Craigslist Scammer Collection updated 14/09/08

The following have been active in Craigslist on 30/06/08
edit, updated 14/09/08

I have posted the emails they send, and highlighted the parts that point to this being a scam.

The reasons for all the emails being similar, are that they are the same format that the scammers have purchased or stolen from one another, and they copy/paste into each email in numbered order.

Eventually, you will get the ovepayment email, where an associate/secretary/sister/bank has sent the wrong cheque/money order to you, and you will be asked to refund the difference via Western Union/moneygram to a sister/friend/shipping co.

Needless to say, the cheque/money order is fake/stolen, you will be liable for any money you have withdrawn on it, and could face criminal charges for presenting a false instrument.

Smart Cole selluritemstome001

Ronald William ronaldwllm594

sandra james sandrajamess5

David Moore soul.rock88

gabriel smith gabrielsmithv3

greenraymond100

From: smart cole
Sent: Sep 13, 2008 6:55 PM
Subject: I am interested in buying ur item

I am a Smart interested in the purchase of the above listed with no delay, but first? What is the final price? Is the price firm? Will you be accepting a US certified check/money order? Contact me with your contact information to mail out the payment to you as soon as possible. Again i will like to inform you that my clients company will be including the shipping fee and the item money because he will like to do business with honest person if you know you are honest and you agree in this capacity make sure you send your Full Contact details (FULL NAME, FULL MAILING ADDRESS no P.O. Boxes Please AND TELEPHONE NUMBER) and I just want you to know that you should E-mail direct ( selluritemstome001) to my clients Company so they can contact you fast about the payment. we have the shipping company in NY that will be coming for the pick up from your place down to my client residence or we may request that you ship with the money sent but we can get
those details later. Thanks and waiting your urgent response

Thanks for the prompt response and i will love to make an instant purchase,so please do withdraw the advert from Craigslist.I dont mind adding an extra $50 dollars for you to take the advert down from criagslist so that i can be rest assured that am in hand of the item. I will also like you to know that i will be paying via check,and it will be an over night payment due to the distance .
You dont need to bother your self with the shippment ok,I will take care of that.So I will need you to provide me with the following information to facilitate the mailing of the check.
1.Your full name.
2.Your mailing address,be it residential or postal address.
3.Your phone number.
**Once again ,I will like you to know that you will not be responsible for shipping.
I will have my mover come over as soon as you have cashed the check**
Do Have a nice day,
My Warmest Regard

Thanks for your prompt responds, However, i will need your name and
address for payment,As am only able to make payment by money order at this time b/c i am away on assignment. It will be nice if you can send me more pictures. It will take about 7days for payment to get to you.
As per pick-up, I will make arrangement for the pick-up after payment
has been received by you. I don't mind adding thirty dollars so you
can keep it in my favor.Please take the posting off Craigslist today
and consider it sold to me, Include your phone number.
Expecting to hear from you soon.
Regards

Thanks for the response.I am willing to pay your asking price.I will pay by a check as its the only way i can pay you at the moment.I will make arrangement for the pickup after payment have been received by you.I dont mind adding an extra $20 so you can keep it in my favor.I would have loved to come take a look at it but i am presently out of town,send me some pictures.Reply with your name,phone # and mailing address where payment will be sent.I will let you know how i intend to pick it up.Please take the posting off craigslist today and consider it sold to me.Expecting to hear from you soon.
Warm Regards.

Hi
Thanks for the response.I am willing to pay your asking price.I will pay by money order as its the only way i can pay you at the moment.I will make arrangement for the pick-up after payment have been received by you. I dont mind adding an extra twenty dollars so you can keep it in my favor.Reply with your full name,cell phone number,and address where payment should be sent.Please take the posting off craigslist today and consider it sold to me. Expecting to hear from you soon.
Regards
Sandra

Hi,
   Thanks for the response.I am willing to pay your asking price.I will pay by money order as its the only way i can pay you at the moment.I will make arrangement for the pick-up after payment have been received by you. I dont mind adding an extra twenty dollars so you can keep it in my favor.Reply with your full name,cell phone number,and address where payment should be sent.Please take the posting off craigslist today and consider it sold to me.
Expecting to hear from you soon.
Regards
Rafael Rodriguez

Not wishing to hop onto Mr. DeLaney's foot here . .

Thank you & welcome, brassman!

There is an exact same posting here: http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=967 but it is good to see there are people who recognize the Craigslist scams!

African scammers have a writing style that can be easily spotted by the trained eye and as Crispy mentioned the same response has been posted here before.

