Scene and heard

Please forgive me for not mentioning actual names here. I think that if I do so, I could be targeted by an unscrupulous pig of a man. And anyway, I don’t for a moment think this character is the only such scammer on Craigslist, which PayPal told my friend is infested with these creeps.

A friend, who I will call Eve, largely because I don’t know anyone named Eve, lost her iPod in a New York taxi. She scoured Craigslist lost and found ads before placing her own one. Within hours, she received an email suggesting a great website where she could post a lost and found ad. Eve went to the site, placed her ad and hit enter…… and was taken directly to PayPal. There had been no prior suggestion of a charge and to her embarrassment, Eve, a smart but jetlagged and very upset woman paid the $19.99.

Within 2 hours, she tried to cancel but the owner of the site refused. So reported the guy to PayPal and stopped payment with her bank. And this guy opened up a complaint against her with PayPal.

In the meantime, I posted a fake ad on Craigslist, and the same person who contacted Eve contacted me. My best guess is that the person sending the emails is either the female alter-ego of the scammer, or someone working for commission. I googled lost and found in New York and the website didn’t come up. So anyone who has found something in a New York cab will not be looking at this “great website”

A couple of days later, not wanting to give up, Eve posted another ad on Craigslist, suggesting she would be willing to pay a reward. A guy answered, asking how much the reward was. She was a bit flabbergasted that the guy who responded was all over the Internet, a self-professed entrepreneur, but was asking for a reward!

After a couple of back and forth emails, she asked the guy how much he wanted and if he could please tell her the serial number of the iPod he found. His last email simply said “Goodbye”. This scumbag didn’t have an iPod, but just wanted the reward money.

And here’s the kicker. One of his enterprises, is as ‘web master’ of the phony lost and found site. So not satisfied in taking money off of desperate people on his website, this asshole also tries to rip people off for reward money1

People, I can’t stress this enough. If you are pointed to a website by someone responding to your online ad, and that site wants you to pay, DON’T DO IT! It is a scam! Trust what PayPal said. Craigslist has it's uses, but it is infested.

Eve was assured that this creep will be prosecuted. But I can tell you that his website is up and running. And 17 people were scammed out of $19.99 today alone. None will find what they lost with this add and nor will you. Be warned!