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Craigslist - this site full of scammers?

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Ryno
Posts: 31125 - Karma: 336
I have never used this site before but recently I put my laptop for sale up on it, in a smaller regional portion of the site and so far every reply has been fishy sounding out of country people replying..

1) Lady from Edmonton who wants to send it to an old college friend in Nigeria.
2) Some guy in Wisconsin who wants to send it to his son as a birthday present, but he is living in west africa with his mother who works at the US embassy there. He also wants to pay with Storm pay and I have no fucking idea what that is.
3) Some dude who keeps refering to me as "mate" and left a 12-digit phone number with a plus sign at the start of it (aka out of country)
4) A guy who wants to send it to his girlfriend who lives and work with the American International School, in Nigeria.
5) Some dude who wants it shipped to some country now because its for his son who is leaving soon to another country that would make shipping hard to do.
6) Some rude chick who wants to me to ship it abroad for 200 bucks ASAP.

All of them have bad grammar and I seem to get these emails in groups of 2 or 3 within a one hour period every couple days.

What the fuck is with this? It's not listed on some international forum...This site just seems like its full of scammers...
Oct 29 2007 10:03AM
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Maximumsushi
Posts: 7837 - Karma: 3,351
Well, yeah.
The whole point of craigslist is to buy things in person, to avoid a scam. Don't ever ship to anyone in Nigeria. EVER. EVERRRRRRRRR. They will steal whatever you are selling. Don't even ship to anyone through craigslist.
Oct 29 2007 10:06AM
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proZach
Posts: 7163 - Karma: 919
everyone seems to want to send it to nigeria. just have them pick it up from your house or something, as long as you get the money, i guess its cool, right?
Oct 29 2007 10:07AM
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Ryno
Posts: 31125 - Karma: 336
I can't help but feel like i'm sending it to terrorists...
Oct 29 2007 10:10AM
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SkierX
Posts: 16253 - Karma: 538
Craigslist is horrible with that.

Local pick-up ONLY for that site.
Oct 29 2007 10:12AM
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jack_weisman
Posts: 2310 - Karma: 169
i have gotten pretty much all of those messages, both through craigslist and ebay, they are all fake.
Oct 29 2007 10:13AM
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HHB
Posts: 683 - Karma: 14
as long as its not a mac they can have it.
Oct 29 2007 10:14AM
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Ryno
Posts: 31125 - Karma: 336
ok good to know. i wasnt going to send it to any of these people because they never give exact info and it just sounds sketch. But i had never used this site so it was wack to see.
Oct 29 2007 10:14AM
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proZach
Posts: 7163 - Karma: 919
i've used it once to get a fishtank, worked out perfectly. i drove like 20 minutes to this guys apartment, gave him some cash, he gave me the tank. actually gave me back like $5, and threw in some extra shit. my mom used it to sell a thule, transaction went smoothly as well. i've never had a problem with it, but all my transactions have been done in person.
Oct 29 2007 10:21AM
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FartBoy05
Posts: 1306 - Karma: 9
true that
Oct 29 2007 11:30AM
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45.
Posts: 3164 - Karma: 170
I get quite a few of those emails from Gideon Smith saying he wants me to donate money to his family in Nigeria......... what is with scammers and Nigeria!?
Oct 29 2007 11:32AM
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whattheshit
Posts: 6562 - Karma: 107
always deal face to face, ryno.

anyone that wants it shipped politely tell them to fuck off.
Oct 29 2007 12:03PM
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Ryno
Posts: 31125 - Karma: 336
Even if they paypal me the money first?
Oct 29 2007 12:07PM
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freezed
Posts: 12973 - Karma: 500
yes. craigslist rule #1 - ONLY do in-person cash-only transactions.

I've never had a bad experience though. The Portland, OR Craigslist is awesome, I've gotten so much stuff for free or cheap there. Sold and given away some stuff too, without any of those shipping to Nigeria emails.
Oct 29 2007 12:12PM
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whattheshit
Posts: 6562 - Karma: 107
only if they mark the payment as goods.  if they put it as services they can claim that it was an unauthorized transaction and make their money back.  here is an example from another forum im on..

his might be a long read, but it's been bothering me forever.
So back around July 07 I sold my partshopmax coilovers to this guy on Zilvia (is fucking retarded) (is fucking retarded).  He sent me paypal $900 under "services" which I thought was a little strange, but he claimed it had smaller fees (I should have checked).  Anyway, I accepted the payment, waited until it transferred to my bank account, then shipped out the coilovers.  I never got a response from him telling me he got the coilovers, but the tracking confirmed it was delivered, and 2 weeks later he posts it for sale on Zilvia (is fucking retarded) (is fucking retarded).

SO I'm thinking, alright, he's just a pussy who can't handle stiff coilovers.  No biggie.  But wow I was wrong.  Next day I get an email from paypal saying my balance is -$900.  Fuck....

