Craigslist Scam
I’ve been trying to sell my car on Craigslist, and I got this scam email. I cut & pasted a few pieces of the email & googled it, but nothing came up. I’m posting the whole letter here in case anyone else is in a similar situation. This is definitely a scam. It came from robot@craiqslisf.org, and if I hadn’t been looking carefully, I might not have noticed that the T has been replaced with an F.
DEAR Andrew,
IMPORTANT – FURTHER ACTION IS REQUIRED TO PUBLISH YOUR (cars & trucks – by owner) ADD ONLINE – HUMAN VERIFICATION!!!
YOUR POSTING IS NOW HELD FOR VERIFICATION!!!
REPLY US THE WEB ADDRESS (LINK) FROM THE MESSAGE YOU RECIVED EARLIER WITH SUBJECT LINE POST/EDIT/DELETE
Here are the steps you need to follow:
- Find the message with the subject line POST/EDIT/DELETE
- Copy the POST/EDIT/DELETE link.
- Reply to this message, put the POST/EDIT/DELETE link and the answer for 5+8=? in the subject line or body message.
- Deliver us the message by pressing the send button in order to reactivate your posting.
The web address from the message with the subject line POST/EDIT/DELETE is as follow ” https//post.craigslist.org/u/
*** HUMAN VERIFICATION IS A MECHANISM TO PREVENT SPAMMING CRAIGSLIST!!!
This is an attempt to ensure that the response is generated by a person.This message was sent to prevent automated software from performing actions which degrade the quality of our services, also this action is required to minimize automated posting on craigslist (cars & trucks – by owner). Human Verification Posting is sometimes required for posting on craigslist. Your posting is now held for verification. Follow the process, and your posting will be verified and approved to go online on craigslist.
Your posting will expire off the site 45 days after it was created.
WARNING!! *** WARNING!! *** WARNING!! *** WARNING!!
Please be wary of distant ‘buyers’ responding to your ad! Many sellers receive replies from scammers hoping to defraud them through schemes involving counterfeit cashier’s checks and/or wire transfers. These checks will clear the bank, but the person cashing the check will be held responsible when the fraud is discovered.
More info on scams can be found at this web address: http://www.craigslist.org/
Thanks for using craigslist!
January 20th, 2012 at 2:48 pm
I just got this as well. The original email was from cams.electric@yahoo.com with reply to irina.her@optonline.net
January 20th, 2012 at 5:15 pm
I received basically the same email this morning. The return email address from mine did not have an f instead of a t however. robot@craigslist.org
January 23rd, 2012 at 5:27 pm
The return email address from mine did not have an f instead of a t however. robot@craigslist.org
… when replying, it does have the f
also, the posting was already up a few days ago.
Scammers SUCK, ITS ALL A SCAM!! F.U.
January 23rd, 2012 at 6:22 pm
I received this kind of email when I replied to jenny.giw@optonline.net and ebedever@gmail.com…The email came in sub: HUMAN VERIFICATION (cars & trucks – by owner) POSTING…It is showing robot@craigslist.org as sender when I reply then It shows…”craigslist – automated message, reply for verification” … spammers are getting smart. As a programmer I can say that sending an email with some other Id when you have your own smtp server is possible.
January 23rd, 2012 at 6:43 pm
I received this kind of email when I replied to jenny.giw@optonline.net and ebedever@gmail.com…The email came in sub: HUMAN VERIFICATION (cars & trucks – by owner) POSTING…It is showing robot@craigslist.org as sender when I reply then It shows…”craigslist – automated message, reply for verification” … spammers are getting smart. As a programmer I can say that sending an email with some other Id when you have your own smtp server is possible. repost comment: When I copied I missed
January 23rd, 2012 at 7:17 pm
Got that today!! I thought it was fishy that they were asking me for the edit link like they had malicious intentions behind it! Thank you for confirming my suspicions. At first glance, it actually said craigslist in the Sender line, but when I hit reply. The Q and F showed up instead!
January 23rd, 2012 at 9:26 pm
I came really close to falling for this. I thought that if the mail appeared to have come from robot@craigslist.org, it would have been legit. It seemed like a hacky way to verify humans, but much of craigslist is a giant hack.
The only thing that tipped me off to this being a scam was the wording in the line: “Deliver us the message by pressing the send button in order to reactivate your posting”. That just sounds like broken english that Craig Newmark would not write himself. I don’t know how they are going to stop this from being sent. It’s a very sneaky attack.
January 24th, 2012 at 2:20 am
I got a version of it this morning. Two things flagged it a scam for me:
1. They did not have the actual title of my car for sale ad
2. They asked me to find a POST/EDIT/DELETE message that I had supposedly received before, which I didn’t.
Reply to address was: robot@craiqslisf.org
3. I goggled about it and found this site
Scammer will burn in cyberhell.
January 24th, 2012 at 7:31 pm
Just got the same email. Emailed laurenbusillo@yahoo.com and it auto-replied to jenny.giw@optonline.net. Thank you for posting this scam.
January 24th, 2012 at 8:22 pm
Ugh. Unfortunately, I fell for this. I checked the “from” address and it looked legit. But I noticed the “craiqslisf” just as I clicked send. Any suggestions? I changed my craigslist password. Should I change my email password as well?
January 24th, 2012 at 11:12 pm
Got same letter. It was funny because when I replied to the first “interest email” I did notice that the reply went to a different name. I thought twice about it but it seemed harmless enough. Then I got the letter that was posted and knew it was a scam but my question is…. What would they be gaining by getting the information? Anyone go through with it and knows what would have happened???
I miss the good ole days of CL when you could sell stuff easily and not worry about all this crap!!!
January 28th, 2012 at 11:20 pm
Thanks guys!
I got this message today and clicked reply, I was about to send and noticed that return address was wierd. Plus the message itself was confusing – verification messages are normally quite straighforward and plus I had already completed verification!
Anyhoo found this blog and saved myself the hassle of a scam!
February 4th, 2012 at 5:02 pm
I really appreciate this. I just got this email ths AM and was concerned. so I googled it. Not everybody would do that. after reading this I pressed reply just to see what would come up and the name of the craigslist changes to crajgljst. thank you