Selling on Craigslist - this has to be a scam attempt.

mikelz777

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I listed a uke for sale on Craigslist and got a response in less than 24 hours and it has to be a scam attempt. This is the first contact:

"I want to pick it up. because,it looks very nice.please text me to XXXXXXXXXXXX,if it is still available"

I replied to the given text address indicating that the uke was still available. The next day I received this message:

"I am OK with the price, Am currently out of town right now, My daughter having kidney transplant. Am attending to a lot but I will send you a cashiers check. It will include my movers payment, my mover will come for pick-up as soon as you get it cashed from your bank, okay?"

How many red flags do you see? :D

- The first text address they gave me to contact them is different than the one I got their 2nd contact from
- A kidney transplant?! That's pretty serious stuff. Why are you trying to buy a uke in the middle of all that?
- Send a cashiers check? Really?
- It will include mover's payment? What does that even mean? I'm supposed to cash the check and pay the mover? So they're trying to scam a uke as well as some money out of me and then be gone before I'm told by my bank that the check is no good days later?
- The grammar and punctuation are pretty bad.

I told them that their suggestion wouldn't work for me and that I'd expect it to be a cash only transaction and that we would meet somewhere in a public place to do the transaction. I'm not expecting to hear from them again but I did tell them that I hope their daughter is OK. :D
 
He is probably having a language problem as he is probably also a deposed Nigerian prince.
 
I sell a lot of surfboards on Craigslist and get this response similar to this for every single sale. I don't understand how the scam works, but its definitely a scam. haha
 
I had a similar encounter when I was selling my cello on Craigslist. Same set up, the only difference was that she is a flight attendant and was out of the country. She will send a mover to pick up the cello with a cashier check...blar, blar, blar...I replied I only deal with cash or PayPal. The communication stopped right after.
 
Why such cynical skepticism?

I can't count the times family members of mine were getting kidney transplants snd I just knew that what the occasion called for was a second hand uke.
 
Why such cynical skepticism?

I can't count the times family members of mine were getting kidney transplants snd I just knew that what the occasion called for was a second hand uke.

They probably failed to mention they are majoring in music therapy
 
The scam works by making up a story to get you to send the money somehow.
Have you made a report to Craigslist?

I sell a lot of surfboards on Craigslist and get this response similar to this for every single sale. I don't understand how the scam works, but its definitely a scam. haha

My guess is that they tell you to let them know when you get the check so they can send someone to pick up the sold item. You put the check into your bank account and the bank gives you credit for it. A few days later the bank notifies you that the check was not good or determined a fake so they take that money back out of your account. The end result is that you're out of the money as well as the item you were selling.

I think my scammer was taking it a step further when they said they would send a cashier's check that included the mover's payment. My guess is that if I would have accepted their proposal, the scammer would have told me they were sending a cahier's check for the price of the uke plus say $100. Then they probably would have told me to give the excess cash to the mover when they came to pick up the uke. This is speculation on my part but I'm guessing that's how it would have worked. I didn't report it to Craigslist. They probably see a lot of this kind of thing every day and the scammer didn't get any information from me that anyone else couldn't get just by responding to a listing.
 
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My guess is that they tell you to let them know when you get the check so they can send someone to pick up the sold item. You put the check into your bank account and the bank gives you credit for it. A few days later the bank notifies you that the check was not good or determined a fake so they take that money back out of your account. The end result is that you're out of the money as well as the item you were selling.

I think my scammer was taking it a step further when they said they would send a cashier's check that included the mover's payment. My guess is that if I would have accepted their proposal, the scammer would have told me they were sending a cahier's check for the price of the uke plus say $100. Then they probably would have told me to give the excess cash to the mover when they came to pick up the uke. This is speculation on my part but I'm guessing that's how it would have worked. I didn't report it to Craigslist. They probably see a lot of this kind of thing every day and the scammer didn't get any information from me that anyone else couldn't get just by responding to a listing.

Yep, that’s their game in including the pick up fee so you give the thief the uke and some cash.

Same thing happens when you list a car on Autotrader. “Your price is very fair for such a clean car. I’m in the military on deployment, but will arrange to have it picked up. My check will include money for the transport service, so you can pay them directly.”

Sure. Let me give you my SSN, bank details and I’ll leave a key under the mat for you.
 
My guess is that they tell you to let them know when you get the check so they can send someone to pick up the sold item. You put the check into your bank account and the bank gives you credit for it. A few days later the bank notifies you that the check was not good or determined a fake so they take that money back out of your account. The end result is that you're out of the money as well as the item you were selling.

I think my scammer was taking it a step further when they said they would send a cashier's check that included the mover's payment. My guess is that if I would have accepted their proposal, the scammer would have told me they were sending a cahier's check for the price of the uke plus say $100. Then they probably would have told me to give the excess cash to the mover when they came to pick up the uke. This is speculation on my part but I'm guessing that's how it would have worked. I didn't report it to Craigslist. They probably see a lot of this kind of thing every day and the scammer didn't get any information from me that anyone else couldn't get just by responding to a listing.

I think you're right on the money with that explanation.

