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Kijiji / Craigslist Scammers?

BenSanderson

BenSanderson

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May 11, 2009
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172
Hey everyone,

I`ve had a few ads for my RTO in Kijiji and Craigslist for a couple of weeks now. So far, the response has been good (99% from Kijiji, in case you`re keeping tabs), but I`ve received a few messages that had me wondering as to the motives.

In both cases, the interested party contacted me multiple times, asking very generic questions, such as "How much is your house to rent?" "I am interested in buying your house, please tell me more." - that sort of thing.

The thing that tipped me off to suspecting that something wasn`t right was that each time they sent me mail, it came from a slightly different email address! For example, the first time this person contacted me, her address was [email protected]. The next time it was soniya_salman@....

Is this some kind of spamming technique people are using? Has anyone run into this kind of thing before?
 
I found Craigslist to be far worse for this than Kijiji. I can usually tell because the content of the message usually is far for what my ad is offering. I get alot of the "I`m from overseas and my company is moving me to work in your town" type messages. I`m pretty sure I got a mesage from Sonya as well. From what I have read the scam is to say the company wants to deposit the rent into your account directly, so they want your bank account info and they try to tempt you with a large sum deposit like one year rent at once. Ya ok, riiiight.
 
QUOTE (tbarcier @ Nov 14 2009, 06:06 AM) I found Craigslist to be far worse for this than Kijiji. I can usually tell because the content of the message usually is far for what my ad is offering. I get alot of the "I`m from overseas and my company is moving me to work in your town" type messages. I`m pretty sure I got a mesage from Sonya as well. From what I have read the scam is to say the company wants to deposit the rent into your account directly, so they want your bank account info and they try to tempt you with a large sum deposit like one year rent at once. Ya ok, riiiight.

What Thomas said above is all true. In most cases if the person inquiring is not local I would not even reply or entertain them. Not to say that I never did work with individuals that were moving from out of province, but I was really careful and never gave out to much information nor transact the deal remotely. I finalized everything once they are here locally.
 
We experienced another type of scam on Kijiji - our ad of a house for rent got "hijacked" by a scammer who posted the same ad with a much lower rent offered. A savvy person who phoned him up was told to send an initial deposit before he would set up a viewing "to show the potential renter was seriously interested" - at which point she got concerned, found out who had title on the home, found out who owned our company (yup, things are easy to trace!), and even got our unlisted phone somehow (so much for privacy) and called us to tell us about it. She`d posted "SCAM" under the ad on Kijiji to warn others not to contact the person, and he quickly withdrew the ad. She also got the police involved but my guess is that these scammers can disappear very quickly.

Short of continually checking the site for your ad, which is very boring and time consuming, I`m not sure how to prevent this type of thing.
 
My experience has been very similar. I have never had a problem (yet!) with Kijiji, but my Craigslist ads generate a lot of spam. The subject line is something like "Your ad on Craigslist" but the email is trying to sell me some completed unrelated product. I always want to email them back "Just rent the unit or leave me alone" but I know that only feeds the monster.

Grrrrr...
 
I had a gentleman by the name of Rev. Chili Maxwell from the UK wanting to buy one of my townhomes. He contacted me through Kijiji. We exchanged about 20 e-mails - nothing too unusual except his spelling and grammar. He gave me his address, tel number, lawyer`s name so I could complete the purchase agreement. He said one of his "associates" would contact me to discuss the deposit and have a look at the unit. I then received a call from a person with a heavy accent saying he was calling on behalf of the Rev. He asked me a couple of questions regarding the home and then proceeded to ask what bank I deal with. I told them TD (not the branch or location or any other info....I just said TD). He said he needed to know which bank because the Rev. deals with a couple of Canadian banks and maybe one of his accounts was with the same bank to make the cheque transfer easier? He said he would call back and never did and won`t return e-mails now????

Not sure what to make of this! Probably a scam....but I have had many "weird dealings" in the past that have eventually turned into sales. Didn`t want to ignore this one either.
 
QUOTE (BenSanderson @ Nov 14 2009, 04:21 AM) Hey everyone,

I`ve had a few ads for my RTO in Kijiji and Craigslist for a couple of weeks now. So far, the response has been good (99% from Kijiji, in case you`re keeping tabs), but I`ve received a few messages that had me wondering as to the motives.

In both cases, the interested party contacted me multiple times, asking very generic questions, such as "How much is your house to rent?" "I am interested in buying your house, please tell me more." - that sort of thing.

The thing that tipped me off to suspecting that something wasn`t right was that each time they sent me mail, it came from a slightly different email address! For example, the first time this person contacted me, her address was [email protected]. The next time it was soniya_salman@....

Is this some kind of spamming technique people are using? Has anyone run into this kind of thing before?


