I received a text message from this number:
"Hey (my correct first and last name). A friend has just challenged you to play Skee-Ball. Come play to discover your mystery challenger!"

I did not respond.

I just received a text as follows:

Hi I am William Powell and I have a business proposal for you kindly contact me on my personal email wpowell.esq@live.co.uk

How do these scammers get my number in the first place??

Dear everyone,

Thank you all for your helpful feedback and comments regarding the Craigslist scammers. I recently posted a piece of artwork and received this email from a "Michael Smith":

Thank for your mail. I'm satisfied with the condition of it as
advertised in the listing,i will like to add $100 to your final price
for you to keep off from all offer,and consider it sold to me alone as
i am serious with this.I will like you to know that i am really
interested in buying this for my father,payment will be through PayPal
and the pick up will be arranged by me as i will have my agent come
down to pick it up...i will be waiting to hear from you,and i will
like you to send me the name and email address on the PayPal account
to send the payment,also send me your mobile number where you can be
easily reach and send me more pics of this item if available since it
will not be seen in person so i can pay it right away I am a busy at
work and do not have much time around me.Make sure you get back to me
so that we can arrange for pick up as i will like the item to be
picked at your residence,so no shipping

Thanks and reply asap.

Regards


To anyone on this post who was scammed, always remember what goes around comes around, and some individuals in life are just sketchy. My best to everyone, and Happy Holidays!

Respectfully,


T.K.

Perry Smith LOL. I deposited and thankfully just wated 8 days bounced on closed account #. Just today mybb4me@whatever tried some thing with paypal, Googled it wow the responses. i dont know how could possibly be working alone. Hope the get them but probably overseas due to broken english responses. First requests are well edited then they seem to get worse.

Same crap here only without a phone call. Contacts all by email. Names use in communicating with me were James Ode, James Dykes and Lauren XXK. I politely told him (them), thanks but no thanks.

Did anything ever happen? This just happened to me!

I ACTUALLY RECIEVED A CHECK AND TOOK IT TO A QUICK CASH. SHE TOLD ME IT WAS FAKE. I HAVEN'T HAD ANYONE CALL BUT HERE IS THE CONFIRMATION NUMBER...9101 9690 1038 6956 8090 40

I just got the same message for a washer and dryer.  I am not quite this gullable.  I almost fell into this trap when buying a puppy.  Thank goodness for google!

i got same email i reported to the internet crimes devision at the FBI prolly wont do any good but hopefully they catch them before some gulliable people send him money

I just received a response from my ad to craigslist, I replied at first, and googled the email, and found this thread. I think he already got my full name & email by my response. I hope there is nothing he can do about it....
below is the message i received..

------------------------------------------------
Hello! thanks for getting back to me let's do like this, actually now
I'm not in town for now, I came to visit my family so i wont be able
to meet with you to see the item but am ok with the price as seen on
the advert. I don't mind to give you $50 to withdraw the advert for
you to see how serious i am in the transaction, i will contact my
secretary to issuing a Check out to you and when you received the
check  I will make
arrangement for pick up. So get back to me with below details to be on
the  check asap.

Name:
Address:
City:
State:
Postal Code:
Phone Number:

And as soon as this is provided, the payment will be overnight to you
and i will let you know when its mailed out. I need you to be honest
with the sale as I am a God fearing person.Note you don't need to
worry about shipping the items for me as soon as you have the check
and have the check cash my shipper will come over for pick up

Thanks
God Bless

Funny I just received the same exact email - exact same email from this person........

I received the exact same email for a baby monitor I have on CL....

This is what I received this morning.  I'm glad to checked his email address and found all the scam reports on this person. Please spread the word so he/she doesn't scam more people.

Hello! thanks for getting back to me let's do like this, actually now
I'm not in town for now, I came to visit my family so i wont be able
to meet with you to see the item but am ok with the price as seen on
the advert. I don't mind to give you $50 to withdraw the advert for
you to see how serious i am in the transaction, i will contact my
secretary to issuing a Check out to you and when you received the
check  I will make
arrangement for pick up. So get back to me with below details to be on
the  check asap.

Name:
Address:
City:
State:
Postal Code:
Phone Number:

And as soon as this is provided, the payment will be overnight to you
and i will let you know when its mailed out. I need you to be honest
with the sale as I am a God fearing person.Note you don't need to
worry about shipping the items for me as soon as you have the check
and have the check cash my shipper will come over for pick up

Thanks
God Bless

He (they?) are still fishing for a sucker - - got this today - -


*******************
Perry Smith james.ope01@gmail.com
    
8:23 AM (53 minutes ago)
        
to me
Hello! thanks for getting back to me let's do like this, actually now
I'm not in town for now, I came to visit my family so i wont be able
to meet with you to see the item but am ok with the price as seen on
the advert. I don't mind to give you $50 to withdraw the advert for
you to see how serious i am in the transaction, i will contact my
secretary to issuing a Check out to you and when you received the
check  I will make
arrangement for pick up. So get back to me with below details to be on
the  check asap.

