49ers fans get scammed on craigslist
Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:41 am49-ers fans buy Super Bowl tickets on Craigslist, get 'Go Ravens' note instead
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57566 ... e-instead/
Here is today's Super Bowl prediction: Craigslist is not StubHub.
Whenever there is a big game, nefarious beings will creep around the Web trying to find the passionate and the gullible, from whose emotions they can steal a little money.
Some people's desperation to secure tickets will exceed their ability to turn on their skepticism controls.
The Osgood family, from Hayward, Calif., were so keen to fly to New Orleans for Sunday's Super Bowl that they found an ad on Craigslist that offered tickets.
Cheap, they were not. But the four tickets were advertised at $5,900, a mere doubling of the face value.
However, the seller seemed legitimate. There was contact by text and e-mail. So the Osgoods dipped into their bank account and wired him the money.
Then the FedEx arrived.
One can only imagine the excitement at the Osgood house.
One can also only imagine the nausea when they opened it and all they found inside was a note.
As CBS San Francisco reports, it read: "Enjoy the game!!!! Go Ravens!!! LOL."
Yes, their loads of loot had gone to someone who was laughing out loud.
Sharon Osgood told the San Jose Mercury News: "I'm just sick -- like, physically sick. All over the envelope it says 'go Ravens' -- even on the FedEx label."
Now that's just mean.
Osgood explained that the scammer had told her he was a corporate tax attorney who lived in Boca Raton, Fla.
Which ought, perhaps, to have been something of an alert. A corporate tax attorney would have charged her at least six times the face value, not two.
Craigslist does warn people not to wire funds to strangers. But passion knows no bounds, not even those of sense.
Now the Osgoods must watch the game on TV, while the scammer is probably using their money for a vacation -- in Boca Raton, perhaps.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-57566 ... e-instead/
Here is today's Super Bowl prediction: Craigslist is not StubHub.
Whenever there is a big game, nefarious beings will creep around the Web trying to find the passionate and the gullible, from whose emotions they can steal a little money.
Some people's desperation to secure tickets will exceed their ability to turn on their skepticism controls.
The Osgood family, from Hayward, Calif., were so keen to fly to New Orleans for Sunday's Super Bowl that they found an ad on Craigslist that offered tickets.
Cheap, they were not. But the four tickets were advertised at $5,900, a mere doubling of the face value.
However, the seller seemed legitimate. There was contact by text and e-mail. So the Osgoods dipped into their bank account and wired him the money.
Then the FedEx arrived.
One can only imagine the excitement at the Osgood house.
One can also only imagine the nausea when they opened it and all they found inside was a note.
As CBS San Francisco reports, it read: "Enjoy the game!!!! Go Ravens!!! LOL."
Yes, their loads of loot had gone to someone who was laughing out loud.
Sharon Osgood told the San Jose Mercury News: "I'm just sick -- like, physically sick. All over the envelope it says 'go Ravens' -- even on the FedEx label."
Now that's just mean.
Osgood explained that the scammer had told her he was a corporate tax attorney who lived in Boca Raton, Fla.
Which ought, perhaps, to have been something of an alert. A corporate tax attorney would have charged her at least six times the face value, not two.
Craigslist does warn people not to wire funds to strangers. But passion knows no bounds, not even those of sense.
Now the Osgoods must watch the game on TV, while the scammer is probably using their money for a vacation -- in Boca Raton, perhaps.
