Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Scam

I posted a cell phone for sale on Craigslist Tuesday night.  About 5 minutes after I posted ad I received a short email asking if the phone was still available.  I wasn't expecting anyone to buy the phone that fast, my heart was racing as I typed a quick "yes".  I didn't get any return response that night...

This evening I got an email message from the individual:
 ___________________________________________________________________________
Hello,
Thanks for your mail, , i dont know what happened to my yahoo account, i cannot reply the   message i have in my inbox so thats why i couldn't get back to you. The price of the item is fair to me and i wouldn't want to loose it so it would be my pleasure to add another $20 to the asking price so you can sell the item to me and also tell other interested parties that it has been sold to avoid competitions. I don't have much  time to come over to take a look because of my Business i have limited time, i am ready to make money order to you but i need you to get back with your full details as
  1)Full name for Payment
  2)Full Address
  3)city
  4)State
  5)zip code
  6) cell or home Phone Number(also let me know the best time to reach you on phone)
I will be waiting to get those infors from you later today so i can make money order  out to you immediately, Please don't bother yourself about the pick up, i know a forwarding courier in your state, they will handle the pick up immediately you inform me that you got your money order  cash, then i will contact them to come for the pick up of the item at your location at your own best time....
I will be waiting for your quick response tomorrow latest.
Stay Blessed.
 ____________________________________________________________________________
Would you sell your phone or respond to this person?  If you answered "yes", you would likely be the victim of a scam.  How do I know?:
  1. The first email came from xxxxxx@att.net.  This email came from xxxxxx@yahoo.com.  I noted the discrepancy.  Pay attention to the recipient email address. 
  2. Misspellings and poor punctuation are typical in scams. 
  3. The buyer offers me more money than I am asking for the phone.  He is testing my greed factor
  4. The buyer offers to send me a money order.
  5. The buyer offers to send a courier to my state so I won't need to send the device to him.  Since he's not picking it up, an unknown party will pick it up so he remains anonymous. 
  6. He wants a quick response. 
So, if I respond to this guy and accept his generous offer, he will send me a mail order check then task an unknown person to pick up the phone from me.  For the scam to work, the check will look real but it will be fake.  I won't know that until the bank contacts me about the bad check I deposited.   The bank will charge me a bad check fee and I will have given away my phone.  It's a potential loss for me.  I'm not buying it, so game over buddy. 

Please be careful when selling equipment on E-bay or Craigslist, watch for signs that might indicate that the potential buyer is a scam artist.  
 

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