scam alert:someone in Canada fake "selling" my Avion trailer

[OBXJack]

HI all,
We just recently put our vintage Avion on the market for sale AND then were alerted (by someone here) to a classified link that showed OUR trailer for sale (in Canada) by someone else and also for a ridiculously low price- the scammer had "stolen" the pictures that had been on the RV site where we found and then purchased our trailer. The pics of my trailer are still up on this very legit vintage airstream site-they keep them there for people to enjoy even after trailers are sold. The scammer had posted the exact same pics of our trailer, right down to the blanket on the couch and curtains in the window. And we just recently put ours back on the market for sale here in the states.

I contacted the Canadian site,told them that this was a scam and they responded immediately and banned the fake seller. They then told me this is a common scam? Taking pics from the classifieds and advertising much more cheaply than original listing? Anyone heard of this? According to the person who alerted us, my trailer was posted "sold" once already last year in Canada while we still owned it !!

Id like to hear more if anyone has run across this situation and also to alert everyone to this so it doesn't happen to you whether you are a seller or buyer.

Thanks for your help!

[Aage]

Fake 'trailers for sale' scams are rampant north and south of the border. Keep your wits about you, the scammers are getting smarter every day.

Here's a crazy idea: why not post a photo of your trailer so we can reference it should it turn up on other sites?

[OBXJack]

thanks! Yes I will post pics so everyone can see and I'm alerting the site where I bought my Avion as well since the pics were "stolen" from there...turning in now, but will post in thread tomorrow.

[Silver Otter]

Aage gives good advice. As I said last night, let me know if I can help contact some of the other Mods to get your account issues cleared.

[NJtoNC]

for future reference, anyone wanting to post their photos and not have them stolen might set up a gmail or hotmail account and watermark their photos with the email so people know not to respond to OTHER email addresses associated with the sale of said trailer. By watermark, i mean, overlay your email address in microsoft paint or photoshop ontop of the photo where it cannot be cropped out.

[OBXJack]

Great advice, as always, everyone..the anonymity of the internet should make everyone cautious and its nice to have "real" friends here on ASF (Greg and Linda!) as well as the kind hearted "virtual" ones...I'll look into watermarking our photos. Thanks so much!!