Modern Vespa

This scammer has 5 posts in Jax., 2 in Orlando and 4 in Tampa. I'm tired of looking at it so I made this post.

https://jacksonville.craigslist.org/mcy/d/orange-park-vespa-scam/7003235995.html

Maybe if we expose these dick heads, they might lessen their frequency.

Good luck on ridding the earth of boogermen? One down and only millions to go...

FWIW, I have a late model car for sale on CL now. Cars, trucks, etc., you now pay $5 for a 30 day ad which is, I suppose to keep the scammers off the web.
It doesn't apply to MC/scoots though as we see. This is commonly seen crap from a society that needs money for ism's.

He is also posting in East Texas. Issue is Craigslist will only delete post where the report to views ratio is similar. So, really hard to get these removed.

I've always used the "scam button" before on CL and it got the bad ad taken away.Some idiots do that to good ads as well, at least they used to.

I flagged quite a few adds on CL only to get temporarily banned, that is, shut out of being able to retrieve contact information. Now, I just let the buyer watch out for themselves.

When I looked at the price I knew it was a scam. Such scumbags! I feel for those who don't know any better and fall for such scams. Such an immaculate Vespa for the price.

The number of posts are very annoying. I guess they figure that Florida being a retirement state, is in need of special attention
If every state had someone post a scam alert, they might back off.

Plenty of these fake ads in New Jersey too.
Check out the other forum post.
Anyone in New Jersey? Deal or scam?

Tell him you and a few friends want to buy all the Vespas he has listed on Florida craigslist and flip them for profit since his price is 70% cheaper than market value.

Anyone buying anything off the internet needs to use common sense. It's very unfortunate that older people are targeted and TBH these scams exist at all. There are always going to be criminals and they will use whatever avenue is available to them. On the bright side mugging is almost a thing of the past as no one carries money anymore.

If I see one of these I will report is but as I am not in the used bike market I don't look at the ads. If I were to buy one I sure as hell would be careful about it and vet the seller as much as possible.

Seen it. I want to talk about doing something about it, not just bitch about it. I reopened my Clist account so I can alert people about it.

Lol, just saw this same listing in Chicago as well. Damn persistent.

Perhaps mugging has gone down, I don't study crime. I can say that I see regular episodes of purse snatching in the news though. They cruise shopping parking lots or neighborhoods for snatches and open cars or stuff showing & break the window. Not much of that where we live as too rural and most of us are too poor to have good stuff-ha!
The crooks use the plastic now days, common to buy gift cards with your CC number then they have distanced themselves from the CC as it gets canceled.
The results have become a true travesty of modern travel using plastic as the CC co's place a stop on ones card even when it's not your card that's been compromised. We've been told "there is a high risk in your travel area" and been up that creek. Our CU we have the gal's # to call so we can buy gasoline
on out of state trips without worry.

One problem is I believe you still don't have chip and pin in the US? That's kind of mind blowing. It doesn't completely secure a stolen card but it sure helps a lot.

Not so, had chips for about two years or so, actually I've lost count?
A few stores still lack a chip reader, not many. Restaurants in our area still often lack pay at the table card devices which forces the CC to leave your possession for long enough for hanky panky.
I dislike the thing where the waiter asks how much tip to put on the device! I don't need tip prompts.
it is true that the lack of a chip made travel less than best case until chips came in. I was in a no gasoline mode in France a few yrs back as chips only pumps.
Since having chips, one of our CC has been compromised so not a cure all it seems. Another thing lately is the CC reader will say "chip malfunction", etc. then I'll try a swipe and the reader will say "use chip", then after wiping the chip on my shirt tail it may work after a few tries.

This same ad has been placed in numerous states so many times. I've flagged 20-30 adds from california-oregon in just the last few days.

Since you mentioned Modern Vespa in your response to the criminal ad, did you make us a target for a revenge hack attack? We don't know how dumb or how smart these people are. Just sayin'.

Ok. Who is that?

Dunno but sharing is caring. Besides MV is perfectly capable of going down all on its own and doesn't need any help

I have tainted these creeps a few times. I follow through and get them to send the fake check out, then I tell them the bank says the check is fake. they get really mad.

last time I looked up the police chief in tampa and had the check sent to him. then I just claim I never received it. they threatened to come to the address and beat me up. I said come on out. I run the police station here in tampa.

The only way these scams are going to stop is when the incentive for running them is eliminated. Flagging is fine, but if you take one down and another will pop right up. Awareness (which CL does -- there's a disclaimer and link about avoiding scams on every listing) helps, but the fact that these scam ads still exist leads me to believe there are people still falling for them.

