Craigslist scams???

Wobbie

A couple of days ago, I used Craigslist for my first time. I'm trying to sell an outboard motor. Here's the two responses I got:

I been looking for that size mercury motor for ever and I just went back to work and can't afford all of it at once, I will pay full price and give you my old vintage 7.5 motor.if I can lay it away? you see I don't know much about them and mine needs some kind of oil somewhere but I don't know jack about it I just want to pull the cord and go go go it still runs but gets hot and I don't want to burn it up and I don't know any one who will fix it.. it's been rebuilt by the guy I got it from and runs real well. I just don't feel good about running it until I can put the oil in it. I can do it in 2 payments in a months time..
thx for your time ..
Mike

Hi,
I'm happy its still available for sale. If you want to sell it now im willing to offer $500.I can pay you right now with a Check because I won't be able to come look at it,due my short notice travelling job, I had to leave town and will be back in a week or two so i'll forward your details to my Customer who i'm making purchase in his regards to make the payment payable to you in order not to delay. Can i have your contact info ( full name and address) with phone number to proceed with payment. It will be sent to you via UPS/FEDEX next day delivery. I will arrange for pick up immediately you turn the check to Cash .Please attach pics and send to this email.
Regards ,

I mean, WTF?? Is this typical of Craigslist? I'm not dealing with either one of these bozos. I don't quite see the scam, but it sure looks like they're trying to get over on me somehow. I'd use ebay, but didn't want to deal with shipping and, yes, my phone number is in the listing but these clowns are using email. :roll: :roll:

If anyone needs a 1981 Mercury 7.5 HP outboard motor, PM me!

vduboise

yeah- these are scams. Especially the second one. That is the only thing with Craigslist- you have to be very weary of scamers.

CJMST3K

Sell in person only to be sure, and accept cash only. You can also go to an office supply store and get a currency pen which will tell fake bills from real ones. Don't accept checks. Just take cash and keep it simple. If someone wants to lay it away, as long as you keep possession of it until it's paid off, and as long as you accept cash only, and you have an agreement of when each payment is to be made, you should be ok.

mfc2006

when i was selling my Isuzu Rodeo, i couldn't believe some of the responses that i got. asking me to ship my car, accept partial payments, yada, yada. it was pretty funny, actually. it got to the point that i pretty much ignored all of the responses. but i'm glad that i didn't ignore all of them b/c i sold it about 5 weeks after i posted the ad & got about $1750 more than a dealer would have given me.

Wobbie

CJMST3K wrote:

Sell in person only to be sure, and accept cash only. You can also go to an office supply store and get a currency pen which will tell fake bills from real ones.

I hadn't even considered funny money. :shock: :shock:

mfc2006 wrote:

when i was selling my Isuzu Rodeo, i couldn't believe some of the responses that i got. asking me to ship my car, accept partial payments, yada, yada. it was pretty funny, actually. it got to the point that i pretty much ignored all of the responses.

Yeah, I think I'm pretty much gonna just take the hardass approach.....no trades, no payment plans, you want it - bring cash. And I'm not inviting any of these morons to my house, either.

mfc2006

imalive wrote:

CJMST3K wrote:

Sell in person only to be sure, and accept cash only. You can also go to an office supply store and get a currency pen which will tell fake bills from real ones.

I hadn't even considered funny money. :shock: :shock:

yup. ask for either a cashier's check or cash. i took the guy's cashier's check & deposited it before i gave him the keys. they verified it at my bank, then i went back & gave him the keys. he seemed like a nice enough guy, but you can never be too careful. good luck!

norm

scams on craigslist?!?!

i don't believe it

Wobbie

norm wrote:

scams on craigslist?!?!

i don't believe it

Being an unsophisticated rube, I'm an "easy mark." :shock: :shock:

norm

imalive wrote:

norm wrote:

scams on craigslist?!?!

i don't believe it

Being an unsophisticated rube, I'm an "easy mark." :shock: :shock:

that could be dangerous living in vegas

Who Princess

We have successfully sold a couple of vehicles on Craigslist and my husband has bought various things (car parts, music equipment) but you really have to be careful. I would say that the weird factor for both listers and buyers has really increased during the last 2 years but there are still plenty of decent people out there. Just don't let anybody into your house, meet them someplace neutral if possible, or make sure that other people are around. Watch out for your personal safety. I know everyone is telling you to take financial safeguards, which you ABSOLUTELY must do, but losing some cash wouldn't even compare to losing your life. :shock:

Having said all that, Craigslist turned out to be a great way for my family to sell my dad's 1983 Isuzu pick-up and 1998 Cadillac sedan after he passed away suddenly. Nobody was going to take those things as trade-ins but we found buyers who were thrilled to get vehicles that met their needs and to find "honest people" who were selling them.

I like selling stuff on eBay but I'll still use Craigslist for anything that isn't practical to ship.

CJMST3K

mfc2006 wrote:

imalive wrote:

CJMST3K wrote:

Sell in person only to be sure, and accept cash only. You can also go to an office supply store and get a currency pen which will tell fake bills from real ones.

I hadn't even considered funny money. :shock: :shock:

yup. ask for either a cashier's check or cash. i took the guy's cashier's check & deposited it before i gave him the keys. they verified it at my bank, then i went back & gave him the keys. he seemed like a nice enough guy, but you can never be too careful. good luck!

