Scammer attempted classified ad e-check scam 5/29/25:
Philip Jones philipjones19755@gmail.com
2 Likes
Yep he’s trying on my canoe ad
As I’ve mentioned before, a common “johnsmith” or “maryjones” type “Anglo” name followed by 4 or 5 digits is almost always a scammer. I think all the Bulgarian and Nigerian scammer groups use the same name-generating algorithm and have for decades.
I first noticed these faked names in Craigslist ads in the late 1990’s, usually using women’s names and accompanied by lame tales of them looking to buy a car/bicycle/motorbike/boat for either their fatherless son or for a “husband stationed overseas.” Always the same pitch – “I’ll send a bank draft for $1000 more than your price and my shipper will pick it up and you give him the change.” You’d think by now that every possible “mark” in the Western world would recognize this scam.
I would almost be tempted to arrange to “ship” a boat to them if they would provide an address and then box up a toy boat containing a spring loaded explosive container of the finest glitter and fart spray. The tech nerds who used this technique on porch pirates and eventually to shut down 3 major scam boiler rooms in India with remote explosive glitter and stink bomb packages (with on-board cameras to record the destination chaos) were pretty successful.
1 Like
They then have your email address. This is what they are after. Hoping to go phishing latter.