Beware of Fraudulent Advert Responses

Many of you reading this article are probably aware of the fraudulent advert responses. Scammers tend to target electronics or other high priced items for sale on Junk Mail and other classifieds websites.

Fraudulent advert responses comes in many shapes. Some of the respondents address classifieds users as “Seller” or “Friend” and write e-mail in substandard or broken English. Some of them present themselves as doctors, lawyers, professors or persons in other respectable positions.

No matter what approach they take, these scams all have one thing in common: 99% of the time these persons want to pay you before actually viewing the item that you’re selling.

Scammers who approach you in this way also request that you deliver the item to them and offer to pay via online payment services like Paypal or banking services like Western Union. If you’re picking up a dodgy vibe from a potential buyer using any one of these methods, alarm bells should sound off in your head.

Remember: Sell your item on your terms, don’t let a potential buyer dictate terms to you. Don’t settle for a potential buyer that sounds too good to be true. Read our article giving Selling Tips for Junk Mail Users for more information about this.

Other fraudulent advert responses are basically spam. We are fully aware of these responses and we realize how much this frustrates Junk Mail users.

In case you’re not familiar with them, here are some examples of Fraudulent Advert Responses that can defined as Spam:

“Hello Am kate, i saw your profile today and became interested in you, i will like to know you the more, and i want you to send an email to my mail so that i can give you my picture for you to know whom i am. Here is my email address (kateluv@hotmail.com) I believe we can move from here. I am waiting for your reply in my mail don’t send it in the site. Remember the distance or color does not matter but love matters allot in life (kateluv@hotmail.com)”

E-mail address:  emilysamuel777@att.net “Good Day, my name is Emily,I contact you base on your profile,so i will like you to contact me back in this email (emilysamuel740@yahoo.co.uk) Yours Miss Emily”

E-mail address:  mercysamuel161@yahoo.co.uk “How are you doing? my name is mercy,i saw your ID while i was searching on internet,I will be happy if we can be good friend,please reply,for an IMPORTANT things that i want to share with you,also i will send my photo to you,you know Distance,Color or Language dose not matter what matters in life is sincerity,caring and true love,I’m waiting for you reply God bless you,thanks yours sincerely,mercy. Please reply me to my box ID here mercysamuel928@yahoo.in”

E-mail address: cynthia2014@hotmail.com “Hi My name is cynthia. . i just saw your profile here and i want to make friendship with you to discus a lot of things with you, what is your opinion about this? please reply me on (cynthia2014@hotmail.com) and i will tell you details about me with my photo. thanks from miracle. thanks truelove miss cynthia”

Also be aware that these Spammers / Scammers like to change their e-mail addresses on a constant basis. They’re doing this because they don’t want to be pinned down – they are always looking for potential victims.

We do have measures and procedures in place to keep these kinds of responses to a minimum, but we need your help to make sure it stays that way. If you receive any e-mail that can be defined as a fraudulent advert response or that seems fraudulent in nature, please ignore them and forward the responses to our Customer Care Department so we can investigate.

Don’t get caught by scammers. Check out our Safety and Security page for regular updates about scams and other fraudulent activity that has been picked up on Junk Mail.

Remember: Be Smart, Be Savvy, Be Safe!