Take the first line

Thanks for the response.I am willing to pay your asking price.I will pay by money order as its the only way i can pay you at the moment.I will

The first thing I notice is the lack of a space after the full stops, that is very common for African scammers.
Then I look for other spelling and grammar mistakes, typos happen to anybody and I am especially guilty when I am in a rush so dont be too concerned with those if you find them, the thing is you will not often find typos in scammers early emails.
So all of the full stops shouldn't be there and it just doesn't read right.

Of course the mention of paying by money order is the big clincher in that passage but if you take carefull note you can often have a good idea by the end of the first line.

So, moving through the email

I will make arrangement for the pick-up after payment have been received by you. I dont mind adding an extra twenty dollars so you can keep it in my favor.Reply

You will notice the space after the full stop in this bit, that is most likely a typo from the scammers point of view
"after payment have been" it is common to use a word in the wrong context and especially in regards to past and present tense, of course the $20 extra is another one, no haggling on price and happy to pay extra, no asking about the quality, details or age of the item

This script is actually fairly mistake free, of course some scammers write better than others and some are very hard to pick but if you take a close look in most cases there will be an indication that something is wrong, now its just a matter of finding it

David Moore almost got me but I didn't fall for it. Stay far away from this one. He acts nice and kind, but he's just trying to take your money. I took it to my bank to get cashed but didn't have enough to cover it and didn't want to risk anything so I took it to the bank where the check was made out to. The manger came out and told me that the signatures weren't matching and this was a fraudulent check and to not send anything. I called the deal off.

Heres what he sent:

David Moore to me


Reply

Thanks for the response.I am willing to pay your asking price.I will pay by a check as its the only way I can pay you at the moment.I will make arrangement for the pickup after payment have been received by you.I don't mind adding an extra $50 so you can keep it in my favor.I would have loved to come take a look at it but I'm presently out of town,send me some pictures.Reply with your name,phone # and mailing address where payment will be sent.I will let you know how I intend to pick it up.Please take the posting off craigslist today and consider it sold to me.

Expecting to hear from you soon.
Warm Regards.

Hi,

I have given my partner the go ahead to mail payment to the address you gave me.You should receive payment within the week.Once payment is received we can proceed with the pickup.Thanks for your understanding and patience.I would like you to take the posting off CL today.

Dave.

My next red flag.

Hello,

How are you doing,i hope you are fine and alright.I have been busy myself but doing great.There is something i think i must bring to your notice.After a reconciliation of my account, i discovered that somehow my partner must have over paid you.The payment that was meant for another transaction was sent to you and the one meant for you was sent to another,however i want to believe i wont have a problem with you.

Please once you receive your payment,I will like you to deduct your money and send the remaining via western union to the manager of the shipping company that will help me with the pickup.I will provide the info you need to complete the western union transfer once you receive payment.Thanks once again for your understanding.

Warm regards.

Check out this website (http://www.fakechecks.org) and stay alert. You try to think the best in people, but you just can't anymore.

Welcome to the forum.
Hope for the best, prepare for the worst; a good saying for any part of life, business especially.
This is a classic over payment scam, kudos on the paranoia; it saved you quite a pile of money.

I don't suppose you could also post the full headers of the emails could you? details on how to find them are HERE.
Thanks

I just got one today. I really thought it was genuine but my husband took a look at it and said it seemed fishy.
Here it is
It was from a Dave Moore [email protected]

Thanks for the response.I am willing to pay your asking price.I will pay by a money order as its the only way i can pay you at the moment.I will make arrangement for the pickup after payment have been received by you.I don't mind adding an extra $30 so you can keep it in my favor.I would have loved to come take a look at it but i am presently out of town,send me some pictures.Reply with your name,phone # and mailing address where payment will be sent.I will let you know how i intend to pick it up.Please take the posting off craigslist today and consider it sold to me.

Expecting to hear from you soon.
Warm Regards.

Sad thing is I was so happy to sell the item since Im broke. Thank god my husband looked it up.

Welcome to Scamwarners

I am glad your husband was wary, give him a big hug.

Unfortunely this type of scam seems to be increasing as times are getting financially harder.

This link http://surrogatemothersonline.com/support/showthread.php?p=1600623 see (# 11) uses the exact same wording.

Thank you for posting. Your information will help alert others.

I got an email which seemed dubious from the start.

"Hi...I'm very glad that the item is still available, thanks for the prompt response and i will love to make an instant purchase, so please and please do withdraw the posting from Craigslist, i dont mind adding an extra $50.00 for you to take the posting down from craigslist so that i can be rest assured that am in hand of the item. I will also like you to know that i will be paying via check,and it will be over night payment due to the distance. You dont need to bother yourself with the shipment ok, i will do take care of that. So i will need you to provide me with the following information to facilitate the mailing of the check.
1. Your full name
2. Your mailing address be it residential or postal address
3. Your Phone Number.
Once again, I will like you to know that you will not be responsible for shipping...i will have my mover come over as soon as you have cashed the check. Thanks
Stanford"

Used the name Stanford Jones, email address: [email protected]

Apparently this guy is making the rounds.

ckkirkley.

