to Purchase the (Item) for my sons Birthday gift, he is in West Africa where he works with Shell oil Company, I will be paying you through Pay Pal, these secures and protects two parties in a transaction… I will like you to send me your Pay Pal invoice or your Pay Pal identification email for payment… I will provide you my sons shipping information for shipment as soon as the payment is sent. I will be paying you the sum of ($490 USD) for cost price and shipping fee, Shipping will be through USPS priority mail. Thanks for your anticipated co-operation.”
“”I really appreciate your reply and also i agree with the price of the item,i want to buy the item for my son in oversea and due to the nature of my work i can’t come for the pick up myself so i am paying you through pay pal because i have money in my pay pal account so, i have confirmed the shipping cost as well which is $100 making the whole cost $200 so get back to me with your pay pal email address so i can make the payment,if you don’t have an account with pay pal you can log on to www.pay pal.com and create your account.Thanks and God bless “
If you agree to use paypal, they will send you a FAKE PAY PAL EMAIL NOTIFICATION, which usually goes to your spam folder. If you log into your Pay Pal account, you will see there is no payment from this scammer. It is always wise to log into your account to verify any payment from anyone who claims they sent you money. Keep in mind, Craig’s List is for LOCAL CASH SALES only, any other method used may put you in risk of being scammed.
3) The scammer may send you a Fake Check opposed to the fake Pay Pal Email. They will send you a payment which is always over the amount discussed in email. They will request that you deposit or cash the check, and send the excess funds to someone, which is usually a “shipping agent”. This “shipping agent” may be located in Nigeria or your country. DO NOT DEPOSIT THE CHECK! The check may clear, but in time the bank will deduct the entire amount of your account, and you can never get the money back you send to the “shipping agent” or the person they advised you to send the money too. The usually use Western Union for the money transfer, but they may request Money gram as well.
“Hello Seller, I would love to make an instant immediate purchase of
your above listed item on CL but I will not be available for its
viewing as I am out of the country on urgent business assignments but
please consider it sold and I am trusting you as to its present
condition to be good and I will like you to know that I will be making
payment via bank certified cashiers check money order and I will be
including the shipping charges which I will be responsible for
shipping and the shipping funds are to be sent to the shipping agent
via Western Union money transfer because that is the most reliable
method and I will include an extra $50 in the payment for your running
around expense so when you receive my check please deposited it at
your bank then immediately go to your nearest Western Union to have
the shipping funds wired to my shipping agent and please email me back
with MTCN number exact amount sent and sender information if this is
to your immediate satisfaction please email me asap your full
name,address,zip code and phone number.so that i can proceed with
payment asap.Thank fro your response and understanding..hope to read
from you soon.”
This is what john writes:
Yes thanks for your sincerity , i already make the payment , so it will be hold till you send them the tracking number, You can still Ship very early tomorrow morning , and they will release the fund as soon as possible. but in the main time snap the picture and send me the item , i want to see more of the it.
thanks so much
Regards
This email came back to me.
From: “janet.diana17@yahoo.com” <janet.diana17@yahoo.com
Thanks for mailing back,am ok with the price and the condition,am buying it for December time and i won't be able to come for the inspection due to the nature of my work,I insisted on PayPal because i don't have access to my bank account online here as i don't have internet banking, but i can pay from my PayPal account, as i have my bank a/c attached to it, i will need you to give me your PayPal email address so i can make the payments asap and pls if you don't have PayPal account yet, it is very easy to set up, go to http://www.PayPal.com and get it set up , after you have set it up i will only need the e-mail address you use for registration with PayPal so as to put the money through.I have a pick up agent that will come and pick this up after i have made the payments.
Thanks.
I only deal with local people that I can actuall talk too and meet with.
"Cash Only Policy" I think once we took a cashiers check but we went with them to the bank and it was made out to us.
Don't fall for any emails like this, Most come as a first email short making no since and you reply and then they send something like this crap below.
Some will claim they are in the military etc. They are all scams if they aren't willing to call and talk to you come meet actually look at what you have or allow you to come and look at what they have.
