| Author | Message | ||
     Ridesinnm |
Hi, I posted a pickup for sale on craigslist, and got this email from a "buyer". The link he provided to paypal appears to be to paypal, and not some fake site where I assumed they were trying to get me to enter financial info. Just can't figure out what the scam is. His email to me: Thanks for the reply, i am a U.S. Navy as a nuclear reactor operator on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71). i am at sea right now so l wont be able to check the item so whats the present condition, because am buying this for my son as a surprise gift so am willing to offer you the amount you required. I can only pay through PayPal at the moment as i don't have access to my bank account online(i don't have internet banking with it), but i have it attached to my PayPal account, and this is why i insisted on using PayPal to pay, all i will need is your PayPal email address to pay for the item, and if you don't have a PayPal account yet, you can set one up at www.paypal.com it cant take you less than 3mins to do that, i will be expecting your PayPal email so l can pay. I have a pick up agent that will come for the pick up after payment has been sorted. l will be waiting for your reply asap | ||
| Harleyelf |
He has fraudulently returned some items to build up a ghost balance in his paypal account, and will write the equivalent of a bad check to your paypal account. This pickup agent is the key. Ask for his contact info and have him show you some evidence of his buddy's military status. If he's the legit pal of a serviceman, he'll have photos. | ||
| Sifo |
I got an almost identical email selling a bike on CL. It's an attempted scam. | ||
| Svh |
I am not sure what the scam is but it sure screams SCAM!! I once fought for 3 months to get a charge for a very expensive camera taken off my Paypal and bank fees paid back to me from Paypal. Someone that I purchased an item from, not on Ebay, charged the purchase to my Paypal account. I now change my password often and link it to an account I keep less than $50 in and transfer money before I make a bigger purchase. | ||
| Union_man |
I don't know how the scam works, but I was selling a car and I got virtually the same e-mail! Military, paypal all the same. I just ignored it! | ||
| Crusty |
I had the same offer to buy my XT when I put it on Craigs list. I told them that I only accepted cash, and that the buyer's agent could bring it when he came to pick up the bike. I never heard another word. | ||
| Ridesinnm |
Ok, thanks. I am certain it is a scam, just wasn't sure how it worked. That's interesting about the ghost balance in his account. I hadn't heard of that before. Brad. | ||
| Harleyelf |
He might also have it linked to a credit card which approves transactions and then changes its mind about paying. There are a thousand ways online to pretend to have money. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
The fact that you are a nuke reactor operator is troubling 1) the job aint called that 2) the guys that do it - don't announce in blank blind emails 3) an email coming off the ship most certainly would have hit the Pub List... meaning certain sights are black listed while underway - and the last time I was out - CL was certainly one of those - FB wasn't around yet - but I am sure that the Navy aint too keene on it either in a mission status security environment Stinks o scam. | ||
| Ourdee |
I always tell them to send the money to their agent and have him bring it with him in small denominations and non sequential serial numbers. Nothing sold on CL leaves here without cash in my hand and having been ran under a UV light and counted by me. | ||
| Fast1075 |
City nailed it. The first alarm went off in my head from "the item"..That was all it took for me. We get scam "wanna buy an item" E-Mails all the time. Usually it is for ice machines in our case. Syntax and grammar errors usually tell the tale. The non-specific "item" thing is a red flag being waved. Harry | ||
| Pkforbes87 |
"The non-specific "item" thing is a red flag being waved." +1 My general rule of thumb is to ask myself, "Could this email apply to every single item listed on Craigslist?" If the answer is yes, it's a scam. Most of the time, these emails are from an automated spam program just sending out the same generalized message to as many listings as possible. At least with the CL "masked" email system, you won't put your contact information on any never-ending spam lists as long as you keep your phone # out of the ad and don't reply to suspicious emails. To eliminate any wasted time, many times I ask a simple question in my correspondence to prove that there is a real live person on the other end. Example: "Lauren": Still available for sale? Me: Yes. Bike is still available. I've been getting a lot of spambot responses. To prove you aren't one, tell me what two plus three is in your next email. "Lauren": Hi, I am interested ,and you should consider it sold .Actually ,I am buying it for someone and payment would be through PayPal ,my agent would be coming for pick up, i am working in a ship and most of time i am on high seas. I would be expecting your prompt reply,with the name and the email address on your PayPal account so that i could make the payment asap and i will appreciate if you could send more pics as i would not be seeing it in person so i can make a payment right away, and pick up would at a designated place or your residence.And lastly , i am offering additional $ 100 to your final price for you to keep it off from other offers. Regards. Me: Lauren, you're trying to steal my money. And you're not a person. