Beware of the scam and how to avoid it

Bad Santa · Sunday at 6:09 PM

So, after crashing my drone I started looking for options to replace it (if I don't get it back).

There was an ad on Craigslist for a slightly used one for about half the price of what I paid.

I was naturally suspicious so I asked why so cheap. Common answer "Need money for an emergency" and that's a viable answer.

So, I said I was interested. Next thing he asks where I'm located. Then, well, he's 275 miles away.

DING DING!! We have a winner. It's a scam.

He's going to want me to send money, plus a little for shipping it, and he'll send the drone.

Of course he won't accept PayPal. I didn't even bother to ask. I've seen these scams before.

So, what to look for on this scam. There's a website for looking at multiple CL sites at once. I use Searchtempest.com

Using one of those you can see the same pictures on different ads in different regions. It was as simple as that.

This fool even used the same price on a few of the ads.

So, watch out for him.

msinger · Sunday at 6:55 PM

Bad Santa said:
Then, well, he's 275 miles away.

DING DING!! We have a winner. It's a scam.

FWIW, a lot of the stuff I buy online comes from over 275 miles away. I'm not sure distance is a good indicator of a scam.

But, with anything, if it sounds too good to be true...

mavic3usa · Sunday at 7:51 PM

For sure beware of paypal scams for the opposite where you are selling something and the buyer will send a paypal payment to you but wants to save you the shipping cost and will meet you (because he's close by) and pickup the goods. If you accept a paypal payment other than Friends and Family, you need to "ship" (not hand over) your goods to keep your seller's protection. Scammers will look for sellers who are close by and the easiest reply back to them is "cash on delivery" or "send it F&F" only.

In your case, I see you are the buyer and there's probably a scammer who doesn't even own a drone. I think you would be safe regardless as long as you send paypal with buyers protection. Even if he sends a package containing rocks, you can still beat that. No package shipped is as easy win but surely a waste of time. When the seller claims he is too far away to meet in person, that's ok. But yeah if the price is fishy and/or you see multiple ads, that's a red flag. No paypal is a blocker for sure (for me).

Bad Santa · Sunday at 8:19 PM

msinger said:
FWIW, a lot of the stuff I buy online comes from over 275 miles away. I'm not sure distance is a good indicator of a scam.

But, with anything, if it sounds too good to be true...

It wasn't that he was 275 miles away as the main red flag.
The main red flag was he lied about his location in the ad. Further red flag was that it was posted in other cities as well (with an option for delivery)

chadCO · Monday at 9:20 AM

The truly sad thing is that Zuckerberg isn't able to keep thieves off his platform. Perhaps if he spent a 1000th of his personal security budget he could hire a programmer to clean up the meta mess.

msinger · Monday at 10:07 AM

@chadCO thieves flock to all platforms that have a lot of eyeballs. Attempting to block bad actors is an ever evolving process and not one Zuckerberg could completely solve with a single programmer (or many).

That's also why (for example) Microsoft is still constantly releasing security updates for Windows. If it was as easy as you said, Microsoft should be able to hire a smart programmer to release one security update that would fix all issues of today and anything bad actors cook up in the future.

chadCO · Monday at 10:30 AM

msinger said:
@chadCO thieves flock to all platforms that have a lot of eyeballs. Attempting to block bad actors is an ever evolving process and not one Zuckerberg could completely solve with a single programmer (or many).

That's also why (for example) Microsoft is still constantly releasing security updates for Windows. If it was as easy as you said, Microsoft should be able to hire a smart programmer to release one security update that would fix all issues of today and anything bad actors cook up in the future.

Watch the documentary "The Social Dilemma", there isn't any resources given to clean up their platforms, the only focus is profit, keeping you on their site is their only goal, and whatever they have to do is just fine with them. Having worked for computer software vendors for over 40 years I full well know the capabilities of programmers and what they can do. Locking their platforms down from thieves would limit their ability to exploit, hence they don't have any motivation to do it. Sadly they don't have any problem with anything nasty happening on their platform.... if they did... it wouldn't be there now would it, since they own the code?

msinger · Monday at 11:14 AM

chadCO said:
Watch the documentary "The Social Dilemma", there isn't any resources given to clean up their platforms, the only focus is profit, keeping you on their site is their only goal, and whatever they have to do is just fine with them. Having worked for computer software vendors for over 40 years I full well know the capabilities of programmers and what they can do. Locking their platforms down from thieves would limit their ability to exploit, hence they don't have any motivation to do it. Sadly they don't have any problem with anything nasty happening on their platform.... if they did... it wouldn't be there now would it, since they own the code?

I have watched some of that documentary. It was interesting and entertaining. But, who really knows how much of it is fact.

Regardless, what you're suggesting is just not possible. If it was, we'd also see no more crime (for example) across the US (or any country) because police officers, companies, homeowners, etc. would have the proper systems in place to prevent a crime from ever occurring again.

I have an extensive software development background, so I am aware what you're suggesting is not possible without severely handicapping the systems Facebook has in place. For example, they could really crack down and do in-person interviews, put companies through extensive vetting processes, etc, before allowing anyone to place an ad on Facebook.

Again, completely possible and doable, but it would never happen. It's not a software/programming problem. It's a problem of not having enough resources to completely shut down bad actors. Facebook (or Craigslist) was not built/designed for the purpose of eliminating bad actors. As you noted, they are in business to make money.

People need to fend for themselves and use common sense. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Droning on and on... · Monday at 12:21 PM

chadCO said:
The truly sad thing is that Zuckerberg isn't able to keep thieves off his platform. Perhaps if he spent a 1000th of his personal security budget he could hire a programmer to clean up the meta mess.

Why? It makes him money.