scam or no ? OT

[Jerry Roberts]

I have a very large expensive Wilton vise advertised on my local Craigslist . I have received the attached email from a prospective buyer and I am suspicious . I think I will tell him cash only even though I do have a paypal account .

Good to have your reply. I am Frank Andrew, from Topeka, KS.and would

have loved to come and inspect this at your place myself, but I am a

marine engineer and presently off-shore. I am interested in buying

this for my son in Ohio as a surprise birthday gift and pls just make

sure it is in condition described. I will appreciate more pictures if

available and will be sending your money asap. My shipper will be

available to pick this up as soon as payment is made. Do you have

PayPal account? because, I have a PayPal account that I can easily

send money through because, its good for business payments. Get back

to me with your PayPal email address and name in order for me to have

your money sent on time. Confirm sale to me and remove the add from

posting.

Regards

Frank "

Edited August 27, 2012 by Jerry Roberts

[Niel Hoback]

Maybe its just me, but I think I smell something. I have always been overly cautious. The thing is, he says hes an engineer and yet he doesn't know the difference between ad and add. Possibly he isn't a good speller, He typo'd? I don't know, I've seen "lawyers" do worse, I guess.

Edited August 28, 2012 by Niel Hoback

[austinsailor]

SCAM!

[1941Rick]

Scam, Scam, Scam.....Same guy tried to buy my camper the same way....Just wished he would fall off his ship and go away...

[40P10touring sedan]

Have the shipper bring cash...

[greg g]

If Frank is from Topeka Kansas, I am a Polish Prince. His language is wierd, his support of pay pal is wierd, Its good for businesses when this is a personal trasaction.

RUN, RUN AWAY!!

There was just a thing about this offshore response scam on a couple of other forums.

[54Illinois]

Scam...now imagine Borat saying exactly what is written.

[48mirage]

I like to find out where a lot of these things come from. If you click on the "properties" of his email you can see the i.s.p. # from where it originated. I then put that number into the geek tools website to see where it actually comes from. http://www.geektools.com/whois.php When I find out his email originated from some land locked country or maybe a place like Somalia I'm satisfied he's a scumbag.

I also like to play with these guys. Tell him that you don't do paypal because you don't want to pay taxes and that he must send you gold ingots. Better yet tell him I can go to his house and pick up the payment when he gets home. I'm always looking for an excuse to go see Uncle Jack (retired Kansas Bureau of Investigation) or one of my biker budies. If he's not comfortable meeting at his house we can meet in the parking lot of the Westboro Baptist Church. (A common gathering place for another kind of scumbag)

Edited August 28, 2012 by 48mirage

[Jerry Roberts]

He didn't mention the word ' vise ' once in his reply so his message is probably used for all of his transactions .

[BobT-47P15]

Sounds scammy to me, too.

There used to be, and maybe still is, a website for people who like

to bait and mess with the scammer people. Some of the stuff they

do is pretty humorous. Occasionally, one of them even gets the

scammer to send some amount of money. Or, hold a sign over his

head saying something like "crook" or "scumbag".....and sending a

picture of himself.

Found it......called "419 Eater".......they explain the name.

Link: http://www.419eater.com/

Edited August 28, 2012 by BobT-47P15

[Alshere59]

http://www.scambook.com/report/view/127034/Gary-Hamby-Complaint-127034-for-$0.00

Seems to be a few engineers off shore. Different name same email.

Edited August 28, 2012 by Alshere59

[Dan Hiebert]

Ditto. That's a common scam theme with Graigslist listings and such. There are many out there with different stories, but the same basic "process".

I was selling a camper trailer, too, and got the exact same story.

There's also one where the buyer is out of the office, had his "assistant" or whomever write a check and send it to you. But "Oops", he/she added a zero or two too many. But they're accommodating because it was their mistake, so please cash the check and send them the overage. Their driver will pick up the item. There's no rhyme or reason to what they're buying (tried to pull that on my wife when she listed a case of "Bio-Freeze"). But the results are the same - your out money, and you still have the stuff your trying to sell.

Unfortunately, its become wise to question "easy" sales.

[Ed Griffin]

Yep indeed a scam. A short time ago my son had the same type message for something he had listed on Craigslist.

[JerseyHarold]

It's a scam. I've gotten this type of response to Craigslist ads several times. I guess the scammers figure that if they send out enough emails, someone will eventually bite.

