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Re:The Mysterious Case Of The Craigslist Writing Gig Scam by wilkenm on Thursday August 04, 2011 @07:07PM (#2848186)
This sounds like a creative way of scamming a pay-per-call advertiser. But, I can't imagine any of the 'big boys' in the pay-per-call market risking something like this.
Re:The Mysterious Case Of The Craigslist Writing Gig Scam by eridius on Thursday August 04, 2011 @07:37PM (#2848281)
Doesn't make much sense given that one of the companies was a free service.
Re:The Mysterious Case Of The Craigslist Writing Gig Scam by elliottcarlson on Thursday August 04, 2011 @10:00PM (#2848673)
Lead generation for universities makes the most money of any of them, why do you think University of Phoenix ads are (or used to be) everywhere.
Re:The Mysterious Case Of The Craigslist Writing Gig Scam by gojomo on Thursday August 04, 2011 @07:42PM (#2848298)
Even the 'free' service might make money based on people-served, or recommendations-delivered.
Re:The Mysterious Case Of The Craigslist Writing Gig Scam by gojomo on Thursday August 04, 2011 @07:41PM (#2848296)
The 'big boys' might avoid it by policy, but perhaps a rogue affiliate/commissioned-salesperson benefits.

Or, it could be competitors doing a denial-of-service attack on inbound calls, or a marketing-budget-depletion-attack on a pay-per-call campaign.

One way to deduce more: were the numbers he called the most commonly-advertised numbers for the target businesses, or other numbers through some tracked dispatch?

Re:The Mysterious Case Of The Craigslist Writing Gig Scam by jfruh on Thursday August 04, 2011 @09:42PM (#2848631)
Can't tell if the numbers were the most commonly advertised ones, but he does note that "Aaron" told him this:

"...all you are doing is calling a company that we provide the number for, pressing the correct (1) or (2) – which we specify..."

If I'm interpreting that right, they're using inside information to get him up the phone tree to the right person (whatever their definition of "right" is).