craigslist and phone numbers and weirdness

[perfectinsanity]

Hey all....so I wanted to share like...something somewhat odd....
Last night at 4 am I got a phone call from an unlisted number....it was some guy that had an American accent I couldnt really recognize.
He was just like "Hi sooo someone told me you need a burning man ticket and I have two for sale"
and I was like " Uhhhhh do you know not to call people at 4am? "
and he was like "oh its 4 am huh?"

I think that I mumbled something like call me later and hung up. Yeah.....I guess I should have stayed on and asked him some questions like...at least his name or something but I am so not one of those people that just wakes up fresh and clear headed.
Upon waking up this morning though.....I started wondering like...how this person got my number. I have given out my phone number a couple times but only to posts on sf craigslist where the poster mentioned that they were local and were asking for a phone number...and It didnt really seem like this guy was calling me from SF.

So now I'm just wondering if anyone has had an experience like this? Im not really sure if I should call the phone company, and try to see if they can get the number so I can call the guy back to buy a ticket or if its some kind of a scam.

[trilobyte]

If you post your phone number on a public forum such as Craig's List or even ePlaya, you shouldn't be surprised by any calls you get at any time of day or night.

[perfectinsanity]

Yeah I didnt post my number on craigslist.....
I did email it to a few people though....A lot of the people selling tickets on craigslist, at least in SF as for a phone number to be included....and its kind of like...you wanna give em your number because you want to be in consideration for a ticket but yeah did not think that people would be passing those numbers on though..... but yes. good point. giving your number to strangers can result in anything. ^_^
Was mostly just wondering if anyone else has experienced this...........still kind of trying to figure out if it was a scam or really someone from out of my time zone trying to honestly sell me a ticket...

[jkisha]

Two things.
American accent?
If you are going to post your phone number, you should get a google voice account and post that number. You have a lot of control regarding blocking and call screening with a GV number.

[perfectinsanity]

American accent um...well Im from SF and this person did not sound like they were from California or New York or Texas. Im Russian myself so I dont really know like..what all the different regions sound like...

Google voice! Yes!!!! Thanks for the great idea! I dont have an account but ima go check it out right now.

[jkisha]

You have an excellent command of English. I didn't detect your accent at all. Russian? And you live in San Francisco? I thought all the Russians lived here in West Hollywood!

American accent um...well Im from SF and this person did not sound like they were from California or New York or Texas. Im Russian myself so I dont really know like..what all the different regions sound like...

Google voice! Yes!!!! Thanks for the great idea! I dont have an account but ima go check it out right now.

[perfectinsanity]

When my family and I came to the US we lived in West Hollywood

[gyre]

I have my phone number on multiple cl posts right now, because response is massively better with a phone number.
Also people often save the ad after it expires, if it has a number.

Never got a call late, or anything strange, beyond the usual idiots that can't read the ad.
So I would call it unusual.

More of this year's ticket madness, it sounds like.


Also, I post it in the clear, not garbled, though if I email it, I will often do that.
I find more fishers posting and emailing (automatic, though quite good sometimes) than otherwise.

[Shambala]

You know what happened to Jenny when her number got posted publicly. For a good time call: 867-5309.

[renogirl1970]

Here's a response I got from CL today from an ad I answered for tickets (hhmmmmmm should I jump on it??? hahahahaha~~NOT):

From:
"Kevin Hagan" <khkhagan0@gmail.com>


Hello,

My Name is Kevin Hagan and i am located in Frisco, TX.
I am selling all 2 tickets for $640.If you are interested to buy these tickets i will do this deal only trough eBay.In order to start the transaction i will need your full name, address and your eBay id.They will send you an invoice how to purchase the tickets from me.(You will be sending the money to an eBay agent.After the payment is sent i will send the tickets to you.eBay will release the funds to me ONLY AFTER you will send them the confirmation that you received the tickets and they are real).

I will ship them via UPS overnight.I will pay shipping.

I will wait your reply.

Thank You !

[theCryptofishist]

A lot of White Russians settled in San Francisco post-revolution. You can still find delis with cyrillic names.

[ygmir]

A lot of White Russians settled in San Francisco post-revolution. You can still find delis with cyrillic names.

there's a Russian/San Francisco/whales eating habits joke there somewhere...............

[Savannah]

I have noticed that a number of these fraudulent CL posts use the distinctive phrase "all 2 tickets", which is an unusual way of describing only 2 of something. Even when the names change, there's often that signature expression "all 2 tickets". Very helpful.

[gyre]

It's the exact same text.

[Minxy]

I just got the same response from an ad I responded to in the Bay Area. Dumb people.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/tid/2522463273.html

Response I received:

Hello,
The tickets are still for sale.
My Name is Christina Martinez and i am located in Elko, NV.
I am selling all 2 tickets for $800.If you are interested to buy these tickets i will do this deal only trough eBay.In order to start the transaction i will need your full name, address and your eBay id.They will send you an invoice how to purchase the tickets from me.(You will be sending the money to an eBay agent.After the payment is sent i will send the tickets to you.eBay will release the funds to me ONLY AFTER you will send them the confirmation that you received the tickets and they are real).

I will ship them via UPS overnight.I will pay shipping.

I will wait your reply.

Thank You !

[theCryptofishist]

You know what happened to Jenny when her number got posted publicly. For a good time call: 867-5309.

I am in need of a good time, so I called Jenny, but I must have used the wrong area code. I ended up talking to professional born-again Xtian virgin who's waiting to be raptured.

I did not have a good time.

[Furtaacor]

Holly sheet.

I received an email from our friend (Name and email address removed by Moderator) too.
The detail was: the invoice came (from a gmail - hhohoohho) to an email that was not the one from my ebay´s ID, was the email that i contact him first.
I want to denunciate, but he is not giving me his user name, of course....

Incredible....

But i´m still nedding "all 2 tickets" ...

Does anyone knows somewhere i can find?

[theresap]

Has anyone been getting responses in the past couple days to your old CL posts? I have been getting an alarming amount of emails on posts I made looking for tickets the last week of July. I just think that if you are selling a ticket, why would you be searching the craigslist ads from weeks ago???? Sounds fishy to me!