Sandy was selling a cell phone on craigslist when she had a bite. She says the buyer asked for a pay request from Paypal which she sent. She wasn't paid and when the prospective buyer said he wanted the phone shipped to Nigeria Sandy canceled the transaction. Then she received a concerning e-mail. She says "I received an e-mail with the FBI logo threatening legal action. It said I had 24 hours to ship the package. There are too many spelling errors for the e-mail to really be from the FBI. No money has changed hands so I don't think I have anything to worry about."
Sandy is right. The FBI isn't going to step into a craigslist sale.
Scammers can easily copy the FBI logo from the official site and paste it into their own e-mail.
It's an attempt to get money from people through fear. The FBI even posts regular warnings on it's real site which is
www.FBI.gov
There's also a form on that site where you can
submit a complaint about internet crime.
Of course it's better to catch it like Sandy did before becoming a victim but if something does happen to you don't hesitate to report it.
