Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion Scam! Scam!

Beware of the latest scam artist I just ran across. This guy supposedly wants to buy one of my gas pumps I have advertised on Craigslist. Here's a brief narrative of what he sent me. Nice try:

"I appreciate your quick response and am happy you are selling to me. I got your details and have forward it to my secretary, payment has been issued out to your location via FedEx courier service, I will email you with the tracking number for confirmation as soon as am provided with it. I'm sorry to inform you that the mover funds was accidentally added to the payment that was sent to you so i hope i can trust you with the difference. I will inform you on how the added mover funds will be getting back for pick-up arrangement and I will also advise you to discard any other buyer, delete the add from the web and be on a look out for the payment.Thanks"

This guy's email is teni.smith@gmail.com. I believe he's got another guy working with him. His email is: bdjfikgnk@gmail.com.

BEWARE

Seems like the scammers and phishers are hard at work using fake emails and responses to craigslist postings. FWIW for those who post on Craigslist put no or a $1 pricing in your listing heading. It seems the scammer bots look for any posting with high dollar values to attempt scams.

This guy was pretty smooth too! I can see how people can get suckered into a scam like this. I've always heard of this scam, but this is the first time its happened to me. I've really just started trying to sell some stuff. I must look like easy prey. LOL. Good idea about placing the $1 amount in the pricing area. My postings had the real sale price listed. Good to hear from you and thanks for the comments.

Stan

same old story. They "overpay" purposely with a foreign bogus money order/check.

If you fall for all of it, you end up paying for shipping, giveaway your sale item, AND send them good money in the amount of "overpayment refund".

Your cashing bank finds out its bogus funds after you have sent. pretty good scam.

I would hope by now everyone would be rather wary of these type email replies to a sale item

It's not only on C.L.
I received this in a PM HERE;

67goat
Member

Registered: 03-21-2012
Loc: long island n.y.
Hello Dick,you just perchased the 36b twin from me,I think you will be happy with this pump.I enjoyed reading your forum the last few days.Email me a number so I can work out pick up with you.Mark.

I never placed a BID! LOL

That ones real DB.
I hacked your eBay account & placed the winning bid for you.
He takes American Express..

I replied "Your Full of SH**"

'Perchased'

When I sell items on CL i get inquiries like; "Is this item still for sale?"

I respond if it is and then I get back a story about how working at home has changed their life and I should look into it myself by using the attached link
to further my income to great amounts.... yeah right!

I always ask them to call.

I caught that also.
Hey, it sez he lives on Long Island!

I get a lot of emails with very similar requests. Some say that they are a Doctor in Haiti, Africa, Italy,etc, who wants pumps for his office, a church lobby, etc. I always tell them that I only accept bank wire transfers and after the money is sent, I wait an additional 21 days. Gives the money time to be guaranteed. Of all the requests, I have not gotten one sale? Guess that common sense works, some time?? Paul www.severngaspumps.com

Suffering craiglist for deal on 4 wheeler about a year ago,I uncovered so many scams I quit looking. Send me the money I'll send you the item. Some was very ingenius,or so they thought. Items was suppose to be close enough we could do deals in person,but they allways had excuse why this couldn't happen. I soon come to the truth,if it seems to good to be true,it probably isn't. I think some were using other peoples items for sale and never even owned the items.
.Now they say we are slow down south ,but we are not STUPID! But they are out there so somebodys falling for it.

If you pay close attention to the headings in their emails you'll learn to spot them a mile away. If you do open the email, the text is 99% of the time a dead giveaway-terrible (not as in uneducated, but as in not familiar with the English language) grammar and weird phrasing. I do a lot of DELETING.

When I respond to a CL ad that has no phone number, I make sure to write the heading in such a way that the seller knows I'm a legit prospect and not a phisher.

Theres a new scam out there that targets older men and it goes like this:

A 'heads up' for those men who are regular customers at Lowe's, Home Depot, Costco, or even Wal-Mart. This one caught me totally by surprise. Over the last month I became a victim of a clever scam while out shopping. Simply going out to get supplies has turned out to be quite traumatic. Don't be naive enough to think it couldn't happen to you or your friends.

Here's how the scam works:

Two nice looking, college-age girls will come over to your car or truck as you are packing your purchases into your vehicle. They both start wiping your windshield with a rag and Windex, with their breasts almost falling out of their skimpy T-shirts. (It's impossible not to look.) When you thank them and offer them a tip, they say 'No,' but, instead, ask for a ride to McDonald's.

You agree and they climb into your vehicle. On the way, they start undressing. Then, one of them starts crawling all over you, while the other one steals your wallet.

I had my wallet stolen Nov. 4th, 9th, 10th, twice on the 15th, again on the 17th, 20th, 24th, and the 29th. Also, Dec. 1st, 4th, 7th, twice on the 8th, five times in January already, and very likely again this upcoming weekend.

So, tell your friends to be careful. What a horrible way to take advantage of us older men. Warn your friends to be vigilant.

Wal-Mart has wallets on sale for $2.99 each. I found even cheaper ones for $0.99 at the Dollar Store and bought them out in three of their stores. Also, you never get to eat at McDonald's. I've already lost 11 pounds just running back and forth from Lowe's, to Home Depot, to Wal-Mart.

So, please, send this on to all older men that you know and warn them to be on the lookout for this scam.

(The best times are just before lunch and around 4:30 in the afternoon.)