Crooks Use Craigslist For Online Scamming
Posted by Michelle Moquin on December 7th, 2010
Good morning!
We all use Craigslist yes? I do sometimes. Well, now there is a new and sneaky Craigslist scam which tries to fool victims into downloading a potentially dangerous piece of spyware by inviting them to see if a supposed video matches the product they’re selling. Don’t fall for this trick.
New Craigslist Scam Uses “Check This Video” Trick
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A new Craigslist scam that’s appeared in the last few months highlights the need for extra caution when using the renowned online classifieds site.
With an estimated 50 million users in the US alone, and an astronomical 20 billion page views of its online ads per month, it’s no surprise that Craigslist has become a popular site for crooks.
While the vast majority of transactions are perfectly honest and trustworthy, the sheer scale of the site-use means that anyone using Craigslist should be extra wary.
In the latest scam, a friend who was moving and selling lots of his stuff on Craigslist got this message in reply to one of his ads:
(Begin message extract — wording exactly as he received it)
I just want to make sure I am going to buy the same which I am looking for. I can’t afford another mistake as i did in the past. Please check the video and confirm it’s the same u have
(end of extract)
The message then provided a link and promised that if the item was the same as in the video, the sender would buy it.
But when you follow the link, which, happily, our savvy friend did not, you arrive at a site which then invites you to download a viewer-type program so you can supposedly watch the video.
Now you smell a rat, don’t you?
The download is really a piece of malware that, according to Internet security specialists Prevx, hijacks the PC and sends information back to the scammer.
It also takes over your Internet browser, changing the home page to one full of ads and a search box that, when you do a search, takes you to yet another stack of ads.
In fact, it does seem to be just adware, but, theoretically, could be used for any malicious purpose, including information theft.
Trying to return everything to normal and uninstall the program is a messy business. The perpetrator of this scam does provide details of how to do this on its website but we are reluctant to point you towards it.
If you’re already a victim, you’ll know the name of the host site, so key that in, followed by “/movies/uninstall.html” (without the quotes).
For everyone else: Just don’t fall for this scam.
Leave your number
Another recently witnessed sneaky trick involves a would-be buyer visiting a website where they’re asked to leave their phone number for a later call back.
Instead, the phone number is used to make premium line calls that are charged to the owner’s phone account.
Most other Craigslist scams are not exclusive to the online classifieds market — many of them are either advance payment or phishing tricks.
With advance payment, or Nigerian scams as they’re sometimes called (because many of them originate in the West African country), the crook sends out a forged check or money order for too large a sum to cover an item purchase, home rental, or even tuition fees.
He then asks for the overpayment to be electronically (and untraceably) wired back before the original check bounces and the victim is left owing money to the bank.
This is a subject we’ve covered many times at Scambusters. You can read more about it in our earlier issues.
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=8JUKO&m=1ask67iMmmtWfo&b=B2ayaTLDBm2KBkw2NSYvTg
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=8JUKO&m=1ask67iMmmtWfo&b=4nyBauW1lgt0DJr17.kAuA
A Craigslist scam that involves phishing simply attempts to get your personal details, including credit card numbers, for the purpose of identity theft.
More Craigslist scam tricks
Other Craigslist scams include:
* Bogus house sitters — they don’t so much “sit” as do the cleaning, as in cleaning you out.
* Crooks who advertise stuff they don’t own, from expensive goods and stolen property, through empty houses and apartments (advance rent required), to disposing of the entire contents of a house while the owners were on vacation — as happened in Oregon a couple of years back.
* “Mule” jobs where you get paid to receive checks and goods then forward them to someone else. You may get paid — but the job almost certainly will be crooked and you could end up in jail. See our special issue on this.
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=8JUKO&m=1ask67iMmmtWfo&b=eB.3ZO.hK1KRUp6SPRTk2Q
Craigslist publishes a helpful page of information about how to spot scammers, the most common types of Craigslist scam tricks, and examples of actual bogus ads and messages.
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=8JUKO&m=1ask67iMmmtWfo&b=OcK8mhgQlWUPlPMks9iFHw
Their basic message is that, where possible, you should deal with buyers and sellers you can meet in person. Do that, they say, and you’ll bypass 99% of all Craigslist fraud attempts.
