Craigslist is a great way to buy and sell locally, online. It is also a breeding ground for every conceivable type of scam and dishonesty.

Being a long time user of the service, I was quite surprised to get hit by a new – and rather complex – type of scam.

I was selling an item of merchandise in Durham NC.

Shortly after posting the item, a person wrote asking if I was “still offering” the item. I responded positively.

Quickly, the sender followed up with this mail:

from arlene07908@aol.com
to XXXXXXX@gmail.com
date Sat, Jun 19, 2010 at 10:26 AM
subject Re: Re: Kramer Imperial (Explorer)
mailed-by aol.com

Thank you for getting back with me

I’m very interested in this but before I buy it I need to know if its
the same one I’m looking for because I can’t afford another mistake
Please check out this video here I uploaded, which i am looking to buy

PLAY VIDEO (weblink)

If its the same one I will be there today to buy it

Thanks

Yes, things started to smell fishy. The “PLAY VIDEO” link in the mail had a “shortened” URL , rather than a complete link. That’s suspicious! Why would someone go through the hassle of shortening a link just to show me a video?

I pasted the shortened URL into the unscrambler at: http://longurl.org/

The complete link that appeared in the “results” window was: http://flvdirect.us/my_stuff.php

So, what is FLVDIRECCT.us?

It is the new scam on Craigslist.

If one were to click on the link that was sent to me via Craigslist, one would wind up on a page where a video would be. According to Computer Scientist Darren McCall:

“If you click the play button it says, “To watch this video please install FLVDirect”. At the top of the screen it says, “You need FLV DIRECT VIDEO VIEWER installed in order to download and watch this video. Please go here and install a free one now”.

The “Video Viewer” is malware.

Why would anyone do this, you might ask?

Money is the answer. Over at Freelancer.com, in the “Bulk Marketing” section, Darren points to this job listing:

http://www.freelancer.com/projects/Marketing-Bulk-Marketing/Pay-per-sign-download-per.html

“I need for an individual or individuals to provide at least 50 sign ups/downloads a day from flvdirect.com. Traffic must be from USA ONLY. Sign Ups are required to download and install FLV Player and you will be paid $1 each time a valid download is made.

I will pay $1 for each Real Qualified Conversion, and an extra $7.50 per 50 leads generated in a day, so for every 50 downloads you get $7.50 on top of the $1 per download for each day.”

Some scammer somewhere is trying to get people to download and install the FLV VIEWER malware so that they can get a few dollars.
Don’t become a victim of this swindle. Don’t click on shortened URLs. Ever. Don’t install any software without first doing a google search on the name of the software plus the word “scam” – as in: “FLV DIRECT VIDEO VIEWER SCAM”.

Enjoy Craigslist, but be safe.