| Author |
Message |
    
Arnomation
Citizen
Username: Arnomation
Post Number: 168
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 11, 2005 - 10:52 pm: | 
|
I think this has been mentioned before but it just happened to me. A week ago I put a 25 pack of blank DVD's in the MOL classifieds section because they don't work with my computer. Today I get an email from 'James Smith' who is very interested in them. I mean very interested but from the get go, it seems to me like he doesn't quite understand that I am selling DVD's not a DVD player and for a guy named James Smith, his English very not too good ...When he replies, he is very anxious to hurry up and get the deal done. Sort of like he's got a fish on the line...
Finally, he sends me an email and to close the deal and it all becomes clear. He tells me For the payment i will like to pay you via cheque, their is a client of mine that is owning me with sum of $1,000.00 and ready to pay me back by money order Before the cheque can be issue out to you for the payment you need you get back to me with the information which to be drawn on the cheque and on and on.
How do these people find my classified ad for a twelve dollar pack of CD's on Maplewood Online? I should have just tossed them in the trash when I had the chance... |
jasper
Citizen
Username: Jasper
Post Number: 207
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 11, 2005 - 11:42 pm: |
|
Thanks for posting this. I just got two messages from the same shady character, and I was debating whether to respond at all, as the messages were highly suspicious looking to me as well. This is a known problem, and I've gotten these types of spam responses before. On the other hand, I have gotten legitimate responses to my classified postings and have successfully sold several items, much to my delight.
Perhaps it would be helpful if responses to classifieds were handled in the same way as the private line mechanism on the message board, so that responders would not get to see your email address before they revealed sufficient information about themselves. |
thegoodsgt
Citizen
Username: Thegoodsgt
Post Number: 727
Registered: 2-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 - 8:50 am: |
|
I've heard of this happening on other forums as well. Total scam. |
composerjohn
Citizen
Username: Composerjohn
Post Number: 103
Registered: 8-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 - 9:39 am: |
|
yup... I got this email too. Complete scam. It also happens on craigslist.com. |
Earlster
Supporter
Username: Earlster
Post Number: 854
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 - 9:54 am: |
|
I had my car for sale here. Got the e-mail about 40 times, before I took the posting down (after I sold my car on through MOL).
I just never replied, these e-mails go right in the trash.
Craigslist has an article about it on their site. MOL is linking to that somewhere, too. |
jamie
Moderator
Username: Jamie
Post Number: 749
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 - 10:03 am: |
|
YES, that's why we have this line at the top of the classifieds page:
Beware of scams! Click here to learn about counterfeit cashier's check & money transfer scams
This links to: http://newyork.craigslist.org/about/scams.html |
jamie
Moderator
Username: Jamie
Post Number: 750
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 - 10:06 am: |
|
I will try to do a private line thing down the road, but in general people have liked the ease of use over having to register. You can easily take your items off via the same link you approved them. If you don't have that link - you can request it by entering your email address towards the bottom of the homepage: http://www.maplewoodonline.com/classifiedads/ |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 5113
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 - 3:08 pm: |
|
Call me crazy, but that link looks like it says "classifie dads". |
Miss L Toe
Citizen
Username: Miss_l_toe
Post Number: 133
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 - 4:25 pm: |
|
When we were trying to sell our car we had some weird e-mails like that.
I'm pretty sure that they're from Nigerians....masters of forgery and deception. Be careful. |
marinab
Citizen
Username: Marinab
Post Number: 85
Registered: 8-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 - 11:22 pm: |
|
I had many e-mails like this too when selling things on Maplewood online. these are scams that come from all over--not Nigeria, i can assure you. but they're pretty easy to identify. |
Reflective
Citizen
Username: Reflective
Post Number: 649
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 13, 2005 - 12:21 am: |
|
jamie, dave:
Is there any federal enforcement clearing agency or congressional committee that cumulatively, MOL can lobby for tough laws or better, aggressive tracking and putting out of business these slease balls.
Or is this still in the future.
Please share if you know.
