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Message
Craigslist Scam -- Google Voice Info
Posted on 8/29/17 at 8:45 am
Posted on 8/29/17 at 8:45 am
I sell things on craigslist ever so often and without exception after posting the ad I get a text saying they are interested in the item and they agree to my price, will mail me a check, and pick it up after the check clears. This happens so often people must fall for it quit often.
I had a new one Sunday and wondering if anyone can tell me what the goal is.
I got a text from a SW Louisiana number saying they were interested in my item and could they call me. I answered "Yes". I then got a text to please put in this 2 digit code when I answer my phone.
The phone rang and it was Google Voice (202 Area Code Number) asking for the 2 digit code. I hung up and texted back saying I did not trust being called on Google Voice and to call me back from a normal cell or land line. Multiple calls came in and texts reminding me to use the code and saying things like "Bro, we got disconnected, use the code. They never responded to my request. I called the original number back and a message said the text customer could not be reached.
So how does this scam work or did I miss out on a potential buyer?
I had a new one Sunday and wondering if anyone can tell me what the goal is.
I got a text from a SW Louisiana number saying they were interested in my item and could they call me. I answered "Yes". I then got a text to please put in this 2 digit code when I answer my phone.
The phone rang and it was Google Voice (202 Area Code Number) asking for the 2 digit code. I hung up and texted back saying I did not trust being called on Google Voice and to call me back from a normal cell or land line. Multiple calls came in and texts reminding me to use the code and saying things like "Bro, we got disconnected, use the code. They never responded to my request. I called the original number back and a message said the text customer could not be reached.
So how does this scam work or did I miss out on a potential buyer?
11
Posted on 8/29/17 at 8:46 am to Ambassador
Might just be some poor fricker who doesn't have a phone but sounds odd
Posted on 8/29/17 at 8:47 am to Ambassador
Nigerian banker trying to give you some millionaire's money.
Posted on 8/29/17 at 8:49 am to Ambassador
When the prince of nigeria is calling/emailing you asking for help, are you just going to turn him away? No you help that prince.
Posted on 8/29/17 at 9:02 am to Ambassador
LINK
quote:
The issue is that the phone customer (you) were probably duped into responding to a phone call, text message or email from some scammer, (perhaps in response to a Craigslist ad, an online dating site, a fake email purporting to be from Google about your account, or some other means), telling you some bogus story and telling you to enter a two digit code on your phone. Entering the code permitted the scammer to then use your phone number to obtain their Google Voice number, using your phone as their required forwarding phone number. The only way to fix this is to either "grab back" your phone number from the scammer's GV account, or to change your own phone number. To attempt to take back your number:
Go to LINK if you have never created a Voice account, click the "Get a Voice number" link, and then follow the instructions to get a Google Voice number. When asked for a forwarding phone number, don't enter your number that the scammer stole. Instead, enter some other phone number, at which you can receive one verification call from Google. It can be any home or office or mobile number. You can remove it later, after you recover your stolen number.
This time, do answer the verification call and enter the two digit verification code from Google. Never do this under any circumstances, other than when you initiate this procedure yourself.
After your account is set up, go to this page: LINK
Click the "Add another phone" link. Now, enter your scammed phone number as the forwarding phone you wish to add. If the reclaim process for this number hasn't been used repeatedly in the past, you will get a warning that the number is currently in use on another account (duh!), and would you like to reclaim it. Respond yes, of course. This will remove the number from the scammer's account.
Don't fall for this scam again.
Posted on 8/29/17 at 9:04 am to Ambassador
This piqued my curiosity so I Googled it.
The scam:
-You put your own personal telephone number (mobile or land line number) out in public somewhere (on a classified ad, or a dating website, or wherever).
-Some scammer contacts you via text or email about your ad. They tell you a story about how they are going to call you, but they are using a special phone service that requires that you enter a two digit code number on your phone keypad when they call, so you can talk to them.
-The scammer is going through the Google Voice setup process. The tell Google Voice to call your personal number and it displays the code on their screen. They tell you to enter that code number
-When you do that, THEY, not you, are issued a Google Voice number, using your personal number as the forwarding number for their account.
The fix:
-You must take your personal number back, away from their Google Voice account. Detailed instructions are below. The instructions are written for the old, "Legacy" version of the Google Voice web site.
-You do that by (re)adding your personal phone number to either your own existing Google Voice account, or, if you don't have a Google Voice account of your own, then
-You need to create your own Google Voice account, and add your own, personal phone number to it as a forwarding phone number.