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I'm a white hat, but to do that well I have to think like a black hat. Here is how I would run the scam... First, I'd do the automated responses via a script that watches craigslist. Easy enough. Send out a ton of requests just like the one you got every day. Second, I'd accumulate the list of people that respond, add them to a list of "confirmed pay pal email addresses". I'd build up as many as I can. Thirdly, I would sell this list to spammers and fraudsters as "comfirmed paypal email addresses for people that aren't already hyper paranoid". I'd say they would self for between 1 and 25 cents each (depending on quality). At that point, its not even clear I have really broken the law, so while the payout is low, the there is a steady stream of income and the risk is VERY low as well (effectively zero, who's gonna prosecute?). That would be the angle I would take, had I not decided a long time ago that I am on the sides of "the good guys". I bet you could clear $100k in a year before that gravy train is closed down by some law or technical measure. Spammers are obvious how they would use them... a confirmed working email has some (low but non zero) value. The fraudsters would use the email addresses for spearphishing. Send a forged note that appears to come from paypal or craigslist (or something else recognizable) enticing you to click a link. That link would install malware on your system (unless you are very careful about constant patching, you can usually be infected by something, usually an Adobe product). That malware would discretely intercept every keystroke from then on, and send it somewhere bad, and I would have all your ID's and passwords in short order. Then the serious theft can begin. If I can't compromise you with malware (your patching is that good, or my exploits are that bad), then I could try "spear phishing" where I pretend to be paypal or your bank or anything else, and get you to click a link, and impersonate them long enough to get your ID and Password. It wouldn't work in most cases, but since I bought 10000 valid emails for $100, it only has to work 1 out of 10000 times for me to get rich doing it. The one out of 10000 times that it works it would be trivial for me to clean out far more than $100... I bet you could get closer to $1,000 or $10,000 before the real warning bells start going off and people start paying attention. And if it's over seas fraud, and you ripped $1000 from the credit card company... how hard do you think they are really going to work to set up extradition and get international lawyers involved to try and hunt you down? I'm in the computer security business... and for better or worse, business is ***good***.  | ||
| Union_man |
Reepicheep... After reading your post I am GLAD I ignored the email!!!!!! | ||
| Tbolt_pilot |
Ditto on Reepicheep's lesson. I'm in the same business and it is always *good* unfortunately. No matter how solid your security measures, you can't stop boneheads from being boneheads. I literally answer calls and reports about these type scams e-v-e-r-y d-a-y! My *scam* bell went off before 10 words in and the rest of it only confirmed the alarm. I love the run-on sentences. I hack on the Sailors but even their grammar is better than that. Good on you for trusting your gut and checking your suspicions. | ||
| Sdecp |
Well, I am sure I have a buddy in the RC division, but that would take me a while to find out. Looking on the ship's website and from NewPort News shipyard, the Roosevelt is in overhaul until 2013. I am not saying the ship is not on a quick sea trial, but their website says half the crew is in temporary office space. This tells me the ship is sitting right next to the pier. http://www.wdbj7.com/news/dp-nws-cp-carrier-overha ul-20120227,0,6159243.story http://www.roosevelt.navy.mil/ | ||
| Reepicheep |
Tbolt_Pilot, if you are ever up at AFIT, drop me a note. You can grab the Uly or the KDX-200 and see some of the nicer parts of Ohio... | ||
| Tbolt_pilot |
I'll look you up if I'm ever out that way. Thanks! | ||
| Xodot |
CL scam another way my buddy is selling a desk on CL and gets a cheque in the mail drawn on an out of province financial institution for more money that the desk was listed for. The bank confirmed the account was active but would not say the balance. In this case there would be an agent by to pick up the desk after the cheque was cashed. The scammer really encouraged the cashing of the cheque. If the cheques had been submitted, there would have been insufficient funds and the cheque would have my buddy's banking information on the back of it and the bad cheque would go back to the scammer. Now the scammer has some very valuable information to use. Scary stuff happens. | ||
| Ghost_rider33 |
I'm on the USS George Washington, and we can get on Craigslist when the Proxy or whatever it's called is down. I recently bought a motorcycle on there through PayPal, but the seller and I were in contact for quite a while before we decided to proceed with the deal. It sucks that people are scamming like this. It makes it hard for honest folks that are deployed to do business. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Happens everywhere, I always get a few of them when I'm selling on the French online ad sites. The French grammar is generally no better than the English versions of the same scam it's generally the first giveaway. When we get to the transport representative I give up. If they don't have my email address because the message has come through the ad site, I just ignore them. If we've already corresponded I send them a polite mail telling them that I'm sorry but I don't enter into 3rd party transactions. Never gone any further than that, as they won't waste any more of their time either. | ||
| Syonyk |
There's always http://www.419eater.com/index.php - scamming the scammers. |
