Craigslist driver scam....

[iwannadie]

So a friend at work has been looking for a part time job on craigslist of all places. He found something and was telling me about this awesome new job he found. The ad was for a guy who lives out of the country and is coming here for several months and will need a driver 3 days a week. He will provide a high end rental car and pay top dollar. As soon as I here this I say it's a scam. My friend insist no it's not the guy just needs a driver... I tell him this "guy" will end up sending you a money order or check for a large amount and make some excuse why you have to western union money back to him. My friend blows that off and is sold on it being a legit job.

The next day I type into google "craigslist driver scam" and I got as far as "craigslist d" when google auto-filled in the rest. I read about it and it always was someone out of the country coming here or sending a daughter/wife here. They all send a large MO or check up front and all end up wanting money sent back to them with of course western union.

I go to work and present this new info to my friend who is waiting to hear back about the "job". He again refuses to accept it's a scam and said he's talked to the guy on the phone. I try to tell him just wait the words "western union" will come up. What real job would ask you to wire transfer money to them using an untraceable service?

A few days go by I think the scam fizzled out or my friend caught on. Well, he got 2 money orders in the mail(sent ups of course not the post office). He deposited both money orders no problem the bank didn't blink an eye at them. Of course the guy asked for money to be you guessed it, western union wire transfered back to him. My friend emptied his bank account to send this guy money going on the assumption the money orders are good because they bank deposited them.

He said the rental car will be at his house in a few days. I really hope I am wrong and a shiny lexus and some odd foreigner shows up on his door. However, I am certain he will be getting a call from his bank about the now bounced money orders and his account being in the negative.

Anyone deal with this sorta thing either first hand or with a friend like I am. I tried everything I could to educate and scare him off but all my effort was just brushed off.

 

[toyotanos]

Wow, that looks like fail in a bottle... Sounds like you tried to help him out as much as you could, too.

Only thing I tell people who do money order swapping is to wait until they clear or put a flag with the bank as they deposit it.

 

[iwannadie]

Wow, that looks like fail in a bottle... Sounds like you tried to help him out as much as you could, too.

Only thing I tell people who do money order swapping is to wait until they clear or put a flag with the bank as they deposit it.

I was reading now about money orders as my friends big defense was "it's a money order, you have to put the money up front!". I said it can be forged, just someone printing it out. It can takes weeks or months to come back as a fake and the bank can come after the person who tried to cash it.

 

[airhead04]

Your friend is going to learn a hard lesson.....I hope he doesnt pay rent or anything.

 

[GrimJack]

Money orders are *not* secure.

The way this works for the scammer is simple. There is a law in the USA that forces banks to make the money from a money order deposit available to you within a certain time period, instead of placing a hold on the funds until they actually clear from the foreign institution. Therefore, the bank is giving you the money before they know it is actually genuine.

When the money order comes back as fraudulent, which can take weeks or even months, the bank will simply remove that money from your account - even if it puts your account deep into the red. Of course, the guy getting scammed has already sent the money back, so now he's screwed.

The way to avoid this is simple - *NEVER* accept payment for more than what is owed. Talk to your bank when you deposit foreign money orders, and find out from them how long it will take to actually confirm the funds. Don't send products (or money, but you shouldn't ever be sending money anyway) until you have confirmation from your bank.

In this particular case, there are several warning signs.
- Payment by MO, return funds by WU. Why wouldn't the payment come in the same form?
- Payment for more than what is owed, and a request for a partial refund.
- Payment in advance... why not just bring the payment with him when he comes? Simple... because he's not coming. Ever.

Hopefully your friend didn't get scammed for too much money. This is proof positive that a smart man learns from his mistakes, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

 

[Mr.Forks]

wow, i didn't know they still ran this scam
im sorry for your friend, i hope it wasnt too big of an amount

 

[whitemike]

Hopefully your friend didn't get scammed for too much money. This is proof positive that a smart man learns from his mistakes, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.

My best friends mother got scammed for 5k by the most basic of scams. The guy has millions locked up in an account and needs a few thousand to get it out. He'll then give her 1.5 million if she lends him this 5k. She gets scammed, then FALLS FOR IT AGAIN and sends another 2k. My friend is extremely stressed out about this, I feel so bad for the kid. He simply can't talk any sense into her. Some people are just gullible.

 

[Mr.Forks]

My best friends mother got scammed for 5k by the most basic of scams. The guy has millions locked up in an account and needs a few thousand to get it out. He'll then give her 1.5 million if she lends him this 5k. She gets scammed, then FALLS FOR IT AGAIN and sends another 2k. My friend is extremely stressed out about this, I feel so bad for the kid. He simply can't talk any sense into her. Some people are just gullible.

That sucks
fool me once, shame on you, Fool me twice Shame on me
A fool and his money are quickly parted
many different sayings apply
you want to see some serious scams, try posting a laptop for sale on craigslist,
Seriously, you probably wont get one legit reply, just a lot of nigerian scammers who wil send you ten times the amount if you ship it first.

 

[SupraMario]

Your friend is an idiot....I have 0 sympathy for people who fall for this shit these days.

 

[whitemike]

That sucks
fool me once, shame on you, Fool me twice Shame on me
A fool and his money are quickly parted
many different sayings apply
you want to see some serious scams, try posting a laptop for sale on craigslist,
Seriously, you probably wont get one legit reply, just a lot of nigerian scammers who wil send you ten times the amount if you ship it first.

That's the other thing. She keeps meeting guys on dating sites (pathetic) and they'll be from Boston, New York, California, etc.. but.. for some reason.. they all live in Ghana. So, my friend and I tell her "don't you think that's odd? Ghana isn't exactly the place to be.." and she just regurgitates whatever lie they told her to us - and a child could see the holes in the story. Not her though.

 

[A. Jay]

(...)
He said the rental car will be at his house in a few days. I really hope I am wrong and a shiny lexus and some odd foreigner shows up on his door. However, I am certain he will be getting a call from his bank about the now bounced money orders and his account being in the negative.

Anyone deal with this sorta thing either first hand or with a friend like I am. I tried everything I could to educate and scare him off but all my effort was just brushed off.

Shouldn't be much of a wait then. +1 on you not feeling bad, you did all you could.

wow, i didn't know they still ran this scam
im sorry for your friend, i hope it wasnt too big of an amount

They'll run it until it no longer produces a profit for them, which is whenever they run out of stupid people. They're experiencing a job stability that I'm jealous of.

 

[Cz.]

Your friend is an idiot....I have 0 sympathy for people who fall for this shit these days.

+1

It always amazes me that there are people who still haven't heard of these scams.

 

[IwantMKIII]

So how much did your friend send? I would like to laugh at his expense but need to know how much laughter is appropriate.

 

[iwannadie]

I'm not sure how much he sent, I'm guessing in the $1,000 - $2,000 range though based on what I've read about this scam in particular. That wouldn't include any bank fees he might face when the money order bounces and he's in the red because of it.

I was thinking about this again today and wondering how much money the scammers can pull in. If they setup a post-bot that can spam these ads in every city/town sub division of craigslist they could hit a million ads a month. If they get 10% of people to show interest then 1% of people to actually commit that is some decent money. With that number of people to make it profitable you would think they would have some trail leading back to them to get caught though.

I'll update in a few days when the guy doesn't show up. At this point I still feel bad and don't want to bring it up to him again as he's already lost the money.