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It pains me to sell my old ride but, in dog or car years, 16 is pretty ancient — so the 2001 VW Passat’s gotta go.
Parting with the olive-skinned beauty, with enough therapy, I will handle. The cold hand of the scammer, though, is the real shock to the system.
Only hours after an ad went on Kijiji and Auto Trader, the inbox lit up with a couple of promising offers, including one from an anxious buyer offering more than the asking price of $1,500.
It seemed weird, but there was something oddly romantic about the offer from “Linda Maxwell,” typos aside.
“I’m seriously interested in buying this and am okay with your selling price. I dont mind adding an extra $300 to your asking price to keep this for me and if you can secure the purchase . But i’ll like to know why you are selling it because am a boatswain and currently offshore, I really want this for my son you can email me back with your Paypal email address so i can make the payment arrangement,I have a pick up agent that will come to pick it up from your place as soon as the transaction is completed with paypal..Please dis-regard other buyers as I’m sure to send Payment.Thanks.”
My old car was going to a sailing family? What adventures it would have!
A similar offer came from someone with the same name as a well-known Ottawa athlete. When I asked why he didn’t want to see the vehicle, which has 273,0000 kilometres and rust freckles, he too had an explanation.
“Hello, i wish i could just come and pay you the cash or send you a certified cashier check but i’m currently offshore, I have a PayPal account as i have my bank a/c attached to it, I can easily send money through because, it’s good for business payments and this way both of us will be 100% safe and secure covered during transaction. if you don’t have an account with PayPal, it’s pretty easy to create. Just log on to www.paypal.com. and once i make the payment to you can then withdraw it into your bank account. so i want you to get back with the details so that i can make the payment as soon as possible today.”
Come Monday, things started to unravel. “You know that’s a scam,” said my pal Liz, whose husband was similarly approached when trying to sell some old furniture on Kijiji.
Alas, it so is. The so-called PayPal scam is one of the most complained about, according to Kijiji, the online classified site with 17 million monthly users in Canada.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre agrees. So far in 2017, there have been more than 2,100 complaints — and 1,500 victims — for fraudulently selling merchandise (much of it online) for losses totalling more than $1.5 million. (The category includes PayPal scams.)
A spokesman for Kijiji explained that a combination of “bots” and off-shore call centres comb popular reselling sites for new ads, especially for higher-end items like cars, real estate and cell phones. Then reply emails are sent, sometimes customizing them with regional landmarks or names of local celebrities.
“Honestly, this is the oldest scam trend in the book,” said Kent Sikstrom, community relations manager. The number of people targeted is an “extremely small” portion of Kijiji’s total customers, he said.
Sikstrom said these kind of “reply scam” frauds often originate in countries in Africa or Eastern Europe, with call centres, “account managers” and a sales force working on commission. “The more lines they cast, so to speak, the more fish they catch.”
The scams can be devilishly persuasive. Buyers can receive emails saying funds are pending to be dropped into a bank account, or even receive an actual deposit that is later retracted because it came from a stolen credit card. By then, the money the seller has wired to a shipping agent or a delivery company is gone.
Fraud centre spokesman Allan Boomhour said the PayPal scam can sound more convincing to the uninitiated. “If you’re a first-time user of PayPal in the scenario, you might not know any different and assume this is how it works, and bite on it.”
As far as how often the centre gets complaints in this vein? “I would say a chunk of the calls we get daily are something like that.”
Among the red flags to look for:
Be especially suspicious, said Sikstrom, if the buyer insists on communicating by text only. This put them outside Kijiji’s email system, which has filters to weed out illegitimate offers.
“You know the saying ‘if it sounds too good to be true’, is probably the truest advice we can give.”
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
Parting with the olive-skinned beauty, with enough therapy, I will handle. The cold hand of the scammer, though, is the real shock to the system.
Only hours after an ad went on Kijiji and Auto Trader, the inbox lit up with a couple of promising offers, including one from an anxious buyer offering more than the asking price of $1,500.
It seemed weird, but there was something oddly romantic about the offer from “Linda Maxwell,” typos aside.
“I’m seriously interested in buying this and am okay with your selling price. I dont mind adding an extra $300 to your asking price to keep this for me and if you can secure the purchase . But i’ll like to know why you are selling it because am a boatswain and currently offshore, I really want this for my son you can email me back with your Paypal email address so i can make the payment arrangement,I have a pick up agent that will come to pick it up from your place as soon as the transaction is completed with paypal..Please dis-regard other buyers as I’m sure to send Payment.Thanks.”
My old car was going to a sailing family? What adventures it would have!
A similar offer came from someone with the same name as a well-known Ottawa athlete. When I asked why he didn’t want to see the vehicle, which has 273,0000 kilometres and rust freckles, he too had an explanation.
“Hello, i wish i could just come and pay you the cash or send you a certified cashier check but i’m currently offshore, I have a PayPal account as i have my bank a/c attached to it, I can easily send money through because, it’s good for business payments and this way both of us will be 100% safe and secure covered during transaction. if you don’t have an account with PayPal, it’s pretty easy to create. Just log on to www.paypal.com. and once i make the payment to you can then withdraw it into your bank account. so i want you to get back with the details so that i can make the payment as soon as possible today.”
Come Monday, things started to unravel. “You know that’s a scam,” said my pal Liz, whose husband was similarly approached when trying to sell some old furniture on Kijiji.
Alas, it so is. The so-called PayPal scam is one of the most complained about, according to Kijiji, the online classified site with 17 million monthly users in Canada.
The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre agrees. So far in 2017, there have been more than 2,100 complaints — and 1,500 victims — for fraudulently selling merchandise (much of it online) for losses totalling more than $1.5 million. (The category includes PayPal scams.)
A spokesman for Kijiji explained that a combination of “bots” and off-shore call centres comb popular reselling sites for new ads, especially for higher-end items like cars, real estate and cell phones. Then reply emails are sent, sometimes customizing them with regional landmarks or names of local celebrities.
“Honestly, this is the oldest scam trend in the book,” said Kent Sikstrom, community relations manager. The number of people targeted is an “extremely small” portion of Kijiji’s total customers, he said.
Sikstrom said these kind of “reply scam” frauds often originate in countries in Africa or Eastern Europe, with call centres, “account managers” and a sales force working on commission. “The more lines they cast, so to speak, the more fish they catch.”
The scams can be devilishly persuasive. Buyers can receive emails saying funds are pending to be dropped into a bank account, or even receive an actual deposit that is later retracted because it came from a stolen credit card. By then, the money the seller has wired to a shipping agent or a delivery company is gone.
Fraud centre spokesman Allan Boomhour said the PayPal scam can sound more convincing to the uninitiated. “If you’re a first-time user of PayPal in the scenario, you might not know any different and assume this is how it works, and bite on it.”
As far as how often the centre gets complaints in this vein? “I would say a chunk of the calls we get daily are something like that.”
Among the red flags to look for:
- Any offer to over-pay.
- Fanciful excuses for not being able to view the item.
- A haste in closing the deal.
- Any suggestion for the seller to pay a shipping or delivery agent.
- Refusal to speak over the phone.
Be especially suspicious, said Sikstrom, if the buyer insists on communicating by text only. This put them outside Kijiji’s email system, which has filters to weed out illegitimate offers.
“You know the saying ‘if it sounds too good to be true’, is probably the truest advice we can give.”
To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/kellyegancolumn
查看原文...
