CLASSIFIEDS SCAMMERS
Discussion
Hello all,
Having sold a couple of cars recently, I have noticed a worryingly large amount of clearly SCAM emails being sent to me. I have called the classifieds people, but they don't seem to care and just sent me a patronising "well done you for spotting it" email. I thought I would let people know what is going on, in the hope that someone less savvy will avoid being drawn in.
Anyway, the email they send is quite simple and reads a bit like this:
"Hi
Is this your car for sale?
(Link to car you're selling in the classifieds)
Only I see another one exactly the same for sale at half the price"
The scam is click on the link they include and it takes you to a page looking like the PH classifieds login screen, but it is a capture on a site of their design. They'll nick your password and email and then they know where a car is!
The emails nearly always come from shady sounding addresses, I have had emails from:
macyjohnes@forward.cat
xoniahull@forward.cat
and a couple with an address ending londoncars.net.tf or similar
Obviously fake domain names, in-keeping with the general theme.
Anyway, I hope this helps raise awareness and I know that we have the phone screening system for spam, perhaps it would not be too difficult to do something similar on email as they use LITERALLY the exact same text every time.
James
Having sold a couple of cars recently, I have noticed a worryingly large amount of clearly SCAM emails being sent to me. I have called the classifieds people, but they don't seem to care and just sent me a patronising "well done you for spotting it" email. I thought I would let people know what is going on, in the hope that someone less savvy will avoid being drawn in.
Anyway, the email they send is quite simple and reads a bit like this:
"Hi
Is this your car for sale?
(Link to car you're selling in the classifieds)
Only I see another one exactly the same for sale at half the price"
The scam is click on the link they include and it takes you to a page looking like the PH classifieds login screen, but it is a capture on a site of their design. They'll nick your password and email and then they know where a car is!
The emails nearly always come from shady sounding addresses, I have had emails from:
macyjohnes@forward.cat
xoniahull@forward.cat
and a couple with an address ending londoncars.net.tf or similar
Obviously fake domain names, in-keeping with the general theme.
Anyway, I hope this helps raise awareness and I know that we have the phone screening system for spam, perhaps it would not be too difficult to do something similar on email as they use LITERALLY the exact same text every time.
James
As you know these types of emails are all too common across all classified sites at the minute. They were using temporary email addresses (@forward.cat) for a while but seem to have switched to gmail. A bunch of emails were sent out yesterday, and because we have blocked a few phrases here and there, their fake weblinks look far less convincing which is good news.
I'm sure you understand that each tactic we deploy is quickly noted by the fraudsters. We can't fully stop these emails from going through, we can only try warn sellers as much as we can, without scaring them off completely.
Please feel free to send any email addresses to adverts@pistonheads.com and I can blacklist them for you. When we blacklist an email address, our system generates an automated email and it is sent to those who have been contacted by the offending address.
I'm sure you understand that each tactic we deploy is quickly noted by the fraudsters. We can't fully stop these emails from going through, we can only try warn sellers as much as we can, without scaring them off completely.
Please feel free to send any email addresses to adverts@pistonheads.com and I can blacklist them for you. When we blacklist an email address, our system generates an automated email and it is sent to those who have been contacted by the offending address.
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