GA | Scam Alert...answer from craigslist ad

[Carol H]

Thats to bad! Had a 5 month old car stolen once and it was found the next day under some power lines up near Whistler badly beaten up. What was interesting about that was they had actually replaced the ignition, so my keys didn't work in it and no sign of how they got into it in the first place .. so it was determined to be pros. The big question was what did they use it for before dumping it... not sure I want to know.

[solarscamp13]

I got so many of these while I was scamp shopping. Typical online spam-scam. I received multiple identically worded (in broken english) emails from various women who claimed "the reason for the low price is from divorce and as woman I don't need" ??? And they all wanted payment via "google wallet" As Green Frog points out, the intro sales pitch is in broken english, written by one person, and the payment request is in perfect english, most likely a cut-n-paste from the spam monger that pays these people to post and respond to these adds. My suspicions where confirmed when I responded by saying that a huge percentage of scamp owners, and avid campers are women, and I would be happy to pay cash after seeing and confirming that I want the trailer. The response was identical to the first message, but from a different person. These are predators that count on the needle in the haystack. Unfortunately, some people will jump on what seems like an amazing deal and get ripped off. It took me 4 months and countless emails till I actually spoke to a person on the phone who had what I wanted. I learned a valuable lesson: the scamp you want to buy will be sold by a person that would much rather keep it, but can't for some reason, and it won't be "cheap." I almost drove to Phoenix for a $2500 scamp with no cushions, gas lines, battery, or wiring. I held out and got an 85' with new cushions, new floor, insulation, solar charger, new cabinets, flat screen tv with apple tv, new water tank/lines/filter, tempurpedic mattress, and two 10'x10' screen gazebos as a bonus. For $4900! Don't compromise, what you want is out there somewhere, it just takes hours upon hours of searching and weeding out the scams from the real thing.

[Green Frog]

Solarscamp13, my experience buying my '83 Burro was just the opposite of your scam experience. I got lots of pictures from an owner who was a member of this forum and who had shown step-buy-step photos of his resto in progress. He really had me when he didn't want me to drive from my home in VA up to the Chicago area because he was afraid I would be disappointed in its unfinished state. No gas lines, no curtains, electrics disconnected... no problem! It was a good solid project in progress, and he had done the hard work by completely replacing the floor. I considered myself fortunate and blessed to have kept looking for a legitimate seller who had a legitimate camper to sell. Going on 3 years later my opinion is unchanged.

Froggie

[Bob Miller]

The scammers live with the "Bottom Fish", meaning that they attract those that are bottom-fishing and can be easily hooked by low price bait.

Those that get hooked are often not so honest themselves because they are attracted to an opportunity to take advantage of what they think is a ignorant or distressed seller that is selling for a low price.

Yes, there is an occasional "steal" out there, as "may" been the case in Las Vegas last week, but in the past year, and I scan the RV ads at least twice a day and have several search-bots looking, those come up about 2-3 time a year and, when real, are usually gone in a matter of hours.

Nate's tips are excellent.... if it sounds to good to be true, it usually is, if the seller has an outstanding reason for selling, it's usually a scam, if they want to use a 3rd party to handle money, it's always a scam, and if they want to delivery it... run, don't walk away.

About all I ever do on those kinds of ads is hit the "Flag" icon.

BTW: Teasing scammers can give them your email address for future use and, the more you aggravate them, the more apt you are to be put on their own list to receive a virus package.

[Bob Miller]

Per Green Frogs experience....
Ya But.... Scammers never sell fixers. Everything they have for sale is near perfect but sometimes they will they mention minor problems, just to make it more authentic looking. One scammers ad I remember offered to take $500 off because the roof vent cover had a crack in it.

[Green Frog]

Agreed, Bob. As I said, I consider myself very fortunate to have found a gentleman to deal with, yet someone who needed and wanted to sell, so it worked out for both of us, except of course for the nearly 2000 mile round trip to buy it and haul it home!

Froggie

[jen b]

I have a bunch of stuff up on craigslist right now for my mom and because my mom is better with texting than email we included her phone number. Right off the bat she started getting spammy text messages that say basically "I want to buy this today, what is your bottom price, please reply via email to this address."

The use of "bottom price" which is kind of weird, and wanting an email reply was what I pointed out to my mom as a spam tip-off.

About 10 minutes after getting the first suspicious text for item A, she got another identical one for item B.

[mary and bob]

When I put items for sale on craigslist I state "Phone calls only, I will not answer emails" and I believe that ads with phone numbers are less likely to be scams. I notice that many ads have some of the digits in the phone number spelled out, apparently to foil the scammers.