Name:
Address:
City:
State:
Postal Code:
Phone Number:

And as soon as this is provided, the payment will be overnight to you
and i will let you know when its mailed out. I need you to be honest
with the sale as I am a God fearing person.Note you don't need to
worry about shipping the items for me as soon as you have the check
and have the check cash my shipper will come over for pick up

Thanks
God Bless

The check he sends you will be a very well made forgery.  It will bounce, but it may take 2 weeks or more.  

You are to deposit his check in your account.  Under US banking laws the bank must credit your account with the full amount of the check in, I think its 5 buisness days.  So on day 6 you wire his shipper the shipping fee.  Wired money clears instantly.  Its in the shipper/scammer's hands within an hour after you send it.  

Several days later your bank calls you.  The buyer's check has bounced.  You owe the bank the entire amount of the buyer's check plus a bounced check fee.  By that time the buyer and his friend, the shipper, have vanished.  They have stolen the shipping fee from you.  

When the check arrives contact local law enforcement.  Tell them what happened and turn the check over to them.  The buyer will call you trying to get you to complete the transaction/scam.  Tell him you are on to his scam and hang up on him.

Thanks for posting the details, so that i could find out about this scam. I just got this one this morning.

I haven't gotten any calls, just emails so far.

I got almost the exact thing for an item I put on Craigslist Vancouver BC today.  

From: Caroline Kelly <janesmith4love@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 7, 2012 1:19:26 PM
still for sale?.
Cheers
Caroline

That was the first one and I emailed back saying yes give me a call then she sent this one which has a different email address.  The first address I couldn't find anything on.  this second one with her name is on Facebook and comes up as Caroline Abbey Kelly but can't really find out anything else other than she looks young and belongs to a group on FB called:  Gurusbase.com (nigerian guru's base)  I'm sure it's a scam.  I replied back and said we will only take cash in person.  Don't think I'll be hearing from her again.  If it seems weird it probably is.  I always check email addresses whenever I can hers also comes up in a google search for Craigslist Victoria.

From: caroline kelly <carolinikelly2345@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 7, 2012 1:53:04 PM
The price is affordable to me,so i would like you to send me your
paypal email address account for me to make the payment now .

Cheers
Caroline

yep I got the same thing:  First the email came from breanae3@gmail.com asking whether the stuff was in good condition.  When I hit reply to ask for her number to discuss, the reply address changed to james.ope01@gmail.com.  I responded anyway and received this back in under 5 minutes.

From: Ope James <james.ope01@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2012 8:55 AM
Subject: Re: item listed on craigslist

Hello! thanks for getting back to me let's do like this, actually now
I'm not in town for now, I came to visit my family so i wont be able
to meet with you to see the item but am ok with the price as seen on
the advert. I don't mind to give you $50 to withdraw the advert for
you to see how serious i am in the transaction, i will contact my
secretary to issuing a Check out to you and when you received the
check  I will make arrangement for pick up. So get back to me with below
details to be on the  check asap.

Name:
Address:
City:
State:
Postal Code:
Phone Number:

And as soon as this is provided, the payment will be overnight to you
and i will let you know when its mailed out. I need you to be honest
with the sale as I am a God fearing person.Note you don't need to
worry about shipping the items for me as soon as you have the check
and have the check cash my shipper will come over for pick up

Thanks
God Bless

Thank god I googled his names/email addresses and found this thread before I gave him my personal info! I had a designers bag on sale on Craigslist Vancouver (Canada) and received these very similar, sketchy emails on the same day.

People beware, I believe he now uses two email addresses and names for his scam: James Ope (james.ope104@gmail.com) and Caroline Kelly (carolinikelly2345@gmail.com).
---------------------------------------------------------------
<From "James Ope" on May 16, 2012>
Hello!
thanks for getting back to me let's do like this, actually now I'm
not in town for now, I came to visit my family so i wont be able to
meet with you to see the item but am ok with the price as seen on the
advert. I don't mind to give you $50 to withdraw the advert for you to
see how serious i am in the transaction, i will contact my secretary
to issuing  a Check out to you and when you received the check  I will
make arrangement for pick up. So get back to me with below details to
be on the  check asap.