I suspect you're more likely to get scam responses if your sale price is higher (over $1000, I think). Usually the worst responses I get are people lowballing me, which I'll often ignore too.
 
My guess is that they tell you to let them know when you get the check so they can send someone to pick up the sold item. You put the check into your bank account and the bank gives you credit for it. A few days later the bank notifies you that the check was not good or determined a fake so they take that money back out of your account. The end result is that you're out of the money as well as the item you were selling.

I think my scammer was taking it a step further when they said they would send a cashier's check that included the mover's payment. My guess is that if I would have accepted their proposal, the scammer would have told me they were sending a cahier's check for the price of the uke plus say $100. Then they probably would have told me to give the excess cash to the mover when they came to pick up the uke. This is speculation on my part but I'm guessing that's how it would have worked. I didn't report it to Craigslist. They probably see a lot of this kind of thing every day and the scammer didn't get any information from me that anyone else couldn't get just by responding to a listing.

You could have responded... No need for that, I can deliver it to Nigeria.

John

In my experience, there will never be a "mover" come by and pick it up. That is just the lead in. It is part of setting the hook. Eventually they will talk you into shipping it to them. For whatever reason the mover can't make it. But they will make it worth your while if you will ship it. In the case of one person who I know of, it was a vintage car. After a day of trying to figure out when the mover could come by and pick it up, they offered him $5000 extra if he would take the car to Chicago ship it to the Netherlands, a much easier thing to do than most people imagine, take 20% of the cost of shipping it for their trouble, then send what was left over back to them in a cashier check. But it had to be done quickly. The buyer was leaving on an extended tour of Europe and wanted to drive the car. The buyer was so excited and couldn't wait to get it. By the time the check bounced, the car was gone, and the guy was out five grand. Ouch. Another fellow sent a glider to Brazil, same deal, they actually talked him into taking it to New Jersey and having it shipped. Investigating those scams used to be part of my job. Greed gets the best of people. Once they get the hook set, it is easy for them to get the seller to jump through lots of hoops, and it is really hard to investigate them. I mean, the jurisdiction of the investigator only goes so far, and even if the scammer is identified, there is nothing they can do about it. They aren't going to send someone to the Caymans to follow it up.

For small items, ukuleles and such, they don't even want the item, they want that check for the overage that they send you to ship it. They will eventually offer you two hundred bucks to send it to them. Whatever the deal they make you, it will include you sending them back some money. That's all they want. They aren't in the ukulele selling business, they don't give a darn about your ukulele. The ukulele is either going to a third party, or a vacant lot in the Bronx.
 
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It also has to do with how many times they try the scam. If they send out only a few, most likely it will go nowhere. If they send out a thousand, they may hook a few.

Start out with something almost plausible. Set the hook and then escalate.
 
He is probably having a language problem as he is probably also a deposed Nigerian prince.

Nigerian princes need love to.
Craiglist list and the internet in general is open to the full range of human existence. Straight up buyer, I will meet you at (Choose a well trafficked open space like a Wallgreen's parking lot) and meet them there for the exchange.
 
Nigerian princes need love to.
Craiglist list and the internet in general is open to the full range of human existence. Straight up buyer, I will meet you at (Choose a well trafficked open space like a Wallgreen's parking lot) and meet them there for the exchange.
These days most police departments have a designated place for that kind of stuff.
 
"Greed gets the best of people." WC Fields said "you can't cheat an honest man".
 
Trying to sell on Craigslist isn't doing much to make me love dealing with the general public. I just want to meet somone somewhere fairly close and exchange a ukulele for some money. My first contact was trying to defraud me. The second contact wanted me to ship the ukulele which I'm trying to avoid thus the listing on Craigslist. The third contact tried to lowball me then wanted me to drive out of my way if they met my price. I'm not so hot to sell it that I'll take just any offer then jump through hoops to seal the deal. They acted like they were doing me a favor for paying a price higher than their lowball offer yet still lower than my original asking price.
 
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Trying to sell on Craigslist isn't doing much to make me love dealing with the general public. I just want to meet somone somewhere fairly close and exchange a ukulele for some money. My first contact was trying to defraud me. The second contact wanted me to ship the ukulele which I'm trying to avoid thus the listing on Craigslist. The third contact tried to lowball me then wanted me to drive out of my way if they met my price. I'm not so hot to sell it that I'll take just any offer then jump through hoops to seal the deal. They acted like they were doing me a favor for paying a price higher than their lowball offer yet still lower than my original asking price.

Craig's list is a miserable place to sell anything. I've had luck giving things away, but I would never post an item for sale there again. Ebay is a dream compared to the multitude of people looking for way below market there.
 
This is known as an "Advanced Fee Money Scam".
Concept is very simple...
-- "Buyer" sends you a fake cashier's check that is ostensibly enough to cover the cost of the item as well as the cost of shipping.
-- They ask you to deposit the check in your account, reserve the cost of the item and remit the item and the remainder "shipping costs" to their designated "shipper".
-- A few days later, the bounces.
-- The scammer now has both your item and the extra money for "shipping costs".

It's a very popular technique among deposed Nigerian princes. ;)
 
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