Craigslist Scams

I have written several blog postson helping my cousin sell a property in Hungary. I had all these people from countries all over the world want to move to a little town north of Budapest, sight unseen. The result was I helped a lot of people uncover the scams before they responded.

Image via CrunchBase

Craigslist Scammer Mark Scott – aka some dude in Africa.

Now, I am trying to sell some items on Craigslist. We have sold on Craigslist before without issues. This time, we have some items that have significant value.

There are some rules to Craigslist.

1. Cash ONLY!

1. Don’t let them come to your house – meet them somewhere else.

1. DO NOT USE Paypal or Google Checkout – they are scams

So, today’s scammer calls himself Mark Scott <mark...@yahoo.com>. He is using a yahoo account and judging by other sites, he is one of many.

This guy was clever because he acknowledges there are scammers out there, but his message seemed disjointed and he used bad English:

“I understand the present condition as started in the advert and i’m okay  with the asking price, i will not be able to come to look at it due to  the long distant andI will like to contact my lawyer about this before  making payment due to the scam artist.i got scammed from someone  the  easiest way for me to make the payment is through Google Checkout checkout.google.comand I’ll take care of the pickup and delivery when  the payment has been made by my mover, provide me your name, address,  city, state, zip code for the mover to calculate the cost of the  shipment and your google checkout email account for me to make the  payment.Please Email me back and let me know if this helps”

Before I did my research, I responded with the following and was skeptical about his intentions:

Mark,

I am following up on your interest in the trombone.

So, help me understand how you want to do this.

1. You want to pay through Google Checkout.

Ok – the price will go up to cover the fees associated with a credit card. We priced it for cash. I will calculate. I think it will be $35.00

2. Once we receive payment, we will release the trombone to your shipper.

The address to ship from is:

5348 N. Tacoma Ave
Indianapolis, IN 46220

Let me know what you want to do.

Paul Lorinczi

This is the email that convinced me he is a scam:

attorney on this so there is no need to panic, i

would have love to come over cash, it’s because of

the long distant and i’m very busy at work, i

understand that there are many scams going on online,

but to keep you rest assured, i will make the payment

before we proceed with the shipment. i find it the

easiest way to use my credit card safely and reliable

method of payment, you only have to add your

credit/debit card account to it and your money will

be transfer into your credit/debit card account when

the payment has been made, get back to me with your

google checkout email account when you done, for me

to make the payment.”

The English is really bad. So, I responded with another question:

Mark,

What is the name of your business and where are you located?

Paul Lorinczi

He responds with more bad English:

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Post By Paul Lorinczi (132 Posts)

Paul is an Internet consultant and President of TLL Ventures LLC. TLL Ventures is a small Internet marketing firm working with companies to maximize opportunities in eCommerce, business blogging, social media and search engine optimization to dominate their markets. My interests are in Entrepreneurial pursuits, soccer, music, and travel.

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