Craigslist Scams

I've got my Undercover SE tonneau cover on the local CL for $550. I get a text this morning from the Atlanta, GA. area asking me if it's still for sale? I said yes. He says Good, I'll send you a check, and when it clears, I'll send someone to pick it up. I say it's for sale locally only with cash. He text's the message to me again, pleading with me. I say that it could take two weeks to clear the check...do you want to wait that long?

He text's back saying that it won't take that long. So I reply that he should send the money through Western Union, then I'll hold the lid until he comes to get it. He says he can't do that, only a check. I say "Sorry." Never heard from him again.

I may have been born in the dark, but it wasn't last night. What's with these idiots?

 

Fucking scammers...

 

Just wait until you hear from the Arabian Prince and what he has in store for you.

 

Scam 50 people. 2 fall for it. No cost or effort for scammer.

Law of averages

 

Every time I list something on Craigslist the first three replys are scams. Scum.

 

I work for Bank of America in Global Technology and Operations - Treasury Management, and one thing i can tell you for certain is that even on a local legit sale that has no signs of a scam, NEVER and i repeat NEVER! accept a check lol. No matter how legit it is. Checks are bad news. I know all too well how check fraud works and the in's ans out's of the system... there are far too many ways to have a check clear and then rerturn later. On the flip side, most requests from the seller to use western union are also a strong sign of a scam. I as a legit seller, id avoid offering WU as a payment option. People get skeptical and will back out quickly when they hear that

 

Cash only....period.

I just sold a motorcycle on Craigslist, what an experience! Out of 15 people that responded to my ad only two were what I would consider to be 'normal' people.

 

Way back in the early 80's, I sold a VW Beetle and VW dune buggy to a local guy. He wrote me a check, then took both cars. My wife said that he looked a bit shady, so she took the check to the bank that it was written on, and cashed it. About 30 minutes later, the bank called and asked if we could bring the money back, as the guy had written it on his grandmothers account. My wife called our banker about it, and he said to keep the money. The check was their problem.

Come to find out, he'd been writing bad checks all over the area; bought his gf a car at a local dealer, groceries, etc. The police came to talk with me about it. We had taken a picture of him writing the check on the hood of the dune buggy. He did jail time over the whole deal.

 

When they ask where to send the check, I make up a name with a title of "Financial Crimes Detective" at a nearby police department. Usually they don't say anything. Occasionally, I'll get a nasty reply.

 

Man, the Craigslist is a hotbed for the crazy people. I swear they breed there. I use Craigslist on a regular basis for both selling and buying. For any given sale ad probably 1 in 20 responses turns out to be worth your time. If it's not a scammer it's some dumbass who wants to trade me some POS for whatever I'm selling.

One time I had the special experience of selling a used transmission on the "List". Lady wanted me to verify that it will fit her vehicle, ok, well I think it will but it's not my car lady. So she ends up buying it. Then contacts me the next day claiming it's my fault that I sold her the wrong part (she had a second hand motor swapped truck, failed to mention that when she asked if it would fit). Threatened to sue me over the couple hundred bucks she spent. Threatened my life and person, Facebook stalked me to find out where I lived ( ...always meet in public places when selling things if possible..) luckily my profile is not public and sensitive info is blocked. I offered to take the trans back and return her money. But she wanted to keep the trans and have her money back, no go there. Long story short, after a long email thread of insane and ridiculous BS she finally left me alone when I told her I had saved all of the conversations and that if she wanted to persue me thru legal means I would be more than happy to proceed, and that a judge was probably gonna be on my side. People are bat shit crazy.

 

I once fedex international overnight a box of steel plates to someone who was obviously a scammer on the account number they provided. Box had to have been about the size of like a size 15 shoebox but weighted like 100lbs. I never heard from them again. I ogt the idea after reading about some electronics store being scammed that put like awasher and dryer on a pallette that was garbage for the scammers agent to pick-up.

