Posted my car for sale on CL, in 10 minutes I was contacted by a scammer

AggieMike88

AggieMike88

Touchdown! Greaser!
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The original "I don't know it all" of aviation.
Thank goodness I knew the chance of potential scam existed. But the speed of how quickly I was contact was sorta amazing.

I am selling my 2004 Caddy SRX via Craigslist. I am using my Google Voice number for the contact information.

Within 10 minutes of the ad going live, I am contacted by text message. The thumbnail images show the conversation.

Scam 1.jpg Scam 2.jpg

Some details about the scam are here: https://support.google.com/voice/thread/721645?hl=en

Fortunately, my spidey sense was tingling a bit when he kept insisting on sending the verification code and would not answer my questions about what item he was interested in. A quick Google search provided the information that he should be blocked.

I have another item for sale, an EZ-GO electric golf cart, that I'll post in the Classifieds section since it's sorta aviation related. Especially if you would rather ride in comfort to the FBO instead of walking.
 
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Have always had scammer calls from any post there or on FB Marketplace. Just the fun of instant classified ads these days.
 
I hardly even shop CL anymore. Overrun by spam and everyone is switching to FB marketplace.
 
I've never understood how anyone can be scammed on Craigslist. I don't think I've ever had an ad run more than a week without selling and lots of times I've had people try to scam me, but quite frankly, I'm just too busy to be scammed. If someone said they needed to verify that I was real, I'd just respond "I'm not" and then I'd wait for the next buyer. I mean its Craigslist, another buyer will be coming along within moments.
 
Tell me about the golf car.

If I like it from your description, I can send you a cashier's check for the purchase, plus a thousand dollars for use by my agent in picking up and transporting it. You can give the cash difference to my agent.

But seriously, tell me about the golf car.
 
I believe the first stages of the scam are robotized. Trying to sell a 2006 Jetta TDI and every time I put the ad on CL I get the same automated scam texts.
 
That's funny, I'v sold a bunch of things on CL and never had much of a problem. Had a problem buying once, a variant of the Spanish Prisoner scam.
 
steingar said:
That's funny, I'v sold a bunch of things on CL and never had much of a problem. Had a problem buying once, a variant of the Spanish Prisoner scam.
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The robo scammers are not much of a problem. They just clutter up your inbox with their lame attempts. Anyone who uses the word 'item' when what I am selling is a car is not a buyer and goes right to delete.
 
AggieMike88 said:
And now I got someone trying the VIN check scam
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I had someone ask for the VIN number once on a truck I was selling. I sent it to them and if I remember right, they wanted me to follow a link to a damage history website. I got suspicious and stopped replying.
Lately around here, thieves have been using Craigslist to find out when people will be home then stealing the vehicles for sale. It’s almost not worth dealing with.
 
Cooter said:
I had someone ask for the VIN number once on a truck I was selling. I sent it to them and if I remember right, they wanted me to follow a link to a damage history website. I got suspicious and stopped replying.
Lately around here, thieves have been using Craigslist to find out when people will be home then stealing the vehicles for sale. It’s almost not worth dealing with.
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Coming from the automotive recycling industry, I'm very aware of the popular sites where you can run a VIN and get some history on the vehicle. What tipped me off to the scam was the domain name he wanted me to use accompanied by a "customized" hash.
 
Cooter said:
I had someone ask for the VIN number once on a truck I was selling. I sent it to them and if I remember right, they wanted me to follow a link to a damage history website. I got suspicious and stopped replying.
Lately around here, thieves have been using Craigslist to find out when people will be home then stealing the vehicles for sale. It’s almost not worth dealing with.
Click to expand...
We don't want people coming to our home, so we always have people meet us at a local police station parking lot. If they don't want to do that, they don't get to look at what we have to sell.
 
2 more text message contacts via Google Voice number. And I can confirm the messages are some form of robotic script.

This time I answered with some non-sensical replies that had nothing to do with discussing the car. But each time I replied, I got the next part of their script. Once it got to the end, no additional items from me (such as asking how to woo a Nigerian Prince) got any additional texts from them.
 
I'm convinced the used car dealership industry partnered with Nigerian scammers to propagate the car sales scams. Trying to push people to unload their cars cheaply at dealer lots rather than deal with the nonsense of instant ads.

But it's not just vehicle sales, it's everything. I've heard of people showing up to occupied beach house rentals, only then discovering they got scammed by someone who lifted the details of a legitimate house from somewhere like VRBO and created a phony listing on Craigslist.

It almost makes me miss the good old days of Sunday classified section/trading post/penny saver ads.
 
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