Scammed on Craigslist...

[4WDlifeform]

Luckily I caught it though before it got to the money.

I thought I should share this with all of you, who use craigslist. Ill try to keep it "condensed" and to the point...

I never listed anything before on craigslist, so this is my first ad. Its for 2 sony subs and amp for $170. I received an email a day or so after posting. Buyer offered me 50 dollars on top of what I was asking. Strongly wanted me to hold it for him, and remove the ad. I did so. Said he would soon send "bank certified check" and have a "mover" pick up the equipment. The mover made me skeptical... but, 50 on top of what I was asking was pretty convincing haha.

So, this morning, I received a check from a Honda dealership in located in Oregon. Its called ER-GILBERT, INC. DBA HONDA WORL. The check was in the amount of $2,900.00. The only check I was expecting was for 220. So, not thinking the craigslist was related, I called the company and they said they have been having this happen to them for 2 YEARS! and that it was probably related to craigslist. Then it made sense. I did some google research....

Turns out that this similar transaction has happend before. Found a post about it, just like I am mentioning to all you, so I really hope this gets out there. What the scammer was probably going to do next was say "sorry, my secretary put the wrong amount on the check". I would then send him back the balance. And a day or two later, bank calls and said check was no good, now I am screwed $2,900.

So... please be careful doing deals... I emailed the scammer saying not to ever contact me. Kinda scary now that a criminal has my address. I wish I could do something to bust these people. Its unfortunate to see this stuff happen.

 

[DeftwillP]

Yeah, that's pretty much the oldest scam on CL. If you didn't know about that, maybe you shouldn't be using it.

 

[kastein]

Yeah, this kind of thing happens pretty often, before ebay locked down user info so much and censored bidder usernames it used to happen quite often there too. It's a pretty common thing for 419ers to claim too.

Glad you used your brain and caught it before you got scammed.

 

[Original_MudButt]

Glad you cought it.....

Have you contacted the police yet?

 

[4WDlifeform]

have not contacted police... Should I? what should I tell them? I don't see how they could even track down the guy, or what they could do? Im fine, lost nothing... Would rather forget the whole thing.

 

[Original_MudButt]

have not contacted police... Should I? what should I tell them? I don't see how they could even track down the guy, or what they could do? Im fine, lost nothing... Would rather forget the whole thing.

Sounds to me like someone sent you a fake/stolen check.... Last time I looked that was a crime.

 

[40banditxj]

Thats why I always meet in person and demand cash when I do dealings on Craigslist. I always try to meet in a neutral location (i.e. a well lit parking lot) so the buyer doesn't get a chance to case my house. It probably sounds paranoid, but I prefer to take the precaution.

 

[themangeraaad]

Yeah, I usually try to set up a neutral meeting, but half the time I don't end up going through with it. Once I met a guy in the parking lot of his apt complex to buy my welder (so kinda neutral... still a parking lot I guess) and once I met the guy at his house to buy my motorcycle. Both worked out fine.

I have never sold anything on CL. I think I might have made one post a year or so ago and got a number of weird replies that I just deleted right away. Could easily tell they were scams or other automatic spam replies.

 

[MrShaft696]

yeah if anyone offers you more than what you are asking and they arent bidding against anyone else.....RED FLAG!

 

[Audiophile]

I agree with the neutral location, good idea. I've never sold anything on CL although I've listed a few items for sale. If I was to sell something, it has to be in cash for the item.

 

[4WDlifeform]

Agreed. Ill keep aware of these people. Thanks for the tips.

I did contact the company that the check was from, and I think they are taking care of it..

 

[goodburbon]

Sounds to me like someone sent you a fake/stolen check.... Last time I looked that was a crime.

Actually I've been told it's not. Someone ran this game on us, sort of. Stole our credit card information, sold it to someone else. That someone else used it to open a fedex account, then in one day sent out dozens of checks, overnighted, draining our account. A few of them were returned to sender, a few of the people tracked us down and asked if we were scamming them. WE called the FBI, who didnt' care. We called the US marshalls, who didn't care. We called the State police who didn't care and told us to call the local sheriff. We went to the police with the scam e-mails, fraudulent checks in unopened envelopes, and the name of the only place we had ever given that particular credit card info to. They opened the envelope, fingerbanged the evidence, told us there was nothing they could do since the checks didn't come with any instructions and there was no way to link the sender of the e-mail to the sender of the check/credit card fraud.

So we went home. We now have a very lucrative business defrauding lots of people out of money over interstate lines and as long as we keep the communications seperate, the law doesn't care, and has no idea how to fingerprint a piece of paper.:guitar:


4wdlifeform, we'll take you off our mailing list.:shhh:

 

[Darky]

Contact the police. They committed mail fraud if the check sent was fraudulent.

 

[JrTxJ]

Contact the seller telling them you received too much money and want to know where to send the extra cash...then give the police copies of all the emails and contact information along with the check.


Seemingly everytime I list anything on craigslist anymore the first two responses are scammers pulling the same routine using different names every time.

People always find a way to ruin a good thing...

 

[goodburbon]

Contact the police. They committed mail fraud if the check sent was fraudulent.

No, they didn't. Read my post above. THe local douchebag sheriff told me specifically that it was NOT mail fraud because all it is, is a check with no instructions. The contact on craigslist is merely coincidental in the eyes of the law and no conclusions can be drawn with any amount of logic. Yes, Seriously.

 

[DrMoab]

No, they didn't. Read my post above. THe local douchebag sheriff told me specifically that it was NOT mail fraud because all it is, is a check with no instructions. The contact on craigslist is merely coincidental in the eyes of the law and no conclusions can be drawn with any amount of logic. Yes, Seriously.

Sounds like you have a dick for a local sheriff. My brother is a detective for a local PD. I just asked him about this. He said he would have looked into it if someone bright this scam to his attention.

 

[WB9YZU]

On Ebay, I use Paypal. Never had a problem yet.

Ron

 

[RichP]

No, they didn't. Read my post above. THe local douchebag sheriff told me specifically that it was NOT mail fraud because all it is, is a check with no instructions. The contact on craigslist is merely coincidental in the eyes of the law and no conclusions can be drawn with any amount of logic. Yes, Seriously.

Translation, most police depts have no clue what to do or how to handle it.
My company was attacked with a DDS, called the FBI, useless.

 

[goodburbon]

Translation, most police depts have no clue what to do or how to handle it.
My company was attacked with a DDS, called the FBI, useless.

Someone used a dentist to attack your company?

 

[goodburbon]

Sounds like you have a dick for a local sheriff. My brother is a detective for a local PD. I just asked him about this. He said he would have looked into it if someone bright this scam to his attention.

No, they "looked into it", told us there was nothing they could do, Fedex gave our money back, since the guy sending the mail was in california and the sheriff had no jurisdiction there, there was nothing they could do and NO OTHER LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY WOULD EVEN LOOK INTO IT!