Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum Creepy craigslist ad; FREE Yamaha G1??

So Dear Husband, who is addicted to craigslist, finds this ad on our local listings. He asks me if he should respond; I say 'no,' smelling a rat, but unable to resist any kind of a possible freebie he responds anyway.

He gets the following responses and images in return. Every fiber of my being says RUN AWAY, FAR FAR AWAY!! (I mean the legs have been "disjointed"?!? That smacks of having been run through Google Language Tools.), the syntax of the responses is weird and this so totally feels wrong, but still...stranger things have happened.

Wayne has sent back a note asking to find and actually SEE this piano in person, even if we have to drive a couple hours somewhere to do so. If nothing else, we'll have the entertainment factor. We're currently waiting for, but not expecting, any kind of response. If there's a response, I suspect it'll be completely shady; wanting cash without the goods. We will NOT do anything stupid, like wiring off cash to a Nigerian PO box.

Has anyone seen scams like this in their area?? Is this something well known and has just made its way to Reno? Perhaps one of you will recognize these photos as YOUR piano, in YOUR living room, and you can tell me these photos were poached from some other website. This is just well, creepy.

Here's the correspondence:

"Hi, I was hoping to give this out to someone from Nevada in general but I have just found out that the movers I employed to move my properties from the house in Reno mistakenly carried the piano in their truck against the instructions I gave them. I am not sure where they are right now, but if you really don't mind making new arrangements with the movers, I can attempt to get in touch with them to re-route to NV with the piano, after delivering the rest of the properties to the house, here in Fairfield. These should not attract too many charges since they are private movers, especially if they haven't gotten too far by now.

I'm sorry for the convenience, but do let me know if you wish that I talk to the movers. I'm still willing to give the piano out. If it came here anytime I would still offer to give it out. The piano used to be owned and played by my wife who is now deceased. I don't think she'll be happy if I sell her piano, and at the same time I am not happy seeing it around and do not wish to move it here.

If you need to know its condition. I attached some pictures, just that you know I'm not giving out a scrap or a waste. Its in good shape.

Jeffrey."





Hi Wayne,
The piano is a G1 Yamaha baby grand, just so you know the amount of space to provide for it at the house. Though the piano should be able to go through a normal door since its leg have already been disjointed by the movers while packing.

The movers are private ones and they're asking for $350 to deliver. Let me know if this not too much for you, so you can be prepared to make arrangements with the movers and I can speak with them to discuss with you as well as supply you with their details for follow-up or direct contact.

Hope to hear back from you soon.

Jeffery

You're right, it's clearly a scam. Very similar to the scams, I'm sure, involving people offering to ship their extremely cheap car to you. You'd probably send the $350 to the "movers" and never see it again. I recently purchased a car for my son, but in the process ignored two such scam emails from Craigslist.

You know the saying... if it's too good to be true...

If this guy REALLY wanted to give his wife's piano away, he'd find a school or a church to donate it to. He wouldn't bother with the hassle of Craigslist.

At least, that's what I think.

I just Googled "Baby grand piano give away" and found these threads immediately:

http://nd.craigslist.org/zip/2279267041.html
http://www.jlaforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=87520598
http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-518-290-0842

So, yes, this is a common enough scam, evidently.

Jonahan: You nailed it; one of the links even had the same name as our local scammer. I don't know why I didn't think to Google this myself, I'm usually the first one to debunk this stuff. Thanks!!

It'll be VERY interesting to see what this person comes back with.

Ask for the movers PUC license number. That should be fun!

I always want to screw with people when I find out they're trying to scam me, but then I remember that they have my email address, and I'm afraid they'll sign me up for 2000 spam/porn sites, and I just let it go.

I'll have to start answering these ads with my own fake email!

**smirk** They have my HUSBAND'S email address.

Porn, he's not interested. However, if there's any kind of a sports car under the girl, he'd have asked her to move before they shot the picture. The original gearhead.

As you've all noted this is very clearly a scam. If you ever want to mess with any of these guys however, (or "bait" them, in the terminology of scambaiters) you have to know how to do it safely and anonymously. There is a website called 419eater.com that can tell you everything you need to know about these sorts of scams and how to bait the scammers should you choose to do that. Even if you don't want to get into that yourself there are some examples of classic baits that some of the guys have done. In some cases they have gotten the scammers to travel hundreds of miles or performing any number of odd activities (including doing the dead parrot sketch from Monty Python and hand copying Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) in hopes of getting a big payoff. The site can be pretty outrageous and is certainly not to everyone's taste, but since there was talk of scambaiting here I thought it best to put this warning in.
Here's a link to the "letters archive" section of the site, which has a good general warning and links to a number of the completed scams. Some of them are quite amusing.
http://www.419eater.com/html/letters.htm

Lee,

I have to tell you that I do not at all appreciate your post directing me to the 419eater.com website.

