Craigslist scam - "no crime had been committed"

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Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 5:30 am

Is anyone baiting this scammer?
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/08/24/craigslist-scam.html

I am puzzled about why the Toronto police think that no crime has been committed, or why Craigslist officials are pretending that this sort of scam is rare Confused

Quote:

Woman conned out of rental money in online scam

A Toronto woman is out $2,300 after falling for a rental scam on Craigslist, a popular website of free classified advertisements, CBC News has learned.

Katherine Griggs said someone who assumed a real estate agent's identity online duped her into sending a moneygram for a promised low-rent, spacious apartment in a trendy part of the city.

Toronto police Det. Mark Charuk said the suspect used the Multiple Listing Service and communicated with people by e-mail pretending to be real estate agent Tanya Schoen.

At least 30 people showed interest in the apartment, but when they contacted Schoen by phone they discovered that she had no idea what they were talking about.

Meanwhile, Griggs, 22, e-mailed the scam artist, a move she says was her first mistake. The fake agent then conducted a scam with plenty of twists and turns to get the moneygram, along with the victim's name, address and phone number.

Police told Griggs there wasn't much that could be done because no crime had been committed.

Griggs has this message for the scammer: "You are a very cruel person and please give me my money back. You don't understand what you have done to us and put us through and I hope you never have to go through something like that."

Officials at Craigslist say these kinds of scams are rare because most users of the site who carry out transactions meet in person.

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 5:46 am

OK, I can see Craigslist (aka Scammer Central) trying to cover their ass by pretending that there aren't nearly as many scammers using their service as real people, but I don't get the Toronto police thing. Unless the cops there are smoking crack, I suspect the reporter misinterpreted something along the lines of "there is little we can do because the crime was committed overseas and outside our jurisdiction" to mean "no crime was committed". If not, the problem is even worse than we thought. Confused

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 5:50 am

Absolutely disgusting of Craig's list. Evil or Very Mad

They know their board is crawling with damn scammers. We should scour their board and point out every damn "rare" scam to them.

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 5:59 am

Then there's this:

Victim wrote:

You don't understand what you have done to us and put us through and I hope you never have to go through something like that.

He understands just fine, but doesn't give a shit.
Not only do I hope that he goes through "something like that" and MUCH worse, I hope it's one of us that puts him through it. Evil or Very Mad

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 12:29 pm

I have to start looking for a new roommate really soon.

I'm sure that I'll have a few of these people emailing me!

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

I remember Craiglist saying the same sort of thing last year, that scams are rare on Craiglist blah blah blah, lieing bastards Evil or Very Mad

We should set up a Craiglist scam blog, detailing every Craiglist scam we come across Evil or Very Mad

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 5:59 pm

Great idea SP....we should also list every scam we find there at scamwarners. We'll shame them!

Master Baiter Joined: 18 Jul 2007 Posts: 133

Fantastic idea SP. I have heard of so many scams from Craigslist and their policy seems to be "Do nothing". Maybe we can embarass them into doing something.

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

I'll open a new blogger account tomorrow, and any time that anyone sees a Craiglist scam, let me know the details and I will post it on the blog, same goes for or if something is posted on ScamWarners, that will also get posted, Craiglist will then be given the blog url Twisted Evil

Not that they will be bothered very much, I suppose, but at least it will be another place for victims/potential victims to learn about the very rare Craiglist scams Rolling Eyes

Master Baiter Joined: 18 Jul 2007 Posts: 133

I heard an interview with the guy who runs Craigslist (on the bbc world service, i think). It is one of the most hit websites in the world, like 12 million hits a day! It is run by 10 hippies in San Francisco, who absolutely don't want it to become the next eBay etc. In fact, the guy said he was offered millions of $ by eBay but he turned them down. I guess that gives in insight into his business ideology Rolling Eyes

It's just a shame their hippy-dippy attitude means they let scammers run free on their site. He came across as a "goodguy" so maybe if we apply enough pressure he will change the situation.
(Or...never trust a hippy)

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 26 Aug 2006 Posts: 577

I use craiglist a lot. I rarely see scam POSTS. Users flag them and off they go.

On the other hand, my rental ads will fairly frequently be responded too by lads.

I think that's the difference Crailist is making.

It's a free service. And a good one too.

Without getting into too many details, I own my rentals and Craiglist gives me better response that ANY paid advertisement - and has done so for at least the past 5 years.

I would take any comment in a newspapaer ad with a grain of salt - especially if it's not a direct quote.

Just my 2 cents.

