he dosint want anything....

Kijiji is a wonderful online classified service that Darlene and I use constantly to recycle stuff (into and out of the house). But of course, like anything else online, the site has been perpetrated by scams of all kinds. At this time of year, the common scam is the “Oh woe is me, my family can’t afford Christmas, so please donate anything you can.... for the kids.” Then you hear about people posting warnings on the same site that they had donated certain items to a down-and-out individual or family only to see the items go up for sale on Kijiji a few days or weeks later by the same person.

Sometimes these scams are pretty obvious (or at least they appear to be) based on some tell-tale signs. I’ll use this sample that Darlene found on Kijiji today:

hello i'm 16 years old and i have 8 brothers (4year old that can't talk that well)and one sister(who has epilepsy shes 10 but may not live til 18) we really don't have that much money and will try to pay some money and can pick up.
the toys that they would like for x-mas(or anything else there not that picky!)
an baterry power jeep,car we had two but got bruned in a fire that happned at 3:00am......some #$^% set are garage on fire and some of it when't in our house but moved! anyways my little sister loves the littlest pet shops and puerse and barbes and anything girly really.
my 2year old brother like the big lego things and frogs and moneys ect."(^u^)"
my 3yearold brother likes the little legos and candy and cars.
my 4yearold brother like cars aswell and flying helicopters and airplants and some real moss for his gekcos that they all share.
my 6yearold brother really likes bakugan like likes the cards and the little ball things. my 15 year old brother would like a controller for his ps3 and anything for the ps3.
me the 16yearold sister would just like it if anybody could give my siblings anything or anything on the list i would love that so much and thats ALL i want this year...the other years i was selfish.......maybe if anybody has anything for my mom she said she wants a foot spy thing and my moms bf(and my mom)want a male doberman that is 2-4months old....he wants to train it so it won't hurt us and they like coffee. plaese nooo RUDE E-MAILS plasese just keep them to your selfs and THANK YOU TO ALL THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE E-MAILED ME WITH KINDNESS THANK YOU SOO MUCH AND I NO ME AND MY SIDLINGS WILL BE HAPPY THANK YOU AGAIN AND MERRY X-MAS!!!
my older 17year old brother says he
dosint want anything.....but thats all and if anybody has anything that would be so kind to give this to them i really would love this and it would be the best x-mas ever!! thank you for reading this and sorry if its too long.merry x-mas!

Time for some post-ad analysis:

• 10 kids? You would have sounded slightly more believable with 2 or 3.
• A 4 year old that can’t talk that well? What's the story? Was I supposed to experience a twinge of sorrow for that little nugget of made-up-edness?
• One sister has epilepsy. Weird - the kid can spell epilepsy, but seems to have trouble with ordinary words like 'please', 'Barbies' and 'purse'.
• They can pick up the items. I bet they’ll insist on picking up the items, or having them dropped off at some garage bay somewhere, because it’s not likely you’ll get to actually meet the family of 12 with the burned down garage and the ‘gekcos’ (sic).
• His 2 year old brother likes the moneys. Yeah. Who doesn’t?
• Mom’s bf wants a male Doberman which he will train so it doesn’t hurt them. No mention of how they’ll manage to afford all that Doberman dog food..... oh and they like coffee (again... DUH!).
• The 17 year old brother doesn’t want anything. Awww, come on... really? Neither do you or the 16 year old sister.....
• Hey wait a minute... At the beginning of the story, the ‘little’ sister is 10. Later in the story, the sister is 16. Make up your mind, dude.
• Come to think of it, there are 2 kids totally unaccounted for. What did they want for Christmas? You’re holding out on us dude.
• No rude emails. I’m guessing to this point, that’s all they’ve been getting.

I am so in the wrong business.