Such as the ones that post in your area but then when you inquire they say they are somewhere else and they will ship it to you etc. Tell them your going to be in that area on such and such date and to give you the address so that you can come and check it out and see what happens. Nothing because they full of it, it's a scam.
Good Luck and be careful out there.
I just finished dealing with one of these. Because I am well versed in these things I knew from the first it was a scam, but like everyone I hoped it wasn’t. When the two money orders arrived (for $950 each in payment of $400), it confirmed what I already knew to be the case. What strikes me is the quality of the fake money orders. They would fool any casual observer and probably a teller. I put them under a 50 power scope and could see the printing flaws. Plus there was a poor imitation of a watermark and the micro threads were printed, not in the paper. Finally, the envelope was mailed in England but the money order was US. (The email traced to S. Africa). I am still stringing the guy in true scambaiting fashion by insisting that I have not received them. He originally said they had a tracking number (they arrived ordinary mail), so I told him to track them.
It’s sad that so many people fall for this as they must or these disgusting animals would not keep doing it.
Oh. The email is Efren Olague – latnomarine1984@hotmail.com
They ask me sell things and send photos of the articles. After sending and have the tracking numbers, they not paid me the money. And continue asking for things to buy.
The paypal agent don’t have name or email like paypal employee.
Right now this happening me this.
WATCH FOR THIS ONE FROM COLE.PLATT14@GMAIL.COM
I really appreciate your response to my email. I want you to consider it sold, Pls do withdraw the advert from CL to avoid disturbance,anyway I don’t have time to come over to take a look because of my Business but you don’t need to bother yourself with the shipment, I’ll take care of that by engaging the services of a shipper, hence I’ll be sending a Certified check and it will be delivered to you via United Parcel Service (UPS), so I’ll need you to provide me with the following information to facilitate the mailing of the check.
Full name on the check.
Full Physical address to post the check
City, State and Zip Code
Home & Cell Phone to contact you.
Note that the payment will be shipped to your address via UPS NEXT DAY AIR SERVICE and I will like you to know that you will not be responsible for shipping i will have my shipper to come over as soon as you have cashed the check*
N.B UPS does not deliver to a P.O box addresses.Thanks
I really appreciate your response to my email. I want you to consider it sold, Pls do withdraw the advert from CL to avoid disturbance,anyway I don’t have time to come over to take a look because of my Business but you don’t need to bother yourself with the shipment, I’ll take care of that by engaging the services of a shipper, hence I’ll be sending a Certified check and it will be delivered to you via United Parcel Service (UPS), so I’ll need you to provide me with the following information to facilitate the mailing of the check.
Full name on the check.
Full Physical address to post the check
City, State and Zip Code
Home & Cell Phone to contact you.
Note that the payment will be shipped to your address via UPS NEXT DAY AIR SERVICE and I will like you to know that you will not be responsible for shipping i will have my shipper to come over as soon as you have cashed the check*
N.B UPS does not deliver to a P.O box addresses.Thanks
From : Andy Ling Wong Jr vffgfsvbhhnmjkg@gmail.com
7:45 PM (20 hours ago)
l really appreciate your response to my email. I want you to consider
it sold, please do withdraw the advert from Craigslist.org to avoid
disturbance,anyways I don’t have time to come over to take a look
because of my Business but you don’t need to bother yourself with the
shipment, I’ll take care of that by engaging the services of a mover,
hence I’ll be sending a check and it will be delivered to you via
United Parcel-service (UPS or FedEx), so I’ll need you to provide me with the
following information to facilitate the mailing of the check.
Full name of the payment…………………………
Home address to write on the payment……………..
City………………..State……………………………………………
Zip Code…………Home/T Mobile #……………………………….
I will make arrangements for the pick up as soon as you have your
money I am completely satisfied with the advert and the payment will
be delivered within 24hours.**I use a hearing impaired phone# and will
receive your calls via email **..I’m sorry for the late respond to
your email …N.B UPS does not deliver to a P.O box addresses.Thanks
_____________________________________________________________
My reply : CASH ONLY!!!
