Spam scam?

I posted a few items to sell on craiglist and got some responses I've never seen before. I listed clothes for sale, single items and I got a slew of email responses. They all appeared to be from different people with different email addresses, but they had a series of 6 random letters after the description of my item in the subject line. for example CWCZEM. There were 6 emails that were like this, all from different people and all within 3 minutes of each other. when I opened the email the email contained more letters not forming any words.

Here is the list of emails for the first incident:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Should I not have opened the emails?

It happened again an hour later, but this time it was less suspicious with the subject line containing my item title. This time there were 5 emails all from different people and all within 3 minutes of each other.

Here is the list of emails from the second incident:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

On another posting of some toys I listed I got an email from a person asking about my item. Here is the emails

First email:

hey is this huge lot of [toys description placed here] etc still selling...

I emailed back to say they were and I get this response:

Don't sell this!

I just wanted to let you know that I was selling a few things on CL just like you. I ended up realizing a lot of people get ripped off, its over-all NOT SAFE anymore to meet people from craigslist. A friend of mine told me about an amazing website and said I should check it out so I did. I made about 4000$ last month. I'm making more than I was at my regular job. If I can do it, you can. Visit thegooglemoneyblog.net

If you want help getting started let me know.


The email was sent from:

[email protected]

So my question is what do these people want? In the first case with all those inquiries, what are they trying to do? In the last case, the idiot with the weird dollar sign placement , is he wanting me to click on the link and it takes me to a bogus site?

Note by dotti - removed the http to inactivate link/ prevent accidental clicks.

Their automated spammer is set to contact anyone posting ads on craigslist, obviously from the premise that you are a good target because you are trying to make some money online.

The website is a typical sleazy "make money online" site. Essentially it consists of a fake news article supposedly punished by CNBC about how much money you can make posting google links (basically working as a link spammer, though the amounts they are promising are not typical of what you would make linkspamming, and the "work" of linkspamming itself is unethical, of course). The ultimate goal is to sell you their "system" for making money.

In the end, this is one of thousands of scam sites designed to extract money from people who are looking for a quick way to make money. Whether they ultimately try to sell you a MLM (multi-level marketing) scheme (pyramid scheme), a gambling "system" or another online "opportunity," their real goal is to move money from your pocket to theirs.

I have also posted severla items and I get the same AutoResponse when responding to their inquiry. I'm not sure if this is some kind of affiliate program that everyone that is foolish enough to sign up for that gets the same system or it is one company.

You don't have to sell this.

I just wanted to let you know that I was selling a few things on CL just like you. I ended up realizing a lot of people get ripped off, its over-all NOT SAFE anymore to meet people from craigslist. My buddy told me about this site and I made about $4k from it last month. I'm making more than I was at my regular job. To give it a try go to w ww.GoogleIncome.info

If you need help let me know, I know a few tips.

It is the same rhetoric with the only thing that changes is the amount they claim thaey made last month. It ranges from $3400 to $4200. That's great - as if anyone could make that kind of return from Google AdSense with their lame website template. Now, I just mark as spam and go on.

updated format to make more clear and inactivated live link - Dotti

While posting the reply I got another one of these.

From: Janet Valdivia <[email protected]> Add to Contacts
To: [email protected]

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** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY
** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home
** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping
** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html


Interested................... hwzeflnacgzq

I replied and got:

[i]Yahoo! Auto Response
From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Add to Contacts
To: [email protected]


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You don't have to sell this.

I just wanted to let you know that I was selling a few things on CL just like you. I ended up realizing a lot of people get ripped off, its over-all NOT SAFE anymore to meet people from craigslist. My buddy told me about this site and I made about $4k from it last month. I'm making more than I was at my regular job. To give it a try go to w ww.GoogleIncome.info

If you need help let me know, I know a few tips.

Definitely another version of the same scam.