interesting probable IT job scam I came across on craigslist


Recommended Posts

I was looking for some IT type gigs on craigslist (probably not the brightest of ideas) and found this. Being a bit naive I didn't realize it at first but I guess this is some kind of scam...

http://rockford.crai...3415773692.html

I replied to the above ad asking for some more information. Below is our brief email conversation. The scammer is in bold, I am in italic.

I have 7 Dell Inspiron(4GigRAM WIN7 OS 64Bit) switch laptops. Below is a list of work needed to be done on each PC.

1 Format Hard Drive

2 Install Win 7

3 Install Microsoft Office Package

4 AVG Virus Software

5 Adobe Acrobat Reader

I have OS software for each Machine

Get back to me with your total cost for the service

I await your response.

Best regards,

David

Thanks for getting back to me, do you have separate install discs for each machine so I could do the setups simultaneously? How about internet access? I would charge depending on that. Where are you located?

Thanks for the reply. I have all the necessary software needed for the service installations, it is also with Win 7 disk 1 key for each. Let me know the final asking price. I will instruct my Client to prepare a Check that will be drawn in your name.

Do send me details below

Full Name:

Physical Address:

City:

State:

Zipcode:

Cell phone #:

so as to prepare the check and shipping of the laptops to your address. I have a reliable shipper that will pickup the laptops when you are done with it. I look forward to your email so payment and shipping can be made out asap.

Thanks

David

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So a few days past then I got this next email.

Hello (my first name)

I have 7 of my company's laptops (HP dv2500)for upgrading/reformatting, advice if both is part of your service line . All i need is you to remove Trojan virus that attacked all seven computers and re install avg free anti virus, And i want you to upgrade all computers from window vista Business to windows 7 professional. i have back up files for all computers,They have been attacked by various Trojan. Kindly advise the service charges for all the 7 laptop computers i mean how much is your charges if you to fixed all the laptop for me.

All computers are the same model,i want AVG home edition free anti virus,I will be providing windows 7 Professional Cd and License keys.

Looking forward to read from you.

Regards.

CEO

Martin Bridge

Setermech Service Solution

Must be they are trying to get me to take delivery on laptops bought with a stolen credit card or something then would ask me to reship them? Anyway I learned my lesson about looking for jobs on CL lol.

  • 7 months later...

The check will go in your account and they will ask you to take out some of the money and send it to them via money gram. Few days later the check will bounce but you already lost your money. I heard about this. People need to stop this person. It has to be a team of scammers that does the same thing

Let me know the final asking price. I will instruct my Client to prepare a Check that will be drawn in your name.

 

in the end say you charge 100, more than likely he will respond saying he will write you a check for 1000 and you give him the change and obviously it will bounce and youll be out 1000 or he might even write it for 100 but it will still bounce

 

edit poster above me already pointed this out.

 

I had this happen when i tried to sell items on craiglist and knew right away what was going on

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • That is $130 more than I paid for my 4TB a year ago. How is this a deal?
    • JetBrains' new AI-first 'IDE' JetBrains Air is now on Windows by David Uzondu JetBrains has announced that JetBrains Air, its Agentic Development Environment (ADE) is now available for download on Windows x64 and ARM. You might not be familiar with JetBrains Air. It's this new desktop app that the company launched back in March 2026 to let developers hand off tasks to AI agents instead of writing every line manually. You can see it as more of an Agentic Development Environment (ADE) rather than a traditional Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The latter builds its features around a central text editor, while the former arranges everything around the AI agent itself. Here's how JetBrains describes it: Air was born from the ashes of Fleet, an experimental editor that the company quietly killed in December 2025 after realizing that competing directly with VS Code was a losing battle. The company repurposed Fleet's lightweight, modern architecture to build Air, transforming a basic code editor into a workspace for running multiple AI agents. When Air launched, it was only available for macOS. It wasn't until earlier this month that Linux users got a chance to play with the software. Now that Air is on Windows, you can do things like map out a complex feature in Plan mode and watch an AI write the implementation plan to a markdown file before writing any code. You can iterate on this plan, add references to specific classes or files, and choose whether to run the agent locally or inside an isolated Git worktree. Running agents in parallel means you can have Claude refactor a database schema in one branch while Codex writes tests in another, leaving you free to do other important things. You can even set up a pipeline where Claude writes the code, and Codex reviews it. At the moment, Air is free. If you have a JetBrains AI Pro or Ultimate subscription, you get full access to the built-in agents, though there's also the option to Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) to run APIs from Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google. If you're interested, here are the download links for both x64 and ARM64.
    • Depending how you’re wiring it internally, but try to put it inside conduit, that way in the future you can more easily replace cables, compared to running inside studs alone At least cat6a too
    • I bet Meta has lots of info on you anyway, gathered by other means. And Google, and Microsoft, and every other tech giant. If you use some form of modern electronic device, they own you already...
  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Week One Done
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      BA the Curmudgeon earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Conversation Starter
      rosiecharles earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • First Post
      KMilenkoski1202 earned a badge
      First Post
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      530
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      264
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      149
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      98
    5. 5
      macoman
      60
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!