Inside the Marketers Studio - David Berkowitz's Marketing Blog

Craigslist Real Estate Scam Still Strong a Year and a Half Later

It’s scam week here, having covered the Facebook Western Union scam in a column and with the original transcript. Some online scams have proven to be especially enduring.

In December 2007, I posted about a Craigslist real estate scam, and then followed it up with even more details about the real estate scam soon after. These posts have attracted thousands of views and hundreds of comments; terms related to the scam continue to be top draws for the blog.

Here’s a very abbreviated version of how the scam works:

• A real person posts a housing listing on Craigslist
• A scammer poses a buyer from abroad claiming to be interested
• After a protracted conversation, the buyer sends a check for the deposit
• The check’s for too much money, so the buyer requests a certain amount back, up to a few thousand dollars
• The check the scammer sends is no good, so he’s hoping to receive the victim’s funds before the scammer is figured out

Even after all this time, the scammers still use a lot of the same names and professions.

Given how many people continue to search for information, I’ve posted a new exchange from a recent visitor. As with before, I’m doing this more for Google (and, hey, maybe for Bing) than current readers, since it’s most useful to those searching. But I do know people who have nearly fallen for this – and educated Internet users at that – so you may want to share this if you know of people posting real estate listings on Craigslist.

Here’s the recent exchange. Read from the bottom up. I’ve removed the recipient’s name and email address for her privacy.

Feel free to share your stories and other details in the comments, as Google picks up on those too.

----- Forwarded Message ----
From:
To: Allen James <rukkiey2078@hotmail.com>
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 8:58:20 PM
Subject: Re: Payment Information
I can not provide the information you requested below. You have not provide the documentation I've requested on my earlier email (pay sub, income tax returns, credit reports, bank statement). Also you did not answer my simple question on many kids you have. Obviously you do not need to move as quickly as you stated. You have been eliminated from my potential rental candidates. You've shown me that you are qualify to rent my house. Please do not waste any more of my time. Do not email me again.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Allen James <rukkiey2078@hotmail.com>
To:
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2009 5:07:37 AM
Subject: Payment Information
Hello,
Concerning the rent and deposit required to be paid in order to secure the rental of your home prior to our arrival to the united states,i would be needing some information from you to be forwarded to my financier so as to make payment to you as soon as possible..i will have the information's forwarded to my financier stating an instruction of payment to you. further more i need you to reconfirm the total move in costs,that is;the rent and deposit to be paid and if there are any other additional bills to be payed do not fail to notify me so that all payment can be sent to you at once.
you can have your information in which payment can be sent to you by my financier in this form
* Home/office address...........
* Payee name to be written on the check......
* Current cell phone/ office phone number.....
Due regards from me and my family,we are looking forward to meeting you
Rev Allen James.

----------------------------
From: Allen James <rukkiey2078@hotmail.com>
To:
Sent: Sunday, June 14, 2009 4:36:07 PM
Subject: RE: NEEDED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
Hello ,
Thanks for your response and here is a brief introduction about my self;i am a Pharmacist by profession and I am currently working with the Woodstock Pharmacy, Woodstock,United Kingdom. I will be relocating to the united states of America for the next one year and during my stay i will be working for the United States Implants & orthopedic Agency on a private research work. I hereby reaffirm my interest about renting your home and will be willing to offer you one month rent for a start, plus the security deposit in order to secure the unit prior to our arrival to the united states.
I have a financier based in U.S.A and he will be the one handling the rent deposit payment on our behalf,i will instruct him to send you a bank Check in payment for the rent as soon as you give me the go ahead to send payment to you. I'll be coming with my wife Due to the limited time that we have before our arrival and in line with my work schedule ,we are making arrangements with a furniture company to supply the home with furniture ,so we will need you to provide us with the accurate measurements of the living room and bedroom so that we can send it to the furniture company and they supply the unit with furniture that would fit in well... i would really appreciate it if you could send me some pictures of the living room and the bed rooms.
As regards the lease agreement form,you can have it forwarded to me for review.though i will have it filled and signed on our arrival to your place because am of the opinion that such vital document is best filled and signed physically. We can start the lease by 1st of June and it shall be for a period of 12 months. You can prepare the lease in my name and that of my wife(Rev James & Cheryl James).
Let me know how to move ahead as I intend to complete this deal before I move in a couple of days. I want all the arrangement to be solidified so I settle in comfortably when I arrive. I will let you know the exact date as soon as I get a booking on a flight to the states. I will look forward to your e mail with the required information.
Here is my phone number +Tel: +44-774-008-2424 Thanks and sincere regards from me and my precious family. I await your urgent response.
Rev James
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 14 Jun 2009 09:39:23 -0700
From:
Subject: Re: NEEDED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
To: jamesallen071@gmail.com
Security deposit $$7,000
you will pay for all your own bills (water, electricity, garbage, cable and internet) except for Gardner.
I need make decison today so if you want to be consider for this...please call me right away. I have a few questions i'd like to ask.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Allen James <jamesallen071@gmail.com>
To:
Sent: Sunday, June 14, 2009 3:58:45 AM
Subject: NEEDED AS SOON AS POSSIBLE
Hello,
I saw your advertised on craigslist.com and am interested in renting it. I will be signing a one year lease for it and want to know the requirements for renting it. i.e
Monthly Fees:
Security Deposit
Electricity/Utility Bills
I will be doing a one year research on pharmacy work while in the states I will appreciate it if i hear from you in time as i will want to conclude the rental process before the end of June.
Thanks

