Carsales.com spams, be aware
Submitted: Sunday, Feb 06, 2011 at 23:58
ThreadID:
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11
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Martyn (WA)
Hi Forumites,
I'm selling a vehicle on Carsales.com. Today I've had three spam emails asking me to contact them, whoever these people are are on gmail.
The message is written by someone who hasn't got a good command of English diction.
The numbers that have come through on the phone when I've called them have been disconnected numbers.
I've had messages from maxpal123@gmail.com and melissaclara73@gmail.com I'm sure they mean nothing but someone out there may get another one. I deleted the third one I received at 5am this morning
I've reported all this to the Carsales team who appear to only work normal office hours. I'm awaiting a response. So if you are selling anything through this site if someone offers to buy the vehicle sight unseen be aware.
I've also asked for a full refund if I get another spam message, I don't pay good money to advertise and then have to go through this sort of rubbish. I'm sure others could
well have been sucked in.
I'm not sure how gmail works and at this time I'm not prepared to find out.
Reply By: Member - Serendipity(WA) - Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 00:13
Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 00:13
Yeah
Last time we sold a car and advertised it online we all sorts of crank email replys the same as you - telling us they where overseas just now and wanted to buy the vehicle site unseen and could we just send them our bank details to transfer the money. ---- Yeah riiiigghhtt.
Just delete them - they are pretty obvious.
And I don't think there is anything the website owners can do. Any filter they put on your advert will stop some potential real customer.
Cheers
David
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Follow Up By: Martyn (WA) - Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 00:22
Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 00:22
Hi David,
Sort of guessed this would be the case, you can't win. Yes I'm just deleting them, you are right they are pretty obvious. Just trying to raise the awareness.
Friend of
mine had the exact same case as you talk about, overseas, buying the vehicle for a family member as a present, couldn't get to a banking facility before the date so he was asking my friend to pay the transportation costs and he would send over the price of the vehicle and the transportation costs via some sort of transfer.
My mate was desperate to sell the the vehicle because he was moving to an overseas posting, he very nearly got caught. the spammer even used the Pay Pal logo, all looked very legitimate.
FollowupID:
716619
Reply By: Shaker - Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 09:20
Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 09:20
How can Carsales control who enquires on your vehicle?
They ahve a warning on their site about spam replies!
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Reply By: Member - Bruce T (SA) - Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 09:21
Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 09:21
Martyn,
We got several of these messages when selling our Troopy. We used a gmail account as the email to contact us as that way we were able to keep our real email address to ourselves. Gmail is just like a hotmail account really.
We strung them on a bit and then sent all of their details along with their messages to the appropriate government agency. We let them know we considered them to be spammers and so were reporting them. Never heard from them again.
Cheers,
Bruce and Di
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Reply By: kevmac....(WA) - Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 09:54
Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 09:54
I use a gmail account as my regular email.....works just the same as any other online email facility.and like an internet provider email does, is always open to similar problems..............wife uses our provider's email address
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Follow Up By: kevmac....(WA) - Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 09:56
Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 09:56
I am sure if gmail itself was a problem i would not be able to join as many online groups as I have , INCLUDING EXPLOROZ !!!
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Reply By: Motherhen - Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 11:48
Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 11:48
As posted yesterday in duplicate thread
Hi Martyn
You will get these type of scammers where ever you advertise. It is out of the control of the advertising companies, although you were wise to notify them of what has happened.
The following government website advises where to report various types of scams.
Report a Scam
Motherhen
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Follow Up By: Martyn (WA) - Tuesday, Feb 08, 2011 at 15:20
Tuesday, Feb 08, 2011 at 15:20
Hi Mother hen,
I've taken advice and modified the Ad, this was easy enough, in addition to this I took advantage of your link, thanks for that.
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Reply By: Fab72 - Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 12:47
Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 12:47
Go in and edit your add to state quite clearly "NO EMAILS OR SMS WILL BE REPLIED TO" or "CONTACT TO BE MADE VIA PHONE ONLY"
Any genuine buyers will read this and do exactly as asked. Don't even bother with any emails, sms (generally kids) or other.
If I read a statement like this and I was serious about the car, I'd pick the phone up and actually call you.
Give it a shot....got nothing to loose.
Fab.
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Reply By: Begaboy - Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 19:35
Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 19:35
A note to all - just add to your advertisement, " will not reply to Gmail or hotmail email addresses - Only local Australian email addresses will be answered.
Can also add in Only local numbers will be answered also -- ie No O.S NUMBERS
Then if you do get messages from gmail or other non ISP emails or OS phone numbers then you know they have not ACTUALLY read your email and probably just leached your details from the site.
BB
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Follow Up By: Fab72 - Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 20:56
Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 20:56
Great minds think alike.
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Reply By: Jimi D - Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 20:31
Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 20:31
Hello
We just got SMS messages today from the same person asking for more details.
Seems extremly fishy as you are in WA and we are in QLD. Email address is maxpal123@gmail.com
He offered us MORE than what we have our car advertised for, and has said he wants to ship it to malaysia and not interested in viewing the car.
We'll certainly be updating our carsales add asking for local emails and phone numbers only.