I look through my resolution center and apparently they issued a chargeback for this guy because he claimed the paypal transaction was "unauthorized".  So I close my bank account to keep them from taking away my hard earned money.  I got all my evidence together including screenshots of all our conversations about the coilovers, screenshots of my paypal screens, and even screen shots of him listing the very item I sold him. 
Needless to say, paypal ruled in his favor for 2 reasons...
1. Since he sent money through "services" paypal doesn't provide seller protection.
and
2.  I shipped it to his secondary address, not his primary, which apparently doesn't have seller protection.


--------

and im pretty sure that transactions outside of ebay with paypal over no protection..
Oct 29 2007 12:12PM
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titsLOL
Posts: 7485 - Karma: 396
pretty much anything that involves africa is a scam. first they got me with aids, now they're tryin to take my money. dammit.

seriously though as people said the point of craigslist is that you sell stuff locally so if someone is sayin that want you to ship stuff they are probably up to no good. unless it's like a really rare item or something that they couldn't find locally I guess, but definitely avoid africa junk
Oct 29 2007 12:17PM
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ISkiSwitch
Posts: 3157 - Karma: 22
Yea, do local pickup only. I've bought a few things off people advertising stuff there. Just go to their house or whatever and pay for the stuff, and leave. It's so easy and a great site to sell things on. Just don't ship anything.
Oct 29 2007 12:22PM
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ryanwar6
Posts: 1134 - Karma: 114
A good rule of thumb is... if they don't put a space after their periods or they don't capitalize the first letter of each sentence, they are scammers. 

Let me know if I am wrong, that is just how I always used to quickly sort through scammers.
Oct 29 2007 12:33PM
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MFinSLC
Posts: 408 - Karma: 31
i love craigslist, i use it all the time.  And yes, everytime I have used it to buy something or sell something it has been in person, like how it is intended to be.....thats why u search locally.
Oct 29 2007 1:04PM
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RudyGarmisch
Posts: 25443 - Karma: 13,844
Craigslist is great, but PERSON TO PERSON DEALS ONLY. There are so many ways to be scammed via paypal that I dont even consider it usually.
Oct 29 2007 1:30PM
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0ptions
Posts: 2198 - Karma: 60
rofl, those responses were soooo sketchy.
Oct 29 2007 2:25PM
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T-Wash
Posts: 1656 - Karma: 37
Ya I almost got suckered into one of those scams when I was selling my guitar. Then I put on my big screen TV and some person wanted me to ship it to like Africa.
Oct 29 2007 2:35PM
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sherpasrock
Posts: 2382 - Karma: 10
craigslist is legit if you follow one simple rule...LOCAL / IN PERSON ONLY.

i sold some v-drums on craigslist just fine with no hassle about a year ago, because the guy who bought them was local and i met him in person. he picked up the drums from my house and paid me right there.

i DID receive some pretty sketchy e-mails while i had the listing up tho (horrible grammar and spelling, out of state, etc), but i just ignored them.
Oct 29 2007 2:50PM
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peterriley2
Posts: 176 - Karma: 10
just to warn- the whole nigeria thing works like this-
1.they pay you through paypal with a stolen card.
2. the money appears to be in your paypal account.
3. you ship the stuff to them in nigeria.
4. the person whos card they stole cancels the card.
5. the credit card issuer (visa etc) cancels and removes the scammers transactions.
6. you now have no money, and the goods are on their way to nigeria, never to be seen again.
Oct 29 2007 3:02PM
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d.spong
Posts: 909 - Karma: 8
ive bought football tickets from there before but picked them up in person..
Oct 29 2007 3:24PM
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Ryno
Posts: 31125 - Karma: 336
Ah I see.

Thanks
Oct 29 2007 4:28PM
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2+2=5
Posts: 3676 - Karma: 18
yeah its not a good idea to use craiglist without personal pickup. paypal wont cover you if you're scammed. and ive had a few instances where i emailed a few people with weird ass names and they said that i would need to send the money to them in italy or croatia because they were "on vacation". pshhhhh
Oct 29 2007 4:31PM
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JakeTheJibNinja
Posts: 44 - Karma: 10
some guy posted a babysitting job on their and he killed the girl that took it when she came to his house
Oct 29 2007 5:14PM
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ijibgoremtn
Posts: 4221 - Karma: 13
every time i try to go to that site i always hit www.craiglist.com and thats a porn site i always forget the s in craigs, who the fuck calls a porn site craiglist anyways
Oct 29 2007 5:40PM
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Scolson
Posts: 2904 - Karma: 92

also, it's craigslist .org not .com

Oct 29 2007 6:19PM
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t-man152
Posts: 2896 - Karma: 14
yeah local pickup only. I sold camera equipment on there. the guy sent me an email. then we talked on the phone. he sent me money via paypal when I got to his office. I checked on my phone that I had received the money. gave him the camera stuff. he tried it out. he was very happy with it. we talked a bit and we parted ways.

he had time to try the stuff out to make sure I wasnt giving him broken stuff. I got the money neither of us could have gotten screwd with the way we went about this.
Oct 29 2007 6:20PM
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DYFI
Posts: 3836 - Karma: 30
My dad works on ebay and probably gets around 20 of those nigeria emails a day. just a bunch of scammers
Oct 29 2007 6:53PM
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Lineskiah11
Posts: 2029 - Karma: 21
ive helped my dad sell some stuff on craigslist before but only locally. when you do it in person its totally legit but i dont think i would do it any other way. sending it off somewhere seems kind of sketchy and craigslist isnt really meant for that, its more of a local thing.
Oct 29 2007 7:08PM
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ECFS-Attitash
Posts: 2573 - Karma: 13
i bet there are a ton of people in nigeria who are getting shafted by the fact that no americans will do business with them anymore.
Oct 29 2007 7:27PM
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skithebert
Posts: 2163 - Karma: 16
who did business with nigerians to begin with?

the only business I've done with nigerians is in prague and they take you to the strip clubs (which are actually brothels) and the clubs kick em back some money.  those guys were legit though.

