Craigslist Scams

If I post on CL I usually download an app to get a temporary number. It costs a few bucks but you can pick the number, and pick by price how many texts/calls you can send/receive.

It's convenient because I don't give out my real number, and if someone starts bugging me I can cancel the number or wait for it to expire.

 

When I'm selling or buying a car I always do the meet up at an auto parts store. If it's a situation where I'm buying I've already got the stores OBDII scan tool in hand and that alone seems to help get some chaff into the wind right from the get-go. If I'm selling the rig it's nice to have one and hook it up to show them what is / isn't going on.

9/10 times I'll do the meet up for other CL stuff at the police station parking lot if I'm the seller. Or if I'm buying and am able to set up the meet up spot I just send them the address for the police station and tell them it's "the big parking lot across from the city park" etc. That usually helps right off the bat with the scumbags.

If I'm solo I always arrive early, like 10-15 min in order to get some primo parking up front near the cop shop.

If able I'll always have someone else with me and we both have irons hanging from our hips, otherwise it'll be concealed.

 

All good ideas and I do the same but it's good to keep in mind that some people still don't care. About 2 years ago a buyer and seller met at the state police HQ in Little Rock, AR and someone still wound up getting shot. IIRC the shooter got away. I tried to find the news article but a depressing number of articles come up when Googling "Little Rock police station shooting".

 

Counterfeit pens are better than nothing, but they only work if the bills are made from paper. The pen has iodine in it which reacts with starch (found in paper) and turns black. Real cash is not paper, but is made up of linen and cotton so it does not react to the pen. Good counterfeits are made of high "rag" content paper which may not react, or printed on bleached one dollar notes which will not react. The "best" method is to look for the anti-counterfeit strips and watermark printing found on genuine bills.

 

Learned alot from this thread in the past hour. My rules are.

Never sell cell phones on CL (always ebay or Amazon). Too many murders over it.

Call (not just text) to get a sense of whether a person can speak coherent English and knows something about what they are buying. If they cant or dont, move on.

Never respond to emails such as "is the item still for sale." Item is a dead giveway for trolling. They should be specific to the listing.

Always meet somewhere busy, public with video and audio recording. I prefer the QuikTrip safe place or local PD. If they won't, meetup over.

 

This isn't really a scam, just an odd choice of photo for a vehicle listing

Runs good but something wrong with tranning we have replaced both shift cylinders and now is stuck in drive needs new shift link cable asking 700 obo needs gone asap if you have any questions call or text [hidden information]

 

I love these. At least he is honest, but "runs good" followed by a description of an important broken item always gets me.

 

saw one the other day "runs great, needs new engine"

 

Similar to when people say "100% OEM, no modifications. Except exhaust, intake, suspension, shift kit, etc etc etc"

 

I swear you could put the Hope Diamond on Craigslist for $50 and some jackwang would offer $40.

 

True. Better to wait for the (inevitable) Nigerian prince's offer.

 

Or just reply to scammers AS the Nigerian prince.... or try selling them boner pills.

 

I’ll give you $35 for it

 

I'd buy THAT for a dollar!!!

 

Very common, every time I post anything on Craigslist I get those texts, any time you get someone asking if “this is still avalible” just know it’s a scam

 

That has to be the best Craigslist story yet

 

I just put some tires for sale and the exact same thing happened to me. He said he could pay by cashier check or PayPal, I said send to PayPal. I never got a notification from PayPal that funds had been received, but the guy said he sent them and to check my email. A scam email was sent to me that looks like its from PayPal, it showed the $500 he "paid" for the tires plus $200 extra for the "shipping company" he was going to use to pick up the tires. The email stated that I needed to purchase a $200 iTunes gift card in order to process the payment and get my $500. BULL****, I reported him.

 

This is the first question I ask, so as not to waste both our time with questions that don't need answers if it's sold already and have never scammed anyone.

 

How so? What else is a person supposed to say when checking on the availability of something listed? The first thing I do is ask ‘if it’s still available’

 

I always add a line stating that "This ad will be removed when the item is sold" to anything I sell. But I still get those annoying e-mails asking if it's still available 30 seconds after I hit the Enter key. Ya think?!

The worst experience I ever had in selling anything on CL was a few years ago when I needed to sell my late brother's car for his widow. I got a call from a guy about an hour and a half away inquiring about the car. The more questions he asked, the more I got the impression he'd never even read the ad. When I pressed him on it, he said he was looking for a car for his grandson and his grandson had picked the car out. Ok, I can buy that.

But then it got interesting. He said, "Ok, here's what you're going to do. You're going to bring the car out to me so I can look at it." I politely stopped him right there and said if he was interested, he could drive the hour and a half. He then got pretty indignant and started ordering me around, so I hung up on him. The phone rang back immediately and it was him again. This time he threatened to call the state Attorney General's office and report me. (For what I have no idea.) I then told him to hang on while I dug something out of my wallet. I then gave him the direct line to my cousin - who ran the state AG's office in town. Oddly enough, that was the last we heard of him. Idiots!