I don`t know of any way of "quickly detecting" scams other than just using my gut instinct. If it doesn`t sound right, it probably isn`t. Move on to quality leads.
 
I use both craigslist and Kijiji quite a bit and come across my share of scams. I usually notice a few things and ask myself:- Is it too good to be true?- I usually put a specific name on my Craigslist or Kijiji ad and if they do not reply with my name or contact name then I tend to think of it as a scam- Overseas ads with errors and asking for lawyers information

Here are a few samples that I receive. The one that was almost got me was from RBC so please do not use any of the links that a bank sends you:

Dear Royal Bank of Canada client,


Closing Accounts and Limiting Account Access
This is your official notification that your account has been Limited. We recently reviewed your credit card and it seems that you are using the same credit card for 2 accounts. As you can read in our User Agreement ( section 5.11 ) opening multiple accounts is strictly forbidden. You are now requested to provide information relevant to your account. Royal Bank of Canada will investigate the matter promptly and if the investigation is in your favor, we will restore your account


Completing all of the checklist items will automatically restore your account access.

Thank you for using Royal Bank of Canada!

The Royal Bank of Canada Team Copyright © 2007 Royal Bank of Canada Inc. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners. Royal Bank of Canada is located at 2211 N. First St., San Jose, CA 95131.




Here is another scam as well (I believe the other users experienced this one):

I am Richard Mcneish from UK. My son(Jason)is coming to stay for some couple of weeks in the CANADA, I want you to help me teaching him he his 16years old I saw your advert for Lessons on Craigist . Note: my son Jason is just 14 years old please teach him well. The arrangement for his accomodation has already been made near you , so that the lesson will be comfortable for the both of you. He will arrive there on 17 November 2009. Let me know your charges cost per month in other for me to arrange for his payment before he travells down to your side. The payment will be made with check from my associate. He will be staying there for 1months and I want him to learn for that 1 months.


Please Advise back on:The cost for the lesson (For the 1 months) and books (if needed)
I look up to your reply email me back.Best regardsRichard .
 
QUOTE (Vishal @ Nov 16 2009, 04:02 AM) Here are a few samples that I receive. The one that was almost got me was from RBC so please do not use any of the links that a bank sends you:

Vishal, can you remove that link please? I`d hate for someone to click and not realize it`s crap.
 
Has anyone received this one from Paypal? I think it`s bogus, they don`t have (and never will) my bank account number and went on the Paypal site to confirm. I never opened the attachment. No mention of it anywhere. I wanted to send it to them but their "contact us" page is very user unfriendly so I gave up.




Reminder: Verify your PayPal Account

As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the PayPal system. During a recent screening, we noticed an issue regarding your account.



A recent review of your account determined that we require some additional information from you in order to provide you with secure service.

How to verify your PayPal account:

1. Submit the form attached to your email in order to verify your PayPal Account.
2. PayPal made two small deposits to your bank account.
3 Check your bank account in 3-5 days for the deposit amounts.
3. Log in to your PayPal account and enter the exact deposit amounts.

Your PayPal account will be Verified.



We thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Please understand that this is a security measure intended to help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Sincerely,

PayPal Account Review Department


Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and click the Help link in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

PayPal Email ID PP8520
 
QUOTE (ChrisDavies @ Nov 16 2009, 07:11 AM) Vishal, can you remove that link please? I`d hate for someone to click and not realize it`s crap.


Done - thanks for that.

Vishal
 
Spelling and grammer is a good give away, these scams come often from Africa, they use names that seem kinda fake too. But I did ignore one response to an add last month because the name sounded make-up and they wanted pictures of the suite, it turned out that it wasn`t fake and I would have really liked to have had this young couple as tenants.
 
This is what a craigslist scam looks like, you can smell them a mile away.

Hello,

Merry Christmas to you, my name is Brandy I work with RAJ xxx/FASHION COMPANY London.

1st Floor,

Entrance on Brook Street,

xxx New Bond Streets,

London W1S xxx.

I have an exhibition to show case in Canada that may take me 5 to9 months as the case may be so I am looking for a room to share or rent I will be moving in first or second week of January, please I will like to know the total move in cost of the room and the breakdown details of the house and the utilities as well as the picture of the house if available, as I will not be able to check out the place until my arrival, So I will arrange on how payment will be made to you prior to my arrival as soon as I`m able to reach an accord with you.

I am 24 single lady very gentle easy going I don’t smoke but sport lover and outgoing person and I enjoy meeting other people, I love dancing, I have a very good sense of humor and very honest. I like hearing what people have to say by way of sharing ideas. Well, I guess that is about me for now.

I await your kind response.

Brandy.
 
Anyone get replies from Jack James to every ad on Craiglist?

What other sites is popular for posting rentals besides Kijij and Craiglist ?
 
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