[Joe Flanagan]

One of the best responses here was "Imagine Borat saying that." It SOUNDS like Borat is saying it. English is not the guy's first language. He's probably sitting in a big corrugated shed in Nigeria or someplace with a bunch of other people doing the same thing.

[TodFitch]

It's a scam. I've gotten this type of response to Craigslist ads several times. I guess the scammers figure that if they send out enough emails, someone will eventually bite.

I am curious about how the scammer gets their payoff.Is it simply that they now have a target PayPal account to try to hack into? Or is this just the starting gambit to be followed by some sort of cash back required hard luck story?

[John Reddie]

There are so many slick operators out there. The business of him telling you how he should pay you is a red flag. I get emails supposidly from the Post Office stating that a parcel that I am receiving has been held up and information is needed and for me to respond. I asked my postal clerk and she said that the Post Office would NEVER email something like that. Also, I was not even expecting any parcels at that time. I would avoid this guy like the flu.

John R

[Plymouthy Adams]

those UPS/postal scams are a trip..about as stupid in their origin as thinking that a RE: something spanish is going to get me to open it..I can't speak, comphrehend, write or read that language so how could they repond to something I may have written...give me a break....and to think some hot little female is just waiting to meet me..not in my waking hours for certain..it just amazes me folks actually will open the e-mails much less respond in kind to their contents..are there folks out thaere that naive or lonely they have no real life...I have no clue but the fact is they do get caught up in these hoaxes and scams..

[buds truck]

WHAT Tim???????/ you mean to tell me there is NO hot little female waiting to meet me???????? my bubble is burst.............

[Plymouthy Adams]

most folks hate me because of my candor...sorry...

[buds truck]

not me

[48mirage]

My guess is it is like the oversized check. You refund the overage and then since he paid as commercial transaction he claims he didn't get the purchase and paypal pulls the full amount from the account tied to paypal.

[Flatie46]

those UPS/postal scams are a trip..about as stupid in their origin as thinking that a RE: something spanish is going to get me to open it..I can't speak, comphrehend, write or read that language so how could they repond to something I may have written...give me a break....and to think some hot little female is just waiting to meet me..not in my waking hours for certain..it just amazes me folks actually will open the e-mails much less respond in kind to their contents..are there folks out thaere that naive or lonely they have no real life...I have no clue but the fact is they do get caught up in these hoaxes and scams..

So... your just going to give her the cold shoulder? She made an effort to break the ice and your just going to leave her hanging. I bet she's sitting by herself listening to sad Lionel Richie songs heart broken. Your a heart breaker Tim Adams.

[JerseyHarold]

I am curious about how the scammer gets their payoff.Is it simply that they now have a target PayPal account to try to hack into? Or is this just the starting gambit to be followed by some sort of cash back required hard luck story?

One popular method is the home-made bank check for much more than the selling price. You are then asked to refund the difference. You find out much later that you got fake money after you've refunded real money.

The giveaway in all these scams is that the buyer is ready to send your full asking price without having seen, or expressing a desire to see, the item being sold. Another red flag is the generic nature of the communication. The email could have been written in response to just about anything for sale.

'Caveat emptor' means 'buyer beware'. These days, 'caveat vendor' are words to heed as well.

[scottyv47]

unfortunatly almost every responce to craigslist adds these days are a scam, because they refuse to police there site, everytime i list something i get at least 100 emails trying to findout my info, some of the things that give a scam away is the "buyer" saying intrested in your item, instead of naming what your selling, also saying where are you located, when its clearly written on your add, and the ones asking for your address when they don't even know what your selling, or asking final offering price and condition, when there clearly written, thats why i never put my phone number on the adds anymore, and when i get any responce if i cant tell its a scam wright away, i always tell them to send me there phone number and say i'll contact them, not the other way around, i used to get around 4-5 emails a day in my junk mail box, since i've started using craigslist i get over 200 everyday, most wanting me to increase the size of my pecker, or notifying me i won free prizes, and i won the publishers clearing house, which i've never applied for, or other stupid things, craigslist is one of the worst websites going, when it first came out i thought it was great, and stopped using ebay all together, but now i sell my stuff on ebay again, i would rather pay there high prices then deal with all the scams on craigslist