Light on thought.

• Check out today’s shocking level of discount window borrowing. Who wants to start a bank?
• A crank Craigslist posting led to a run on an Oregon man’s possessions. Henry Blodget wonders who’s responsible (i.e. who should pay for the ransacking). I’m wondering when the copycats are going to arrive.
• Luxury car sales are on the decline, and Ford is selling Jaguar and Land Rover as a result. Not too long ago luxury goods sales were being touted as a mainstay. What changed all of a sudden? Failing hedge funds?
• New home sales fell to a 13-year low. You wouldn’t know it if all you were listening to was the National Association of Realtor’s counter-productive spin.

Commentary will remain light around here for the next few months…until the project I am working on has reached its next milestone or I catch a ten pound trout, whichever comes first.

The Wall Street Journal notes that the business.com domain could fetch $300 million for owners Jake Winebaum and Sky Dayton, on a $7.5 million initial investment. Meanwhile, everyone is poo-pooing the thing.

Assuming what the Journal says is true and the site is pulling in roughly $15 million in EBITDA…

Techdirt says “At this point, there’s a little more here than just a domain name, but it’s still hard to tell how much of a business business.com actually is.”

Meanwhile, a Wired reporter didn’t even seem to have read the story, when creating the title for criticism “Domain Madness: Business.com For $400 Million?“.

The list of goes on, but the point is clear: if you don’t have fifty AJAX “widgets” scattered across the site a designer charged you $250,000 to create and/or just announced a “lucrative business development relationship” with someone who does (even if they’ve blown through tens of millions in VC money and still don’t have a dime of revenue to show for it), your business is not worth two-cents. I will say that 20X EBITDA is a bit dear for a company growing 50% per annum, but still the context of the naysaying doesn’t get near this point.

You don’t have to look far to find simplicity hitting homers - Craigslist…Plenty of Fish; and if you still don’t get the idea, ask Kevin Ham out for lunch.

Beauty is skin deep, and elegance eventually trips on the runway. Meanwhile, ugly seems to be going to the bank.

UPDATE: Mike Arrington chimes in with a more credible tone, and a snack for thought.

It is my favorite time of the year. Everyone wants something for the holidays, and some are willing to try pulling scams from Craigslist to get it.

As a regular reader might know, I just acquired a Blackberry (and by the way, I still haven’t been spammed on it, hundreds of emails later), and I make it a habit of passing the old equipment off on the cheap. So, I am selling this Nokia 6682, which is pretty darn fine condition if you ask me.

And along comes “Greg”…

still selling that phone?
ship to aspen, co?

greg

Sure am…

I do, and I will. I’d say the box is about 0.7 kilo. Will ship USPS with
delivery confirm at my expense. Any other way would be yours.

Michael

Note I converted to kilos, since “Greg” is emailing me from a yahoo.uk.co address - obviously in Aspen for the holidays - how nice is that!

Greg is busy finding phones…

which phone was yours michael?
I sent so many messages,

greg

I reply…

Nokia 6682 with all factory includes, plus Nokia factory car charger.

Damn good customer service if you ask me.

He saw the ad, but needs a price…

how much do you want?
can you ship it tomorrow?
pay pal work for you?

greg

More good customer service…

Here is the link to the listing:
http://denver.craigslist.org/ele/245134028.html (reposted since then)

I’ll ship tomorrow morning first thing with paypal to this address. Regular
postal should take just two days to Aspen.

Paid for!

michael

greg gordon

Then the debate ensues. The guy wants immediate shipment, so what does he do? He Paypals with an eCheck (that takes several days to clear), and gives me two different shipping addresses (one to me via email, and a different one to Paypal).

I let him know the error of his ways…

I just saw in Paypal that you made payment via eCheck, and the shipping
address is different than the one you stated.

I can’t ship until that check clears, so if you are looking for a phone
immediately, you may want to reconsider. And I need confirmation on the
shipping address.

Now, the denial…

michael

greg

I am calling bullshit here…

Sorry, but the paypal payment was an eCheck, and your unconfirmed shipping address per paypal is actually:

[address removed]

The eCheck payment was declined by me yesterday, and you should have received confirmation from Paypal on this.

Michael

Greg can’t understand why…

michael

greg

The problem was…

You paid with an eCheck (not credit card like you stated), and that takes minimum 3-4 days to clear.

Now, he says a bank account would do…

regarding the echeck:
dont have a clue what that is.
I use paypal often and have never had any problems
before.
if you would rather I deposited the money straight
into a bank acount, let me know.

We could have gone on and on. After deciding I was too much of a hassle, Greg decided to take his business elsewhere, or at least that is what he said at first. Five minutes later, he thought it might be okay to let the payment wait to clear, but of course I’d already cancelled his eCheck. A few minutes after that, payment was supposedly on its way. It of course, never arrived.

I feel sorry for all the people Greg has never had problems doing transactions with.

