A YT user forwarded me an email this morning of a fraud. I thought I'd share the indicators. In this case it was a response to a wanted-to-buy type ad. Here are the specifics that when taken together, make it a very suspicious response, which I personally would not reply to.
1. Unlikely names! In this case, the persons name was a backward english name as if pulled from some resource where the scammer was unaware they were grabbing a name that was shown "Last First" rather than "First Last".
2. Western Union used for a balance to be returned.
3. The english was clearly not US nor British. It was some other language translated and then embellished with numerous extra flowery words. The wording could only be described as impossible.
4. It went into detail about unrelated things in an apparent attempt to establish trust.
5. It suggested contact of a third party to arrange payment.
6. It pretended to be a company, yet used a free email address and had no website.
7. Photos were requested but none sent. The "seller" even said they tried but were unable to send them.
8. It said it had all the parts requested in the ad, though it was unlikely any one person would have all these parts, especially an "auto parts" company. It seems that a lot of frauds were written as if for cars and car parts yet used for tractor or truck classifieds.
One or two of these indicators might be okay under some conditions, but some are clearly risky at best, and with all present, it has to considered suspicious.
If you get ad responses like this, feel free to post them to the feedback forum as examples of scams and frauds. Once people have seen a few, they become pretty obvious.
Thanks,
Chris
1. Unlikely names! In this case, the persons name was a backward english name as if pulled from some resource where the scammer was unaware they were grabbing a name that was shown "Last First" rather than "First Last".
2. Western Union used for a balance to be returned.
3. The english was clearly not US nor British. It was some other language translated and then embellished with numerous extra flowery words. The wording could only be described as impossible.
4. It went into detail about unrelated things in an apparent attempt to establish trust.
5. It suggested contact of a third party to arrange payment.
6. It pretended to be a company, yet used a free email address and had no website.
7. Photos were requested but none sent. The "seller" even said they tried but were unable to send them.
8. It said it had all the parts requested in the ad, though it was unlikely any one person would have all these parts, especially an "auto parts" company. It seems that a lot of frauds were written as if for cars and car parts yet used for tractor or truck classifieds.
One or two of these indicators might be okay under some conditions, but some are clearly risky at best, and with all present, it has to considered suspicious.
If you get ad responses like this, feel free to post them to the feedback forum as examples of scams and frauds. Once people have seen a few, they become pretty obvious.
Thanks,
Chris
