Audiogon sellers, please stop and read this thread

I received two of these yesterday. I reported them to AudioGon and they are looking into it. Here are the items that I found each to possess:
1) They want you to contact them via e-mail not the RESPONSE button.
2) They have no feedback
3) they have no items listed
4) they have no discussion interteraction
5) they both would pay my list price
6) they both seemed to have some poor grammer/english

I did respond to one directly and he had a list of information he needed from me. But the big redflag was the
information about him moving and that he had a "shipper" that would make arrangements to have the package picked up.

As a suggestion, I sent AudioGon an idea that I think would help: Have the length of membership listed along with feedback. If they have no feedback and have been a member for just a week or so, proceed with caution. I realize that new members do sign up just to buy and that would be a tough call as they may not have any track record yet. But if they legitimate they will respond if questioned with a suspicious nature.

I tell them to have the shipper deliver and / or pick up the checks along with the items, so that everything would go smoothly for both parties. Also give them 809,284 and 876 area codes to call. Let them know you are very interested.

I would avoid sending a direct email to these criminals. Depending on the email service that you are using, your IP address will often be embedded in the message properties. Someone who knows how will often be able to determine your town or city from that, with just a few mouse clicks (although they can also determine that from the zip code in your listing, of course). If your email address and your name both happen to appear on a web page somewhere, Googling the email address will reveal your name. Having all of that information will often allow your address and phone number to be determined.

Regards,
-- Al

From my experiences listing on C'list over the years (non-audio) these types of emails are all too common: it doesn't matter what you're offering, they follow the same pattern of misspellings, vagueness/lack of specificity relative to one's offering, punctuation gaffs, that over-funded cashier's check, etc. They often outnumber the legitimate contacts... more of an annoyance than anything else.

But why is this happening here now? The interesting thing to note from some of the previous posters is the appearance and increase in these scamming contacts subsequent to the change in this website's interface... is it something in the programming code that now allows automated "bots" to crawl the site, harvesting information in the ads and then generating the emails. Can anyone with an IT background here comment on this conjecture, or is this all done via direct, manual entry?

Here is the typical response one gets when you open the door for these guys:

Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2012 19:11:46 +0100
Subject: Re: Rega Tone Arm
From: ongadegodson@gmail.com

Thanks for your corporation in this transaction, According to my financier, the check has already been mailed out by US postal service.I guess you know how to handle the check when it delivered to you.
But there was a lil mistake which I guess we can handle with honesty and trustworthiness.When i contacted my financier to know if the check have been sent, I got to know that there was a misinterpretation while sending the check. The problem occurred due to my tight schedule. Innitialy, I told him to issue out a check in your name for the actual amount of what I bought from you and have the rest written in the name of my shipping Agent, but in the process he made a mistake by sending all the money in your name. He claimed that I asked him to send the check to your name only, But that should not disturb our own transaction and I'm sure we would both handle this amicably.

Once you receive the check, Kindly deposit it into your account for appropriate verification as require by your financial institution, it will clear within 48hrs.
Then get the cash withdrawn from you account, deduct your money + $50 for yourself as run around expenses and forward the difference to my shipping agent via Western Union Money Transfer. The agent information will be sent along with the tracking number soon.
NB:

Please email at once to let me know if I can trust you to have the excess funds expedited to my mover upon the receipt of delivery of payment**
Thanks for the understanding and I will be waiting to read from you as soon as possible.
Warmest Regards,

James

I sent him the local FBI mailing address along with their phone number. Wish I could follow the trail on this one.