'Cause I have work to do today, but I can't stop reading it! =)

Seriously, very funny stuff =)

In a similar vein, someone responded to my add for the Ivers & Pond I am selling. I replied that it was still available. Here is what I got in reply:

"Thanks for the prompt response.. I am ready to buy it now for birthday gift
for my son and i am at sea at the moment as i am an oceanographer and due
to the nature of my work, phone calls making and visiting of website are
restricted but i squeezed out time to check this advert and send you an
email regarding it. I really want it to be a surprise for my son so i wont
let him know anything about it until it gets delivered to him, i am sure he
will be more than happy with it. I insisted on paypal because i don't have
access to my bank account online as i don't have internet banking, but i
can pay from my paypal account, as i have my bank a/c attached to it, i
will need you to give me your paypal email address and the price so i can
make the payment asap for it and pls if you don't have paypal account yet,
it is very easy to set up, go to www.paypal.com and get it set up, after
you have set it up with paypal so as to put the money through.
I have a pick up agent that will come and pick it up after i have made the
payment.
Thanks"

I replied "Sorry, I can only deal locally and in cash. Also, your emails are rather suspicious."

Baldone

Jonahan, I think I warned you that 419eater and scambaiting can take up a lot of time! To anyone else who clicks on the link to the scambait page, you have been duly warned that whatever else you had planned for the next couple of hours may end up being delayed!
(here's the link again)

http://www.419eater.com/html/letters.htm

Baldone, definitely a scam of some sort. I was sort of expecting him to say he would send you a check for more than the amount and then have you cash it and send him the cash for the extra amount (by Western Union, of course). Naturally, it would have been a fraudulent check or a fake money order and you would have been on the hook for it.

Lee, no kidding a disclaimer is needed! I was going to post the latest response earlier, but just spent a bunch of time reading (and listening) to posts on that scambaiter website!

Well, we did get a response:

Wayne,
     The piano has stayed for about 6 years already since newly bought. I have seen busy putting the house together since the movers delivered my properties. Please contact Andy on 408-940-9706 or email him at crawley.andy@yahoo.com , I have already spoken with him and he is expecting to hear from you. I have told him you want the piano down there possible on tomorrow or Monday latest. Do let me know the outcome of your discussion and arrangements.

Jeffery

A quick check of the 'who called me' online databases revealed that this phone number is connected to known scammers, as we knew it would be. I have no intention of making any kind of contact where our location or any (more) of our personal information would be revealed to this bottomfeeder.

Since there's really no authority to report activity such as this, I suppose we'll simply flag his ad off craigslist, ask 'Jeffrey' how the weather is in south Africa today, and tell him to take a flying leap. But, I gotta tell you, the temptation to bait and play this a little while is strong.

Too bad such a valued resource as craigslist has been corrupted like this. But, there are still plenty of good deals, from good people, out there to be had if you're cautious.

Now, please excuse me as I need to respond to another ad for a two year old Bösendorfer concert grand. They only want me to pay the import duty at the port and pay for the shipping here to Nevada...easy through Western Union. The piano will be here Tuesday!

Oh, I am sure you could pay for that out of the money that you get for helping some Nigerian sneak $23,000,000 out of his country.

Jeanie,
Thanks for posting this. One of my choir members posted "Free Baby Grand Piano" from CraigsList last Thursday. It also was for a Yamaha grand. I told her it sounded too good to be true. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

Our desire for things to be as we might hope for them to be is so much stronger than our willingness to see things as they are and use our common sense. That's what makes life so sweet and pickings so easy for these scammers.

Sorry, I'm just curious what would happen if you give your paypal email address away.
I give mine out on ebay so they can give me the payment, is that dangerous?
The email does sound suspicious though.

I thought paypal was safe. I don't think they can do anything with a paypal email address. I might ask for his paypal email id instead and will tell him that I would send him an invoice. I would also ask him to tell me what specific moving arrangements he would make before I gave him an invoice and agreed to the deal.

BEWARE OF CRAIGSLIST! ITS A SCAMMERS FAVORITE WEBSITE!

I would just make an appointment and pay on the spot when picking up. You can hire your own movers instead I suppose?

It doesn't work that way. They'll tell you it's already "in transit," and was misdirected, and they just want to get rid of it, so just pay the movers and they'll release it to you blah blah blah. You can't make an appointment to play the piano because there IS no piano.