Craigslist is hot shit for furniture and whatnot
Oct 29 2007 7:35PM
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ECFS-Attitash
Posts: 2573 - Karma: 13

that was a bit of a joke.

Oct 29 2007 7:36PM
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doublexl
Posts: 8407 - Karma: 27
you live in p twn? word?
Oct 29 2007 8:09PM
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tBatt
Posts: 9632 - Karma: 580
i bought a pair of 06 dj2's from some guy in oakland, ca when i live in ny. everything went well for me.

but on pinkbike there used to be shit like what to look out for if you were in the buy/sell section.
shit like they'll send you ___ money, and then send the money left over to a friend in some foreign country, and all that shit is scams.
Oct 29 2007 8:30PM
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TechnoPotamus
Posts: 11626 - Karma: 3,522
Nigeria is so 2006.
Oct 29 2007 8:38PM
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ECFS-Attitash
Posts: 2573 - Karma: 13
Agreed.  If you're still being hoodwinked by some bullshit scam based in Nigeria, you deserve to lose whatever you send over there.
Oct 29 2007 9:30PM
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invader7
Posts: 5756 - Karma: 49
my friends shit is the same way hes had two or three people send him 3-5000 dollar checks when the price is only 400. and a bunch of people askin for lots of random personal info
Oct 29 2007 9:32PM
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ScrappyJoeYoung
Posts: 1407 - Karma: 1,277
i know soo many friends that have bought from craigslist, and said they havent had any problems
Oct 29 2007 9:33PM
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Tolz
Posts: 1882 - Karma: 27
yeah, deal in person every time - otherwise its a scam for sure!
anyways, you hear about the girl that got killed responding to a craigslist ad?
here's the link...
http://www.kctv5.com/news/14442058/detail.html

or

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2007/10/29/lklv.craigslist.killing.kare
Oct 29 2007 9:34PM
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PacificRimJob
Posts: 24725 - Karma: 29,944

I've used craigslist for about 23 purchases.. including a car, skis, and paintball gun. Purchases that were easily over 500 each.

Just know how to haggle, know how to buy, and dont be fucking naiive and you should be fine.

Oct 29 2007 10:18PM
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Crackaghan
Posts: 583 - Karma: 11
haha i live in bend and ive had so much better experience getting stuff through portlands craigslist then having my relatives pick it up.  the people in portland are so nice compared to where i live
Oct 30 2007 12:40AM
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squibble
Posts: 4569 - Karma: 104
Hello seller,
i saw your advert on this site, i will like to known, if the item is still available for sell? and i will like to know more about it,current pics and like the asking price i will like you to know that my mode of payment it is via certified cashier check / money order...get back to me if you really want to sell the item..
Thank's Regard's.
thanks.


I only accept cash. Or if you are insistent on cashier check/money order I will hold the xbox/ps2 until it clears with the bank. The pictures were taken 2 or 3 days ago. $250 or best offer.
Thanks,
James

thanks with the reply.ok with that ,the check will clesr before my private shipper come for the pick_up of the item..ok..await to hear from you soonest.

Dear Randal, I have caught a deadly strand of AIDS from a hooker. Bad for me, good for you. I've decided to straight up give away all my stuff for the price of 1 doller per item, all the profits will go to the endangerered western witches of new guinie fund, aka EWWNG. Respond asap as soon as possible if you are interested in my xbox and ps2 + games. Will you need any additional infomation from me?


the scammer is in italics, hopefully the paragrapsh work
Mar 15 2008 9:57PM
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2+2=5
Posts: 3676 - Karma: 18
i never deal with outsiders when im buying from kijiji or craigslist. i only do locals or near my city, and i want to pick it up and meet.
Mar 15 2008 11:05PM
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pmills
Posts: 7162 - Karma: 59
reminded me of powwwer book scamming the scammer

http://easynetworknyc.com/powerbook/pdfhtml.php
Mar 16 2008 3:01AM
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Silence
Posts: 16030 - Karma: 150
this looks like a great story - i'm excited to read the whole thing
Mar 16 2008 3:15AM
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SolMi
Posts: 337 - Karma: 14
people hear nigeria and go " oh man that place is poor as shit" so then it seems legit to send money there when really it's going to some fat guy in his parents basement scamming the shit out of people so he can pay for his x-box live without getting a real job
Mar 17 2008 3:58AM
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