I looooooove stories with endings like that! You must have been laughing yourself silly when he realized he’d been caught.
About two years ago, someone driving a blue SUV dumped three (live) dogs near a secondary gate into our property. It was recorded on one of the several cameras there. The videos make it obvious that she had abandoned the dogs—they ran after the SUV a couple of times before she sped up enough they gave up. That night the dogs roamed to the north and broke open a neighbor’s chicken coop, killing some of them. The neighbor called LE and the deputy who responded managed to catch all three of the dogs.
Neighbor said the animal shelter wanted me to call, so I did. I provided stills of the dogs. Turned out that a woman had called the shelter only 20 minutes before the dumping, asking if they could take in her three dogs, which she described. Shelter said they were full but give phone number and they would contact her as soon as openings became available.
When shelter got word of the capture and saw the photos, they called the horrible owner to say they had room for the dogs opening up. The owner lied, “Oh, we had a change of heart. The dogs are all here with us now.”
Too bad the license plate was not visible in the footage. That owner skated. Probably dumped other dogs later.
Your scammer probably tried again, with a different ruse.
Most people smell the stench of a scammer. But eventually the scammer will hit gold with someone less vigilant.
There are some people who will engage the scammers (especially the “romance” or fake buyer ones) in order to either bait and frustrate them or at least to tie them up so they have less opportunity to scam others.
It’s a losing battle since the internet is full of groups (many of them based in Nigeria) who exchange information and tactics for these scams. And platforms like FB have been very poor about removing the thousands, probably millions of phony profiles that enable this. There have been celebrities and top military officers who have had their photos and identities cribbed by the scammers. Article linked below about one organization that has been trying to fight back.
It amazes me that there are still people who fall for these scams – by now there has been so much publicity about them. It’s a sad situation that so many people are so lonely and trusting that they send money and spend time and emotional investment on these cruel exploitations.
It’s really very simple to do an image search of the alleged personal photo of a scammer. I had a single male friend years ago who almost got drawn into one of those “Russian doll” schemes, and corresponded for several weeks with a buxom blonde claiming to be “Svetlana” and sending him poorly auto-translated flirtations and begging to have him finance a trip to the US so she could meet him and “show her love”. I showed him how to do an image search on the photos she sent him and we found dozens of examples of the same images using different names and locations. One photo turned up in a lingerie catalog page for a Chinese company! Once he realized that “Svetlana” was probably a sweaty hairy guy running a scam in a Balkan country, he drew the communication out for a few more weeks, making fake promises himself and claiming to send her gift cards and money that never materialized. We even found some beefcake photos to send “her” claiming to be him. Finally tiring of the game he told “Svetlana” that he loved her but since he worked for the US security services he was required to get her passport information so she could be cleared before he could bring her into the US. “Svetlana” magically disappeared after that.
I think I’ve posted four in the past 8 or 9 yrs. I also post them on CL. Two sold on CL and two on this site. The two that sold here were more expensive boats for more specific buyers. One of them took two seasons. In both cases the buyers were not looking for a “steal”, were OK driving 3+ hrs for pick-up, and were willing to bring cash. Not too many like that around, it seems.
To be fair, I should note that the CL ads attracted scam responses too, not just those posted here.
More recently, I sold a solo sailboat and a pedal boat on FB Marketplace. Both sold quickly and although there were some bottom-feeders, I noticed no scammers.
I’ve got the paddle posted on two kayak specific buy/sell sites, and here. It’ll go eventually, but since i’m waiting for the proceeds to buy a new paddle, I’m overly anxious to sell it!
Keep in mind that accepting a check has significant risks. I suggest taking a picture of their license plate and driver’s license if in doubt. Check to see if the address on the check and license matches.
just drove 900 miles roundtrip to Abq, for my new boat from the classifieds here
Paid cash.
both of us had trouble with the Paddling messaging in the classifieds - in my case I got errors but the messages had sent, so I ended up sending four messages. In the seller’s case his response did not make it to my inbox.
We texted each other instead… he’s retired, I’m buying this boat for my notional retirement, look at us old guys in the 21st century. Ha.
Another scam technique I am just now running into (on Facebook Marketplace, where I have posted for sale a bunch of furniture I had used to stage a property I just sold) is for a “buyer” to ask “is this still available?” and then, when I respond that it is, they request that they send me a “confirmation code number” allegedly to “verify that you are a real seller.” This is a scheme to get you to share your cell phone number, which they can hijack and use for their own scamming.
I had no sooner posted the first of several ads than no less than 5 fake “buyers” popped up simultaneously, all female names, and all with obviously fake profiles that had just been posted and had no details, posts or shares.
Apparently it is just a hook to get you to share your cell phone number by allowing them to text you and then they can use that as a way to hit you with spam or even hijack the number. So many log in protocols any more require you to accept a verification code (like my wifi provider and several of the streaming platforms I subscribe to) that the scammers are counting on us complying without questioning the request. I have told them all that I won’t do that and that tends to make them scurry away,
I will report that I listed 5 pieces of furniture on Facebook Marketplace yesterday afternoon for sale, cash only and buyer to pick up. Despite getting bombarded with the scam responses I was able to filter through to a handful of legit local buyers and now less than 24 hours later have sold 4 of the 5 items and am $400 richer. All very nice folks who showed up on time to pick up the items and paid promptly.
One extremely nice couple turned out to be also house shopping this week and when they heard I had another home for sale nearby are now planning to arrange a tour with my realtor!
I just listed a boat here & on Craigslist. Being a somewhat rare boat, I was expecting more response here than CL, opposite happened. To respond on CL is easy, just reply to email, goes thru CL. Had a reply here, not so easy. Gives a link to reply to, then you have to log in, & then it goes to the Forums!? Still not sure how I finally got to the private message for, ‘michaelwall99’, to say “sorry, sold”.
A week ago, trying to sell something unrelated on CL, got a response asking to reply to his email, as he doesn’t check his CL mail. (!?) I replied to the CL email; “you just raised a red flag as CL mail goes straight to your email.” Didn’t hear back. Got another response for the same item on CL, he wanted another picture, sent to his phone. I said I don’t know how & edited it onto the ad. He responded thru CL & appears to be legit.
Rgds, Jess Bea Warrie
