How do these iPhone scams work?

[Loves2spoon]

I get tons of these emails from craigslist, do these people really put money in your paypal account? They make a claim to paypal to get the money back and get a free iPhone if someone is stupid to actually ship it?



Thanks for your responds,i will pay $700 including the shipping fee
for the iPhone 4 16gb Jailbroken and i will like you to get back to me
your PayPal email account immediately so that i can make the payment
as soon as possible cause am out of town now and am getting these item
for my Wife for her Birthday that is come on Friday and i want the
item to be shipped via USPS EXPRESS MAIL,so all you have to do is for
you to get back to me asap.

Thanks.......

 

[TruckdriverSean]

Stolen credit cards, fished checking account numbers, claims against you via Paypal for fraud (no eBay auction to prove a transaction), the list goes on and on.

If someone really wants to buy an item and have it shipped, why wouldn't they just use eBay? And for that price, why wouldn't they just skip eBay and order it directly from Apple and JB it themselves?

Public place (w/cameras and limited exits, ie: Starbucks)
Cash money (nothing larger than $20's)
Bring a friend (buy him an $8 coffee and sit him by the door to stop a runner)

If ANYTHING doesn't feel right, say screw it and leave.

 

[B.winkle]

Scam!

 

[Frenchjay]

Looks and smells like a scam ITS A TRAP!!

 

[PsstGreek]

Anything to deal with shipping on Craig's List is a scam.

 

[androiphone]

just look at the terrible english and grammar to know it is a scam

 

[old-wiz]

Craigslist tells you upfront: deal only in person only. Anyone who asks you to ship something this way is flat out scam. They wind up with a nice free iPhone and you are out the iPhone with absolutely no recourse to get anything back.

Still, lots of people fall for scams out of greed; for example they think websites offering new iPhones for $250 unlocked and jailbroken are legit and that they will get the product.

 

[Pez555]

Stolen credit cards, fished checking account numbers, claims against you via Paypal for fraud (no eBay auction to prove a transaction), the list goes on and on.

If someone really wants to buy an item and have it shipped, why wouldn't they just use eBay? And for that price, why wouldn't they just skip eBay and order it directly from Apple and JB it themselves?

Public place (w/cameras and limited exits, ie: Starbucks)
Cash money (nothing larger than $20's)
Bring a friend (buy him an $8 coffee and sit him by the door to stop a runner)

If ANYTHING doesn't feel right, say screw it and leave.

as above, anyone who feels skeptical about a sale should read the above quote.

 

[mgamber]

Craigslist tells you upfront: deal only in person only. Anyone who asks you to ship something this way is flat out scam. They wind up with a nice free iPhone and you are out the iPhone with absolutely no recourse to get anything back.

Still, lots of people fall for scams out of greed; for example they think websites offering new iPhones for $250 unlocked and jailbroken are legit and that they will get the product.

THIS. I especially like the ads for $17 iPads. It insults intelligence and common sense and, unfortunately, demonstrates how little intelligence and common sense exists in the world.

It's too bad there isn't an obvious central repository where you can do a search for an email address to see if it's been entered as the source of a scam. Sure, email addresses come and go and are easy to create but it's just as easy to get an email like this one and enter the address into the repository.

 

[kdarling]

http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams

Also, if you google some of the phrases in these offers, they usually show up listed somewhere as a known scam.

 

[weirdlilwoman]

Scam-a-rama-ding-dong.

 

[CZK]

I get tons of these emails from craigslist, do these people really put money in your paypal account? They make a claim to paypal to get the money back and get a free iPhone if someone is stupid to actually ship it?



Thanks for your responds,i will pay $700 including the shipping fee
for the iPhone 4 16gb Jailbroken and i will like you to get back to me
your PayPal email account immediately so that i can make the payment
as soon as possible cause am out of town now and am getting these item
for my Wife for her Birthday that is come on Friday and i want the
item to be shipped via USPS EXPRESS MAIL,so all you have to do is for
you to get back to me asap.

Thanks.......

They send fake paypal emails.

Its a classic scam coming from N I G E R i a.

They tell you that they will pay first, they send you the fakes emails. If you tell them that your currennt balance on paypal is still unchanged, they will say that paypal is waiting for the tracking number to be shown as succesfully delivered.

Its the lamest scam i've seen
________
WHITE WIDOW SEEDS

 

[stephensays]

Here's one I got today after I put my Nano on craigslist

"I want a quick purchase of your Craigslist item Below.....But i will
not be able to come for the pickup due to the nature of my Job. I will
be glad if you can be so nice to help me ship it down to my Daughter
as a BirthDay Gift ,So i am ready to pay you $220 for the item cost
including the shipping cost , and i will prefer paying you via paypal
, cos it is very fast and secure ,so do get back to me with your
paypal email for the instant payment or you sign up for a paypal
personal account . Thanks."


Needless to say, wrote them a "nice" email explaining how I would go through with the transaction and love how they're offering me $100 more than what I was asking... but too bad I'm not an idiot.