If you are posting personal information on an open webpage, expect harrassment, sooner or later. Blogs and MySpace accounts are not immune. Online dating services have taken some measures to protect information, but the bottom line is unless the site is some type of completely private, user authenticated affair where only the people you invite in (i.e. people you already know) get to see your headshot, then you are playing with fire.

Jason Fortuny’s “experiment” (results posted at Encyclopedia Dramatica) with Craigslist personals highlights this lack of privacy. While Jason is bragging away about the publicity he garnered I am sure there are quite a few men hunting for his name, address and phone number.

This doesn’t stop at webpages either. Any email you send may very well get circulated to others - while you have some minimal protection in the fact that forwarded email generally doesn’t contain previous header information (instead just a copy of the original text), what you say and what you attach are fair game. If it is confidential/company information, don’t send it period. If it is nude photos of yourself on a lawn chair, designed to lure some overnight company while the spouse is away, have at it - you are likely already doomed.

***UPDATE***

Wired has an analysis of the “experiment” - they are calling Jason sociopathic. I’d tend to agree, although I’ve seen email sent to people considered credible, “pillars of the community,” find their way back to the sender with very “colorful” commentary.

I am trying to sell a nice little laptop via Craigslist. And sure enough, I receive a flood of offers for more than the asking price, by folks who spell like a first grader (actually, that is insulting first graders).

Crazies calling themselves “Sean Craigs” and “Samar Moreex” even go as far as to mock up fake Paypal and Bidpay “payment notifications” - afterword which they demand shipment before “accepting” these payments.

Note: that if you are interested in a loaded Dell C840 still under next day warranty, send me an email, and I will send you the details.

Now, on to the scam barrage..

Here are a few of the emails I recieved (I’ll get them posted to the database forthwith):

hi seller
i was going through craigslist when i saw your item displayed and i
fell in love with it bcos its nice i will love to have it for my self,i do buy things from ebay when i need an item,so its like i really need
these item and i will want to purchase it quickly . i am just coming for the first time ,so i dont knowhow you pay in these site so i will want you to tell me the kind of method of payment you accept for these item but i think paypal will be better bcos i have an account there you
will give me your paypal account mail and i will send your money to
your account but if you accept any other means mail me back .
thx asap reply
sean craigs

He “fell in love” with my laptop - he needs some company.

And..

$1500
X-Originating-Ip: 195.166.237.40
X-Originating-Server: ws7-2.us4.outblaze.com
Message-Id: <20050607180141.2CD5AE5BC7@ws7-2.us4.outblaze.com>

hello micheal,
have sent the money so i will need your full info and tell me when you will be around for me to do my pickup with my account and i will need the lbs of the item.
am wating for your reply
thanks

For the other guy..

Hello Seller

please can you let me know the condition of the unit and all accessories.

waiting for your prompt response.

Thanks
Samara

Of course, the post says all, but this guy wants more detail anyway.

Then..

- MINT w/many extras! - $1450
X-Originating-Ip: 62.0.29.107
X-Originating-Server: ws3-2.us4.outblaze.com
Message-Id: <20050611163441.F0306CDF8F@ws3-2.us4.outblaze.com>

Hello,

thanks for your quick response, i know this a great product and am purchasing this item for a friend, which I will offer for $1,700.00 if my offer is accepted, we can end the auction and proceed, which i will make an immediately payment, kindly send me your contact address, so i can send the payment immediately Bidpay which is a fast and secure. Note I want this item to be ship upon payment made/payment notification from Bidpay.

I always get intouch with some buyers/friend outside the states. Meanwhile, am paying for the shipping cost, which I had contact my fedex Courier company concerning the shipment, the shipment will be charge through my fedex account, so you will not be charge for any bill.

If you still have any other item, kindly let me know we can still work things out after this first transaction done.

Waiting for your quick response.

Samara

I would love to show you the payment confirms these jokers sent, but it is just too much for this post. They are using return addresses from places like Accountant.com and AuctionSitePayments.com, utilizing webmail, and forging headers where ever possible.

I noticed that Craigslist recently introduced a series of buttons at the top of their listings. These buttons are designed to assist in the moderation of posts, so the staff of Craigslist doesn’t have to. Included in the group are implementations for miscategorization, prohibited posts, links to discussion boards, voting for “best of”, as well as marking posts as spam.

I assume the spam button utilizes IP address information to prevent posters from voting listings competitive to theirs off the site, but you can never be sure. Even if it does, I expect there will be a lot of abuse in this regard before the site gets it right.

Personally, I would not have opened the site up to this type of community involvement. Everyone knows Craigslist is a free source of PR, which means it is ripe for gaming, much like Google has turned out.

It is going to be a constant fight to keep the sleeze from working this implementation to their advantage. The trouble it could cause the staff at Craigslist may turn out to be more of a burden than the alternative, which is to use some of the (purportedly substantial) dollars the site is taking in from job classifieds and investors, for a more rigorous anti-spam agenda.