Cashier's checks can be a scam too, even if a bank verifies it. It's unlikely, but since I sell artwork on my website for a few thousand dollars a pop, it's been something I've talked with my bank about (plus my sister used to manage a bank). ...so, be cautious with cashier's checks too. Cash is cash though.

Wobbie

whoprincess wrote:

Watch out for your personal safety. I know everyone is telling you to take financial safeguards, which you ABSOLUTELY must do, but losing some cash wouldn't even compare to losing your life. :shock:

Oh, great............now I won't even be able to sleep at night! :shock: :shock:

Seriously, thanks to all for the food for thought. I miss the good old days.

81

craigslist seems to be 85% scam, 10% goof balls, 4% dumbass's and 1% normal people.


you list anything and you are bound to get junk mail. it used to be a lot better

PJGARDEN

I'm selling my horse on craigslist and yes I get some of the dumbest emails. Some of them I just don't repsond to. I also did not put my phone number in the ad. I try to feel the people out a little through email before I give them my number. Maybe I am overly cautious but I think you have to be careful with the internet in general. Oh and yes, cash or cashiers check only.

CJMST3K

PJGARDEN wrote:

I'm selling my horse on craigslist and yes I get some of the dumbest emails. Some of them I just don't repsond to. I also did not put my phone number in the ad. I try to feel the people out a little through email before I give them my number. Maybe I am overly cautious but I think you have to be careful with the internet in general. Oh and yes, cash or cashiers check only.

Why are you selling your horse?

PJGARDEN

CJMST3K wrote:

PJGARDEN wrote:

I'm selling my horse on craigslist and yes I get some of the dumbest emails. Some of them I just don't repsond to. I also did not put my phone number in the ad. I try to feel the people out a little through email before I give them my number. Maybe I am overly cautious but I think you have to be careful with the internet in general. Oh and yes, cash or cashiers check only.

Why are you selling your horse?

No time to ride him. He's the last horse I own so I guess I'm getting out of the business. I've had horses my whole life but it's more of a job now than anything.

Who Princess

imalive wrote:

whoprincess wrote:

Watch out for your personal safety. I know everyone is telling you to take financial safeguards, which you ABSOLUTELY must do, but losing some cash wouldn't even compare to losing your life. :shock:

Oh, great............now I won't even be able to sleep at night! :shock: :shock:

Seriously, thanks to all for the food for thought. I miss the good old days.

I say all that and actually we have never had any problems. In particular, the people who bought vehicles from us could not have been nicer people. We thought we would have trouble selling an old pick-up truck and a gas guzzling Cadillac and we found great buyers for both. In particular, the Cadillac had a slow oil leak so we disclosed that and sold it for a low price. We allowed the buyer to take it and have it checked and agreed we'd take it back if her mechanic found additional problems. She came back later and said that everything checked out like we'd said and that it was so nice to know there were still honest people in the world.

TravisTheSky

Mercy, I've tried to make money selling on local Craigslist! It's not easy. I live in L.A, you'd think there would be mllions of folks looking to buy everything... but I often have to list items many times over weeks or even months before they sell successfully.

Yes, most replies are either spam for other crap, or phishes that just want my e-mail address. The most common question I get is, "Is this still available?" Usually, that's a scammer. But I also had a woman ask that about a $95 vacuum which she eventually bought 3 weeks later. So it's complicated.

I have much better luck on eBay. But since CraigsList is free, I always have 5-12 items on there that I constantly re-post on the small chance someone might want one. The drama I go through when someone shows serious interest is ridiculous and frustrating. Half the potential customers who are "On their way over" never show.

I had my best CL week ever this past week: I posted in the Wanted section that I needed a good but cheap cage for a mouse I wanted to rescue out of the Pasadena Humane Society. A woman sold me a perfect one for $5! Then a local Mom bought $6 worth of antique toys from me. When I apologised via e-mail for not returning her call because the battery pack in my phone died completely (I only have a landline, free service with MagicJack) she GAVE me an EUC phone for free! It's gorgeous, a funky silver colour. Whoop! Faith in the CraigsList community restored for a while.

Wobbie

TravisTheSky wrote:

The most common question I get is, "Is this still available?" Usually, that's a scammer.

BOTH of those people I quoted started with that. But I'm too slick for them.....I responded back from my work email. So if there's a virus or something, it's I.T.'s problem.

iamica

Craigslist is hit or miss...I agree with everyone here, meet the buyer in person, but never in your home (usually a public place like a bank or grocery store works). Don't ever take checks, and don't ever give out your personal info for someone who wants to wire you money or claims they want to do a bank transfer. Cash only, in person only is a safe bet.

Arcticangel

I found some real creepos when I was renting a room in my apartment... lots of people from abroad wanting me to help pay to ship their stuff to America.. oh yeah, I'll pay you back when I get there...

mrvedderson

Arcticangel wrote:

I found some real creepos when I was renting a room in my apartment... lots of people from abroad wanting me to help pay to ship their stuff to America.. oh yeah, I'll pay you back when I get there...

imagine the poor lonely people that fall for that one though

davidtrios

just dont buy super bowl tix on cl...