♫
vffgfsvbhhnmjkg@gmail.com
karlidonvic006@gmail.com
I really appreciate the quick reply.I am buying this item for a son of mine as Birthday gift in which he will be celebrating next weekend and i will be adding $100 for the shipping and handling.I would have made this transaction locally but am not in town presently i would have come down to your house to discuss on it please get back to me asap with your PayPal email address for me to remit the funds and once payment is being received from paypal you can be able to ship this item i am doing this very fast because i have promised my son that the item will be there soonest get back to me immediately as for us to transact very fast. do get back to me with your pay pal email so i can remit the fund ASAP.
Hope to read from you soon.
I got one of these from phillyburrie@gmail.com. It was a long one so I won’t copy and paste, but basically he was “hearing impaired” and wouldn’t be able to call, asked for pictures of the item which he then said he was comfortable with, was going to pay with a business check that would have extra for the shippers and wanted me to deposit it immediately. At that point, I asked for a name and basic location and he answered that I didn’t need to worry about where it was going and that his girlfriend couldn’t wait to see it. I stopped it right there and told him how suspicious that sounded and asked for more names and locations. I haven’t received a response since.
tommy kelvin tommy.kelvin45@gmail.com <—— scammers email
Jan 2 (2 days ago)
to me
I really appreciate your response to my email. I want you to consider
it sold, Pls do withdraw the advert from CL to avoid
disturbance,anyway I don't have time to come over to take a look
because of my Business but you don't need to bother yourself with the
shipment, I'll take care of that by engaging the services of a
shipper, hence I'll be sending a Certified check and it will be
delivered to you via United Parcel Service (UPS), so I'll need you to
provide me with the following information to facilitate the mailing of
the check.
Full name on the check.
Full Physical address to post the check
City, State and Zip Code
Home & Cell Phone to contact you.
Note that the payment will be shipped to your address via UPS NEXT DAY
AIR SERVICE and I will like you to know that you will not be
responsible for shipping i will have my shipper to come over as soon
as you have cashed the check*
N.B UPS does not deliver to a P.O box addresses.Thanks
I just got one of these from “Morgan Laure” using the e-mail address of truelovejennifer@gmail.com, with a reply-to address of morgan
Here’s the reply they sent (which was obviously a scam):
Hi , Thanks for your response, just to let you know that am okay with the condition and offer you $600 of the item, am ready for it to purchase and my method of payment will be by PayPal.I would have really love to come for the viewing but due to my work frame that might not be possible as am on work inspection to Ottawa in Canada at the moment,but if you have more pictures, might want to have a good look at it. I’ll be responsible for the pick-up and the pick up money will be included in your payment to avoid delay and to enable pick up company to schedule an appropriate time for the pick-up at your location after funds has been received as i have other properties to be moved alongside with yours. all i will need is your PayPal email address to make the payment and then I will make arrangement for pick up I will be expecting your email.
Thanks
On Sat, 07 Jan 2012 22:38:04 +0530 wrote
>$500 for the entire set.
On Jan 7, 2012, at 12:03 PM, Morgan Laure wrote:
> —
> kindly get back to me the total asking price for this furniture posted for sell
>
>
> —————————————————————-
Another thing to look out for is if you receive multiple emails from multiple email addresses.
I got this one from
tommy.kelvin50@gmail.com
I really appreciate your response to my email. I want you to consider
it sold, Pls do withdraw the advert from CL to avoid
disturbance,anyway I don’t have time to come over to take a look
because of my Business but you don’t need to bother yourself with the
shipment, I’ll take care of that by engaging the services of a
shipper, hence I’ll be sending a Certified check and it will be
delivered to you via United Parcel Service (UPS), so I’ll need you to
provide me with the following information to facilitate the mailing of
the check.
Full name on the check.
Full Physical address to post the check
City, State and Zip Code
Home & Cell Phone to contact you.
Note that the payment will be shipped to your address via UPS NEXT DAY
AIR SERVICE and I will like you to know that you will not be
responsible for shipping i will have my shipper to come over as soon
as you have cashed the check*
N.B UPS does not deliver to a P.O box addresses.Thanks