The Fastest Way To Lose Money: The Western Union Scam That Keeps Plaguing Facebook

An even worse brand endorsement than the Western Union Scam, with apologies to Getty Images and Pepsi

Here's today's column, originally from MediaPost, with more information on the scam alert I recently discussed.Oh, and MediaPost butchered my title - not the first time. They changed it to "SocialMedia: The Fastest Way to Lose Money?" I think that changes the meaning of it. Griping over, the column's below.

The Fastest Way To Lose Money

Friday night, a friend of mine instant-messaged me on Facebook saying he needed my help. On his profile, there were several messages urging people to contact him right away. I was of course concerned.

Soon it became apparent that it wasn't my friend at all. His identity had been hijacked by a scammer who posted the messages to his profile and IMed his friends. The Nigerian scam has been going on in this form at least since January, when Silicon Alley Insider and TechCrunch reported on it. It's a reminder that wherever consumers go, scammers and other malevolent elements will follow. In this case, it's also an unfortunate brand association with Western Union, as you'll see momentarily.

Excerpts of the conversation are below, and you can read the entire transcript on my blog. I've changed the name of my friend to Walter Jenkins, but otherwise it's verbatim.

Walter: I had to visit a resort here in London on vacation and I got robbed at the hotel Im staying... Its really sucks and scary here... I got robbed at a gun point and all my money and stuffs got stolen but im lucky I still have my passport with me. Well, can I ask for a favor?

David: what do you need?

Walter: What i need now is just some cash to complete my tix till im back home to refund you back. Can you help with some money?... $390 pounds is all i need more. I can get it from the ATM for you first thing as soon as Im back home... You can get it to me here using western union. You need just my name as written on my passport and the location here. Do you know how to go about with the western union thing?

David: Using paypal to transfer funds won't do anything for you?

Walter: Im glad you are helping Dav. Western union is very easy to transfer money and to receive money. [An aside: this is just about the worst brand endorsement a marketer could ever receive, which would be topped only if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was shown drinking a Pepsi while jailing election protestors.]

David: If you're online, can't i just use paypal?

Walter: I don't have paypal acct [He's a technology entrepreneur. If the red flags weren't up already, they're signaling major alarms here.]

David: what's the location

Walter: United Kingdom London... Do you know any western union location around you?... You will be given a confirmation number

David: yes i found many locations. i can help. tell me more about where you are. [At this point, I'm stringing him along to get as much information as possible in case it's helpful later.]

Walter: I'll be needing it to pick up the money. You need just my name as written on my passport and my location here. Name:Walter Jenkins. Location United Kingdom, London

David: okay but there are many locations in london, tell me more about where you are

Walter: I can pick up the money at any western union location

David: Okay, great. so tell me why you only need 390 GBP if you were held up at gunpoint

Walter: I need it to complete my ticket and fly back home.

