Recently I have not only connected with one of the famous Craigslist scams regarding a vehicle and Ebay, but I have also found way to find and detect these scams.
1. There is never a location, neither in the field or google maps.
2. The car will always look very new.
3. There is always a “—“, “***”, or missing space in the title. (e.g. Carfor sale)
4. The email address is always the same with different characters.
5. There is always a direct @gmail address to bypass the Craigslist forwarding system.
Examples:
kellywilson064@gmail.com
juliacoates828@gmail.com
katherine1974williams@gmail.com
nicoled792@gmail.com
6. The details also (most often) include spelling errors, grammar errors, or missing spaces.
8. Searching Craigslist with the keyword “gmail” will most times pull up all of these ads from the scammers. On average, (in New England anyway), there are 3+ per state. There could be more.
9. Repeated ads are often found with the same picture but different title or description in the surrounding areas.
10. There is always a request for information, without submitting your information you will never see true results.
11. There is always a third party transaction based request from the scam artist, most often Ebay.
These ads range from cars to motorcycles, and even RV’s listed for 20k+. All of the ads have the same style. One way you can implement and test theories is to take the title of an ad to another state and search it there. I found a Honda Goldwing listed by a scam artist, several posts in one state. So I went to another state, several states away, and type in “gmail goldwing” and sure enough I encountered the same ads.
Everyone be safe and smart! If it does not feel right, then it is NOT RIGHT. Trust your gut.
Scam reported at FightTheScams.com
Spotting and Avoiding Famous Craigslist Scams – 10 Tips – Famous Vehicle Scams