Flagging Scams Works!!!

[Bob Miller]

This morning, while perusing every Craigslist on the planet, I came across three obvious scam ads, all on the same C/L, all for different "Streamline" aluminum trailers, all for $2500 each, and all with odd graphics in the titles, something like S^T^R^E^A^M^L^I^N^E vs. STREAMLINE

As there is apparently a magic number of flags required to get an ad taken down, I proceeded to add mine to each ad and, what do you know, as I flagged each one it disappeared from the listings. Although the ads were all only 2 hours old I suspect that others were already busy flagging.

Bottom line, if you see a suspected scam, flag it. If it wasn't a scam the seller needs to fix the ad so it doesn't look like one.

IMHO: It's better to flag a few good ads than to let someone get scammed.

[SteveV]

I see those consistently in the Raleigh cl listings.

The biggest giveaway is the price listed is always too low to be real and they make it an odd number like $2531.00 or $1219.00. What I don't understand is how they are listed under the "dealer" only heading as opposed to the "by owner" listings. If I understand cl right, in order to list as a dealer cl will charge for those ads, by owner ads are a free listing. I can't see scammers paying for ads to just get them flagged & deleted in a short time frame.

On an average day I see 8-10 new scam ads here locally.

[thrifty bill]

If you do a USA search with one of the C/L search engines, like search tempest, you will find that at least 90% of the Casita ads are scams. Pretty high percentage for Airstream and Scamp too. Most are quickly flagged.

[EllPea in CA]

What I don't get about this is how a scammer actually profits by a fake ad. Do people actually send them money for a non-existent trailer?

[Gene Masse]

Hey Bob,
If you are wanting to search Craigslist try this for searching a wide area.
SearchTempest: Search all of Craigslist nationwide & more

[Bob Miller]

Thanks, I already use that, but the Streamline Scam trifecta turned up on one of my local C/L's, so it was easy to spot.

[TappyGee]

Even though I have finally bought my Casita, I have an alert set on Craigslist that I decided to keep on for Casita in my area and one nearby area. I get email alerts at least twice a week for each area. I immediately flag the scam ones. My small contribution to humanity.

[Timber Wolf]

Originally Posted by Ellpea in CA

What I don't get about this is how a scammer actually profits by a fake ad. Do people actually send them money for a non-existent trailer?

Yes, unfortunately. If it did not pay they would not be doing it. It is an old saying but accurate, "if it looks to good to be true, well you know the rest."