David: how about i just buy you the ticket? i'll go online and buy it for you. tell me which flight you want, which airports

Walter: I'll need the cash for some things more

David: Well if you already have some money for the ticket, use the money you have for the other things. i'll buy the ticket [This exchange went on for awhile, leading nowhere.]

Walter: Im in a library here using the comp here to get on facebook for help

David: a friend of mine happens to be at heathrow right now, i just IMed him. can i have him meet you there?

Walter: Well, Its okay if you can't help

David: i can help. what flight are you taking?

Walter: B.A. Why can't you go to the store and have it done now?

David: What time is your flight?

Walter: I don't think you really want to help. Its okay. the manager will be helping me to purchase the ticket here

David: oh that is SOOO nice of him, then you can use your money to buy whatever else you need. which library are you at? that way i can look up how far you are from heathrow.

Then it abruptly stopped talking. I managed to save the conversation just in time, as soon he defriended me. I still had access to read his Facebook Wall (though not post on it), so I emailed a few people who responded to the scammer's posts there and let them know. The next day, my friend had his account back and we were friends again.

If your account is compromised, Facebook will disable it. It can be reinstated after contacting them via a form. A Facebook representative told Silicon Alley Insider, "We're reminding users to be very suspicious of anyone, even friends, who ask you over the Internet to send money.  Please verify their circumstances through some other means than the web (e.g. call them or mutual friends)." You should also make sure they share information about themselves that isn't publicly available on Facebook or elsewhere.

As for Western Union, there's a section on its site about scams, but no mention of this one. That's a shame. In the meantime, the Walter Jenkins impersonators out there are doing a good job representing Western Union's brand. "Walter" is doing well spreading the word, as the top city by far searching Google for 'westernunion.com' is Lagos, Nigeria. If you run into him or his buddies, don't send cash. See if he'll go for a Facebook gift instead.

Facebook Scam Alert: Friend Robbed at Gunpoint, Needs Cash from Western Union

Update: After publishing this I wrote a column with a little more color and an abridged transcript.

I just got instant messaged by a scammer through Facebook. Here’s the gist of the scam:

• Someone IMs you on Facebook posing as a real friend – he has full access to the friend’s account, even having posted messages on his wall that he needs help urgently
• He says he got held up at gunpoint in London and needs cash wired to Western Union

In my case, when I wasn’t helping fast enough, he grew impatient, and he ultimately defriended me (from my real friend’s account). I proceeded to write any of his friends.

There are a lot of things that make it fishy. For instance, my supposed friend, an internet enterpreneur, somehow didn’t have a PayPal account. While initially I was new to the scam, most of the conversation was me trying to bide time and get more information out of him that may be useful for others.

This isn’t news – TechCrunch covered this back in January and there’s a lot of information out there – but I wanted to get this info out there in case it helps anyone else.

Below’s the IM transcript. I changed the name of my friend.

- - -

Walter

Hi there

5:27pm

David

hey how's it going Walter?

5:28pm

Walter

Well, In not good here

I need your help

5:28pm

David

what's up?

5:29pm

Walter

Im stuck here in London and I really need help with getting on a plane back home

5:34pm

David

how are you stuck? what can i do?

5:35pm

Walter

I had to visit a resort here in London on vacation and I got robbed at the hotel Im staying

5:35pm

David

oh no that's awful

5:35pm

Walter

Yeah, its really sucks and scary here

I got robbed at a gun point and all my money and stuffs got stolen but im lucky I still have my passport with me

Well, can I ask for a favor?

5:36pm

David

oh no

what do you need?

5:37pm

Walter

What i need now is just some cash to complete my tix till im back home to refund you nback

Can you help with some money?

5:38pm

Is It Safe to Post Travel Photos of Mexico?

The Wall Street Journal writes about how Mexican tourism is hurting because of all the drug-related violence there. Yeah, one can imagine how that doesn’t help your tourism board. Mexico’s stepping up its public relations.

The article indicates it’s generally safe to travel there if you get out of the way of the US-Mexico border towns. But check the caption in the image below – it seems like WSJ’s not even willing to get stock photos from the country. The gorgeous beach you see apparently is Mauritius, according to the photo credit, rather than Playa del Carmen, as WSJ would have you believe.

