What’s this scam?!?

I've seen a lot of people advertising on offerup that something is free if someone can provide a good reason why.  Mostly electronics.   
 

what's the deal??

Not sure if it is a scam. Maybe they just want to weed out people who'll immediately flip the item?

Not the same thing, but someone on this very forum did a similar thing. I.e., spin me a yarn, and if I like your story, I'll drop my price. My tale of feeble minded challenge plans did the trick. Good Luck!

BoxheadTim (Forum Supporter) said:

Not sure if it is a scam. Maybe they just want to weed out people who'll immediately flip the item?

Probably this. The seller doesn't mind giving something away to someone who will put it to good use. I once saw someone put three kids bikes out on the curb with a free sign. I thought it was nice of them, maybe they would end up with kids in need. The next day I saw them for sale in front of a different house that always has overpriced junk for sale. It pissed me off and i wasn't even involved.

In reply to gearheadmb :

I put some stock car wheels on CL for "free if they are usable for your project" and the guy that took them had them up for $100 that night.  

Maybe but I've seen it a lot and I find it hard to believe that Los Angeles has so many philanthropists on these used junk sites. 
 

plus they all seem to be new accounts.  

 

I'll try one and see what happens...

I did a search for "free" and "reason" and got a bunch of the same thing.  Some from the same people and many from random people, all with brand new accounts. 
 

then I saw this and it confirms my suspicions but doesn't give a good reason.   The text from an ad:

 This is a warning and not a sale. There are offer up posts that are  circulating involving hight ticket items with sellers offerring items for free..... you just need to tell them the reason why. DO NOT FALL FOR THIS SCAM! DO NOT GIVE ANY INFO OUT! Report them immediately and block the user. I 've been seeing these with laptops, macs airbooks and playstations so far. I've contacted Offer up but they are not doing anything about it. Help keep Offer up scammer free!

does Offer-up even have a "Make offer" option ?

thats what some of them seem locally  , 

same as craigslist with one price and no way to say $20 - $100 if you have a few items.

and yes I am sure some of them are scams , but I got a nice real EZ up canopy for free ,  

Patrick (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to gearheadmb :

I put some stock car wheels on CL for "free if they are usable for your project" and the guy that took them had them up for $100 that night.  

I'm sure that $100 would help his project.

I've been trying to give away a NA Miata power steering setup for months now and nobody wants it... had one guy message me, "I'll buy it" and when I replied the response has been crickets.  WTF?

So I sent a reply to this ad:

the user had joined in nov of 2020.  It was 11/1.  No response and about 2 hours later the account and the posting is gone. 
 

I suspect that these people will respond and ask for your phone or email to add to their phishing lists for sale.  
 

whatever it is, it isn't altruism.  

If it sounds too good to be true...it is.

Keep this in mind as you peruse any internet site. They are all in it for something. 

The new OfferUp since they bought and killed LetGo is awful.  Truly.  Half of the crap is chinesium "ships to you" junk.  If I wanted to buy a new chinesium chair, I would go to Amazon.  I'm going to OfferUp so I can find a chair across town that I can look at, sit in, and haul it home.

I listed a vacuum cleaner and instantly got a dozen spams saying "I buy you Hoover Wind Tunnel Pet 2 item for asking price" from people in places like Brazil and Hungary.

I just don't get it.  Some bot trying to make me think I'm getting a lot of action on my ad?

It's just awful.

Is there a resource that explains how these scams work?  Some are obvious, like the Nigerian prince who wants to give you $1M if you pay $500 to process it, or the IRS calls asking for Home Depot gift cards.

But what good does it do if someone from Brazil wants to buy a $50 vacuum cleaner?

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

But what good does it do if someone from Brazil wants to buy a $50 vacuum cleaner?

I presume they pay you with a $1000 check, have you send the difference by wire transfer, and then the check bounces.

In reply to MadScientistMatt :

Which would make sense if they were real people.  They never respond.  They're ghosts.  Usually the scams that do the fraudulent money orders/wire transfers at least get to that point and try to get the money from you.  These are just "I buy item for price" and then *ghost*

I also get a lot of those phone calls about "free Marriot vacation" and "vehicle extended warranty."  I usually press the button to speak to an agent just for entertainment value and to waste their time, but when you press the button to speak to someone, most of the time it just hangs up.  Not a very effective scam if they never get to the grift.

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

I suspect both are ways of determining who responds; to be put on calling or mailing lists.

Greg Smith (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :

I suspect both are ways of determining who responds; to be put on calling or mailing lists.

That would generate data sales for OfferUp, and help spammers send more emails.