Crooks target Craigslist shoppers with new scam

police say there's a new scam floating around-- and we've learned the scammers are so bold-- they've even tried to get police. apd tells us there's been a big increase in fake postings for big- ticket items like atv's and jet skis on craig's list. kayla anderson spent the day looking into the scam. she's live in the newsroom with more. i sat down with apd today-- looking through craig's list postings online. it was shocking to find so many potentially fraudulent ads-- things thousands of people browse over every single day. apd decided to start responding to those ads-- and i was shocked to learn the sellers don't seem to care police are on their trails. "we don't know where some of these postings are coming from, who's posting them." police first noticed crooks were using craigslist-- when they found big ticket items at cheap prices-- showing up multiple times in different states. "motorcycles, jet skis, atv's, utv's and now we're starting to see cars." "same picture, different price." the seller tells you ebay or paypal will contact you so you can send money to a bank account. "if you're familiar with ebay, you should already know that ebay doesn't contact you to make a payment. but they start suckering people into believing that they're going to be contacted by one of these well known reputable companies." hoping to find the scammers... apd started emailing sellers. police sent this email trying to reach someone selling a cheap atv.. the department got back what appears to be an automated response saying quote: "thank you for your interest in purchasing my atv. the atv is in perfect condition." the seller goes on to say her husband died in iraq... that she needs money... and tells apd how to complete the transaction. cross country auto sales also fell for an online scam-- with a similar heart- tugging story. the dealership says the seller claimed he needed to sell the car because he was going thru a divorce. "it was a very good priced vehicle. i mean, it was one of those cases where the price of the car was too good to be true." they sent the money, but the car never came. police say right now they're working on building a web page... where you can go to find information on scams. coming up at 6-30 ... we'll tell you what red flags apd says you need to keep an eye out for when shopping on craigslist

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[kittens2o9]

YEA NOW THERE'S PEOPLE SCAMMING ON PETS SECTION THERE CALLED PUPPY FLIPPERS IN OUR AREA WE HAVE A YOUNG COUPLE WHO ARE GETTING PUPPIES FOR FREE OR CHEAP AND SELLING THEM FOR 400 + ITS SAD CAUSE THEY NEGLECT AND ABUSE THEM THERE ALSO UNDERAGE AND SICK !! MAKES ME MAD

[Am3rIca16]

Or how about don't shop on craiglist at all..You're better of buying on ebay or amazon

[hectorsalinasisback]

A good way to catch these scammers is to act interested and when they ask for your personal information, tell the scammer you are selling this for your brother in law. Give them the name of your brother in law, which is really the name of an actual fraud police officer from your local city and give the phone number and address of the police station where he works. This way, an actual police investigator can deal directly with the craigslist scammer and catch them.

[TheDamned999]

some guy was selling these rare video games for cheap and only accepts paypal, i called him a scammer and he went nuts. yeah whatever

[wojovox]

perfidious scum

[masteratadobeother]

All Comments (10)

[surenoafg]

@ShaunEboi523RatedR i fell for the same thing i almost cashed a 2500 dolar check

[zzkambe]

WTF!! are people that stupid? If you fall for it, you deserve it!!

[pizzaboxify]

@ShaunEboi523RatedR smart of you not to be fooled by deals that are too good to be true... but you should have torn up the check or turned it over to authorities. It is illegal to make fake checks

[ShaunEboi523RatedR]

I almost cashed out a fake cheque. Guy telling me to cash out a 2500 cheque keep a hundred bucks for the purchase of the item and convert the rest of the money into British Pounds at a Western Union. But, I returned the cheque to them. God, these scammers should get a life and get a job