craigslist scammer???

S

starcrafttom

Active member
Hi, i have a motor for sell on craiglist and today I go the fllowing reply. Looks like a scam it me and I just wanted to share a example of wht one looks like with all of you. I also want ideas on how to mess with him. any ideas??

HI there, How are you doing? Thanks for your responce regarding the availability for the item displayed on craigs. I believe you are honest with the description of the state of the item as at when listed. Am purchasing it for my company ( Charityl home that takes care of homeless kids and parents based in WI ) and am willing to buy the item at your final cost with additional $50 offer. Just let me know all i need to proceed & send out payment to you is your full contact info where you want the check delivered to because this will be written on the cashier's check that will be sent to you as i am not living in your area. Also, am a busy person who works with kids as a humanitarian service which is quite tasking, hence, it will not be easy for me to come in person but I can overnight the payment to you to avoid time wasting. Regarding Shipping - I'll use my company's courier to cover the shipping and insurance. I will be needing such information are as follow. Your full name and address, City, State, zip code and your valid Cell phone number.

Pls note. Payment will be delivered to you within 1 to 2 working days.I will be handling the shipping of the item as soon as you received my payment and also i will like you to take the posting off craigslist today if my additional $50 price offer is with you.



Sergio Manning
Front Desk
Kids And Angels Home
Click to expand...
 
I agree it is most likely a scam. The problem is the cashier's check is most likely fake. Cashier's checks are generally not a safe way to accept payments, unless you can directly varify the validity of that check with the bank.

The charity, emotional appeal, "companies courier" are also clues. The shipping arrangements are vague.

Giving an address and phone number can certainly be within reason. But why a cell phone, vs a land line?

There is a "kids and Angel's home, with a Sergio Mannning (3 n's?) in Wi.
You might give them a call, ask for their Tax ID number and 501 C 3 status--you should be able to find out if this is real by search of 501 C3 entities. Also this "charity" does not seem to have anything to do with boat motors, it is in WI, and NIH is in Bethesda MD...so I am suspicious.
 
Big time scam, these are so obvious, it is amazing how people fall for them, when I had a classic car for sale and all the Nigerian responses came out of the woodwork (this has been many years ago) I would respond and play along and then slam em with a copy of all these e mails has been forwarded to the FBI. Never heard from them again.
 
Some time ago I ran across a website populated by a group of people that make it a competition to harrass these scammers by feigning ignorance playing along, to a point. They try to see how far the scammer will go. One of them was actually able to document getting a small payment from the scammer to promise to produce the necessary funds of the inheritance or whatever. They published the whole thread and it was hilarious.
 
The traditional part of this is they overpay you, and ask you to remit / forward the balance to someone else. Their check ultimately bounces and the funds come back out of your account, but by now the amount you sent is permanently gone.
 
I agree this is a scam.

But let me ask... What do scammers get from a response? Names and addresses are readily available. What can they do with a cell phone number?

Or is the point to get a contact, for the purposes of personal followup?
 
I have seen this scam before. and yes they will send you a over payment in the form of a check. They ask you to use part of the money to pay the shipper when he comes or send it to the shipper. you send it and when the check bounces you are short the money. Problem for the scammer is that I have no money to front them while the check is clearing. dumb scammers.
 
Tom,

I received the same exact e-mail written verbatim. I did a quick Google search to confirm my suspicions and am glad I came across your post. I found it odd that the buyer did not directly mention my product, a new sofa set that I recently purchased and unfortunately have to sell due to being relocated. I am located in Washington State and found there to be no economic sense in a charity organization paying for high priced furniture to be shipped across the country. Upon reviewing the website I also found it peculiar that they never really promoted their service to the community. I work in Public Relations and support many local charities in my free-time. Typically us PR guys and our non-profit clients never pass up an opportunity to to showcase our charitable efforts and almost always recognize our donors through any internet campaign. I would agree that this is most likely a scam as there were too many things that did not add up. Thanks for posting!
 
That's the site I was thinking of. It's great what the pros do to these guys sometimes. As far as the phraseology and such, many of these scams originate from other countries and the perpetrators don't speak english so they purchase computer software that allows them to type in whatever language is native and it changes the product to english. This is really common in Russia and the soviet block countries.
 
Just got this one. Wonder what I should do?

*****************************************

Dear Friend,

Greetings to you and your family, I am Mr. Kenneth Munakah the Auditing and Accounting section manager in Banque Regionale de Solidarit Burkina Faso (BRS BANK). I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of ($39.5)million to your account within 10 or 14 banking days. This money has been dormant for years in our Bank with out claim. So this is the reason why i contacted you so that the bank can release the money to you as the next of kin to the deceased customer. Please I would like you to keep this proposal as a top secret. Upon receipt of your reply, I will give you full details on how the business will be executed I am expecting your urgent response.

I will appreciate it very much, if this proposal is acceptable by you, Do Not Make Undue Advantage Of The Trust I Have Bestowed On You, And I Assure You We Can Achieve It Successfully.

Respectfully,
Mr. Kenneth Munakah.

*************************************************

Hmmmmm. Think this may be legit? :shock:

Charlie
 
Belive it or not--I had a friend who fell for one of these Nigerian scams. To make things worse, he was a real estate broker and thought that these folks wanted to buy a house in Pensacola. It cost him $30,000, plus an air plane trip to Legos, Nigeria. "Couldn't be a scam, I saw her drivers license and got her photo"...yeah! sure... Hard to believe that folks fall for these, but they do.
 
Charlie-Just tell Mr. Munakah that you wish to donate all the money to the Kids and Angels charity and he, Mr. Munakah, should contact Sergio Mannning directly to work out the details. Hope this helps.
 
dotnmarty":2f80nysj said:
Charlie-Just tell Mr. Munakah that you wish to donate all the money to the Kids and Angels charity and he, Mr. Munakah, should contact Sergio Mannning directly to work out the details. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Marty, I used to have fun with these guys but do so no more. I even traded photos with a guy in a hospital in Austrailia. Tried to get him to send me $15 but it didn't work and took way too much time!

Dr. Bob, I'm not surprised someone fell for one of these. It takes all kinds and that's why they continue to do it.

Charlie
 
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