Be especially cautious of anyone who claims to be overseas or otherwise unable to meet you, or who offers to pay for something sight unseen. An honest person would be highly unlikely to do that.
Additionally, they warn against advertisers who claim the transaction is somehow “guaranteed by Craigslist.” The company just doesn’t do that type of thing.
Also, never send money wires (e.g., MoneyGram or Western Union) either to pay for something you bought or to reimburse a supposed overpayment.
Beware too of buyers or sellers who propose using an escrow service. These are agencies that hold money pending delivery of an item, thereby supposedly safeguarding the transaction.
There are many genuine escrow companies but if the other person suggests a particular escrow company, chances are he/she has set it up as a phony site, either to steal your money (if you’re buying) or to pretend the money has been received, thereby prompting you to ship an item you’re selling.
Read more about phony escrow services here.
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=8JUKO&m=1ask67iMmmtWfo&b=LdlsxHEqcQPsdWc5U1gEhw
Two other rules: don’t hand over confidential/financial information and don’t believe those too-good-to-be-true prices – they’re almost certainly Craigslist scams.
In an interview with PC World magazine, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark said: “Overall, people are pretty trustworthy. If you give people an environment where they can trust each other and be fair, for the most part, then people almost always return that trust.”
And that’s true. Just make sure you know what the dishonorable ones are up to and how to spot a potential Craigslist scam.
Time to conclude for today — have a great week!
***********
Readers: It’s my early morning again, so I will address some of you later tomorrow. However, I do want to say something to Harris.
Harris: I have been thinking about “the wedding”…you wanting to get married right now, and your sweetie Evelyn wanting to wait two years. As you know, couples have been known to surreptitiously elope and then gather later with a grand wedding celebration with all of their family and friends. Hmm…just a thought. And…no one will be any the wiser. Just a little secret between lovers. How delightful! :)
Peace out.
Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)
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December 7th, 2010 at 9:02 am
In regards to leaving your number for anything in life anymore, I suggest, everyone acquire a Google phone number for this. This FREE phone number is a working number and can be set up to forward to any number you wish. It can be used for all throw away phone number inputs you must submit. You can also have it never forward to anything…
December 7th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Hi Misch, good info, had a pal get caught up with identity theft whilst she was selling off her goods to move east, bummer on top of the tight schedule of moving. It’s a buyer beware sitch out there and wherever a person thinks they can make money off you they will and justify it like a rethug (‘well if you’re that stupid…’) so keep your radar on : )
Harris, I would like to give counterpoint to Mischa’s suggestion : ) it’s all in good fun and well, my best interests for you and Evelyn…with the divorce rate so high you cannpt be in denial that ‘this won’t happen to us, honey’ syndrome, to do so would be to enter a contract with your eyes wide shut, you wouldn’t do that in biz, so please don’t do it in the biz of love, besides, that’s my point, the legalities i.e. paperwork (the behind the scenes stuff of wedding dreams) should not be rushed into and therefore if one person or the other wishes to wait a while, however long…the feeling part of the love of the lover would wait, the love isn’t going to go away or not grow simply bc you do not have a piece of paper in place now is it?? Certainly any love worth experiencing would keep the communication open, as in convos about: what’s the wait of two years about? (what’s she not saying about her feelings about marriage? A wedding is a grand event and it’s easy to get swept away by a fair tale something or other…just sayin’ – good man/bad man, when that wedding planning train pulls out of the station, whoa…it is ALL ABOARD!!) on your part: what’s the hurry about? What is it you want ‘wrapped up’ so immediately? Anyway, like I said it’s just counterpoint to Mischa, I’m a dreamer also but I know what I see and hear and I’m always vigilantly watching for what someone is really showing in their actions/saying with their words (or not doing/saying even more) that’s my two – feel free to disregard at your discretion : ) and I’ll quote someone we all know here ‘patience is its own reward’ : ) I’m sure Anonz won’t mind that I used his line ; )
Women (and men?) of MM blog, if you belong to a gym or have access to a rowing machine, I want you to climb aboard : ) and set it to ‘just rowing’ course, set the dial to a reasonable number, if you’ve never been on before use 5 and adjust accordingly, if you have then up the ante’ ; ) and I want you to place your hands palms up on the rower handles and pull in, keep those elbows tight to your side when you get them there and hold and contract your biseo on the way in and out, no relaxing, we’re working the ‘minor’ pump and doing a warm and a ‘pre-exhaust’ at the same time, you’ll love this series, so do 20 pull in’s with palms up, then switch to palms down and still elbows tucked in at sides tightening and holding that tricep, do 20 like this, next twenty pull in (still palms down) to your chest/chin area, elbows are straight out, repeat this whole series 5x’s and then add to each set (3 more sets to go…!) Palms up now instead of tucking elbows in I want you to pull in and then twist to your right side as far as you can manage, slowly now, and pull the rower all the way till you feel a stretch down your right side from your hip to your shoulder, do 10 each side, I do a quick stop of 5 straight rows in the center bc if your doing this right you’ll want the balance there. I guarantee you a fantastic warm up, a sweet pre-exhaust to any upper body/shoulder/arm workout you will follow it with…more tomorrow.
