IknowURider

Okay I got another one of those spammy "is it still available?" emails from Craigslist. The other bot-question is; "Is this still for sale?"

Never mind the obvious and obnoxious "what is the best price?" (Sri Lankan email)

I ask that they use a special tag in the subject line, this helps weed out a lot. This guy followed up tonight though , claiming I never responded to the initial inquiry, the one that ignored the request for the special tag.

Oh, sorry.

But this has happened a couple times before, This makes me think there's some sort of "follow-up program" now.

I assume you know what "artificial intelligence is". Maybe the bot starts the process, then a human takes over .

I asked him a couple basic questions that only a road cyclist would know , what type of bike is he riding? Where is he coming from? out of state? (100% no- show, usually )

He ignores those and goes "I wanted to know if they are still available".

(Sigh.)

And if an item is listed for awhile, that doesn't necessarily mean that the item is garbage that nobody wants. If you have a pair of gucci shoes in size 8, sometimes it takes awhile to find a buyer who likes gucci shoes and has small feet.

So, to try to verify a human pulse, I asked him "what vegetable is in tomato soup?"

Answer: " Is this a game? I can buy this on ebay". But he answered the question "tomatoes".

I have met some very wierd people off Craigslist, First , I need to understand how an Iphone works, I don't have one. Is it really that hard to coherently type a couple sentences, or does the entire American public now talk in "Tweets" now, sentences containing only 6 words total?

Besides the classic money laundering scam that everyone knows anyway, I wonder what else they're up to (besides spam) . How do these people learn how to be a professional CL spammer/scammer?

Is there a website that teaches you that? (snicker)

I do not talk to CL people on the phone anymore. We meet at a coffeeshop by advanced , confirmed appointment from email exchanges.

I am also convinced that a lot of scammers want your phone number so they can *geo-cache you* to case your property for possible burglary.

Many times you call the number and it's a wrong number, or you play endless idiotic phone-games with someone who might actually show up, but is kinda creepy. Like they need to know what you do for a living.... (Oh I am a diamond collector and sell collectible firearms and junk silver, duh!)

I told this guy "sorry man, but your writing style is rather spammish". No answer back yet, but WTF? pay attention to a simple security question and get a real response.

Of course, we all ignore the ones with wierd names . But sometimes they have normal names too

Do not get a gun shoved in your face. Near here, A man was shot dead trying to sell his Ipad , the buyer asked to meet him at a special location , Do not do this. Meet them where YOU want. I guess it's okay if you feel secure though driving "halfway" to a dark bend in the road deep in the pines, use your gut instincts, (and carry permit lol)

Also if you write a decent description and post GOOD PICS, (duh) you won't have to get into a half hour chat on your geo-cached cell phone. With someone who probably won't show up anyway.

Another thing that works extremely well is " I will meet you at the XYZ coffeeshop at 11AM sharp, I promise ***I**** will be on time". This is the soft way of saying "I don't put up with fashionably late A-holes. "

And guess what-? If they don't have your cell number (initially) then they can't call you at 10:56 with "Oh I'm just getting on the road..."

Everyone now has GPS and can pretty easily figure out how long a trip takes, so if they want your bike or whatever, they will be on time 99.99% of the time.

The ferry leaves the dock at 11:07. if you are late for work you get written up.

What have your experiences been? Horror stories? Any more ideas to share?

This might sound a bit hardass, but again I'll happily answer any intelligent Q's in an email anyway, then fine tune the meeting.

Hey there's no charge to come LOOK at the bike, Ipad, right? The meeting is to demonstrate the product , so I don't try to be too assumptive. It's "let's make sure it works for you!"

I think that's fair and respectful.

16Victor

What gets me is the ads I've seen, and sometimes replied to, for a nice bike at a great price, with no human contact info, just the craigslist-generate email address. Sometimes the ads even have the location. I reply, and follow up, but no answer - ever. This happened for three or four bikes. I guess a fake seller could be getting my phone number and email - I have received bike-related spam on the special craigslist-only email address I have. So I guess the $300 Paramount was vapor Boy was I hoping...

IknowURider

Interesting. I don't hunt for bikes a lot on CL . Oh I see what you mean, the screaming deal runs for 23 weeks and is renewed and top-posted? Hmmm.

Most of the awesome deals around here seem to sell pronto, and the ad is deleted.