 

Below, I’ve dug up an exclusive image of what Mexico’s beaches really look like:

 

(Okay, it’s from the show Lost, via the Sacramento Bee, but close enough)

Advertising on Commercials: This is YouTube’s Best Monetization Scheme?

I’ve got a great revenue model for you:

Take a minute-long commercial from a major brand and put it on YouTube.

Then put someone else’s ad prominently to the right of it. Make sure it flashes and sparkles a lot so it distracts you from the commercial that consumers are going there to watch.

Then, 8 seconds into the video, run an overlay covering the bottom quarter of the screen. Animate the hell out of the overlay. And run the overlay for a full 20 seconds – so it’s there during one-third of the time you’re watching the commercial.

If this is the best online video can bring, everyone might as well give up and let marketers’ budgets stay on television.

It’s not just YouTube. The Internet Movie Database runs pre-roll ads before movie trailers. You can wind up sitting through a 30-second ad before watching an ad for a movie.

This is how bad online advertising gets, and it’s from our biggest and supposedly best publishers out there. And for now, consumers let them get away with it.

People in online advertising complain that standards for online ads are set too high. Apparently we’re not setting them high enough.

20 Reasons the Luxor Sucks

Instead of a lengthy introduction, scan the slides, which should speak for themselves. I'll share more in a postscript.

20 Reasons The Luxor Sucks

View more presentations from David Berkowitz. (tags: travel hotel)

This Google May Harm Your Computer

Image by andrewwinn via Flickr

Here's today's column that originally ran in MediaPost.

This Google May Harm Your Computer

Where were you the day Google turned against its users?

If you were lucky, you were sleeping in. It happened Saturday, Jan. 31 at 6:30 a.m. in Mountain View, Calif., 9:30 a.m. in New York, 4:30 p.m. in Jerusalem, 8 p.m. in Delhi, and 10:30 p.m. in Beijing. Checking my own Google Web History, I entered my first query of the morning at 10:27 a.m. EST (looking up driving directions for a wedding that night), two minutes after the last of Google's users encountered a problem.

It wasn't a full-day breakdown; it was 40 minutes rolled out during an hour-long window. During that time, any Google search triggered the warning "This site may harm your computer" for every result. That day, five of the top 25 listings in Google Hot Trends were related to the glitch, including numbers one and three.

So what did we learn from this? Google needs to learn the most; it provides little value for its users and advertisers when it scares everyone away from surfing the Web. What about the rest of us though? Here are a few thoughts:

Google is Global
There are few unifying global forces with greater appeal than Google. ComScore reports that in December 2008, Google sites reached 77% of the world's online audience, or 776 million people. The day's not far off when there will be more Googlers than there will be Indians or Chinese. To that point, if there's a catastrophe in Delhi, it might take time for the effects to ripple out to the eastern state of Assam, but when there's a catastrophe in Mountain View, the whole world can feel the impact at once.

While in Israel seven years ago, I experienced New Year's Eve as a meaningful event for the first time. Israelis in their 20s told me that it was their favorite holiday of the year -- not the national Independence Day or the festive Jewish holiday of Purim -- because it was the one day they were celebrating with everyone else around the world. Google has that similar way of crossing boundaries. Now, I may be searching for the text of President Obama's inauguration address and someone else may be entering the query "death to America" (mercifully, a phrase with scant activity in Google Trends ), but at least we can have some common ground.

We Need Options
A telling comment came from the user "someguy" on Silicon Alley Insider. He wrote, "I was using Google at that time and it happened to me! I was very confused, but gave up and tried again later and everything was fine. You know, the odd question is: Why didn't I just try to use another search engine?"

Why didn't you, someguy? It's probably because you're fairly typical, at least as far as U.S. Internet users go. Check out Compete's 2008 trends for Exhibit A, slide 5 in particular. Google's users are two and a half times as loyal as Yahoo's, and they're about five times as loyal as the users of Live Search, Ask.com, and AOL. When Google's on the fritz, it's like when your favorite TV news network suffers an outage when they're airing the weather. Sure, you could check out 10 other networks, but enough people will probably think, "Ehh, I'll look out the window."

