Boy, Do I LOVE Screwing with Spammers on Craiglist!!

[iflynething]

I posted my Nikon 80-200 f/2.8 on Craiglist and within literally 10 minutes, I got responses. Let's do some messing

The first e-mail was from a Miss Donna Bedwell (donnabed@gmail.com):
"Hello
i will like you to getting back to me if this item it still
available for sale right now"

My Response:
"Still for sale. Just put it up

~Michael~"

She sent this in reply:
"Hello
really appreciate your response to my email.I want you to consider
it sold, pls do withdraw the advert from craigslist to avoid
disturbance.I want you to know that i will be paying via bank
certified check .I will like you to provide me with the following.
information to facilitate the mailing of the check to you ...


1.....Full name to write on the check
2.....Full Physical address to post the check
3.....City, State and Zip Code
4.....Home & Cell Phone to contact you


*** Note that the payment will be shiped 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** Thanks

--
are you still selling the item posted in craigs get back to me asap"

I told her:
"Id rather deal with PayPal. Make sure to send a big truck because my "item" is excessively large and will need a large shipping payment. I hope you can handle it.

Please be advised that I would like you to pay me for my item first and then I will ship it to you, at no cost.

Thank you for your time and consideration


~Michael~"


With that response, she hasn't replied back to me.....figures.


Then about 2 days later, I got another one from a John Ball (jball1712@gmail.com):
"Hey,
Am keenly interested in your item listed above,is it still available for sale?"

I replied telling him "still available" and his response was:

"Hello
Thanks for the response, am interested in buying it for my Friend's
child as a xmas gift i am willing to offer $900, with the shipping and
handling of
$100, and get back to me with your paypal e-mail ID so that i can
transfer your money to your paypal account as soon as possible, Hope
to hear from you.
Thanks"

With that I said:
"Well thanks for the quick response. Since you're offering $50 extra than I have it listed for, then let's just do it for $1,000 and I'll pay shipping?

Please get back with me as soon as possible and I will get your account number and start the shipping process.

Thanks for your time.

~Michael~"





I normally don't reply to spammers but I just had to this time. It's just fun! I don't expect to hear back from Mr. John Ball after that response

~Michael~

 

[IgsEMT]

And you did that because...?
Two idiots give everyone a bad reputation, nothing new here. But are you really selling it or what?

 

[iflynething]

Oh I'm really selling it it's just those were from e-mails to me and I figured I would mess with them. With the wording they did, I can't take them seriously. I would expect someone to leave a phone number or something to talk in on the phone about the lens. This wasn't to attract spammers, I just got the responses from them and messed around.

~Michael~

 

[PhotoXopher]

'The item'...
'For sell'...

Dead giveaway

 

[iflynething]

INCREDIBLE:

Just got ANOTHER one, luckily, Yahoo mail sent this one to the spam folder:

From Joy Daniel (danieljoy28@yahoo.com):
"Is your item is in Good condition? kindly get back to me on my e-mail as soon as Possible"

My response:
"Of course it's still available and in great condition. I have an offer, please give me your account number and I will take care of the shipping. Just let me tap into your account and get the $850 plus....oh $50 in shipping....no no wait, another guy is offering me $900 for the "item" PLUS $100 for shipping. Can you believe it?! $100 just on shipping? Can you do any better?

Thanks!

~Michael~"




Ha ha this is fabulous!

~Michael~

 

[iflynething]

'The item'...
'For sell'...

Dead giveaway

Ain't that the truth! I just love the broken english these people do. I wonder if people go around just clicking on random CL ads hoping to find a sucker?

~Michael~

 

[Overread17 5]

most of its auto codes with pregenerated emails. Its only when you respond that someone actually reviews and either writes a reply or another pregen email is sent out. I am rather amazed though, that (in this day and age) they still fail to master enligsh. I mean its not like there are not a lot of english speakers out there - heck they are the sorts who would get hacked Word - at least that would help their spelling

 

[PatrickHMS]

More dead giveaways and other hints about selling on CL and eBay -

They use a " - ", either one, or two of them together " -- ",

like

"quote

--
Is your item still for sale?

"endquote

NEVER seen that dash where it was not a scammer.