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Follow Up By: Fab72 - Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 20:59
Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 20:59
The part where you mentioned they'd pay more than the advertised price is a text book scam move.
Work out how to repay the favour and let the games begin. Tell them to call you by phone for the bank account details and give them the number for the fraud squad.
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Follow Up By: Fab72 - Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 21:00
Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 21:00
Or better still.....send them the link to this
forum post so they can see that they've got to get up way earlier than that to fool us Aussies.
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Reply By: Martyn (WA) - Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 23:23
Monday, Feb 07, 2011 at 23:23
Hi Forumites,
Thanks for the responses, I've added the necessary wording on the ad now. I knew this was a problem, I appreciate the constructive feedback.
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Reply By: Carsales Network - Tuesday, Feb 08, 2011 at 09:22
Tuesday, Feb 08, 2011 at 09:22
Dear
Forum members,
Our Trust and Safety team at carsales.com.au are continuously focussed on protecting our sellers and buyers from potential scams.
It is great to see that our customers inform us and each other when coming across suspicious activity online.
For more information about online Fraud, or if you have any questions please contact us on 03 9093 8666 or visit the ‘Help and Online Safety’ section on our website.
(
http://helpcentre.carsales.com.au/)
Kind Regards,
The Carsales.com.au Trust and Safety Team.
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Follow Up By: Fab72 - Tuesday, Feb 08, 2011 at 12:41
Tuesday, Feb 08, 2011 at 12:41
Wow Carsales.... that's great to see a response.
Well done guys.
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Follow Up By: Martyn (WA) - Tuesday, Feb 08, 2011 at 15:28
Tuesday, Feb 08, 2011 at 15:28
Hi there Carsales Network,
I sent you two notifications on Sunday and whilst the words you write sond very impressive I've personally heard nothing from Carsales. As the saying goes "I doubt what you say and believe what you do", heard that one before?
I understand the scammer thing and I've taken the advice of others on this site and added the necessary wording to my ad, I've heard nothing more doing just that which is quite impressive. I suppose I'm just looking forward to selling the vehicle and not having to deal with this rubbish. Carsales for me in the past has been very successful and I've never been bothered like this before, it's unreal.
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Follow Up By: Shaker - Tuesday, Feb 08, 2011 at 15:38
Tuesday, Feb 08, 2011 at 15:38
As you have already been told, it happens with all websites with items for sale, even here at ExplorOz!
You will either have to just get over it, or trade your goods in with dealers & let them cop the spam enquiries.
Car Sales have replied to you, here in this thread.
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Follow Up By: Martyn (WA) - Tuesday, Feb 08, 2011 at 16:25
Tuesday, Feb 08, 2011 at 16:25
Shaker,
I'm "
well over it" as you so kindly advise me to do, I've taken advice from other members on this
forum, I was quite interested that one
forum member actually recieved something from the same spammer.
I was expecting something back myself, obviously this isn't the case and carsales prefer to monitor websites and respond to customer enquiries through that media. Seeing you are now representing Carsales and telling me how they conduct their business next time I'll contact you directly to see what my next line of action should be.
One reason I don't post as often on this site as I used to is because of the
places some of the threads used to go. A new one is that I have never been advised to "get over it" before. I posted this as a bit of advice / warning to fellow forumites I didn't expect in the end to be getting told to "get over it".
Ah
well, I appreciate the constructive comments and I consider myself "told" and "I'm over it". Catch ya
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Follow Up By: Member - Graham H (QLD) - Tuesday, Feb 08, 2011 at 17:27
Tuesday, Feb 08, 2011 at 17:27
It happens a lot on Ebay as
well.
I was selling a cell phone and a buyer from Africa paid the price and asked me to post it to them as they wanted it for a present for a soldier that had been injured helping their daughter.
There was a dodgy bit about how they were paying for it.
When I went to reply the account had been closed.
Needless to say it didnt get sold to them.
From then on I restricted buyers form other countries and put this at the bottom of my listings
"I don't care if your friend died helping you I'm not sending anything to Africa so kindly crawl back under your
rock."
Not very polite I know but it worked.
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Follow Up By: Martyn (WA) - Tuesday, Feb 08, 2011 at 19:41
Tuesday, Feb 08, 2011 at 19:41
Hi Graham,
Nice touch!! More than likely wouldn't have been able to get coverage anyway..........!
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Follow Up By: Carsales Network - Wednesday, Feb 09, 2011 at 11:02
Wednesday, Feb 09, 2011 at 11:02
Dear Martyn,
If you are having any further issues regarding your listing please call us on 03 9093 8666, so that we can locate your advertisement and assist you further.
Kind Regards,
The Carsales.com.au Trust and Safety Team.
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716890
Reply By: Scott B1 - Wednesday, Feb 23, 2011 at 14:00
Wednesday, Feb 23, 2011 at 14:00
Thanks for posting this. We recieved an email from melissaclara73@gmail.com claiming it was on an oil rig and could not be contacted but was willing to pay for the car unseen. A quick google search of the email revealed this... Great!
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