Welcome to Scamwarners and thank you for posting.

This new information you have provided will alert other potential victims to this scam.

Note this search on scammers mail address;

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=gmail&q=stfordjones09%40gmail.com

You can view other examples of the same scam by Clicking Here

Thank You and Well Done.

If you have any questions or concerns about this or any other scams please post and a Scamwarners adviser will reply ASAP.

Welcome and thank you for taking the time to post, ckkirkley.

Thank you for posting ckkirkley, this will really be helpful to others.

Rossey Lucas responded to an item I had for sale on Craigslist asking me to send to her cousin in Nigeria and aks to pay via PayPal. Here's the email:

"Am Mrs Rossey Lucas

I like yout item that i found on Craiglist,i will like to buy from you,can you ship to my cousin store in Nigeria..do you also Receive the payment mode of paypal??

get back to me here on my mail address [email protected]"

I was asked to ship to this address:

Receiver's name -AKINSEYE SUNDAY
Home addr.-NO 23 OSUPA STREET
country-NIGERIA
state-OYO-STATE
City-OGBOMOSO
zip code-23402
phone #+2347032186311

I told her I would send a payment requesat through my PayPal account and she insisted I didn't need to. I only had 1 jersey for sale and was advertised as such on Craigslist. Here's the email:

"Hello seller,
Thanks for getting back to me here,anyway am Happy you can ship to Nigeria,my
cousin will be very happy if this is done...i will like to buy about 50 of the jersy,so get back to me withe price+the shipment fess,i don't mind if i can see some picture so that i will see what i want to Buy..
About the payment,yyou don't need to send a paypal payment Request to me Okay,just give me your paypal,Account Address then i will make Automatic payment to you through my Paypal Secured..
Thanks get back to me asap...
Rossey"

Shortly later, I received a fake PayPal emai instructing me to send the package and PayPal and Craigslist will take responsibility:

"Dear XXXX,
This message is originated from paypal company.We have receive an order from our client regarding the payment made to your paypal account.
The payment has been successfully made but due to security reason we have to receive the shipment tracking number before the next 48hour for the processing of your order.
This a new measure we are taking to protect both our sellers and buyers against fraudlent customers.
Once you have shipped the item send us the shipment tracking number for verification after the number has verify your account will be credited instantly.This PayPal® payment has been deducted from the buyer's account and has been "APPROVED"but will not be credited to your account until the shipment reference/tracking number is sent to us for shipment verification so as to secure both the buyer and the seller. Below are the necessary information requested before your account will be credited. Send tracking number to us or email us through this mail [email protected] **PLEASE NOTE**
Once shipment has been verified and the tracking number sent to us, You will receive a "CONFIRMATION Email" from PayPal® informing you that the Money has been credited.
Note:cragsilist and Paypal will be responsilbe for the item loss or damage once we recieve the tracking numberThank you for using PayPal!
The PayPal Team"

I did not know this was not legit so I sent the item and an email to above referenced address. I later figured it out but it was too late by that time. I eventually found out the fake PayPal emails were sent from [email protected] .[code][/code]

Adding link to here;

http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8942#p8942

Thank you posting xmas. Sorry to hear you have lost money to this scammer.

Please post any questions or concerns and a Scamwarners adviser will be happy to to reply and help.

A little note of advice for those selling things on CraigsList or other online sites.

1 - If you are selling one item, it's always best to sell "locally for cash only."

2 - If someone emails you asking if "the item" is still available, be very wary. They very likely don't know or care what the item is; they don't want the item, but they want the cash you will send to them after they send you a fake check for more than the purchase price. A good tactic to use is to write back with the question, "Which item are you interested in?" Even if you only have one item, they won't know that.

3 - Another red flag is the offer of extra payment "for your trouble" or to ensure the item is removed.

4 - Requests for shipment to other countries are another red flag. While this is not a sure indication of a scam, it should trigger more alertness. (There have been such requests for "items" such as cheesecakes - clear indication that the scammer didn't pay attention to what was being sold.)

Above all - keep alert, keep your personal information to yourself until you are sure the sale is genuine. These scammers have no pity and no compassion. They will scam the mother who is selling her engagement ring to buy medicine for her sick child. They simply don't care about anyone or anything except getting money without having to work too hard for it.