More Craigslist Drama

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No, I wasn’t killed. But you know how I wanted to sell our old bed?  Well, I posted it on craigslist, and I used my husband’s work as the “meet up” place if asked. Well, I get a couple of emails from a guy who wants to buy it. He then says he can’t get there himself, so he will send me a cashier’s check with the amount I’m asking for the bed-$400-plus what it would cost to ship. Thought it seemed a bit weird. Who spends money without making sure the bed is OK?

But OK.

So at my husband’s work he gets a UPS envelope addressed to me with an unfamiliar return address that does NOT match the name on the email of the person who wrote to me. Inside is a cashier’s check for $3,200!  But the return address is not Turkey; it’s in California. And there is NO note. All very weird. I email the guy and ask him for clarification, and I get nothing.

I smell weirdness.

My guess is if I go to cash this check, it will be full of beans, and I would have shipped of my bed for free. Has anyone heard of this scam? I held the check up, and there is no visible watermark.

Meanwhile, I told a lady I had sold the bed when she asked. Harumph.  Gotta try to sell it to the psychos again.

16 thoughts on “More Craigslist Drama”

  1. Yeah, it’s a pretty common scam. You deposit the check, keep the sale price plus shipping, sending him back the balance in cash. Then your bank notifies you the check was a fake, and you’re short a whole lotta money.

    Fun times!

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  2. I HAVE heard of this!! It happened to a woman here, with her diamond ring. Very sad. She did, believe it or not, ship her ring off to the dude, and the check was a fake. The addresses didn’t match, but unlike you Nancy Drew, she shrugged it off.

    Good job, Inspector!!

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  3. My husband has recently been OBSESSED with selling stuff on Craigslist, and I cannot tell you the number of times people have tried to scam him.

    Our new rule – if they don’t want to see it, they don’t get it. That’s what Craigslist is for. Tell them to go to eBay if they want to do that kind of crap.

    Glad you figured it out :)

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  4. It’s a scam. We tried to sell an exercise bike, and had 2 people within an hour try to do this same thing. For some reason, the emails all start with something like “still available?”. Still available .. I posted it an hour ago, so uh.. YEAH.

    Just ignore it. There are legitimate buyers out there.

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  5. Cash only. Cash only. Cash only.

    From the First Person to Get it The Hell Out of My House. With Cash Only.

    Those are my Craigslist rules. We bought a new dining room set a few years ago and had to get rid of the old one. Posted on Craigslist and some guy kept stringing me along, changing the viewing/pickup dates, inquiring about money orders, back and forth, back and forth. I declined many inquiries/offers in the interim. After about the 10th go-round, I told him to piss off. The next inquiry from a new person led to a next-day visit/viewing, and a day-after pick-up and payment. In cash.

    Since then, whenever I’ve sold anything on Craigslist, it’s been cash-only, *and* I’ve told people up front that I’m selling it to the first person who gets it off my property — to provide incentive for them to get their act together with regards to viewing, paying and hauling off.

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  6. Very common. In fact when I worked for a company selling music equipment we used to get emails constantly asking if they could do that. It is always fraud. ALWAYS! Oh, and you mentioned Turkey. Just say no to anyone outside the US no matter what. Glad you didn’t find it out the hard way. Good luck with selling it.

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  7. I can’t imagine sending the goods before processing the check. Another tip off was the guys email contained very poor grammar. Reminded me of those Nigeran scams.

    Hey, if I am going to be ripped off it will be by the largest Ponzi master mind in US history, not some bed bamboozeler.

    showing it to a lady tomorrow.

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    • Yes, it is possible to find a job on Craigslist.I’m curlentry working at a job that actually found me on Craigslist. I posted my resume on the Resume section, and I got a call that same day. I would recommend doing this, just don’t put too much personal information out there.I’ve had a few phone calls, and one interview from postings I applied to, but I wasn’t hired by them. There are, at least sometimes, actual companies who need actual employees to fill roles.It took me about a month and a half to find a job, which is average in today’s job market. I’m in DC, and I always see summer internship opportunities available. I’m sure there are a lot in the LA area as well.Good luck!

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  10. I sell a lot of stuff on Craigslist…this is a pretty common scam. Most people understand the “in cash, in person” rule…you can even put it in the original post.

    I think it works on people who are in a rush to get rid of stuff…and have slow banks.

    The best time to sell furniture is the days before the first of the month…particularly August and September in college towns. People are looking to pick up furniture the day they move into new apartments…go figure. I’ve decided that anything big doesn’t get posted except those few days.

    Around here (DC), poor English is the norm…the immigrant community has discovered how great CL is for getting stuff at a discount.

    And I still think I have the best CL security system: 90lb Doberman.

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  12. Same problems here, plus some.

    I’m actually afraid to sell to men from craigslist. I keep all my ads and e-mails sex agnostic or I’ll use my husbands name instead! I try to make him take any phone calls and arrange any pick ups too. Some of the people answering ads just seem so shady!

    My mother sells on craigslist all the time though. It terrifies me! What to do, what to do…

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  13. I sold most of my grandfather’s furniture from his estate on craigslist, and WOW people are crazy. I didn’t experience anything with checks, but mostly stupid, rude people. I was so glad to get rid of everything – and I will say we made far more money than I would have thought, and sold a 9 foot long lime green couch in about 3 minutes flat.

    Good luck! I’m sure you’ll find a buyer!

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  15. This happened to a friend of mine – someone on CL offered to pay her a huge amount in advance to tutor his kids when they got to the US from Spain, with the request that she send the balance back to him. Something about paying his step-father’s medical bills!! I did some research on CL scams and found your post. I don’t use CL because of stuff like this and the murders and beatings. I read about a new site called safelist.com but there doesn’t seem to be anything there yet. Does anybody know anything about it?

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