Caution to the easy-hearted people who could fall prey to a scammer: The latest scam we have discovered comes from an ad in the classifieds of this newspaper, which, by the way, was made aware of the scam and pulled the ad.

Someone was giving away a motorcycle at no cost. Free! Too good to be true? Of course. There was a phone number and an email address in the ad. After attempting to call the phone number, which was not in service, I sent an email inquiring about the “free” motorcycle. The response came from someone with poor grammar and I knew immediately that it was written by a scammer. He even sent pictures of a motorcycle with his email. Clever.

Supposedly, the person’s grandson had died, and he was giving away this motorcycle, which was a gift to the grandson. It made him cry every time he looked at the bike, although the bike was in California and being shipped to Boston, where the writer “is.” This person offered to have the bike shipped to me instead and all I had to do was pay the shipping cost. Hmm … send him money for shipping? Beware.

Too many scammers are out there taking money from anyone who will give it to them. This scammer preyed upon two types of people — one who wanted a free motorcycle and who wouldn’t want one — and on the kind-hearted person who sympathized with the loss of his grandson.

The first clue that this is a scam would be the grammar appears to be written by a foreigner, and secondly, when they ask for money or personal information.

Delete, delete, delete.

Sue Spencer

Benton

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