Another scam via Craigslist: offering more than asking price

New craigslist scammers offer $20 above asking price and offer to pay by money order. They often state that they cannot see the item in person and will buy site unseen. They often talk about having an assistant and being away on business as an attempt for impressing wealth upon sellers. Also, they state 'arrangements' have been made by themselves for pick-up of the item. All they need is your home address and phone number. DO NOT BE A VICTIM _ REPORT TO POLICE

I just received 2 emails asking me to remove a Movado I have for sale from Craigs list and some BS about a mover and wanting me to provide my address.

I sent a response back that the way I work is either meet in person and exchange the item for cash or I can send it UPS COD and since the clown was so kind to cover shipping, I told it that I would add the shipping cost to the COD.

That pretty much shuts them up.

Great work, I love seeing all this information laid out so others cant be fooled into these money laundering scams,

Remember the checks are NOT real most are made on high quality printers and can even fool bank staff. It takes 5-10 business days for a check to actually clear a bank, the next day bit is the bank letting you access funds based on the assumption that the check is good.

There is a rash of forged Postal M.O.s going on right now so beware of those even in face to face transactions.

Red flag indicators of these scams

1. What you are selling is almost always referd to a 'item' never in context,
ex: Is the item for sale? or "I like the item very much"

2. Buyer has no interest in seeing the item first hand and is willing to buy "on your word"

3. Buyer is always busy or out of town and must rely on a mover to come get the item or has a shipping service
(actually the buyer has no interest in getting the item just the laundered money)

4. Buyer is paying by MO,check or fake Paypal account

5. Buyer's secretary, bank, or friend always over pays by a gross amount
ex: sending a 3,000.00 check for a 400.00 item
BTW I have NEVER had a bank that would mail out checks for me, so anytime a buyer states his bank accidentally sent you his payroll instead of the purchase amount it is a flat out lie.

6. Buyer wants you to send overage to a 3rd party or shipper of sometime himself
(buyer always want this done IMMEDIANTLY after fake payment shows up.)

How this works

Scammer uses a bot program to scan craigslist for new postings and sends a standard email to all sellers (fishing for victims)

You respond to scammer stating you have to item

scammer sends you a fake or stolen check using check printing software (some software even generates routing numbers that will pass a vericheck scan)

you deposit check in you account, bank runs a vericheck scan and the routing numbers pass so bank releases the money into your account

you mailn the money to the scammers PO box (some use address of empty houses)
or you money gram the money to him

your bank calls after 10 business days after the check has traveled to the "home" bank and has been rejected and either withdraws the total out of your account or demands you make payment to them. NOTE: if it is home made check you may be crimminaly liable.

you end up paying or owing thousands and the scammer get out free

NOTE
I personally let the scammer send the checks and I copy all corespondance between us
when the checks arrive I take them to my local DA with the emails and let them have them.
Printing a fake check and mailing it is multiple felony charges.
Also forward all emails to abuse@craigslist.com, (if its the fake paypal bit I forward a copy to them at spoof@paypal.com)
also notify the IC3 at http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx (basically FBI)

I'm Berry Williams, i reside at 196 Ellison Street Rochester New york, I Saw your Vehicle advert posted on craigslist market place for sale and I'm willing to purchase it, I want you to get back to me with the present condition and your last price offer.and Email me pictures as well,as for the Shipping i will take care of that myself through pick up from your home coz i have my Shipping company to do that, and my payment will be with a certified check only .Will be expecting your response asap.

Thanks for your response, I really do appreciate it, Well Everything sounds well and I guess that the Item is in Good condition and I am okay with the price $8,500 and I will be willing to offer you $8,700 for it. So, I would want you to keep all other buyer's off and also delete the advert from the website. Concerning payment my colleague in my hometown will issue you a certified check, since i am not home to do that for now. FOR CONVENIENT AND EASY TRANSACTION,I HAVE A SHIPPING COMPANY THAT WOULD BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PICK UP as soon as you receive payment for the Item.I will therefore need the following
information of you to forward to my client before he sends payment.

ok, i got 3 emails in the same day with 3 scammers. 2 of them saying exactly the same thing, and 1 saying something slightly different, but very similar.

From: gerrald philips (gerraldphilips6@googlemail.com)
Sent: February 11, 2010 11:49:32 AM

Hello
Thanks for you reply toward my request for your item, i am very happy to hear that the item is still available, please send me your paypal email or invoice to enable me make the payment as soon as possible. .i am a medical doctor here in burnaby and i am buying this item(birthday gift) for my son that was currently transfered to west africa . you will mail the item to him through canada post priority worldwide intl mail/fedex. i will be adding the shipping cost($150) during payment of your the item once you get back to me . i need this item as soon as possible.i travelled to texas for holiday, that is why can't pick up .hope it is in good condition.
regards.

From: lewis randy (lwsrandy492@gmail.com)
You may not know this sender.Mark as safe|Mark as junk
Sent: February 11, 2010 6:50:58 AM

I'm glad to read back from you....... i live in Dallas, TX , I'm really interesting in buying your item for my son in Nigeria studying in an university and i will be happy if you can consider my offer, and for the payment i will be willing to pay you with via PayPal as this is the most secured and fastest way to make online transaction. You will also do me a favor by helping me to ship it down to my son. I would have love to do it all by myself but unfortunately, i am going for business trip in London.... and i want him to get the item before next week. and i will offer you $500 for the item and $100 for the shipping cost through USPS Global Express International Mail Ems(SPEED POST) once you have it in mind that you can do this for me kindly get back to me with this information
Name........
Address.....
PayPal email....
Phone number..
I need this information to protect and avoid wrong transaction before i contact PayPal for the payment,once i contact PayPal i will informed you and send you my son residential address....

