Another "Is this a scam" thread.

[cashflyer]

I guess if I am asking, then it probably is.

I have a car listed on ebay right now. This morning somebody sent me a message through ebay that says:

"I am highly interested in buying it.
I can access ebay from iphone so please give me your # phone to my email."


The bad sentence structure / grammer issue just bothers me. To me, it reeks of all the poorly written Nigerian scam letters.

Is there a legitimate reason that somebody would expect to get my phone number over ebay?

[onewhippedpuppy]

Scam. It's vague "buying it", likely because it's a copy/paste that they spam sellers with. The only legitimate reason I could think of would be for someone to call you. But if someone wanted to call you, they would typically write that in the message.

[BeyGon]

Scams all over the place, got this one this morning.

Hello.

International business is looking for part time at home members within the whole territory of the United States. You can get over 2000 USD monthly which highly depends on your results.
We need people at the age of 25 to 85 for rather easy operations on processing of the incoming assignments and performance of easy management assignments. You don't require to be a specialized professional or to have special training. We also do not require any experience in this field.
Our clients can't receive packages because they are not located in your nation. You will require to receive parcels (Electronics and clothes) at your home address or at post offices (Fedex, UPS, USPS, DHL) in your city and send it by pre-paid USPS labels to our members in other countries.
Our firm has offices in Russia and Ukraine and planning to open representations in United States 3-4 months later.

You will be paid 2000 USD bonus for every 100 processed packages and 10 USD for each parcel that you will send. (Usually it takes 2-3 months to receive and send first 100 packages from the start date because we need to add your address to all our sponsors first, but every month you will receive more and more packages and finally in 2-4 months after we will add your address to all our partners you will start to receive 100-150 parcels per month regularly and your earnings can be 3000-4000 USD monthly). The minimum requested payment amount is 200 USD. It will be sent within 48 hours by Western Union after your request. This is the most easy and quick way to send and receive money; you will be able to receive it at any Western Union branch. We don't pay upfront or amounts less than 200 USD - we pay ONLY by our firm rules.
The minimum payment and bonus amount is made to be sure that we will not lose our time and money for yours education and adding to all our sponsors systems. We are looking for long term working relationship with our employeers.



To start working with us please fill the form and response :

First Name:
Last Name:
Address (we CAN'T send to PO BOX) :
Apt Number :
City:
State:
Zip Code:
Age:
Mobile Phone Number (With country code):
Do you have another job? What work?


Please double check this info so there will not be any mistakes and you can receive parcels without any delays. Also be sure that phone you provided is correct so I can contact you at any time.

You don't need to invest any currency to start working and can easily combine our job with your main work. Pre-paid USPS labels that i will send to you for resending parcels are fully paid and you don't need to pay any money. It will take 1-2 hours a day, but you must check your e-mail and mobile phone number often to see if there any task from us.
Note: Actions depicted below, are authorized by our partnership, and therefore sustain legitimacy status. Our venerable firm doesn't condone or incite improper or out of border incentives, which may contradict to federal law.

[Rodsrsr]

Whats the big deal with giving them your phone number? I just sold a car on CL last week and I always list my phone number in the ad. I think this way it weeds out the crap. If anyone sends me an e-mail when my number is clearly listed they're obviously not serious. Sold the car first day BTW.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Rodsrsr

Whats the big deal with giving them your phone number? I just sold a car on CL last week and I always list my phone number in the ad. I think this way it weeds out the crap. If anyone sends me an e-mail when my number is clearly listed they're obviously not serious. Sold the car first day BTW.

Giving out a phone number to a legitimate buyer shouldn't be an issue. The email above does not sound like a legitimate buyer, more than likely someone trying to collect phone numbers for telemarketing purposes.

Just an aside, don't rule out email for serious buyers. I have purchased and sold multiple vehicles without a single phone call. For someone that is busy during the day (like me), email is far more convenient. It also provides a written record of the conversation, which is much more handy than a few notes taken during a phone call. I prefer email for buying and selling.

[cashflyer]

Ebay relays the message to me through the ebay interface, as well as to my personal email. I suppose if I reply from my personal email account, then the person has both my email and my phone number for marketing.

My reply to Jessica Parker, sent through ebay messaging:


Jessica

Thank you for your interest.
Please direct all questions regarding the item to me via ebay messages so that I can keep a record of the correspondence, and so that I can post the questions on the auction page if I think the answer will also be informative and useful to other viewers.

If you are the successful bidder, I will provide full contact information when the auction concludes.

[biosurfer1]

Set up a google voice phone for situations just liek this. You can forward it to your cell phone and they never know your real phone number. Then just shut it off when you're not using it. Even has voice mail, etc

[onewhippedpuppy]

Here's mine for the day:

"Hi there, i am very interested in your listing,and i will like to make an offer of $13,600, and i will also like to know if the car is in a very good working condition. Let me know if you accept my offer i will pay through paypal and i will also arrange for the pick up after i have made the payment."

Vague email, poor grammar, no specific questions but offering up nearly my asking price and purchasing the car sight unseen?! Plus, who the hell would conduct a vehicle transaction through Paypal? Something tells me that "Steve Dawson" isn't legit.

[VaSteve]

Actually, that's me, Matt.

What was I bidding on again?

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by VaSteve

Actually, that's me, Matt.

What was I bidding on again?

A set of 911 torsion bars. I'll have them out to you right away!