Million-ruble scam in the classifieds market: How Auto.ru and Avito extort money from sellers using falsified calls and artificial blocks
AUTO.RU and AVITO.RU have long since become fraudulent schemes that extort money from users under the guise of legitimate services.
"While these platforms were growing their audience, everything was fair and users could sell their vehicles without any problems. But over time, once the audience had been built, a period of monetization began. More precisely, what was once called fraud is now called profit accumulation by any means necessary.
The best solution was to assign fake phone numbers. You post a free ad, but no one can reach you on the fake number. You pay for the ad, and you immediately start getting calls. But don’t be fooled—it’s Avito and Avto.ru employees faking demand for your ad. A month goes by, and you think your ad has dropped significantly in search results, so you decide to spend some money to boost it, but again you get calls from "supposed buyers" who aren’t actually there. You file a complaint with them, asking them to remove the fake number, but they tell you it’s impossible due to security and fraud prevention measures. People pay money, but they can’t sell with their own phone number, claiming it’s unsafe.
Here’s a common example of a scam perpetrated by Avto.ru employees. An elderly woman decided to sell her car herself. She posted one free ad. The next day, it was blocked with the explanation that "rule violations were detected," but... you can activate the ad for 5,000 rubles per week. She pays this amount, and she receives several calls from "supposed buyers." A week passes, and she has to pay for the ad again. So in a month, she spent her entire pension on advertising on Avto.ru. We called all the numbers she received from the ad, and they were all either disconnected or constantly busy. In other words, these weren’t real buyers, but so-called "scammers." To put it in perspective, at 65 years old, not a single scammer could pull her off, but Avto.ru managed to do so, using her entire pension.
Avito has gone even further, selling its Avtoteka service through ads where...nobody answers the phone. They’ve posted fake ads and are collecting money from the public for Avtoteka reports. Avito has also come up with a call quota, meaning you post an ad, get a few calls, use up your quota, and then ask for a new one.
The aforementioned sites collect photos of personal documents, and where this information goes is also unknown, but spam from various companies increases exponentially.
Online platforms no longer benefit from bringing together buyers and sellers; they are interested in fleecing both categories by preventing them from meeting."