Obviously a Craigslist scam...but what is the scam?

[dB]

I have an amp for sale locally on Craigslist and someone has contacted me with the following:

I'm glad you still have it for sale,i would have love to come and see it,but my schedule is very tight.I will mail out your payment once you provide your full name.phone number and address.I can only pay via money order as am on a business trip now,pls let me know where to send your payment to because i wouldn't want to lose it to someone else.I don't mind adding thirty ($30) dollars so you can keep it in my favor,you should get your payment in 4-6 working days i will appreciate if you can get the ad off craigslist so i can be sure you are keeping it in my favor.Please let me know as soon as you receive it so i can start making arrangement for the pick-up.
Thanks

Obviously a scam...but how would the scam actually work? My name, phone number and address are all readily available from a number of public sources - anybody that is moderately resourceful and determined to scam someone can find that info easily. Suppose I gave this guy my info...what could he actually gain, that he couldn't get from just opening up the phonebook?

 

[GCDEF]

The money order will "accidentally" be made out for way too much money. You'll be asked for a refund which you will send using real money. Within a few weeks, your bank will tell you that his MO was bogus. Meanwhile, he'll be long gone with your refund.

 

[cob666]

These usually work by them sending you additional money to cover shipping charges. They inform you that they will have their shipping company pick up the merchandise. They ask you to Western Union to money to their 'shipping company'.

 

[TwoTubMan]

"keep it in my favor...."

That right there tells you...

Country of origin: Nigeria.

 

[BMF Effects]

You could also end up with uninvited visitors who may decided to "relieve" you of the amp when you're not home.

 

[Ooogie]

A lot of those groups operate by sending out feelers like that, once they get you into a dialogue they have a number of scams they'll try to run on you. Here's a very entertaining site that describes a lot of the scams, these guys respond and try to turn the tables on the scammers...some of them are hilarious.

http://www.scambuster419.co.uk/gp.htm

Mark

 

[mojocaster.com]

they have fedex come to your house. They ship to Nigeria. Good luck getting anything back since the MO is fake.

 

[GCDEF]

they have fedex come to your house. They ship to Nigeria. Good luck getting anything back since the MO is fake.

They don't want whatever you're selling. There is no shipper. They won't visit your house. The whole scam is based on exchanging their bogus check for your good one.

 

[Jmartin]

Once you know its a scam, you can have a blast screwing with these guys.

 

[NyteOwl]

They don't want whatever you're selling. There is no shipper. They won't visit your house. The whole scam is based on exchanging their bogus check for your good one.

 

[Celticdave]

"This business seems to have more twists and turns than a basket of snakes in a turkey twizzlers factory."

HAHAHaahhHAHhHAHHAHHAHahhahahahhahaaaa...

 

[dohootowl]

Once you know its a scam, you can have a blast screwing with these guys.

Last time I got one of these, I said "no problem, please email me with your phone number, address, drivers license number and state of issue, and any Visa or Mastercard number, etc".

Then, I realized that I could take it further and string them along! FUN!

 

[jetsnation]

One of my buddys did that and asked the buyer to send his passport for ID purposes. He got this passport jpg with a photo that doesn't fit properly and the first name and last name mixed up. Of course the email was from Nigeria with poor english.

 

[Rico Alan]

Once you know its a scam, you can have a blast screwing with these guys.

Best to leave the screwing with these guys to the professionals at www.419eater.com

 

[itkindaworks]

One of my buddys did that and asked the buyer to send his passport for ID purposes. He got this passport jpg with a photo that doesn't fit properly and the first name and last name mixed up. Of course the email was from Nigeria with poor english.

That's hillarious.

 

[The Golden Boy]

That's hillarious.

It is hilliarious, Wise Dennis.