A friend approached me to be her cook for a week or two till she can free flow it…I’m thinking about it…she walked in while I was making my brew, I’ll restate it here, there are probably many other reasons why my cells are so healthy and haven’t been sick in bed for 4 years (I’ve had 6 or so hours here and there of not feeling tops) but Oct-May every year I drink ginger tea daily – I make enough for 2 days and here’s how it’s done: in a saucepan grate a tablespoon of fresh ginger and add two cups water, bring to a boil, simmer for 2 minutes, shut off and put the lid on for another 2 minutes, meanwhile brew up 2 cups of green tea and then blend the two (after you strained the grated ginegr out) add honey and drink 1-2 cups a day, if your giving to kids, add 6 ozs to orange juice or apple juice, the little ones dig it, too. That’s all folks…!
Luv, Zen Lill
December 7th, 2010 at 2:58 pm
We can not thank you enough for your thoughtful suggestion. We have decided to ——? Keep it a secret, if we do it sometime this week.
We love each other, so why not. Especially since Harris pointed out that if something happened to either of us, marriage would give us the right to be there lovingly and legally for each other. No one could keep us apart.
Michelle, I want to thank you for pleading my case with Evelyn. All she needed was a wise thoughtful, caring person to toss a suggestion in. Ruth called to ask if we had read your column today. We had slept late :). So we had not. That 9 hour difference for her is everything.
But having read it was enough to seal the deal! I’m so damn happppppppppppy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
See you at the wedding. And Zen Lill you needn’t crash because your invitation was always there. We will send it along with the others.
Michelle,
If I am already married before the big wedding, then perhaps you could come 3 to 6 months before the date so that we could really get to know each other. I will of course cover all your lost earnings.
Well I will write the check, Harris will cover it as any good, very rich husband should. Can you just hear the spoon drop down in Georgia. Yes, ladies, this black bitch is already spending his money. “Cause it will be OURS when we are married.
THERE IS NO PRENUP!
She’s just being mean Mom. There is no prenup because I gave her half of my companies already. I did it just in case something happened to prevent our nuptials
She would already be worth half. So why bother to interfere with a union that would double that? You’d better hope she marries me so that we can get some of that value back.
Elopement is on the table thanks to you Michelle. Can’t say enough about what your blog has meant to me.
Me, too.
Love
Harris & Evelyn
December 7th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Zen Lill
You are the best! The tea is fantastic. If it is as healthy as it is delicious, we are in for a real treat.
Merci beaucoup
Ma Qin
December 7th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
Ma Qin, Vous êtes très bienvenue. C’est mon plaisir de partager des informations importantes avec vous et d’autres ici. Is that a decent translation or too formal? Oh I forgot to add to sweeten to taste with honey or agave, cuts the tartness of the ginger for some.
Harris and Evelyn, : ) I see you are disregarding my counterpoint and on that note, may I wish you a very pleasant life journey together, money and all those biz decisions notwithstanding ; ) I hope you find a very pretty and private place to tie that knot! I’m pleased that I’m invited : ) I will be there, I’ll start my study of various languages now.
Luv, Zen Lill, off to get that Christmas tree now, hoping that puts me in the mood of the season…falalala…!