Imagine that your college age child is trying to stretch their wings by venturing out on their own to sublet an apartment in New York City. This is not that far of a stretch as I remember doing that very thing in Boston many moons ago! Now imagine that you find out that your child has been duped out of $1500 by criminals pretending to sublet that very apartment using Craigslist. You might be pretty upset when you find out that the police are just too busy with much bigger cases than to do much to find the criminal, right?
This is what happened to my friends Jim and Mala. The ad itself didn’t raise any suspicions and the apartment was in a good neighborhood and even had a doorman. However, the red flags should have gone up when the “landlord” asked for a wire transfer. Criminals use wire transfers because they are virtually untraceable and the victim has no recourse to get the funds back. This scam happens so frequently, it actually made the 2010 “Twelve Scams of Christmas”.
When Jim told me this story, I immediately asked if I could write a blog about their experience. I know from my own experiences over the years, it feels awful to be duped, but it is even worse when it happens to your child. Particularly worse when you think you have communicated clearly to them and think that they should know better. And much, much worse when you are particularly saavy online parents, like Jim and Mala, who routinely talk to your children about being smart online!
You know what? Criminals are very good at what they do. Jim and Mala’s child is a really smart young adult who has learned over the years to be very careful – and this still happened. So I try to keep this in mind – if criminals weren’t good at what they do, they would have a job just like everybody else. Sometimes kids have to make a mistake before they learn a valuable lesson. Sometimes they make mistakes multiple times before they learn.
Mala made an excellent point when she explained “We have constantly had the topic of online good practices as a point of discussion in our household – but the focus of our discussions had been always on cyberbullying, effective use (as in research) etc., and we had glossed over issues of dealing with money transactions online. What this incident “hit us over the head with” is that as our kids became young adults we didn’t expand our focus of concern to issues of identity theft and safe transactional practices (i.e. purchasing goods online) as an essential part of life today for young people. “
So today’s lesson is about interacting with strangers you meet online via forum type sites like Craigslist and safe transacting. I, for one, have used craigslist many, many times very successfully. However, I have followed certain rules every single time.
Stay safe out there!
Tracy
Tags: Christmas shopping concerns, Cyber Security Mom, online shopping, phishing scams
Hi Tracy,
Thank you for a great blog post! I wish there wasn’t any people who shared our opinion that most online classifieds are unsafe, because that means it’s true. However, I am glad you do share our opinion.
Not long ago our online classifieds website www.SafeList.com came out of its beta-phase and it is a response to the souring crime-rate found on sites such as Craigslist.
SafeList.com is a new kind of classifieds. Our missions is providing security to web classifieds and to build a web community that enables its members to participate in activities, be it trade, commerce or otherwise, free from fear and suspicion.
If you ever take a look at our website we would love to hear your thoughts and opinions. Constructive criticism is the best source of knowledge and guidance.
Ohh, and by the way. My name is Jannika Kremer and I do the online social media for SafeList.com. Feel free to shoot me a message at any time.
Remember, use common sense and if something sounds too good too be true, it usually is.
Very True Lary!
Joshua – so true also. When this happened to my friends, I had to first remind them that criminals are good at what they do and second that sometimes you need to go through getting tricked to be smarter and start to see the scams. Sometimes you just have to see it for yourself.
Thank you for your comments!
Tracy
Nice post. I try to warn my friends about incidents like this and my advice goes right out the other ear. Next thing you know, they are running to me for help. Sadly to say some people won’t learn until it really smacks them in the face. I have been fixing pc’s and managing online security since jr high school. There has to be a way for people to see the obvious. But anyway great post
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