Nothing really new under the sun...

Do you ever wonder how much more good stuff could get done if scammers put their creative energy into legitimate, worthwhile endeavors??

My 15-year old wants a used truck so bad he can taste it. He likes the little ones but a full-size isn’t out of the question if the price is right. He keeps showing me various ones he finds and I keep telling him let’s wait until closer to his b-day and when he has more money saved up. But this doesn’t stop him from looking.

So, last week he found an early 2000s Ford Ranger that a gal wanted to sell for $1,500 on our se SD craigslist. It seems that the gal is a medic in the NG and is getting mobilized in a couple of weeks and needs to ditch the truck fast. The only problem is that she’s being MOBed in Nevada and she would ship the truck to us through ebay motors at supposed no extra cost, we have x number of days to check it out, and could return it. So I asked him for her e-mail and sent her a message asking 1) what state NG did she belong to?, and 2) wouldn’t it be easier just to place the ad in the Vegas craigslist and move the truck that way (2 million people, I’m sure she could find a quick buyer)? No response from this “seller”. I told someone at work and he said, “Well, yeah but now they have your e-mail address for all their spam and other scams”. OK, confronting “her” with my direct e-mail may not have been a wise move so won’t repeat that next time.

Today T finds a 2001 Ford F-150 on our “local” Let-it-go site and the “lady” only wants a little more than a grand for the truck. The pixs looked nice. He asks why so low in price and “she” sends back a long paragraph stating it was her son’s truck and how her husband & son were killed by a drunk driver and she just wants the truck out of her life because it “brings back too many bad memories”. I asked T when he showed me when the ad was posted because a truck that good looking and that cheap should only last a day or so in our metro area. I also found it curious that if it was a recent post, why the woods in the background were still in leaf-off condition in that the pixs? (pixs taken 2-3 months ago?) T asks the “lady” if we could meet and gets back a long paragraph that the truck is in an Amazon warehouse in Iowa, and it will be shipped to us for inspection, can get our money back, blah, blah, blah. All of this effort for a thousand $$ pickup that should sell about anywhere in a day or two?? C’mon, how gullible do they think we are?? But, I guess it costs little time and no money to post bogus schemes on such sites and they only have to get an occasional person to commit to the bait.

21st century technology and communication but there really isn’t anything new under the sun. Buyer beware…

Unfortunately these things sometimes work. My daughter has a friend that fell for it. Cost her hundreds (could have been thousands). Of course, slime like these people serve a very worthwhile purpose. The teach your kids what sort of garbage is out there.