Craigslist Scams

Just had a guy offer me 2oz's of kgb for a snowboard
Duuuuuuude!!!
Nice try, but no, thanks anyways man, just cash.

 

As someone who sells in the occasional old-no-longer-needed stuff on the used market (in other words CL)- a couple of tips:

1. Cash only, doesn't matter how much it's for. Scammer texts are so easy to see that I don't think I need to say anything about them.
2. Neutral location is key. You don't want them seeing that nice classic car, your bike, or tools you have in the garage, let alone the house you live in (doesn't matter if it's a nice place or not). You don't wan't people knowing what you have or where to find it. Also, high traffic areas like gas stations are good because we've all heard of CL stickups before.

 

Guilty of breaking rule #2
Had a digitech gsp21 legend up for sale and after sending a guy more pics & vids of it working and talking/txting i finally just told him to grab his axe and come check it out.

The problem with neutral locations in this area is the scourge of transients/junkies that panhandle us every freakin time!!!

 

^ I'm also guilty of breaking rule #2. Had a bunch of full plywood sheets with no way to load them up that worked. Then he showed up early before I could at least move them outside and had to let him into the garage. Seemed like a normal guy and the house hasn't been broken into yet so guess it worked out okay. Even carrying I prefer to avoid that because I can't always be home.

 

True, I should have been a little more specific: he walked INTO my garage and proceeded to start looking through all of my stuff. He hadn't been in my garage prior to that. I had set aside the tires by the outside of the garage so there was zero need for him to come into it for the items he was picking up.

 

Pissed off a nosy neighbor for the same reason. Wife was having a yard sale and dude walked uninvited into the garage and started nosing around. Being told to stop finger fucking my stuff and to get out of my house hurt his feelings for some reason.

 

Ahhh, now that makes a whole lot more sense. I'd be pretty pissed as well.

 

2007 YEAR MODEL HONDA ACCORD EX-L///Many Safety Features - $1080

This is the only picture

 

Escape hatch is a safety feature right?

 

Lots of money to be made on loans the bank isn't willing to make.
BUT... have to secure it against REAL ESTATE, and you have to look at everything registered on the property ahead of you and decide that you would LIKE to buy the property for that price.

 

I used loans against private businesses. I received interest and percentage of net sales. Granted, I was a business consultant and the loan was way to get to the percentage of net (high ROI, just have to get small business owners to understand that they don’t know how to run a business).

 

When I post something on Craigslist I state I’ll only respond to “I’ll buy it” and they have to give their local phone number and don’t correspond via email. Everything else, I ignore and delete. Saves a ton of time and energy.

 

I sell a lot on CL and always get this text, "hey man, whats the lowest you'd take on that xxxx?". It's a simple reply really, "What's the highest you'd pay?" Usually weeds out the morons real quick.

Sometimes I get the reply, "well I don't know man, I'd have to see it to make an offer" No duh...

A second favorite is they ask for bottom dollar and I'll reply a fair price (say I'm asking $2,000 for a daily beater, I'll say $1,800). Then they'll ask, "we'll, when can I come check it out?" Me: "oh sorry, that was the 'show up, hand me cash and you get a title in hand' price. Checking it out is $100 and any questions about it are $20 each".

Doesn't fix the idiots you encounter, but makes it fun watching them get all bent out of shape when you play the same game.

Jake

 

Regarding "send a check" scammers. I usually have fun with them too, asking for either a shipping address, name, delaying and talking to them needlessly for days. Asking if they wanna trade instead, if they want free items since they're sending me extra funds, what charity they want me to donate the extra funds to because I feel guilty keeping it, asking what their religion is and getting into a debate over whatever it is...If I'm occupying their time, they're spending that much less time scamming. Brings personal joy to an annoying situation.

Also, don't fall for "I'm out of town, can you email me at xxxxxxx instead of texting?

 

I'm cleaning up 50 years of spare stuff, and I post a lot of piddley $10.00 to $50.00 items on Craigslist. And I continuously get messages that say; "Is this item still available?". I get these messages even if I posted the item less than 10 minutes previously!

I reply politely, and say "Yes, it's available". And ask if they would like to see it. I have never gotten a single reply from one of those emails!

Apparently, there are people who troll Craigslist and Facebook garage sale groups for the sole purpose of asking if items are available. WTF????

Charlie

 

That's why I always include a sentence that tells them I will NOT respond to availability questions and may or may not mess with the messenger if so.

 

Of buying or selling a vehicle or something expensive. I ask the seller to meet me at my bank or their bank. I then pay for a cashier's check and deposit right there.

Either way, the seller gets the money, and a paper trail with copies of IDs.

In TX we used to worry that a buyer would leave the car in your name, but now you can submit an affidavit within 30 days stating you sold the vehicle

My local police station encourages CL cash transactions in their pakrking lot.

 

I usually respond with anywhere from $20-500 more than I have it listed and then they ask when they can look at it.

 

Dude, come back to earth, this is a CL thread....

 

I didn't read the whole thread, mainly because I am lazy, but a word to the wise about only accepting "cash" when doing a face to face.

I've been doing face to face sales for a long time. Since the early 90's. Mostly sporting goods stuff. Hunting stuff. Ifyouknowwhatimeanvern.

And its happened a number of times selling stuff via Craigslist.

At least a half dozen times over the last 20 years I've been slipped counterfeit bills inside a stack of cash. The first time hurt. I was selling a rifle I no longer wanted and the deal was face to face at a gunshow in Houston, Texas. The buyer handed me $900 cash. All 100's. Three of the 100 bills were counterfeit as my bank later revealed when I attempted to deposit them. That was the only time I've ever been burned with counterfeit cash.

I carry a counterfeit pen since that hard learned lesson. I keep a couple in the Taco or in my other set of wheels.




I check every bill. Every single one. I've found counterfeit 5's, 10's, 20's and 50's. Never a counterfeit 1, but I check every single bill. It's gotten easier with larger denominations with the anti-counterfeit measures such as the denomination thread, color changing hologram, or watermark. But just last year I discovered two "super 100's" which I suspect were Iranian or North Korean in origin. The only thing missing from those two bills was the correct denomination thread running in the correct spot on the bill.

Just be aware that there is counterfeit cash out there. Especially when you're doing a large cash transaction and a buyer may be looking to give themsevles a 10, 20, 30 or 50% "discount."

If you don't have a good method of determining if a bill is counterfeit, then you will likely find out when you go to your bank to deposit the cash, or attempt to spend it somewhere where someone does check bills with a detection pen.

FWIW.