| [Rant] Selling on Craigslist and dealing with scammers I have bought and sold loads of things thru the local Craigslist and gotten great deals, but jeeez, trying to sell on there and dealing with scammers wanting me to ship is the pits. I always post my ad with "CASH ONLY, LOCAL PICKUP ONLY" but that gets cheerfully ignored and I get a 10 to 1 ratio of scammers vs genuine local people wanting to buy when it comes to electronics like laptops.
And yes I am asking too much for the laptop. I like some wiggle room to drop the price if they want to haggle and I am in the mood.
example email received below with personal info redacted
______________________________________
From xxxxxxxxxxxxx
to xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
date Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 11:44 AM
subject Re: Dell Inspiron 2650 LAPTOP - $180 (xxxxxxx)
I will pass. I only sell locally.
If I wanted to ship I would have listed in eBay
----- Reply message -----
From: XXXXXXXXXXX
Date: Wed, Sep 15, 2010 11:17 am
Subject: Dell Inspiron 2650 LAPTOP - $180
To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Thanks for your reply,i am located in Rochester city
in NY,i really need to buy this and send to my
son schooling outside the state as a Birthday Gift, have been trying to buy this on eBay
but is very stressful buying on eBay and i will not want to miss
out on this opportunity so am making you an offer of $220 so as to rap the sale off.
I will be paying through PAYPAL
because i have a verified account with paypal.So kindly get back with
your paypal email address so i can make payment into your paypal
account.Once payment clears,shipment will be handled by me through my
personal FedEx account,so you don't have to pay for
shipment.Get back to me if my approval is granted.I would like to see
the pictures please. |
|
 removedPremium,VIP
join:2002-02-08
Houston, TX
kudos:37 | said by freeplay:I always post my ad with "CASH ONLY, LOCAL PICKUP ONLY" but that gets cheerfully ignored Do you genuinely believe that scammers actually read the posts / care about what you're selling?
Hint: they don't
--
irc.removed.us - #dslr |
|
 GbcueP.E.Premium
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA
kudos:8 | reply to freeplay
Just hit the DELETE button.
Simple. |
|
| Yea, I know, but once in a while I reply just to vent..and posted here to vent..its aggravating |
|
|
|
removedPremium,VIP
join:2002-02-08
Houston, TX
kudos:37 | reply to Gbcue
But then the scammer will never know that the OP would've listed the laptop on eBay if he wanted to ship it!
--
irc.removed.us - #dslr |
|
 sapoCruising Down Memory LanePremium
join:2002-09-16
Sacramento, CA
kudos:1 | reply to freeplay
Your mistake is replying to scammers. Hope you aren't using your regular email accounts.
Just deal via Phone, most email communication is useless on craigslist.
--
A block of cheese is a good day indeed. |
|
 TechnogeezAgape in amazement.Premium
join:2007-01-20 | reply to freeplay
Yep, you sure outwitted THAT scammer.
Anyone buy your laptop yet?
--
The farther one travels, the less one knows. |
|
| reply to freeplay
Why would you hide the personal info of a scammer? |
|
removedPremium,VIP
join:2002-02-08
Houston, TX
kudos:37 | said by Bobcat79:Why would you hide the personal info of a scammer? Why even hide your own when it's so easy to find the post in question?
»hartford.craigslist.org/sys/1953542173.html
--
irc.removed.us - #dslr |
|
sailorPremium
join:2003-10-21
Long Island
kudos:6 | reply to freeplay
said by freeplay:I Dell Inspiron 2650 LAPTOP - $180 Hey I'll take it...Do you ship??  |
|
| Yup thats the ad... easy to find when my city is right there next to my name on my post
Sailor, ur kidding right? Dont play me bro lol Ive had a long day
P.S. I got five more emails that started like the first scammers email. with one line in the email
"Is it still available?" I just ignore em now. |
|
| We found an unopened (still in shrink wrap) box with Windows 3.0 (not 3.1) at work. Wonder if we could sell it on CL or eBay. It requires but does not come with DOS. |
|
HesherPremium
join:2002-09-26
Sycamore, IL | reply to freeplay
Being a Realtor, I post all of my listings on Craigslist. It's really gotten out of control in the last few months to the point that for each listing I get about 10 scam emails within an hour.
First I made it so they annonymized my email, thinking that may help. Nope.
I've been to the point where I just wasn't going to post on there anymore, which sucked because I have sold houses to people that found the listing on Craigslist.
Then I made it so that there is no email to respond to at all. Not even annonymized. (is that a word, annonymized?). I then would post my email address within the ad itself. I was still getting scam emails. Now I have it so they have to click on my link within the ad and go to my website if they want to contact me. I've put a disclaimer in the ad explaining why I do that and warning people to watch out for bogus ads. It seems to be working. I'm still getting the serious inquiries, but none of the garbage so I'm happy.