 

I once tried selling used Mustang wheels with no tires, just rims. This guy texted me saying he will buy them. So I thought cool, I was only asking $200 for some clean 18" polished bullets. I was just trying to free up some space in my garage. He texted me the next day asking if I was willing to trade for a playstation or Iphone. I told him no, just cash. The next day he texted asking me to "please trade him, he needs the wheels". I again said no just cash. Next day he texts back "please, I need them to drive around to school and to work because I am handicapped". I mean they were just the wheels and no tires. The texting went one for like an hour begging to trade and I heard excuse after excuse. I got tired on dealing with him so I told him they sold, even though they weren't.

It's been a while since I've sold on Craigslist. Actually, that was probably the last time I've tried and that was 5 years ago.

 

I've had good luck so far with CL. Haven't bought or sold a lot but so far so good

 

last CL purchase they guy asked me to meet at a store near his house

After he looked at me and knew I wasn't a wack job he said follow me.

I loaded up the tractor and stuff and paid him 100 extra cause he game me all the spare parts too. He handed me back the extra 100 and said he only wanted back what he put into it.

Im happy and he is happy.

I had a CL sale before and delivered a camper to the person because his axle broke on his truck and gave me 100 for my trouble. I even let him use my plate for 2 weeks. When I picked up the plate he offered me beer n food and to enjoy the cook out.

pervious person that looked at the camper wanted to low ball me and cried that they needed a place to live

Sold a AMT 622 to a guy that tried to low ball me and I said the tries n rims were worth my price. He agreed and gave my offer after.

You need to know the value so you don't get screwed. Don't fall for tears and stick to your plan.
There are some nice people out there. There are also nasty ones too and some in between

 

If you have a Facebook account, they have an App called "market place", for selling, you just upload the pics from your phone, add a price and description and wait for responses. If you want to buy, you set a radius from where you are located and then you only see things listed by people in that radius. You can filter by category or keyword. Sold a lawnmower, queen sleigh bed, and dresser all in one day with multiple inquires and all for full asking price. Same items listed on CL got no or just scam responses. You can see the persons Facebook page and their picture as well.

 

I wouldn't have trusted you either when you mentioned Western Union. Of course I wouldn't ever offer to pay by check either.

 

I listed a camper for a company for sale for a company I worked for. I was astounded by the amount of BS that came back. My favorite were the people that wanted to make payments on it. Uhh, no. If a bank isn't willing to finance you, what makes you think I would be?

 

His name is Aladdin, and we had a connection, ok?!

They do. It's the Missed Connections section (not where I met Aladdin, to be clear. He and I go way back).

 

I had a situation similar to this as well, years ago. I listed a set of wheels that I had taken off my Audi (surprised they didn't fall off, with how much those cars break). In the ad, I had specifically stated that one of the wheels was bent (hit a pothole) and that I didn't know about the others, as I hadn't gotten around to testing them. Some hoity toity "I'm rich and therefore better than you" guy responds, and says he'd like to pick them up for winter wheels for his new Audi. I reiterated to him both via text and in person, that one wheel was bent, and that I didn't know about the others. Guy shows up with the incorrect amount of cash (had all $50's or something, if I remember correctly) and got irritated that I wasn't carrying around a bunch of bills to make change for him. Ended up overpaying me by $25.

A couple days later, I got an angry email saying that three of the four wheels were bent, and that it would have been cheaper for him to buy a new set of wheels than it was to fix the bent ones (obviously bullshit, as he paid something like $250 for the whole set from me, and each wheel cost around $60 to fix bends at that time, and you couldn't touch a brand new set of wheels for Audis for anything less than $800). Proceeded to accuse me of lying and scamming him, threatened to call the cops, etc. I wrote back and told him that his behavior was akin to someone replying to an ad that says "Broken TV, $20", then getting the TV home and throwing a shitfit that it's broken, and accusing the seller of scamming them. The only reply he could come up with was "Did your girlfriend get a hold of your email account?". It was pretty funny.

 

Change this thread title to "Craigslist scams". I love these stories. I feel like every time I post something on CL I get someone wanting to "buy my product. Will send check and have someone pick it up.

Love it.