Cascade Crew

[aaron_sK]

Or have I just not been paying attention?

Trying to sell my Dads old C20 pickup I acquired through various wheeling and dealing. Had it up on craigslist for less than 24hrs and I get the following e-mail (note the exact wording of the item, and the location ):

[Outlaw28]

yeah im pretty sure that is a scam...few years ago when i was selling my 1980 malibu i had a guy try a similar scam on me...thats why i only do in person with cash when it comes to craigslist anymore...

btw i love your response lol that is quite funny

[QwkTrip]

Ya, that is definitely a scam. First of all, nobody talks like that in the US. Second of all, they are asking for information out of sequence. Thirdly, they live really close and are very available... but not available for the simplest conversation or to set up a viewing.

And this is what I mean by nobody in the US talks like this:

"Greets" -- This is Old English and hasn't been spoken in the US for a very long time. Obviously trained in the Queen's English, not American. This person is most likely located in a former British province.

"I saw your advert" -- Again, advert is a British informal version of advertisement. Not a word used by Americans.

"My partner is away for the next couple of day" -- Partner? I bet they don't even know what that implies.

"I have the asking cost but I cannot seem to find an autoquote for this specific brand." -- Cost? Do they work in the purchasing department or something? Also, Americans rarely say "cannot" any more. And last but not least, you might call it an autoquote over there but we call it bluebook value over here.

"It has to be with this company becuase we get a saving becuase my husband already uses them." -- Ya, that makes a lot of sense with all the free services there are out there.

"Thanks so much for helping a lady out!" -- First you're a chick and now you're a lady? Not consistently acting her age. Or his age. Whatever.

[QwkTrip]

Honestly, as bad as it is to have predators like this all over the internet, I still don't understand why people fall for this crap.

I had a really nice truck on Craigslist and the entire ad got copied and made into a scam. It was a $20K truck and the scammer was asking $4K. Some moron actually sent the scammer $4K for my truck and then tracked me down by the license plate number in the pictures. I listened to his entire sob story and the first thing I said to him was, "What's the bluebook value on that truck?" He had no clue because he hadn't even looked it up! I told him it sold for $20K and I turned down many offers at $18K, let alone $4K. There was a long pause as he realized how his greed got the best of him. At least I don't think he'll do it twice.

[aaron_sK]

I was fairly certain it was a bot, or at least someone not clever enough to come up with a good scam message. However I was more curious as to why they didn't go for the normal Western Union or check fraud scam, and instead sent me a link phishing for my VIN number.

Can they do anything with a VIN? Like maybe punch a new plate for a stolen vehicle, or something?

[QwkTrip]

I doubt it. There are enough VIN's advertised to not have to phish it from people. I'll bet the website puts some type of unwanted virus on your computer. The e-mail is just the bait. The real scam is yet to come.

They also might want the VIN so they can make a full advertisement using your truck, just like they did from mine. Having the VIN makes it look more legit.

[aaron_sK]

[BigDaddyVu]

You must take caution. Internet predators are upon you. You may have succumb by viruses by visiting those web sites that don't go anywhere. next thing you know you'll end up on that show "how to catch a predator"

[d00012]

[QwkTrip]

The way is started out I thought they were going to offer a free massage.

To tell you the truth I thought it was too wordy and I lost interest after a few sentences. Not the outcome they expected, I'm sure.

[d00012]

Haha! Yeah, I was confused at first, why a 'massage' from the UN?

Yeah, those e-mails do tend to be long winded. But I had to read it, this one actually made me laugh.

[aaron_sK]

Aha! Stupid scammers are at it again. This one was tricky, I didn't catch onto it until the second "massage".

In case you're wondering, the hotlink in the e-mail is the same one as the last bot sent.

[RSFreak]

I got a Nigerian scam letter in the mail of the business I used to be the office manager for. This was back in '96 when these things were still pretty new. I knew it sounded too good to be true so I checked it out on the 'net and sure enough others had been sucked into the scam.

[Al Hasse]

I figure that if the sender is in an official capacity, or represents someone who is, he/she should have a much better command of the English language (Queen's or otherwise). If I can't read past the first line, much less the greeting, and understand the message because of gross misspells and words in the wrong context, then there's nothing official about it. It says SCAM all over it.

[TurdGen1989]

my grandma got a check in the mail for like 10G's and they guy told my grandma if she cashed it and gave him 3 she could have the rest lol it was insane.... oh yea... the lady at the bank also said that if she would of tried to cash it he could of traced it somehow to her bank acc and take her money lol

[d00012]

When I get those scam e-mails, I usually reply, telling them to have fun with the virus I sent them.

Last year I sold my VW on CL and had NO scam letters sent to me, seems like it just popped up out of nowhere on there.

[RSFreak]

[TurdGen1989]