I've even had a bunch of my listings cloned and put on as rentals. These people go as far as to creating email addresses that use the owners name within them...they have to dig through tax records to do that too.
We had one person cloning listings that was from Green Bay. Green Bay p.d. said they couldn't do anything about it. Then we pointed out that the photos they were stealing are copyrighted material and that changed everything. Shut that guy down real quick.
I would be more than happy to pay a nominal fee to craigslist if they would only police the site a little better. It's such a breeding ground for scammers that it's almost not worth using at all. |
|
 Cthen
join:2004-08-01
Detroit, MI | reply to freeplay
Easy solution, don't allow email and post a phone number only if you only deal locally.
--
"I like to refer to myself as an Adult Film Efficienato." - Stuart Bondek |
|
scross
join:2002-09-13
Cordova, TN | reply to Hesher
said by Hesher: Not even annonymized. (is that a word, annonymized?). Yes it is, actually, and it's all over the internet - as opposed to its somewhat ugly alternative "anonymousitized", which isn't nearly so popular. However, the proper spelling is "anonymized" (one "n").
I'm sorry to hear about Craigslist. I've only used it once, a few years back when our dog went MIA. We posted ads and flyers everywhere, but the only responses we ever got back were via Craigslist. None of these panned out, though, and some might even have been scams. (If you're curious, yes she did turn back up eventually, three weeks after the fact and much the worse for wear, but she's fully recovered now.) |
|
Reviews:
 ·Verizon Online DSL
 ·Optimum Online
·EarthLink
| said by scross:I'm sorry to hear about Craigslist. I've only used it once, a few years back when our dog went MIA. We posted ads and flyers everywhere, but the only responses we ever got back were via Craigslist. None of these panned out, though, and some might even have been scams. "Is the lost dog still available? Am very much interested in buying the lost dog from you and I would like to make an outright purchase immediately so I will advice that you withdraw the advert from the web.Furthermore my mover will be coming over for the pick up of the lost dog as I might not be available for the pick up myself I would have love to come and look up the lost dog but presently am not chance to do that but am OK with the information from the ad." |
|
sailorPremium
join:2003-10-21
Long Island
kudos:6 | reply to Cthen
said by Cthen:Easy solution, don't allow email and post a phone number only if you only deal locally. I have a question for those who have listed their phone # as a contact in their CL ad.
Do spammers and con-men grab the number like they do with emails or are phone numbers basically ignored by those with not so good intentions? |
|
scross
join:2002-09-13
Cordova, TN
1 edit | reply to Bobcat79
said by Bobcat79:said by scross:I'm sorry to hear about Craigslist. I've only used it once, a few years back when our dog went MIA. We posted ads and flyers everywhere, but the only responses we ever got back were via Craigslist. None of these panned out, though, and some might even have been scams. "Is the lost dog still available? Am very much interested in buying the lost dog from you and I would like to make an outright purchase immediately so I will advice that you withdraw the advert from the web.Furthermore my mover will be coming over for the pick up of the lost dog as I might not be available for the pick up myself I would have love to come and look up the lost dog but presently am not chance to do that but am OK with the information from the ad." No such hilarity, I'm afraid. We had a couple of "close, but no cigar" calls, and at least one person who insisted that they'd found "our" big tan male Labrador, even though the ad we'd posted clearly said small black female Cocker. But my favorite was the dude who called up weeks later and wanted us to drive half-way across town to look at the dog he'd found, even though we told him up front that we'd already recovered ours. He sounded quite 420 at the time, too. Weird.
Oh, and my favorite spam email these days goes something like this: "Our records indicate that you are currently dead. If you are not currently dead, please respond with your name, address, SSN, date of birth, and so on, so that we may prevent unscrupulous types from trying to falsely claim your estate." Apparently they are not too concerned about this danger if you really are dead, as they give no option for you to respond if that's the case - no "spirit-mail" address or anything.
|
|
Cthen
join:2004-08-01
Detroit, MI Reviews:
 ·Verizon Wireless..
·Comcast
| reply to sailor
said by sailor:said by Cthen:Easy solution, don't allow email and post a phone number only if you only deal locally. I have a question for those who have listed their phone # as a contact in their CL ad. Do spammers and con-men grab the number like they do with emails or are phone numbers basically ignored by those with not so good intentions? In my experience the scammers leave it alone. Just about all of them are from another country so they don't waste the money calling when they can't really speak english. They can read it, type it, but speaking it is out of their league.
Even if they could speak it decently most times they still won't bother because of where they are from, they most likely don't even have a phone. They tend to use cyber cafes or other public computers to run scams.
I've use this method for over 5 years now to cut through the scammers and still have a 100% success rate. 
--
"I like to refer to myself as an Adult Film Efficienato." - Stuart Bondek |
|
sailorPremium
join:2003-10-21
Long Island
kudos:6 | That's good to know..Thanks! |
|