Thanks |
woodstock
Citizen
Username: Woodstock
Post Number: 862
Registered: 9-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, January 13, 2005 - 7:55 am: |
|
Reflective, you can try the Treasury Dept, or the FBI. Back when the Nigerian Scams were big, there was an email address, 419@fbi.gov (or something like that) that accepted these and did some level of follow up. Also, the FTC does some tracking, but it's nowhere near their main concern. |
Crazyguggenheim
Citizen
Username: Crazyguggenheim
Post Number: 742
Registered: 2-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, January 13, 2005 - 9:02 am: |
|
Tom Reingold, you're Crazy! |
grw
Citizen
Username: Grw
Post Number: 340
Registered: 12-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, January 13, 2005 - 9:44 am: |
|
Yep Big scam, I played along with it when I was selling my motorcycle, up to the point where I received a cashiers check. I framed it and put it on the wall, never to here from the guy again |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 5122
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 13, 2005 - 9:47 am: |
|
I was just rewording your joke, Guggenheim. It's all your fault. I can no longer travel on Maplewood Ave without thinking of it as Maplewoo Dave.
|
Zoesky1
Citizen
Username: Zoesky1
Post Number: 617
Registered: 6-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 13, 2005 - 12:52 pm: |
|
I've been trying to sell a table on MOL, and I've been getting weird emails from people who claim to be in Malta and Malawi trying to buy it. Yeah, right.... |
akb
Citizen
Username: Akb
Post Number: 248
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, January 13, 2005 - 1:36 pm: |
|
I had the opposite experience when trying to be a legitimate buyer - three times I emailed people about MOL ads and had no response at all. If items have sold, I expect people to take down the listing, not ignore buyers who believe it is still available. |
Earlster
Supporter
Username: Earlster
Post Number: 862
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 13, 2005 - 2:22 pm: |
|
akb, I bought a car of MOL about 4 month ago. It's still listed.  |
Carol Flamm Reingold
Citizen
Username: Clflamm
Post Number: 40
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 13, 2005 - 11:26 pm: |
|
I actually have opinions about this. Many have complained about the classifieds for their user unfriendliness. This, for me is for several reasons. It is not easy to find things when looking and many things are listed too long. I think there should be an automatic delisting, perhaps with an email reminder sent to the lister saying if they want to renew etc. Also if there was some kind of find option. When people list they could put in a few keywords for it. No idea how workable these ideas are as far as logistics go. |
Bobkat
Supporter
Username: Bobk
Post Number: 7225
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 14, 2005 - 7:51 am: |
|
There is a list by category on the left side of the page. |
Carol Flamm Reingold
Citizen
Username: Clflamm
Post Number: 42
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 14, 2005 - 9:12 am: |
|
Yes, I used that. I was looking for curtains it would have much easier to find had I been able to put in curtains in a search rather then guessing which category it could have possible been under. |
jamie
Moderator
Username: Jamie
Post Number: 751
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 14, 2005 - 10:10 am: |
|
I'll try to put a search in there. This is a script that I wrote from scratch, so I'm constantly tweaking it. I do periodically email reminders to take items off if sold, I'll try to get one of those out in the next couple days. I'll try to institute automatic delisting and I may add passwords in order to contact someone via email. |
Carol Flamm Reingold
Citizen
Username: Clflamm
Post Number: 46
Registered: 9-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 14, 2005 - 10:18 am: |
|
Cool Jamie. |
jasper
Citizen
Username: Jasper
Post Number: 208
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 14, 2005 - 10:20 am: |
|
The other thing that would be helpful would be a better categorizing system. A less granular set of categories at the top level, followed by more specific subcategories with each click is much more navigable. For example, Clothing, then within clothing, Men's, Women's, Boy's, Girl's, and Misc. You shouldn't have to scroll down to see all the categories. There should also be a category of Baby/Kid Stuff, subcategorized by Cribs/Furniture, Strollers/Gear, Toys and Misc. This, in addition to a search feature, would make it much easier to find things.
And I agree that people should have to register in order to contact someone selling items, and that items should be de-listed after 4 weeks, with the option to re-new the listing simply by clicking a button in an email. |
Closed: New threads not accepted on this page