OT, do other cities have a huge problem with

[Bill R.]

craig'slist car spammers? its getting pretty bad here, 4 out of 10 new posts are some obviously fake spam car sale... nigerian etc...

[Ross]

Not that many here in Chicago, but a lot of attempts. There are so many people looking that they are quickly flagged off.
And of course the occasional super slueth who discovers those ads are a FRAUD and posts a WARNING for everyone else. I don't which are more amusing.

[Bill R.]

don't realize they are frauds... many of my less enlightened customers ask me about some of the cars, not to be sterotyping but they are usually of the female persuasion. I flag at least 15 a day on average, then next time i check a couple of hours later there's more.




Not that many here in Chicago, but a lot of attempts. There are so many people looking that they are quickly flagged off.
And of course the occasional super slueth who discovers those ads are a FRAUD and posts a WARNING for everyone else. I don't which are more amusing.

[Ross]

The '04 X5 for $4884 that was second in line was already flagged.
I spared this less blatant one for our amusemeny here. http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/cto/1003162676.html
Aha, better hurry, reposted at a new lower price!
http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/cto/1003191481.html
And here is the real deal;
http://www.autotrader.com/dealers/dda/index.jsp?dealership_view_name=dnmotorcars/family-focus&car_id=233854580&dealer_id=57645971&lcat=FAMILY

[BMWDriver]

I actually responded to one once. I think it was around 5000$, a 2001 e46, and I asked if there was a mistake in the price. He replied no, the car was in DC, that the price includes shipping by train to Montreal (cough, *BS*, cough) and he'd give me a few days to examine the thing (cough, cough, *BS*). I mean, come on! Who wants to comit financial suicide with shipping accross the border!

Initially, it was not that far fetched because the U.S. market is a bit lower in some places, and with the exchange rate.

Still, out of curiosity, I peeked at the DC market, because here in Montreal 2001 e46 went for about 10-12 K back then in CAD$ (1 CAD$ = about 0.80$US). So they were about 10 K in USD$ in and about DC.

Naturally, that was that for me. I can't imagine people are that foolish to fall for it, but it takes all kinds.

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

We get a lot of mainland cars sales (will shipp) scam)

Buy the car and it never shows up

[ladiesman217]

geez i strung one guy along for about 2 weeks.

Told him it was for senator Trent lott, etc etc, we would be down there to look at it, oops it was already packaged for transport, so on so on

asked if I could send a money order or cash instead of western union since I had heard of western union scams.
sent him a crayon drawn $5,000 bill

[Dave M]

Its a simple game of statistics, not unlike spam adverstising. If you send out enough feelers, eventually you'll find that poor, uninitiated sucker.

I do flag these whenever i se them on Craig.

Dave

[Dave M]

geez i strung one guy along for about 2 weeks.

Told him it was for senator Trent lott, etc etc, we would be down there to look at it, oops it was already packaged for transport, so on so on

asked if I could send a money order or cash instead of western union since I had heard of western union scams.
sent him a crayon drawn $5,000 bill

When their story was "I just got divorced from my husband and we have to split everything, so I want to sell the car for very little money just to screw him around...", I asked 'her' if she wanted to meet me for coffee. No reply :D

Dave

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

My name is Matki Maboutou, and I am charged with buying cars for the royal fleet for my country of Zamunda.

Our Crown Prince Akeem is very excite about your car. Thus I would like to buy your car right away. I will send a cashier's check drawn from the royal treasury of Zamunda for the full price and funds to cover transport.


Regards,
Matki Maboutou