Most scammers I get inquiries from use gmail accounts for their email addresses.

Never give them your PayPal information, some of them will claim to be rady to pay, and they will tell you your funds are being held pending notification of your shipping item before they can pay the funds directly to your PayPal Account.

Even if they DO PayPal you any money, they can claim to never receive the item and force a chargeback from PayPal so that you are out the item and the funds. I have heard of this happening. PayPal / eBay will listen to THEM, not you.

Tell them you will be happy to work with them, that you are glad they are not a scammer, as you have already helped the authorities put several scammers away to do jail time.

You will be happy to accept their paper funds, as you always show the information to the proper authorities before you deposit them anyway. Since their funds are genuine, they have nothing at all to worry about.

You can report their email addresses to their ISP, I have had several account deleted, not that that will stop anyone.

Tell them how much you love all those maggot cockroach egg-sucking scammers, and how you sincerely wish them a very slow and painful death.

Accept ONLY USPS Money Orders. You can take a Money Order to the Post Office, and they will tell you on the spot if it is any good or not. And they will cash it right then and there so you don't have to deposit to to your bank account. For honest transactions where I ship and take a MO, I have an item packed and ready to go, take the Money Order to USPS, cash it, and then drop whatever I sold in the mail.

Since they are paying cash for a Money Order anyway, and going to a Post Office to mail it to you anyway, JUST MAKE IT a USPS Money Order and you will work with them.

Once you have been doing this long enough you will be able to spot a scammers email when you read it the first time.

"

--

Is this item still for sell?

"

No, not to a scammer like you are!

I have an email folder where I keep the scam emails, save every one of them, sometimes go back to search and see someone who has contacted me before. So far I have 1,144 emails from CL scammers in that folder.

 

[Missdaisy]

I cruise CL regularly but I've never bought or sold on there. If you click on the ad link and send the seller a message do they automatically get your email address to respond to you or do you need to type in an email address or phone # for them to be able to contact you?

 

[bigtwinky]

I cruise CL regularly but I've never bought or sold on there. If you click on the ad link and send the seller a message do they automatically get your email address to respond to you or do you need to type in an email address or phone # for them to be able to contact you?

On craigslist, they get a masked emailed address, they dont get your actual one.

You enter your actual one when you create the ad, they link your actual one to a masked one (16874414@craigslist.com) and when the buyer sends an email, they only see the masked one and its then routed to your real one.

I've bought and sold on craigslist but I refuse to ship. Its all local pickup only, as at least this way, I can inspect and refuse if need be

 

[Missdaisy]

I cruise CL regularly but I've never bought or sold on there. If you click on the ad link and send the seller a message do they automatically get your email address to respond to you or do you need to type in an email address or phone # for them to be able to contact you?

On craigslist, they get a masked emailed address, they dont get your actual one.

You enter your actual one when you create the ad, they link your actual one to a masked one (16874414@craigslist.com) and when the buyer sends an email, they only see the masked one and its then routed to your real one.

I've bought and sold on craigslist but I refuse to ship. Its all local pickup only, as at least this way, I can inspect and refuse if need be

So I have to create an account to inquire about an item or job?

 

[bigtwinky]

No, you can just click on the Contact link in the post and it will open up an email interface and send an email to a masked email.

You don't even need a registered account to post something up, you simply need to use a valid email address.

 

[PatrickHMS]

I cruise CL regularly but I've never bought or sold on there. If you click on the ad link and send the seller a message do they automatically get your email address to respond to you or do you need to type in an email address or phone # for them to be able to contact you?

If you click on a link for a listed CL item, an email will be generated to a masked account, and will be sent to the seller, so you do not get the sellers emaill address,

But they DO get yours....

 

[Derrel]

Well, the scammers on Craigslist have little or nothing on the scammers hitting the ole' email boxes of millions of innocent people world wide. What you are doing is commonly called "scambaiting"--dicking around spammers whose only goal is to rip you off. I had some fun with a Nigerian scammer this summer, along the lines of some of this stuff

Welcome to the 419 Eater

The site has a nice FAQ, as well as tips here Welcome to the 419 Eater

And remember--the people you are dealing with are *criminals* and should be treated as such.

 

[NateWagner]

of course when you reply they will have your email.