Not quite a Newb Joined: 14 Aug 2007 Posts: 30

Scammers work the rental listings of all sites like Craigslist. Last year, I had a rental property listed on Yahoo Real Estate for 30 days. I didn't get a single serious inquiry but I probably got 10 emails from people who were overseas and wanted to rent the place but needed my help shipping their belongings into the country. Of course, I would have to pay the initial charges but they would pay me back when they got here. Yeah, right, SURE they will!

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 9:24 pm

@Phil
Im sure Craig's list is a good source of advertising and is lucrative for people using it.
What we question is Craig's lists statement that scammers are rare. This is a bullshit statement. There are many, many lads on Craig's list as they are on Ebay too. Do a search for loans on Craig's List and see what I mean Wink

Moderator Joined: 10 Jan 2007 Posts: 14513

I bait loan lads, and I have baited at least a dozen from CL. Not too mention all of the shady looking adds for below costs goods Rolling Eyes

Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2007 9:29 pm

my vote is with SP an lotta on setting up a craigscam blog

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 26 Aug 2006 Posts: 577

@ Lotta,

True I have a relatively small snap-shot of craiglist. I'm probably being overly defensive - but when a one week Ad in the local paper costs $300 - $500 and I get one or NONE responses, and craiglist is free and I get a dozen responses and get a signed lease - THAT's impressive.

It's a free service, and monitored by users. I just don't see how it's the operators' fault, considering the above design, that scammers use it.

When I get a response from a scammer it REALLY chaps my lips. Fortunately my radar has always been tuned to it.

People who use services like craiglist and don't use or have that radar shouldn't be condemning the service .

Just my 4 cents

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

drwiggle wrote:

the guy said he was offered millions of $ by eBay but he turned them down.

Not according to the article about Craiglist on Wikipedia, according to that, eBay own 25% of Craiglist:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craigslist

Quote:

On August 13, 2004, Newmark announced on his blog that auction giant eBay had purchased a 25% stake in the company from a former principal. Some fans of Craigslist have expressed concern that this development will affect the site's longtime non-commercial nature, but it remains to be seen what ramifications the change will actually have.

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 12:19 am

I am also continually reminded by Ebay that most transactions are 100% risky free.

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 2:30 am

Craigslist is free.

You get what you pay for.

I have sold several large items through Craigslist with no problems.

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 4:55 am

I'd like to speak up in defense of Craigslist. I, too, have successfully used CL to buy, sell, and even give away many things big and small, including a car.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there are no scammers who use Craigslist. Several of my current ongoing baits started with emails from lads in response to my "for-sale" or "for-rent" ads on Craigslist. If you want to publicize CL scammers, that's all to the good.

But I disagree with the attitude that CL doesn't care about scammers or purposely turns a blind eye to them. They do try to fight scammers by educating users. Every email that passes through CL's server has a big warning at the top describing scams and urging that you should only deal with local people. They have a link to a similar warning on their main page. If people don't recognize obvious scam emails and ignore CL's warnings, I'm not sure how much you can blame CL for that.

Bottom line: There is indeed scammer pollution on CL, but in my opinion it is swamped by the excellent service it provides.

Unrelated to scams, Craigslist has a sense of humor that I bet a lot of Eater members would enjoy. They have a "best of" section that lists some very funny ads. http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/all/

Master Baiter Joined: 18 Jul 2007 Posts: 133

@SP
That's news to me, thanks. Maybe it was an old interview rebroadcast. He definitely said no to ebay in the interview i heard. Not that it's really important. I just wanted to make the point that he seems an ok guy and might do the right thing.

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 7:20 pm

The way I understand the investment, a former Craigslist executive had been given a 25% share in the company, back when nobody thought such a stake was worth anything. Then in 2004, the ex-executive decided to sell his shares and ended up selling to eBay.

Based on that, I don't think Craigslist itself got any of eBay's money. It all went into the pocket of the former executive. From what I've seen as a buyer and seller on CL, nothing has changed since the eBay investment.

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 7:37 pm

Question about Craigslist...being in the UK, I've never used it, but would it be against the rules for me to post that I'm selling something (e.g. a made up model of car) in the hope of attracting some scammers to play with?

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

^^^^^ Yes, that's fine, a lot of us on here have placed fake adverts on there, always overprice your item so that nobody in their right mind would pay for it, except a scammer, say, for example, an old laptop for sale at $10,000, or an old motor that is badly damaged for $10,000 sort of thing, anything really, as long as it looks tempting to a lad cruising past.

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2007 8:10 pm

^^^ Or advertise an item that doesn't exist in the real world (eg, a left-hand thydroid sprocket for a 1987 Thimbly-Ditson saloon)

It would be wrong to blame Craigslist for the sins of the scammers who abuse its services, and I recognise the steps that they take to remind their users about fraud. My point was that they do their users a disservice by claiming that such frauds are rare - they aren't.

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