The "I'll Buy Your Item, I'm Somewhere Else" Scams

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 26 Aug 2011 Posts: 2

Ahoy! Just joined! I've been baiting scammers for ages but I just found the forum today. If anyone's got some ideas for me, I'd LOVE to hear them!

I am incredibly sick of the scam emails. From the lotteries to the wills to the military personnel who have found SADDAMS GOLD, so so so sick of them. And more than that, they are now preying on people on Kijiji and Craigslist and they're annoyingly clever because they'll pretend to be local and get an address and phone number out of you by making you think they're coming to buy something from you! ARG.

So here's my current bait. I'm trying to sell a bass on Kijiji, and I get an email saying "Still for sale?" So I wrote him back and said yes and gave him some details, and, naturally, my phone number. I am SO GLAD I haven't given him my address yet. He's trying to get my full address and full name from me so he can send me payment. Yeah right! Lol, and then his "shipping company" will come pick the bass up from me. His "English" is definitely ringing with Nigerian grammatical errors.

Advice? Got a good one for me? We're on email number 17 so far as I bumble and misunderstand him, tell him I've never done a sale like this before, ask him again how it's supposed to go, etc. I'm thinking next I might tell him to send the payment to the music studio where my bass is since it's not at my home residence (which is actually true, tho I'm not going to give him any kind of real address).

Thoughts?

MeliBeli Very Happy

Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 12:16 am

Welcome to Eater!

If you want to bait this one, drop him. Ignore all messages he sends to your real email address. Create a new untraceable email address, create a new account at Kijiji, and offer a concertina for sale. Then send a message to the scammer saying "A friend of mine thought you might be interested in this concertina", and see what happens.

Bait safe!

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 26 Aug 2011 Posts: 2

Hi Von! Thanks for the welcome!!

I appreciate the advice, but the email he has is not my real email or anything, I have five or six redundant accounts with gmail and mail.com I set up a while ago after the first scammer contacted me, and I always sell and deal from these accounts. The only thing that really bugs me is that I sent him my phone number, but I don't know that he can really do anything with that (can he?). I never deal with people online with my real name at all, I always have them contact me with a fake name.

Do you still think I should try to start over? He doesn't have my real name but he does have my phone digits... it's a cell phone.
?

Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 3:25 am

Hey MeliBeli. Welcome to Eater!

We strongly advice that if a scammer has any of your RL personal information that you drop them, don't bait them, and just ignore them. No matter how trivial the information they may have about you, never forget that these are criminals and we advocate safety with baiting as a priority. Very Happy

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