At no time do you enter a Google Voice number as a forwarding number.
In many cases, the scammer has already removed your forwarding phone number from their account already. Their goal is not to forward calls to your personal phone number, but merely to use it as an "admission ticket" to get their own Google Voice number, use it to scam others, get rid of that number, and then repeat the scam over and over.
The scam:
-You put your own personal telephone number (mobile or land line number) out in public somewhere (on a classified ad, or a dating website, or wherever).
-Some scammer contacts you via text or email about your ad. They tell you a story about how they are going to call you, but they are using a special phone service that requires that you enter a two digit code number on your phone keypad when they call, so you can talk to them.
-The scammer is going through the Google Voice setup process. The tell Google Voice to call your personal number and it displays the code on their screen. They tell you to enter that code number
-When you do that, THEY, not you, are issued a Google Voice number, using your personal number as the forwarding number for their account.
The fix:
-You must take your personal number back, away from their Google Voice account. Detailed instructions are below. The instructions are written for the old, "Legacy" version of the Google Voice web site.
-You do that by (re)adding your personal phone number to either your own existing Google Voice account, or, if you don't have a Google Voice account of your own, then
-You need to create your own Google Voice account, and add your own, personal phone number to it as a forwarding phone number.
At no time do you enter a Google Voice number as a forwarding number.
In many cases, the scammer has already removed your forwarding phone number from their account already. Their goal is not to forward calls to your personal phone number, but merely to use it as an "admission ticket" to get their own Google Voice number, use it to scam others, get rid of that number, and then repeat the scam over and over.
Posted on 8/29/17 at 9:12 am to Ambassador
I use the hell out of Google voice. I have six phone numbers from them.
It's great. I have a number just for selling on Craigslist. I also love that voice you can block callers and it tells them the line is disconnected.
It's great. I have a number just for selling on Craigslist. I also love that voice you can block callers and it tells them the line is disconnected.
Posted on 8/29/17 at 9:18 am to Ambassador
quote:
So how does this scam work or did I miss out on a potential buyer?
Craigslist Google Voice Scam Info
ETA....MsLSU...I didn't read the entire thread and reposted exactly what you put there. What was in that post has all of the info the OP needs.
This post was edited on 8/29/17 at 9:21 am
Posted on 8/29/17 at 9:26 am to MsLSU
quote:
Entering the code permitted the scammer to then use your phone number to obtain their Google Voice number, using your phone as their required forwarding phone number. The only way to fix this is to either "grab back" your phone number from the scammer's GV account, or to change your own phone number. To attempt to take back your number:
People are so fricked up.
Posted on 8/29/17 at 9:27 am to Ambassador
You'll be missing a kidney by next week.
Posted on 8/29/17 at 9:47 am to Ambassador
quote:
I sell things on craigslist ever so often and without exception after posting the ad I get a text saying they are interested in the item and they agree to my price, will mail me a check, and pick it up after the check clears. This happens so often people must fall for it quit often.
Where is the scam of they are willing to wait till it clears?
Posted on 8/29/17 at 9:54 am to Volvagia
quote:
Where is the scam of they are willing to wait till it clears?
Not sure how this works either but I saw at my bank yesterday a sign with fraud warnings on it and this was on that sign. You got to be careful these days.
Posted on 8/29/17 at 10:09 am to Ambassador
quote:
I have six phone numbers from them
How do you get multiple numbers with them?
Posted on 8/29/17 at 10:36 am to Fat Harry
Each Google account can have its own Google Voice number. You cannot have multiple numbers on 1 Google account.
I have my daily Google account for my main Voice number that forwards to my cell phone, plus 2 separate accounts for my home phone lines (1 personal, 1 work). For example, you can get "123mainstreet@gmail.com" and "123mainstreetline2@gmail.com" to get 2 separate Voice numbers.
You really don't want to commingle your primary email account and cell phone with the additional numbers, they should each point to a network connected phone. I recommend the Obihai box, you can have FREE unlimited phone service to call anywhere in North America with Google Voice and an Obihai box.
Also, NEVER allow yourself to be contacted by text on Craigslist, put the Google Voice number only if you want to be contacted by phone, but I don't recommend using any phone number in their default form when you post a Craigslist ad.
Otherwise every Prince in Nigeria will start texting you and calling you immediately if you use the default ad setting.
