Online Scams
Tags: Internet
Everyone knows to be aware when purchasing anything online, right? There are way too many ways to get caught up in a scam. The latest for me was an ad I responded to on Craigslist for an item I was interested in. Wow, brand new in box, and less than half the price! It's gotta be a scam, right? Yup. So how did I know, besides the obvious? Well, first I emailed the person. Eventually I got an email back:
Thank you for your interest in my products!
All the products I sell are brand new, with warranty, bought from companies in bankruptcy!
Also, I have an agreement with Green Dot and for each product I sell ,I get a bonus if I use and promote their services.This way,I can offer you the lowest prices on the market and free shipping.
If you want to pick up the product, have to say that I have a lot of products for sale, a lot of buyers, a lot of packages to be sent and lack of time! For these reasons, I am not available for local pick up.
You will find below all the info you need in order to get the brand new *********************** , just follow the instructions :
http://********.biz/gd/productdetails.php?i=32
Regards,
Stephanie **********
First tip was that the item "she" wrote back about was a different model than what was advertised. So I followed up about that and she said she had both. Uh huh.
Then I went to the link she included. Very impressive, she's a BBB Accredited Business. You can even click on the BBB logo to pull up the report. Except there's no real identifying information in the report and the report is NOT on the BBB site. Hmmm.... So I went to the BBB site and searched for her business. No surprise, it wasn't there. Then I started changing the number in the first web address and found other products that were for sale by different people. When you click the BBB logo on those websites you get a similar BBB report. A closer look at the URL for the BBB report makes it obvious that it's passing the seller's name into the report - how fun, I can make a Satisfactory Record with my own name right on the scammers website.
When I clicked on the payment link in the first website I got to a very sparse form that asked for my information, hosted on an IP address out of Texas (not even a domain name - just an IP address.) After filling in fake information there, the page doesn't go anywhere. I can only assume that once the scammer gets your "Green Dot" number he/she gets the money out of the account and takes off.
Meanwhile I tried to get more info out of the seller, but she (he? who knows?) disappeared and doesn't respond to my e-mails any more.
So... I flagged the offending post on Craigslist, posted my own warning about it there, sent an e-mail to the Better Business Bureau with all of the information, and also filed a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center. We'll see what happens.
Let's be careful out there.
Everyone knows to be aware when purchasing anything online, right? There are way too many ways to get caught up in a scam. The latest for me was an ad I responded to on Craigslist for an item I was interested in. Wow, brand new in box, and less than half the price! It's gotta be a scam, right? Yup. So how did I know, besides the obvious? Well, first I emailed the person. Eventually I got an email back:
Thank you for your interest in my products!
All the products I sell are brand new, with warranty, bought from companies in bankruptcy!
Also, I have an agreement with Green Dot and for each product I sell ,I get a bonus if I use and promote their services.This way,I can offer you the lowest prices on the market and free shipping.
If you want to pick up the product, have to say that I have a lot of products for sale, a lot of buyers, a lot of packages to be sent and lack of time! For these reasons, I am not available for local pick up.
You will find below all the info you need in order to get the brand new *********************** , just follow the instructions :
http://********.biz/gd/productdetails.php?i=32
Regards,
Stephanie **********
First tip was that the item "she" wrote back about was a different model than what was advertised. So I followed up about that and she said she had both. Uh huh.
Then I went to the link she included. Very impressive, she's a BBB Accredited Business. You can even click on the BBB logo to pull up the report. Except there's no real identifying information in the report and the report is NOT on the BBB site. Hmmm.... So I went to the BBB site and searched for her business. No surprise, it wasn't there. Then I started changing the number in the first web address and found other products that were for sale by different people. When you click the BBB logo on those websites you get a similar BBB report. A closer look at the URL for the BBB report makes it obvious that it's passing the seller's name into the report - how fun, I can make a Satisfactory Record with my own name right on the scammers website.
When I clicked on the payment link in the first website I got to a very sparse form that asked for my information, hosted on an IP address out of Texas (not even a domain name - just an IP address.) After filling in fake information there, the page doesn't go anywhere. I can only assume that once the scammer gets your "Green Dot" number he/she gets the money out of the account and takes off.
Meanwhile I tried to get more info out of the seller, but she (he? who knows?) disappeared and doesn't respond to my e-mails any more.
So... I flagged the offending post on Craigslist, posted my own warning about it there, sent an e-mail to the Better Business Bureau with all of the information, and also filed a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center. We'll see what happens.
Let's be careful out there.
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Comments
All the products I sell are brand new, with warranty, bought from companies in bankruptcy!"), and your website was the first thing that came up.
From what I can tell, even after asterisking out the first part of the URL, we were sent to the same website. I figured it was a scam, considering the woman stated that there were local pickups (and nobody in their right mind buys anything from craigslist that they can't physically get their hands on), but this is sweet, sweet confirmation.
Posted by d At 02:16:04 PM On 05/12/2009 | - Website - |
Posted by Ash At 11:32:49 AM On 06/02/2009 | - Website - |