It's in everyone's best interests, except perhaps Google's, to have robust competition among search engines in every country. This is more of a prayer than an action item; I don't want to start giving out alms to needy engines, nor would I lobby for a search engine bailout. But I hope that just as Google weathered the dot-com bust nearly a decade ago to emerge as one of the world's most heralded businesses, this economic downturn will reignite search competition. Even that may not be enough in the short term to encourage consumers to consider alternatives.

How Bad Was This?
In Google Blog Search, there were 5,523 references to "this site may harm your computer" and "Google" from Saturday through Monday afternoon, when this column was being written. Combining that search with other terms, 2,189 included "error" (40%), 1,022 included "glitch," 430 included "bug," 88 included "meltdown," 27 included "blunder," 8 included "tragedy," and 5 included "catastrophe." As a control, 7 included "ice cream" and none included "emu" (as for the former, Google also scans other content on the page such as article roundups and comments, so some false positives tend to appear).

This column's headline and lede aside, the coverage of what happened was largely free of melodrama. It was an error, glitch, or a bug that could happen to anyone, and this time it happened to Google.

In Google We Trust

We continually trust that Google will bring us safely to our destinations and keep our computers free from harm. When Google tells us it's protecting us, our first instinct is to believe it. That's why it's so frightening for all other publishers to have Google label their sites as harmful.

Google can afford a few glitches. The danger is if it cries wolf too often, then all of its warnings will be for naught, and the erosion of trust will extend far beyond Google.

That would be a catastrophe, but that hasn't happened. This was just a glitch.

Eteku Elemi, Please Stop Sending Me Nigerian Scam Spam on Facebook

So, you thought Facebook was all about personal identities and relationships, right? Well, now a Mr. (or Ms.?) Eteku Elemi is sending me spam on Facebook, and he (or she) doesn't even send me a friend request to go along with it.

This is the first time I've seen the Nigerian scam on Facebook. This won't scale as well as email as Facebook is a controlled system as opposed to the openness of email, but it's also one new added annoyance - each new communications channel is one new channel to get spammed and scammed.

Below's the snapshot of the email; the full text is in the extended entry.

Update: Minutes after I first viewed the email, I went back to it (with plans of sending a snarky response) and the "reply" box disappeared. Facebook worked very fast to clamp down communications. Yes, someone could theoretically reply to Eteku's Hotmail account, but this was quick work on Facebook's part.

Burger King Branding Booboo: Like It's Branding for the Very First Time

Image by renaissancechambara via FlickrI've got another entry on Ad Age's blog today, so you'll have to check out the full post. I also write about this on 360i's blog.

Today, thanks to a tip from a colleague, I describe how Burger King is intent on promoting its new "Whopper Virgins" campaign (with a massive broadcast TV buy) but doesn't rank at all for searches on "whopper virgin".

Is anyone searching for the singular as opposed to the plural? Google Trends shows that lately the two forms have been running neck and neck.

This is a great campaign overall and I stopped what I was doing to watch the video all the way through, but it is a good lesson for other marketers.

Again, read the full post at Ad Age.

Baa Humbug: A Sheepish Poke at September 11

There are many great ways to remember the terrorist attacks of September 11 if one chooses to do so. This morning, I watched a bit of the World Trade Center memorial service on the local cable station NY1 where I heard the name of a college friend who was killed.

Once I got to the office, I got an email alert saying, "You've been SuperPoked!" with the text, "____ has remembered 9/11 with you. Check it out!"

What?! This same app lets you take any number of virtual actions with friends, like blowing a kiss, or b!*$% slapping (that's how they write it) or throwing an octopus (yes, that's a real one).

I'm all for people choosing to remember or even not remember the tragedies in any way that best suits them, but I was surprised to see the imagery for the 9/11 remembrance SuperPoke. With the backdrop of the American flag, it shows a sheep (the application's mascot) bowing its head before a candle, with a clip from "God Bless America" playing in the background.

This one pokes me the wrong way. What about you? Am I too uptight about this? Does it also irk you in some way?