I only use the email relay for buyers to contact me, I'll sometimes put the Google Voice number in my ad's text, but usually I just put my Voice number in my email response to the ad. I've sold 2 cars, a house and found multiple great tenants without putting any number in the ad directly.
I have my daily Google account for my main Voice number that forwards to my cell phone, plus 2 separate accounts for my home phone lines (1 personal, 1 work). For example, you can get "123mainstreet@gmail.com" and "123mainstreetline2@gmail.com" to get 2 separate Voice numbers.
You really don't want to commingle your primary email account and cell phone with the additional numbers, they should each point to a network connected phone. I recommend the Obihai box, you can have FREE unlimited phone service to call anywhere in North America with Google Voice and an Obihai box.
Also, NEVER allow yourself to be contacted by text on Craigslist, put the Google Voice number only if you want to be contacted by phone, but I don't recommend using any phone number in their default form when you post a Craigslist ad.
Otherwise every Prince in Nigeria will start texting you and calling you immediately if you use the default ad setting.
I only use the email relay for buyers to contact me, I'll sometimes put the Google Voice number in my ad's text, but usually I just put my Voice number in my email response to the ad. I've sold 2 cars, a house and found multiple great tenants without putting any number in the ad directly.
This post was edited on 8/29/17 at 10:47 am
Posted on 8/29/17 at 10:52 am to Volvagia
It won't really clear, it will appear to do so initially but will get reversed eventually. A banker can give us a better explanation.
They hope you forward payment in the interim, after the bank gives tentative approval but before the cashier's check is fully validated.
They hope you forward payment in the interim, after the bank gives tentative approval but before the cashier's check is fully validated.
Posted on 8/29/17 at 11:48 am to Ambassador
there are a few different versions but the one i had, the way it works is once you give them the 2 digit code you just handed them full access to use your phones network and agree to pay for anything they do with it including adding new phones to your plan.
its not all that different then giving them your credit card except its charged through your phone account and if you dont pay it you lose your phone and ruin your credit and there is no protection because you gave them the access yourself.
i had it happen when i had a cheap pay as you go phone and got all sorts of messages about services i signed up for that i needed to pay for. i just laughed at them and through the cheap phone away when the minutes ran out
this tells you more about it LINK
its not all that different then giving them your credit card except its charged through your phone account and if you dont pay it you lose your phone and ruin your credit and there is no protection because you gave them the access yourself.
i had it happen when i had a cheap pay as you go phone and got all sorts of messages about services i signed up for that i needed to pay for. i just laughed at them and through the cheap phone away when the minutes ran out
this tells you more about it LINK
This post was edited on 8/29/17 at 11:52 am
Posted on 8/29/17 at 12:39 pm to keakar
quote:
there are a few different versions but the one i had, the way it works is once you give them the 2 digit code you just handed them full access to use your phones network and agree to pay for anything they do with it including adding new phones to your plan.
its not all that different then giving them your credit card except its charged through your phone account and if you dont pay it you lose your phone and ruin your credit and there is no protection because you gave them the access yourself.
Yeahhhhhh
None of that is true.
Think about it...do you think that much power would be given with inputting just a two digit number that statistically speaking has more than a 1% chance of being guessed?
Read your own link. It doesn't even remotely suggest this as a possibility, saying the most common effect is feeling bad about giving a tool to a scammer to hurt others.
This post was edited on 8/29/17 at 12:54 pm
Posted on 8/29/17 at 3:52 pm to Volvagia
well then please do it to proove me wrong and then when your $900 cell phone bill shows up tell us all about it lol
its not a password or some security firewall, its a code to add someone to your phone plan so they can then start charging services and stuff to it
its not a password or some security firewall, its a code to add someone to your phone plan so they can then start charging services and stuff to it
This post was edited on 8/29/17 at 3:53 pm
Posted on 8/29/17 at 7:48 pm to keakar
Just saying you are talking about something completely different, and it wasn't by the method mentioned here.
Google Voice cannot be used to put charges on your phone account. Hijacked or not.
They just want to make different scam accounts.
If something happened to you, you did something more than what was described here. Possibly your security was so low, they were able to social engineer they way into something.
Google Voice cannot be used to put charges on your phone account. Hijacked or not.
They just want to make different scam accounts.
If something happened to you, you did something more than what was described here. Possibly your security was so low, they were able to social engineer they way into something.
Posted on 8/29/17 at 8:10 pm to Ambassador
I use Google Voice when I have guests call in to my podcast show. I wonder if they hesitate first, thinking I'm a scammer.
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