Case Study: Sales Scams

This chapter focuses on a common type of consumer-facing scam referred to as the sales scam, focusing on the scam’s occurrence on Craigslist, one of the most popular online market websites, with over 60 million monthly visitors in the U.S. alone. In spite of the prevalence of scams on Craigslist, the community’s understanding of these is still very much lacking, and in this chapter and the two chapters following it, we present in-depth measurement studies of such scam activities. These measurement studies aim to better understand the underground economy of scams on Craigslist, and seek effective intervention points. In particular, we seek to address questions such “Where are scammers located?”, “How do scam factories operate?”, and “How effective are current defenses?”. While the answers certainly do not translate to all types of scams—not even all those on Craigslist—they provide interesting insights into the problem and show how to design metrics to assess its nature.