Hope to read from you soon

Best regard.

From: havey klains (haveyklains@gmail.com)
You may not know this sender.Mark as safe|Mark as junk
Sent: February 11, 2010 6:35:21 AM

I'm glad to read back from you....... i live in Dallas, TX , I'm really interesting in buying your item for my son in Nigeria studying in an university and i will be happy if you can consider my offer, and for the payment i will be willing to pay you with via PayPal as this is the most secured and fastest way to make online transaction. You will also do me a favor by helping me to ship it down to my son. I would have love to do it all by myself but unfortunately, i am going for business trip in London.... and i want him to get the item before next week. and i will offer you $500 for the item and $100 for the shipping cost through USPS Global Express International Mail Ems(SPEED POST) once you have it in mind that you can do this for me kindly get back to me with this information
Name........
Address.....
PayPal email....
Phone number..
I need this information to protect and avoid wrong transaction before i contact PayPal for the payment,once i contact PayPal i will informed you and send you my son residential address....

Hope to read from you soon

Best regard.

i got scammed $710 from this email:
sharonqz01@googlemail.com

and also received emails from these email addresses with the exact same pick up lines.

markqv03@googlemail.com
gclark664@yahoo.com.au
gclark665@yahoo.com.au

Hi All

I also received an email scam like this (see below). The cheque arrived and was 10x the amount of the price i was selling the item for. I have the cheque now and plan to throw it away.

The scammer went by the name of George Tanner with an email address (georgetammer@hotmail.com). His first email is below ...

Hello,
Thanks for your reply concerning my inquiry,I will be offering you £200 along with the glass, am quite comfortable with the condition of the item that i won't be making any repairs on it. As explained in my first mail that i would be paying for the item through a Certified cheque which will be issued to you,An amount of £2000 will be issued to you it wilL, i want you to know that the remaining amount will be sent to the shipper who will be coming for the pick up at your location. lt will take few days for payment to get to you.
Immediately you recieve the cheque i would like you to bank it and As per pick-up, I will make arrangement for the pick-up immediately payment has been received by you after it cleared into your account. Kindly reply with your details on where the Payment should be sent to. I will let you know how i intend to pick it up. Here is the information needed for the payment below.
FULL NAME ...........................
ADDRESS........................
STATE.............................
CODE.........................
CITY.........................................
HOME PHONE............................
CELL PHONE...................................
Note: i want you to package the item well and As soon as you have your money we can talk about the picking up of the item. I would like you to take the posting off from the site today i wouldn't mind adding £50 to the payment for deleting and keeping the item for me...
Regards

Since I listed my car two days ago, I have received nothing but what I suspect are scam emails. I am posting them here in case it happens to others or has happened. I did not open anything because my gut tells me these are dangerous.

From "Dovie Outcalt":

From: "Dovie Outcalt" Add sender to ContactsTo: sale-c327k-1597460386@craigslist.org** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html

Hello,

saw the AD you posted on craigslist and I'm very interested in purchasing your vehicle. Firstly I want to make sure its the same model that my son is after. It's his birthday coming up and I want to make it a surprise for him. I'm a single mom and obviously know nothing about cars & trucks (lol). Anyways here is a video link that I copied from my son's computer VID1 (if not work try VID2). Can you please confirm its the same type and reply to me ASAP. I'm willing to pay couple hundred more then what youre asking for as long the vehicle matches the video description and you can reserve it for me.

Cheers!
Anne.

Then I got the same email from a different email address but signed by Anne as well:

From: "Emerita Horniak" Add sender to ContactsTo: sale-8nygw-1597779849@craigslist.org** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html

Gday,

saw the AD you posted on craigslist and I'm very interested in purchasing your vehicle. Firstly I want to make sure its the same model that my son is after. It's his birthday coming up and I want to make it a surprise for him. I'm a single mom and obviously know nothing about cars & trucks (lol). Anyways here is a video link that I copied from my son's computer VID1 (if not work try VID2). Can you please confirm its the same type and reply to me ASAP. I'm willing to pay couple hundred more then what youre asking for as long the vehicle matches the video description and you can reserve it for me.

Cheers!
Anne.

Unbelievable! I have other emails I will post that are scams too. I wish just one legit buyer would email!

I have had many problems with Craigs List. My first time using the site was when I was looking for a job. I applied for many of the ads. But the only replies I would get back were emails telling me to click on a link and get a credit check and or a background check and the email them the result. I knew that something was not write here. I then looked up Job Scams on Craigs List in google and found out a lot of information. I them stopped applying for jobs on craigslist. I then found a listing for a personal assistant and it looked pretty promising so I fell for it. I responded to the ad. Come to find out after emailing back and forth a few times it was a scam too. I decided to write a blog about this and give people awareness of this problem. Here is the link to my blog if you would like to read more about my story. Some of them are kind of funny.
http://www.exfelongirl.com/2010/01/job-ad-scams.html
I know that Craigs List cannot totally control spam and scams but I think that they can do a lot more than they are doing now.