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Seriously???


jerben

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So, reluctantly, I decided to put my bike on Craigslist. Here's the first e-mail I get within 2 hours.

Gee, how stupid does this guy think I am???

"Thanks for the prompt response.. I am ready to buy it now but i am not

in town at the moment as i am a marine engineer manager and due to the

nature of my work, It hard to make a phone calls and visiting of

website are restricted but i squeezed out time to check this advert

and send you an email regarding it. I really want it to be a surprise

for my dad so i wont let him know anything about it until it gets

delivered to him, i am sure he will be more than happy with it. I

insisted on paypal because i don't have access to my bank account

online as i don't have internet banking, but i can pay from my paypal

account, as i have my bank a/c attached to it, i will need you to give

me your paypal email address and the price so i can make the payments

asap for it and please if you don't have paypal account yet, it is

very easy to set up, go to www.paypal.com and get it set up, after you

have set it up i will only need the e-mail address you use for

registration with paypal so as to put the money through. I have a pick

up agent that will come and pick it after i have made the payments...

Thanks."

My response was probably too nice, "I'm sorry, but I'm not comfortable conducting business in this manner as it reeks of a scam. Good luck in your search."

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don't even bother responding to the scam emails. they'll just nab your email address for a marketing list. when they send you an email, you're not exposing your true email address (since CL anonymizes your actual email address)... but if you respond back, then you've just give it to them. if they do respond back, you'll notice the email address is different since they cycle through email addresses like $2 bills at strip clubs.

also, don't respond to emails that just copy and paste the sections of your ad and say something along the lines of "please check this link to make sure what your selling is the same as what I'm looking for". it is set to install malware on your computer.

responding to scammers/spammers is non-productive. they don't care how snarky your response is... they are the princes of nigeria, and they don't give a fuck. all they want is your real email address and/or install malware on your computer so they can exploit you later.

if you want to see REAL scam baiting masters at work, check this out:

http://www.419eater.com/

also, search for p-p-p-powerbook

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Well, I figured that there would be someone trying to get the deal of the century by lowballing it or better yet, some 16 year old kid wanting to trade his older sister's underpants and his Star Wars action figure collection for it. I guess I expect too much out of people even after years of being in the line of work I am.

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Well, maybe I am dumber than I thought because the first e-mail simply asked if the bike was still for sale, which seemed like a legit question. Thanks for the advice!

I got 3 or 4 of those that lead directly into a scam.

What's more irritating are the a-holes who just make totally unreasonable offers.

I had both my bikes up for sale a few months ago; the Kawasaki for $1800 (worth $1100-1300 maybe?) and the Honda for $3800 (worth $3100-3500).

I built in some "CL idiot" pricing buffers. So when I got an email offering $700, I assumed the guy was talking about the Kawasaki. Nope. He offered me $700 for my track bike, because "you said yourself it's not street-legal." Well no shit; it's set up for the track, which was VERY CLEARLY stated in the ad...

It would be like me responding to an ad for a drag racer, and offering 1/5 the asking price because "you said yourself it doesn't get very good gas mileage." :rolleyes:

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Well, I figured that there would be someone trying to get the deal of the century by lowballing it or better yet, some 16 year old kid wanting to trade his older sister's underpants and his Star Wars action figure collection for it. I guess I expect too much out of people even after years of being in the line of work I am.

you know, sometimes the trades can work out in your favor. A guy on anther forum traded his 650R for a lot of legos. Not kidding.

He sold the legos for like $4000, and got a 600RR a few months later. Definitely came out ahead on the deal just by taking time to find a buyer for the trade item.

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don't even bother responding to the scam emails. they'll just nab your email address for a marketing list. when they send you an email, you're not exposing your true email address (since CL anonymizes your actual email address)... but if you respond back, then you've just give it to them. if they do respond back, you'll notice the email address is different since they cycle through email addresses like $2 bills at strip clubs.

also, don't respond to emails that just copy and paste the sections of your ad and say something along the lines of "please check this link to make sure what your selling is the same as what I'm looking for". it is set to install malware on your computer.

responding to scammers/spammers is non-productive. they don't care how snarky your response is... they are the princes of nigeria, and they don't give a fuck. all they want is your real email address and/or install malware on your computer so they can exploit you later.

if you want to see REAL scam baiting masters at work, check this out:

http://www.419eater.com/

also, search for p-p-p-powerbook

I get that one quite often. The other thing that clues me in, is when they copy your title (Item, price and location) and put that in the email subject line. Then in the email, they include the CL link to your add.

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Here's the latest from another genius, "Just one question.... do you get a lot of pu**y with that bike??? if you do, I'll take it. Let me know"

Again, I go back to my comment about the 16 year kid that has way too much time on his hands. As well as other things in his hands.

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Well, maybe I am dumber than I thought because the first e-mail simply asked if the bike was still for sale, which seemed like a legit question. Thanks for the advice!

Yeah always best to setup a new/temporary email address when dealing with CL.

You can get new free webmail email addresses in just a few minutes at a ton of different places.

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don't even bother responding to the scam emails. they'll just nab your email address for a marketing list. when they send you an email, you're not exposing your true email address (since CL anonymizes your actual email address)... but if you respond back, then you've just give it to them. if they do respond back, you'll notice the email address is different since they cycle through email addresses like $2 bills at strip clubs.

theyve gotten smarter...its not always this easy

their first emails are tricky now...put my helmet for sale and i got this email

"dpoes this come with the box?"

i figured maybe he typo'd "does"...but other than that, it sounded legit to me ...not sure why people would want the box, but ive sold game systems before and had people request the box so i didnt think anything of it

responded and then he responded with the typical scam stuff

sure enough though, after that i got about 10 more emails from different addresses all saying the same exact scam...i have a special email set up just for buying and selling online, i use it for anything i suspect i may get spammed from lol

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