The Mysterious Case Of The Craigslist Writing Gig Scam
1–10 of 27 posts
Re: The Mysterious Case Of The Craigslist Writing Gig Scam
#2This sounds like a creative way of scamming a pay-per-call advertiser. But, I can't imagine any of the 'big boys' in the pay-per-call market risking something like this.
Re: The Mysterious Case Of The Craigslist Writing Gig Scam
#3I'm throwing my vote in with the guy who suggested maybe he's getting money from the companies for getting more people to call about their services. Both ends are getting scammed, but it costs one of them time, and one of them money.
Re: The Mysterious Case Of The Craigslist Writing Gig Scam
#4This sounds like a creative way of scamming a pay-per-call advertiser. But, I can't imagine any of the 'big boys' in the pay-per-call market risking something like this.
Doesn't make much sense given that one of the companies was a free service.
Re: The Mysterious Case Of The Craigslist Writing Gig Scam
#5This sounds like a creative way of scamming a pay-per-call advertiser. But, I can't imagine any of the 'big boys' in the pay-per-call market risking something like this.
The 'big boys' might avoid it by policy, but perhaps a rogue affiliate/commissioned-salesperson benefits.
Or, it could be competitors doing a denial-of-service attack on inbound calls, or a marketing-budget-depletion-attack on a pay-per-call campaign.
One way to deduce more: were the numbers he called the most commonly-advertised numbers for the target businesses, or other numbers through some tracked dispatch?
Re: The Mysterious Case Of The Craigslist Writing Gig Scam
#6This sounds like a creative way of scamming a pay-per-call advertiser. But, I can't imagine any of the 'big boys' in the pay-per-call market risking something like this.
Doesn't make much sense given that one of the companies was a free service.
Even the 'free' service might make money based on people-served, or recommendations-delivered.
Re: The Mysterious Case Of The Craigslist Writing Gig Scam
#7My vote is for the furiously masturbating idea
Re: The Mysterious Case Of The Craigslist Writing Gig Scam
#8Given the minimum-time requirement for the phonecalls, I'd say it's a DoS attack on the companies.
Re: The Mysterious Case Of The Craigslist Writing Gig Scam
#9My vote is for "advance fee scam" as mentioned in the comments of the article. It plays out something like this:
He shows up at a coffee shop after a few days worth of work with a check for $1000. The actual "work" done was worth $700, so he says "just give me $300 and we'll call it even". He'll be nice and wait for OP while he goes to the ATM, but the check will be a dud.
If I'm right about this, I think there's a powerful psychological force at play. The time invested for the work will cloud the OPs judgment about whether this is a scam or not. A feeling of loss is much more powerful than a feeling of gain (I can't remember the exact psych term for this)
The OP probably scared off 'Aaron' with the "is this a scam?" email.
Re: The Mysterious Case Of The Craigslist Writing Gig Scam
#10I do not think this is an advance fee scam. I think the pay-per-call commenter is closest.
Here's what I think is happening. A marketing firm has told some local businesses that it will do online marketing and other marketing activities to drive leads in the form of calls to the business. The marketing campaigns will focus on specific issues (like insurance coverage for weight loss).
It's not atypical for a marketing agency or demand generation company to guarantee a certain number of leads per campaign -- eg, if you spend $1,000 with us, we will guarantee you get 50 leads.
I think a call-based / real-world demand generation agency is stuffing the leads for their customers because the actual campaigns aren't delivering.