The SIM stealing verify code scam is a potentially disastrous scam that can ruin your life.
More people should understand how it works

The Google Voice scam. After the first 5 minutes of your CL ad being posted they should go away. Just ignore/block.

Google... "What does Benchod mean in Punjabi?" :D

One scammer or at least the same scam tried more than once is with our company. We do aerial photography for a living. We don't need practice, or do it just for fun, only for money.

An email shows up and it is always a Gmail account. The buyer claims to need aerial photography of a site and he never has his name, business name, phone number, address, or any information except the email address. He wants us to fly a lot of photos from 300 feet, and photos all over a location and it would take a drone operator all day to do it, if not two days.

He claims he can't talk on the phone due to the fact he is in the hospital recovering from Covid. He wants to pay with a credit card. Of course the card is likely a stolen number, or even if it is legit, he can get his money back from the credit card company.

The first one that tried it, I told him I had to talk to him to be sure we do what he needs or we will not fly it. He vanished. We talk to all of our clients, except long term clients that have the same needs, they know what to order, and we know what to do. Often I would have to type two pages of information that I can convey is minutes of talking. There are many variables, and almost infinite choices.

The second one I just told him we don't use a drone we have a manned aircraft, and his project it too small for us. If he was legit, we could shoot the project easily, but it is pointless to waste time with scammers.

Glad this subject came back up! I missed this one. My response? There are thousands of buyers out there every day. I'm not going to lose sleep or a sale over people who aren't willing to pick up the phone and call. I make my living selling. I've learned to read people. It became crystal clear that the person sending an email asking "what's your bottom dollar" and people who don't bother to take the time to call and ask questions about a $30,000 or more piece of equipment simply aren't serious buyers. I've learned that the serious people will leave a voicemail and that scammers never call.
"No text messages, I will not reply" and "If this listing is still active, the machine is still available" keeps me from wasting my time with scammers. It works.

https://support.google.com/voice/thread/3022858?hl=en

Updated July 8, 2019

The scam:
You put your own personal telephone number (mobile or landline number) out in public somewhere (on a classified ad, or a dating website, or wherever).
Some scammer contacts you via text or email about your ad. They tell you a story about how they need you to prove you are real person, or a legitimate seller, not a bot, and that they are using a special phone service that requires that you give them the six-digit code number that will be played to you by an automated verification call or text message you will receive from Google.
The scammer is, in reality, going through the Google Voice setup process. They tell Google Voice to call your personal number, and then the call speaks the code, or the text message supplies the code, along with a warning to not share the code with anyone. Somehow, you ignore that explicit warning and give the scammer the code number. When you do that, THEY, not you, are issued a Google Voice number, using your personal number as the forwarding number for their account.

Just try to scam the scammers.

<iframe width="806" height="453" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8bM6NxVND-o" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

i was in the market for a quad 6 months ago and CL was a nightmare with all the BS. found a dead give away was the contact phone number being imposed into the images of the item for sale.