What are they up to?

[ANSEL_2.0]

Few strangers have send message to me on telegram, they want me to sell them old empty Ethereum wallet that I have used to do some transactions in the past, I am curious what they plan to use them for? One claimed he already bought 80 Ethereum wallets from people, anyone have a clue? And the fact is I try confusing one of them that the wallet they bought doesn't entirely belong to them, because the sellers still have access to the wallet since they know the recovery seed.

[Rikafip]

One member recently opened up a topic in Services section wanting exactly that, to buy empty ETH addresses. Here is his explanation and its probably true.

Basically I want to participate in new incentivised testnets and they tend to reject wallets that are pretty recent as they think you might be a bot.

Which is why I'm looking for old wallets preferably with activity

Hope that clears things up  

And the fact is I try confusing one of them that the wallet they bought doesn't entirely belong to them, because the sellers still have access to the wallet since they know the recovery seed.

True, that seems like a logical problem and he had an anseerr for that too.

The testnets I want to do, you deposit crypto on their platform and the wallet is just used to sign messages and approve transactions so it's not a huge risk for me

[BlackHatCoiner]

- Any stranger which messages you to sell you something for your benefit in the Internet is a scammer. (Life motto)
- Any stranger which sells wallets is a scammer. (That applies to real life too, unless they are empty  )
- Any stranger which wants your addresses, probably wants to impersonate you.

[Upgrade00]

And the fact is I try confusing one of them that the wallet they bought doesn't entirely belong to them, because the sellers still have access to the wallet since they know the recovery seed.

That could be the idea. They want you to feel you could outsmart them, and install a system that automatically sends out all deposits, then they put some amount in before activating it.
You still have the keys and would want to withdraw the amount they sent to it by putting some in as gas few which you would lose out of.

There would be a legitimate reason, but I consider the illegitimate ones only when I get unsolicited messages.

[Yaunfitda]

Few strangers have send message to me on telegram, they want me to sell them old empty Ethereum wallet that I have used to do some transactions in the past, I am curious what they plan to use them for? One claimed he already bought 80 Ethereum wallets from people, anyone have a clue? And the fact is I try confusing one of them that the wallet they bought doesn't entirely belong to them, because the sellers still have access to the wallet since they know the recovery seed.

Not just Ethereum though, but as far as I can remember there are also individuals looking for old bitcoin addresses, and yeah the same reasons to claim fork coins, in short to incentivised them. So if by chance you old address but doesn't feel like selling it, then don't, simply as that.

[topman21]

There are many people who can offer you to buy different wallets not just Ethereum. But it is better not to pay attention to them. Most people get confused here. They offered to buy the old wallet from you but there you may have done the best thing not to do. And I have never been in such confusion.

[The Cryptovator]

I am still struggling to understand what they will do with this type of address or wallet. But pretty sure not for a good thing. Otherwise, everyone is free to create a new wallet. Sharing seeds or private keys means the wallet is compromised. I won't sell or share my old wallet credentials. Because they might use it wrongly which we are unaware of. So avoid Telegram random DMs always you aren't familiar with something. You would have trouble as well later since we don't know whether they will use the old address for the crime or not.

[lovesmayfamilis]

It would be a problem for me to find out how these people got access to your contacts. I'm probably very careful, but I never received a message from strangers. In any case, whatever they come up with, these people are looking for their own benefit, whether you need to understand their problems, this is only your choice. Get past these emails by blocking senders and realizing that no one will ever send a website with a "money" button.