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[tejasx]

http://dallas.craigslist.org/sdf/mcy/793673327.html

[tejasx]

There must have been a catch, went back three minutes later and it was flagged for removal. It was a 2006 Fatboy with 2k miles, loaded with bags, windshield and chrome and the owner was asking $4900, I caught the email before it was removed and sent the owner a note asking what the catch was.

Someone is highjacking craigslist.  right after that post was a custom 2003 Fatboy for $4300 and now there is a fully loaded road king for $4600. 

[Morgan Buchanan]

Dude...it happens all the time.  They get flagged off really fast too.  But it's an epidemic.

[tejasx]

I got an email back from the "owner" on the first bike, the Fatboy for 4900, she claims she is a single mother, recently divorced and got the bike in the settlement.  That peeves me right there, when a woman takes a mans bike.  She said she doesn't need the bike and needs the money, I saw the supposed pictures and that bike could easily sell for a lot more.  The bike is a 2006 Fatboy with tons of extras and is in mint condition from the pics I saw before CL deleted it. She has offered to go thru Ebay's buyer protection plan and wants my name and address to open an account with no other obligation.  I think I will steer clear, the old saying, "when it sounds to good to be true, it usually is".

[Lucky]

So I'm confused (common occurance)...if this was flagged as spam and taken off CL then how is it that you are talking to the seller of the bike?  Are you saying that there is no bike at all and someone is just trying to get you to send them money?

[j1mmyj4m]

Those ads feed on people that get excited over something that's too good to be true.  The old saying applies all over Ebay and Craigslist.

[crow57]

Yeah, something about a single mother running a 75% off sale on Harleys just doesn't ring true.

[tejasx]

So I'm confused (common occurance)...if this was flagged as spam and taken off CL then how is it that you are talking to the seller of the bike?  Are you saying that there is no bike at all and someone is just trying to get you to send them money?

I just happened to see the ad just as it was posted and got the alleged sellers email.

[Lone_Wolfe]

It happens alot. It was a problem on EBAY where a would be thief would hijack the photos and details of a real seller's bike ad. Then post it with a cheaper price intending to steal from a would be buyer. But it's too easy on Ebay to get called on it. Much easier on Craigslist to steal the ad details from one State and post it cheaper in another State's classifieds with the intent to steal money from someone unknowing.

[Morgan Buchanan]

Here's how it goes.  I place a scam ad.  It goes active.  A few dozen or few hundred people who see it before it get flagged read it.  A FEW of them wonder "What if?" and email me.  Now I have their direct email address, and the fact that the ad gets flagged doesn't matter.  We correspond.  I try to fish as many of them in as possible.  The ad not existing anymore doesn't matter to me.  If one of them says, "Why was your ad flagged?" I just say, "Oh, I tried to remove it the wrong way" or "I posted it twice, and they deleted them" or something. 

Someone will fall for it, reaching for that brass "too good to be true" ring.

in the mean time, I post more ads, similar.  I probably have something set up to post them for me.  Far easier than working for a living.  If I can scam 1 person a month for 5000, I'm making 60 grand a year, tax free.  If I don't live in this country, WHOO HOO!  Catch me, sucka.

[tejasx]

And somebody will fall for it, but it won't be me.

[hipshot]

Jeeze, Morgan, that sounded dangerously close to a confession .

[Morgan Buchanan]

LOL  hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....   Naw, I live here... too hard to get away.