I had the joy of having two separate "people" try to use this form letter on me, named jennifer Annie and Sharon McCledon.
I have a cargo bike listed on Gumtree. The pattern is:
- Receive an SMS, in my case from numbers +44 7418 337315 and +44 7451 227809, with different texts: Hi is the Bike still Available for sale? Pls msg jenniferannie007(AT)gmail.com and Hi, if the bike is still for sale, pls msg sharonshaayluv (at) gmail. com asap. The latter messaged again (after I emailed them already!) with Hi, if the bike is still for sale, pls msg sharonshayluv (at) gmail. com asap
- I emailed both saying that yes, it is still for sale, using copy-and-pasting so the emails were sent a few seconds apart.
- I got two responses back, with the same amount of seconds between them as the outgoing emails. These are almost certainly automated.
The messages were closely matched. I was already on the look-out for scammers, but this way these two were trivial to spot:
"Jennifer" at least customised the message to mention Gumtree:
Great!please consider it sold and take the ads down off gumtree,i am buying it for my son and i am ready to pay your full asking price, i have read through the advert and i'm totally satisfied with it and i will be glad if you can get back to me fast,sadly i won't be able to come for the inspection and pick up due to my disabilities,i loss my hearing and being on a wheelchair but I have a courier agent that will help me to pick it up at your preferred location .
Regarding the payment i can only pay via PayPal at the moment and I will be responsible for all the PayPal fee/charges on this transaction kindly get back to me with your PayPal email,Phone Number and the pick up location so that i can inform the courier agent about it now?
Awaiting your reply soon...
For comparison, "Sharon" wrote
Please consider it sold and take the ads down. I am interested in buying it today as a gift for someone and am ready to pay your full asking price . i have read through the advert and i'm totally satisfied with it and i will be glad if you can get back to me fast. Sadly i won't be able to come for the inspection and pick up due to my disabilities,i lost my hearing and being on a wheelchair but I have a courier agent that will help me to pick it up at your preferred location do the delivery .Regarding the payment, i can only pay via PayPal at the moment and I will be responsible for all the PayPal fee/charges on this transaction. kindly get back to me with your PayPal email and the pick up location so that i can make payment and inform the courier agent about it now.
Awaiting your reply soon
