What is up with the craigslist scammers?

[jackpan1260]

I have sold many things there with little hassle. I recently posted some jewelry for sale and every day I am getting emails from scammers. The emails are all very similar:
They usually ask questions or make comments that make it clear they haven't seen or paid much attention to the listing.
They will usually refer to what I am selling in general terms like "the item."
There are spelling, capitalization and grammatical errors in every sentence.
They eventually send me an email like this...

"Thanks for the urgent and swift reply to my email ..l am stillinterested in purchasing the item from you and i would liketo proceed with payment cause i am buying this item to presentmy Distant Friend as a gift for the wedding coming soon,l amnot currently at home for now travel for business trip,so iwouldnt be able to pay via cash or cashier check so My form ofpayment would be via PAYPAL to facilitate thetransaction,please proceed too set up an account withpaypal.Its safer and secured way of paying.To proceed withthe payment,you will probably need to setup with an accountwith Paypal as member.So, after you signup with Paypal ,forthe payment to commence all i need is your Full Name and YourEmail address which you used to register with Paypal to orderfor your payment with Paypal .Once the payment beenapproved,you will receive a confirmation notice via your emailfrom Paypal for you to be sure that i have paid for theitem,The item will be ship Via EXPRESS MAIL SERVICE (EMS) OFUSPS and also i will add extra $100 will to your asking priceto cover the shipping and insurance cost.Please proceed to delete the postage from Craigslist web.And email methe information and item amount to send your money.I look forward to read your response."

Is there something about jewelry that brings out the hucksters, or has craigslist been infested with them in the last few weeks? Anything I can do about this?

[Orsino]

1. They're phishing for Paypal users, or just wanting to freshen their spam lists.

This may have nothing whatsoever to do with Craigslist. They just want your name and e-mail address, preferably with associated Paypal info.

[rcrush]

3. How does this phish work?

They just asked for his paypal email address. Do they try to scam more info out of you? Or send you false email with fake links to try and scam you out of your paypal password? I've seen how some phishers work but usually I've only seen them send fake emails trying to get you to log into paypal to trick you into giving up your password. The email they sent the OP just asked for an email address, is that just the first email he would get?

Or do they try to reverse payment and use Paypal to screw you?

[LoZoccolo]

4. Maybe they can make the Pay Pal phishing email look more authentic with more personal information.

Like if they just send you a generic email that says they need you to log in here, you get suspicious. But if it has your full name in it, or something else more personal, there's a slightly better chance that you'll trust it.

[Orsino]

6. Or the name, e-mail and account number can be used to charge back?

I don't know enough about Paypal.

[rcrush]

7. But cant you just check your email headers?

[crispini]

2. Sometimes I think that the whole internet is an intelligent test.

And obviously some people are still failing.

[hobbit709]

5. I get variations of this all the time

Or they want to send me a large money order and I send them back the balance after taking out for my trouble.
My response to them is

"Your pitiful cut and paste scam attempt doesn't work. At least be more original in your scamming.
P.S. Your email has been forwarded to the proper authorities and your email provider."

Since I started doing this the scam attempts in response to my craigslist ads dropped 90%.

[rcrush]

8. This is why I stopped using ebay

Ebay made it really hard for sellers to not get scammed now. Every time I try to sell something I get fake emails that say "You have just been paid by so and so through Paypal Click here to see" and its a fake link. And now that they ONLY except Paypal well theres no way I'm going to sell anything through Ebay anymore. Paypal is fucking garbage.

[madrchsod]

9. one thing to do is sell in your "area" of san diego only...cash

this eliminates the scammers because they won`t waste their time if it`s cash only