How to tell email is a scam

[450rRacer22]

I was just wondering if theres a good way to tell if an email you receive is a scam or not? Like 2 years ago i made the mistake of emailing some one back that i thought was interested in buying my quad through ebay and turned out it was a scam and they got into my ebay account and all that good stuff. Well i put my truck for sale on craigslist and i've had a couple emails about the truck now and im just too scared to open them. I open them but i dont click the "show content" button up at the top. The one is asking me if i could go to compareandsaverates.com for them and check the insurance quote because for some reason there computer wouldnt find the area. So im just a little scared to reply back to this person. It seems legit, but you just never know. So basically im just wondering if theres a way to tell if this is a scam or if i can some how scan the email with an antivirus program or maybe im just freakin out too much lol. Let me know what you guys think.

[One_Bad_400]

i'm pretty good at knowing craigslist scams.

#1 99.9% of the time, scam e-mails are threw gmail
#2 They will usualy be a name with odd numbers after name
#3 most of the time they will say "and your last asking price" or something to that effect.
#4 They usually never have what your selling in the e-mail (ex. 450r) they will say motorcycle.


if i think of any more i will post.

to keep away from scamms on craigslist. i publish them under my ole e-mail. and put my new e-mail in the description. because most of the scam mails are computerized and go into CL data base (i guess thats what you call it) and it will send e-mails threw that list. because me and my girl friend got the same e-mail once. i was selling a 400ex and she was selling a clarionet lol

[450rRacer22]

Well this person that emailed me does have a gmail account. So im gonna go ahead and delete that one. The person only mentions that i have a vehicle for sale and doesnt mention what it is. What i thought was really weird is they didnt want to see any pictures of it. I never posted any through the craigslist ad because they were too large and i didnt feel like resizing them so i told them to email me if they wanted to see the pics.

[derekhonda]

Bottom line, don't do anything at all for anyone (when on craigslist)

Never should you have to click on a link, or send them info, or whatever. The point of craigslist is you can search your "local area"

If they can't meet you at a mcdonalds parking lot with cash in hand, screw em.

Never give out personal information either.

[tri5ron]

Here is one of my current CL ads.
this is how I generally avoid the scumbags and scammers.
enjoy......


Onan generator - Propane fuel - $1200 (Orange county)

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Date: 2009-09-18, 5:29AM PDT
Reply to: see below

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Propane fueled Onan Generator, MicroLite model 2.5 GenSet
2500 watt, excellent condition, works perfect, low hours, just serviced with oil and filter change, new airfilter.
service and maintaince manual included. Electric starting
will run roof AC unit 13,500 btu, microwave, fridge, tv, vcr, dvd, and more.
Propane fueled for no carbon monoxide emissions.
use in RV's, Campers, Trailers, Toyhaulers, etc.

$1200 obo
CASH ONLY, PICK-UP ONLY
NO CHECKS - NO TRADES - NO SHIPPING

reply by email to- tri5ron (at) yahoo (dot) com
(you must remove the spaces and use the correct "@", and "." symbols in the email)

In the title line of your reply email you must use "Onan MicroLite 2500"
You must also include your phone number, best time to call you, and your name.
I will return your call, and if you seem legitimately interested, and do not sound like some idiot scammer, then we will arrainge a time for you to come see it.

if you cant follow the above instructions, I will consider you to be either a idiot, a scammer, a computer roaming web crawling spyware generated scumbag, or just a brainless twit....
NONE of which I care to waste my time on.

you will notice that you are instructed to reply directly to my email, that YOU have to READ, and MAKE CORRECTIONS to.
You will also notice that you are instructed to use a DIFFERENT TITLE in your email, than is in the listing, to reply to me.
This is specifically intended to cause you to have to READ THE AD, and to FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS.
If you can not do that,... then do not bother replying to this ad, because I will delete it without even reading it.

I don't want to hear your stories about how your dog wants to divorce you, or your kids have to climb coconut trees for food, or your living in a tent in your parents backyard, or the only clothes you have to wear are made of cardboard and duct tape, or your car was stolen by a band of roaming pygmy gypsies.
I DONT CARE.

NOW, If you've made it through all of that,....
feel free to ask your questions.

BTW_ DONT ASK what is my lowest price in your email, or on the phone. the proper place to do that is in person, with cash in hand.
remember,...
CASH TALKS and BULLSHEET WALKS.

There,...
Are we done now ???

Theres a craigslist scam going around where they offer to pick up the vehicle or w/e because they own a moving or shipping company and they will send you a check withoutseeing it they just need your info. lol so funny. on the subject of spam or w/e apparantly I won $3.2 million. It was a nice read, oo bad it wasnt true.

[MX450]

Yea that deff sounds fishy, bottom line, if they cant meet you somewhere with C A S H move on! Think about how stupid that is in reality that they need YOU to check insurance for them.... would you ever have someone you dont know check an insurance rate for you?? And then trust what they tell you, and that be the deciding factor weather you buy their car or not??? NO. So most normal people wont do that.. i say SCAM. DELETE and keep goin!!

[MX450]

Oh and one more thing, ALWAYS take CASH only, if people can write you a check, or get a cashiers check, then they SHOULD hav access to cash. I work at a bank and i tell you what, unless i was selling a house or something i would never take a check of any kind from someone. Or if you do, make sure its drawn off a bank that is local so you can go verify the check at that bank before giving away what ever you are selling. But again, if they can give you a check, then they SHOULD have cash!

[450rRacer22]

tri5ron, thats funny as hell but a good idea i might have to do something like that next time or i might just edit my current ad. Yeah i plan on only taking cash i've sold enough stuff to know not to take a check I've always made sure that they paid with cash.