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Beware selling on Craigslist


chesterfieldzoo

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I have a machine I am trying to sell. I listed it on craigslist. I got an email asking if it was still available. I said yes. He sends another saying he wants it and needs an address. I send him one. Then I get another email saying he is sending a certified check overnight. It will be for more than the machine, I am to deposit it, keep $100 for my trouble and send the difference to another person to pay the movers and for more equipment.

Fat chance buddy.

The check arrives, I file a police report, call the bank the check is drawn on (of course it's a fraudulent check) and notify the local FBI. All three tell me this happens ALL the time and more often than not - people fall for it!!!!

Now I was to keep $700 and send $2500 to someone else. That's a lot of money. So I didn't (obviously). Yesterday, I get another NASTY email from the guy threatening me that I have messed up all his plans with the movers and he can't buy his other equipment because I have not sent a money order yet, but he will give me a chance to still do it or he is going to send his lawyer and the FBI police to my house.

I rolled on the floor laughing. Then I sent him an email saying fine, I have already called the bank, the FBI and the police.

Then I got annoyed. So I went online and looked up the address the fed ex envelope came from. I called the number for the office next door and they said it was empty and gave me the management number. I let them know someone was using the empty office address to send fraudulent checks. Then I called Fed Ex. It was a new account used to send it and was flagged and shut down.

What amazes me is that so many people fall for this scam! More people fall for it than don't? Why? It is on the news all the time about these scams. And the lady at the bank said that not only are these people out the full amount of money, but that someone will actually pick up the item they have sold - so they are out that as well!

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And the guy thinks that threatening you is going to make you deposit a check that is made of rubber? Since when are you doing anything illegal by not selling to him? I'll bet you don't hear anything more from him, other than maybe send him back his check?

The things people fall for these days.

I just remember the old adage...If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Terri

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I had a similar experience with a reply to an entertainment center I listed. He wanted basically the same thing, my address and phone numbers, he would send a money order and I would arrange movers to get it to him, etc, etc. I was a little miffed that he was so pushy and demanding. I emailed a reply that I was not providing him with any of my personal information, that if he was truly interested in the piece then I would glady accept his cash payment and that he could deliver it to my workplace, the County Courthouse and that I would gladly arrange for him to pick the item up at a mutally convenient location. I never heard from him again. I forwarded a copy of the email to Craigslist and got the same story that it happens all the time. I laughed it off but it was my first experience with a scammer and it actually creeped me out a bit. I could only imagine some crook showing up at my house!! SCARY!!

You went the distance, hope you scared him at least a little.

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I know a lot of folks here love their local craigslist but I've had too many bad experiences with mine, both trying to buy and trying to sell. I don't bother with it anymore at all. I'm glad you didn't get scammed!

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i have a friend whose son listed a car on ebay and had this happen to him. Thank goodness he did not fall for it either. The thing that scares me the most about selling anything on CL is that several years ago a local girl and her husband listed a pool table for sale. A man called and asked to come look at it and being young and way too trusting she agreed even though her husband was not home from work yet. The guy showed up and she was killed and they took weeks looking for her. Boy that scared me!! But now days I don't know if would have even mattered if her husband had been home, there are too many psychos around.

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I've heard horror stories like that. Women need to be very careful about letting anyone in their home when they are alone, or even letting anyone know they are alone! We had a series of forced entry burglaries here in Lubbock until they caught them.

Back to Craig's list-we listed some farm machinery we wanted to get rid of-Combine, tractor, 12 row planter. We had a guy want to buy those with the scam deal, and arrange shipping......his address was in Germany! Think we could find a big enough priority mail box? I don't think they even look to see what you have for sale, they just send the standard email to everyone listed.

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Creepy story, Rebecca.

I listed our piano on CL, and got a response from guy who said he really wanted the piano, but he was out of the country right now, and would I look over it and email him about any flaws, etc, and he'd send me a check for $100 more than I was asking for, and he'd arrange for his personal assistant to pick it up.

It made no sense, his message went into DELETE.

NEM once got a nasty email from some guy threatening to call the police, the FBI, and the Better Business bureau if we didn't send him the Sony Viao computer he bought from us for $150.00 on Ebay

NEM doesn't deal in computers, buddy. NEM doesn't sell anything on Ebay. DELETE

Yesterday we got an email from some guy who wanted to buy sideboards. He wanted to know what kind we had and their dimensions and prices.He also wanted our website address, and wanted the sideboards delived to his associate in Ghana. DELETE

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I got one of these through something i was selling on eBAY a couple of years ago. All the same things, fed ex, threatening me cos I didn't cash the check, told FBI, who didn't even contact me back. The only difference is I never replied back to her threats, etc. just ignored the rest of her messages. I'm sorry but I can't believe that some people are gullible enough to cash these checks.

Julie

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There are websites that try to scam the scammer. The last one I heard about involved a guy wanting to buy some laptops or something. It was an obvious scam, so the seller pretended to fall for the scam and then jobbed together a huge, heavy box and shipped it to the scammer. The scammer of course, had to pay duty or taxes or something on it, which he did because he thought he was buying a box full of expensive computers.