Name:
Address:
City:
State:
Postal Code:
Phone Number:

And as soon as this is provided, the payment will be overnight to you
and i will let you know when its mailed out. I need you to be honest
with the sale as I am a God fearing person.Note. don't worry  about
shipping the items for me as soon as you have the check and have the
check cash my shipper will come over for pick up

Thanks
God Bless
---------------------------------------------------
<From "Caroline Kelly" on May 16, 2012>
I am from st john's, NL and i wish to buy this item for my cousin in  NY 11795. USA and the price is affordable to me,so I would be glad if you can setup a paypal account right now through there website www.paypal.com,and send me your paypal email address account for me to make the payment.i will also like to add $70 for the shipment cost via canadapost .so let me know your decision.maybe you can do that now ASAP.

Cheers
Caroline
---------------------------------------------------

When I replied to "James Ope" and told him that I don't feel comfortable giving out personal info over the internet, he sends me another email as "Caroline Kelly" and suggests Paypal which seems safer and more widely accepted.
What an idiot.

I've gotten the same type of messages responding to my bike ad on Craigslist.   Including the 520-955-8067 number.   But I don't understand how the scam works....?   I did give him my home address and name but what can he do with that?   He is suppose to send a check which I am to cash before giving his "shipper" the bike.   If I have the bank double/tripple check the "check"...how am I at risk?   Please let me know what I'm missing because I'm in the middle of this right now!   :-)  

Thanks for any response!

Sincerely,
Art
anewpher@gmail.com

This Michael Smith is still at it! I just got an email from Craigslist from him that is very similar, won't be falling into this trap! Thanks for the warning!

I got this EXACT same email from this same woman. I had a wedding dress for sale and she told me that my money would be released to my account once i sent the tracking number. I waited weeks before sending the dress, this was a 2000.00 wedding gown mind you. So I packed it up and sent it off. Then I got an email saying they could only deposit 2500.00 into my paypal so I had to send HER back 500.00.

I knew right away this was not right, and called paypal myself...no money was ever given to me, I had already shipped the dress to what was her cousin Sara Jones, who lived at 113 Skinner Road Connecticut. I googled the address after realizing what she done, the home belonged to a 93 year old woman that had passed away.

I got on the phone right away with the post office in which the dress would be coming, they kept and eye open and as soon as it got there, they stamped it and thankfully shipped it back to me. In the end, I got my dress back and Caroline, or whatever her name is, got a VERY large email.

She managed to get the dress shipped, but I got it back in the end. And I am from a small town called Yarmouth, in Nova Scotia, Canada !

Identical message received for an item listed on Whistler craigslist.

I'm getting the same nonsense from CarolineKelly...was suspicious right from the start that someone in StJohn would be trolling the Whistler Craigslist for items to send to NY!

Hey I got the EXACT same email from "Caroline". I'm glad I googled the email address. I basically told her to sod off.

I got a msg from caroline kelly <carolinikelly2345@gmail.com> it said
I am from st john's, NL and i wish to buy this item for my cousin in
NY 11706, USA. and the price is affordable to me,so I would be glad if
you can setup a paypal account right now through there website
www.paypal.com,and send me your paypal email address account for me to
make the payment.i will also like to add $70 for the shipment cost via
canadapost .so let me know your decision.maybe you can do that now
ASAP.

Cheers
Caroline

Hello,

I think I have been scammed this exact same way. Is there any way of reporting this?

I posted on craigslist, within 30 min this guy named Michael texts me saying he wants my item, and is ok with the price, and will send me a check. He wanted my name/address, and so I told him to call me. he texts back that he is "hard of hearing" or he would call... So I sent my work address. His grammar is not very good. his phone number was 520-955-8067. I called and got a woman's voice "Please state your name after the beep, and Google will try to connect you"... it rang, no answer, I left a message telling him to call me.  I texted him to call me.  Weird, very weird.

520-955-8067

He wants to ship a house.  LOL  Dumbaass
I am a real estate agent in the Tampa Florida area and he responded to one of my Craigslist ads.

Yes! I've been receiving emails from Caroline Kelly too - from this address: carolinekelly2346@globomail.com

She claimed she paid for my item via paypal (never did of course), then sent me fake emails from "paypal's customer support" - customers__care@consultant.com

She wanted me to ship it to the address below  (for her cousin):

"The payment has been sent and i hope you would have gotten your
payment Notification from paypal by now, Please make sure you wrap
this item very well for safety purpose to my cousin,shipping
information below.

steve stone
7123 Amie St
Shreveport, LA 71108
USA


i would prefer the shipping via canada post."

Such a scam!!!!!!