Craigslist Fraud

Hey, I love CL.  Have to be a little careful, but I've bought and sold so many things there.  I love meeting people from all walks of life and making an honest deal.  No transaction fees, no middle men, no taxes.  Never had a problem taking paypal, venmo, or cash.  Browse my local audio selection on CL almost daily!

Classic scam.  Every time I have posted on Craigslist, I get at least one of these ("Price is acceptable.  Please remove ad.  I am unfortunately out of state but I [or my agent] will send a check."). I simply delete.  Never had a problem with 'real' buyers, who will come and take a look and generally with cash.

   Some scammers are of the genius kind. Too bad they don't work for legitimate gain. Here's an example of a clever one who preyed on the "less than intelligent"........
   Years ago when  cell phone use really took off people were using them everywhere. Most important, people were talking on their phones while driving. When the number of accidents on the road exploded due to distracted drivers law enforcement began to write citations for that act. That's when hands free gadgets for cell phones took off.
   A seller on eBay listed a hands free device for only $5. He posted no photo of the device. A flood of buyers jumped on the deal and ordered it.Turns out the device was simply a large rubber band costing only a few cents. The user would put the rubber band around the head and then place the cell phone underneath next to the ear.
   I don't remember how the legal issues worked out but, in a way, the seller wasn't legally misleading as to the function of the device. I'm sure he was banned from eBay.
   As clever as some of those people are all we can do is to be very careful when buying online.

No matter where you sell, you can get scammers. There is no guarantee that the buyer is legit if he is buying on agon, cl, Usam, ebay, or fb. I’ve had this same thing happen to me, the buyer wrote me a $20k check for a couple hundred $$$ sale. I called the issuing bank and of course it didn’t come from them, but it looked authentic.
There are so many more things to worry about when selling anything online, like:
* receive your gear and then they complain that it doesn’t work and they demand PayPal to reimburse them and they will actually send you their non-working unit. I’ve had this happen to me a few times. I always take a picture of the serial #(s) before shipping, and when I state that, they don’t want a refund.
* claiming that they haven’t received the product and want a full refund. Since I always use signature on delivery, I’ll send them the receipt that they signed for delivery
* shipping overseas can cause issues because if the item goes thru customs, you can’t get signature on delivery so the buyer can receive the product and then claim to PayPal that they never received the product and then you are forced to issue a refund. So when shipping overseas, payment has to be received and deposited and I wait for the check to clear before sending the product

Thats only a few things that you have to worry about when dealing with any buyer from any sales selling app