Of course, the seller then printed all the scammers emails to him on his forum - it was hilarious! The scammer was going to "dead" the sender and all sorts of stupid stuff.

If anyone is interested, I can look around for that site. I thought I would die laughing, especially as some members of this forum lived overseas where the scammer lived and actually got pics of him signing for his worthless boxes. And those pics got posted on the forum, of course. Live by the scam, die by the scam!

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If I'm getting this right,

They send YOU a check, you deposit it in YOUR account, then write checks from YOUR account for the other stuff.

Sounds like money laundering to me.

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If I'm getting this right,

They send YOU a check, you deposit it in YOUR account, then write checks from YOUR account for the other stuff.

Sounds like money laundering to me.

No, what they do is send you a check, money order, etc, with a story about how they need to pay their exporter, some other business, etc, and it's just easier for them to send one check, and they are paying you for your time and trouble, basically you are being their agent in the States. Or, in another scenario, someone in the States owes them money so they have them write you the check/money order, you deposit it, and send the balance and the goods they are buying from you on to them (again, less something for your time and trouble acting as their agent).

You, being an "honest" person, deposit it in your account, maybe even wait a week-10 days for it to clear, then send them the difference. Unfortunately, then your bank gets the check or money order back because it's fraudulent, which can take 2-3 weeks, sometimes even more, and by then the scammer has already cashed your good check or money order and is long gone. The scammer has your money, what you are selling, and you get nothing, lose your goods, and end up having to pay-out whatever $ you sent the scammer plus bank fees usually for returned checks.

This scenario happens in almost every business that sells on-line. Unfortunately too many people just get so excited (some just plain greedy) they see it as a windfall and fall for it.

And of the people I know of that fell for this scam long ago when it first started, law enforcement isn't real interested in helping you out because they know you weren't totally in the right to begin with, the scammer is long gone/untraceable, and it's basically a civil case anyway.

We have sold reptiles over the internet. DH keeps them as his hobby and breeds once in a while just to make some money to pay for his hobby. Reptiles are mostly a cash business over the internet, i.e. money order, cashier check. Not many dealers accept credit cards. The above scam was rampant throughout that industry at first, though most people have learned by now. Those that still fall for it are either rank newbies or are a bit on the shady side to begin with.

We never had an issue. Just deleted those types of e-mails though had a few that were very pushy and we finally had to write them back, tell them we knew it was a scam, and to leave us alone. We would only accept USPS money orders and would take them and cash them before sending out the animals. USPS has a book they can check to see if they are fraudulent before they pay them out, though they may have got it computerized by now, it's been a few years since we sold. Or we would take cashier checks drawn on nation-wide banks that we could take to the originating bank and cash. Or, if they were close enough, we'd meet and deal in cash. Those 3 scenarios are about the only way a small-time person in that industry could be sure of getting paid.

Minis seem a much nicer place to do business in thank goodness!

Karen

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I have heard so many horror stories about the outcome of Craigslist listings. Just don't give out your address or email. Phone is enough.

Now, can someone tell me how to stop all those "appeals" from various "ministers of....." in Africa that are trying to get me to help them move great quantities of money. I really have no simpathy for anyone that falls for those nutzy requests.

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What I found so amazing was that all three places I called first (police, fbi, bank) all said more people fall for it than don't. Yet everyone I tell about say they know it's a scam.

I can't send the check back, the address on the fed ex envelope is an empty office. The name is fake. The email address is real and I am calling the provider this morning to let them know.

I am a wannabe detective/forensics person.

I didn't give out my home address - it was sent to work. I let very very few people come into my house. Never strangers and friends only once I get to know them. When we do garden tours, I close all the drapes - you would be amazed at how many people will cup their hands to peek in your windows.

It was sad to hear about the woman that was killed. I don't even open the front door if the doorbell rings. Ever. I go to the bathroom window - next to the front door - to see who is there. I am trying to get my parents to do the same at their house.

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Same thing happened to my husbands best friend... except he was expecting a check from somewhere else and did not read the check, just deposited it to his bank. After about a month or so he realized what it was and by that time he had no money in his account.... called the police and found out it was someone doing the exac same thing...

really scary... they threateded him and he really had a hard time getting out of it... he ended up losing over $300. becuase of this.

Kellee

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It's not one guy-it's a business all over the world, but particularly in Nigeria. Con artists will sit all day sending those things out to everyone they see selling something. It's generally a form letter that says 'your item' instead of taking the time to say what it is that you are selling. Apparently they make a good living doing this!

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Part of my job is doing money transfers for people. I have showed them printouts describing the scam of the day, I have put them on the phone with my company's fraud department, I have talked to them and talked to them and finally gotten to the point where I just refuse to handle suspicious transactions -- which usually makes the customer just a wee bit testy. Even with my refusal, they will go to another location, send their money to the scam artist, and then come back and tell me that gee, they shooda listened. The ones paying for their True Love to come to America were the worst to deal with.

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Not money laundering, Andrew. The check that you have deposited in your account is no good. You end up out money, AND whatever you were selling.

Terri

ps I would LOVE to see that website!

Let me see if I can find it. There's a couple of them, actually.

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