I wholeheartedly approve of trolling them, wasting their time, leading them on, etc. because it's time being taken away from them ripping off an unsuspecting/ignorant consumer. I've taken this approach with the "0% credit card interest rate" scam calls I get on my work phone at least once a week. I play along, waste a bunch of their time with fake CC numbers and stories and questions and delay tactics, and when they finally figure out I've been wasting their time, I give them a nice lecture about how they must be making their families really proud being a scam artist.

Another two scam fake ads on craigslist New York city area.
Selling a 2014 vespa 300 for $800 because he no longer rides due to a bad back.

Even says please no lowball offers.

Hello sir can I offer you $400 for your $3500 Vespa. Hope you back gets better.

If you post thousands of these a day and land one a month, you're living large in Nigeria.
When this scam first started, prices 40-50% below regular retail, with a good story seemed somewhat believable, and they hooked a few people who wanted something for nothing. Now, the ads aren't working, and the scammers think lowering the prices even more will fix them. So they keep lowering them to the point they really look like a scam. If you send someone $800 and expect to receive a 2014 Vespa 300 in return, here's you sign.
I say leave them alone. The longer an ad stays up, the more likely the scammer is going to continue to use it, and post it in other markets, because they think the ones that stay up are convincing. As long as they are posting these all day, they aren't using that time and energy to come up with something else that just might work again.
The best way to troll them is to make them think you believe the ad.

Here's a great deal on a 946.

https://orangecounty.craigslist.org/mcy/d/laguna-beach-vespa-946-special-addition/7010903415.html

I bet you'll get cooties from that helmet.

I was almost taken in by this one.

https://kalamazoo.craigslist.org/mpo/d/kalamazoo-2010-vespa-gts-300-ie/7004930281.html



It's the bike I've always wanted. First red flag was the price, but still.

They emailed back. He said he had posted it for his mom and if I gave him my email she would send the rest of the pics I asked for as well as information.

I know ...

So his mom writes back with all the info I asked for. She says she wound up with the bike in a divorce and is shipping out overseas and just doesn't want to store it. She then proceeds to tell me that delivery is included. I say ok, but that's not necessary. She goes on to say that it's boxed up in an eBay warehouse ready to be shipped, the transaction will be brokered through eBay and all she needs is my full name and phone number and ...

Ding! Ding! Ding!

I tapped out and sent a screenshot of eBay saying "Yeah ... we don't do that".

Sad, though. I was looking forward to it..

I think it would be a great idea to create a thread here on MV specifically to nuke CL scam posts. All it takes it two people to flag and ad and it's gone.

If we posts links in a thread here of anything Vespa-scammy, we could do a pretty thorough job of keeping those CL ads at bay. There aren't really all that many Vespa scams on CL (relatively speaking). If you go to searchtempest.com you can literally scan every CL market at once and get results for all Vespa ads throughout the country. Makes it pretty easy.

I'd be willing to play.

It's up in Houston, Oklahoma Cty, and Fayetteville Arkansas too. I posted about this one a while back and copied in their email and my response.

Here's another one that doesn't pass the sniff test: 2010 GTS 300 with only 3,400 miles for $1000. Should we nuke it?

https://oklahomacity.craigslist.org/mpo/d/yukon-2010-vespa-gts-300ie/7006549294.html

Same picture. Just flagged it.

Just flagged a few all over the country from multiple computers.

Could it work that someone sets up a SCAM thread on here where you just post links to scam listings and all MV members have to do is click on it and flag it.

That way you could have 20-40 flags raised for each listing quite easily/quickly.

I don't answer scammers or low ballers. neither do I have interest in passing around their criminal activities. If I had a serious concern about an item I'd depend on intuition not re-posting of scams.
They will not go away. If you want evidence, I saw an article about the nearest city detention center to me in Lexington, KY today- it has over 500 union employees who have a labor beef with management. That's a glaring e.g. of how many crooks we have in even a small city.

When it comes to running scams you just gotta hand it to the Nigerians' .

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-50480495

This White GTS300 has been posted all over the country, for months now. I also emailed then when I first saw the ad; just to see if there was any chance it was real. Got the same response as other poster above; listing for my mom/she'll contact you/got in divorce/ebay transaction/etc. Thats the tap out!

These type of scams have been running foreva. They are just looking to take advantage of someone with not-to-much common sense. Its sad, because people do fall for this; or the scammers wouldn't keep trying the same ol schtick.

Basicly, the old saying is true - - - if it's too good to be true; it probably is.