I have recently put my iPhone 3g on Craigslist. I have received a lot of emails about it (almost 10 in 2 hours). Many of these emails are written somewhat grammatically like an 8 year old wrote them. Does anyone know of a scam out there? It almost seems to good to be true (the amount and frequency of responses) and the terrible English with which they were written is odd.
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iPhone Craigslist scam?
- Thread starter bhimpele
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There's many posts about this. So called Nigerian emails
I guess you can guess are those emails legit or not I am in the same situation you are in, i wanted to ride one of them through and see what happens, its funny as they try to make you believe that they made the payment, though the "paypal" email address i got informing me that the payment was made was from a free web mail site, email formatting all jumbled up and looks so fake you will surely laugh.
Whats even hilarious is when you tell them you never actually got the payment and that the transactions never happened and all the paypal emails where fake they pretend like they will complain to the FBI about this whole ordeal, the FBI's email? same free email host they used for the fake paypal transaction emails, with ridiculous formatting. On top of that they keep insisting that you send out the item through a fake paypal email address using the same free web mail site.
I seriously don't know how stupid you can be to fall for such a thing when all you can do is check your paypal account and see if they have sent the payment which in this or any case you will see that there was never a payment sent and the Paypal transaction ID is fake and not even close to the true paypal transaction id formatting.
most of them will say that they are out of the country and or they need it sent internationally for someone they know.
Whats even hilarious is when you tell them you never actually got the payment and that the transactions never happened and all the paypal emails where fake they pretend like they will complain to the FBI about this whole ordeal, the FBI's email? same free email host they used for the fake paypal transaction emails, with ridiculous formatting. On top of that they keep insisting that you send out the item through a fake paypal email address using the same free web mail site.
I seriously don't know how stupid you can be to fall for such a thing when all you can do is check your paypal account and see if they have sent the payment which in this or any case you will see that there was never a payment sent and the Paypal transaction ID is fake and not even close to the true paypal transaction id formatting.
most of them will say that they are out of the country and or they need it sent internationally for someone they know.
Wow, that is pretty stupid. I would require cash at the point of sale and meet publically in person anyway. Amazing that they think we could be so stupid.
Well they usually just insist that you send it to some foreign country by mail to a friend of theirs. They won't meet you face to face because they are always on "trip" or a business trip in some other country
If you want to you can always send them a package with a brick in it
And see if they start reclaim the real phone...always fun when you are bored 
This is one major reason why I hate selling crap on craigslist. No matter how much you put down, cash only and onsite sales you get people trying to scam you.
Heck even buyers try that, I had a potential buyer give me a sob story about not affording a MBP (I was selling my old one) and I cut her some slack and lowered the price a couple hundred. When it came to execute the deal she tried to cut the price another couple of hundred by saying she could only raise up this much. I called off the sale, she then called back 10 minutes later saying she has the cash and please sell it to her. No way.
I got more money off ebay (even with the fees) but I understand the ease of craigslist. You just need to ensure you deal with local people and cash only. I'll try selling my 3G on craigslist for a week and then off to ebay.
Heck even buyers try that, I had a potential buyer give me a sob story about not affording a MBP (I was selling my old one) and I cut her some slack and lowered the price a couple hundred. When it came to execute the deal she tried to cut the price another couple of hundred by saying she could only raise up this much. I called off the sale, she then called back 10 minutes later saying she has the cash and please sell it to her. No way.
I got more money off ebay (even with the fees) but I understand the ease of craigslist. You just need to ensure you deal with local people and cash only. I'll try selling my 3G on craigslist for a week and then off to ebay.
The first time I sold something I craigslist, I thought that it was a legit deal and gave out my address, since he wanted to send me a check.
I ended up with a check for 3,000 dollars for a white macbook. Then he emailed me and asked me why his computer hadn't arrived and that he was going to report me to the FBI for fraud. I sent him a nasty email back saying that I had ripped up the check and if he didn't stop sending me emails and obviously trying to scam me, I would call the FBI on him.
I never heard from him again. (and I happily sold my MB later)
I ended up with a check for 3,000 dollars for a white macbook. Then he emailed me and asked me why his computer hadn't arrived and that he was going to report me to the FBI for fraud. I sent him a nasty email back saying that I had ripped up the check and if he didn't stop sending me emails and obviously trying to scam me, I would call the FBI on him.
I never heard from him again. (and I happily sold my MB later)
Hahahahah.....join The Club......just Tell Them Money Order Or Cash....taht Will Scare Em Away.....
Yeah I have had pretty good luck on craigslist, I love those scam emails I mean do they actually think that these techniques will work. I guess some people are morons.
I just sold my Bold on craigslist and was receiving similar responses on my original ad. I then re-listed my ad and stated that it would be a local face to face transaction for cash only. It did not entirely stop the scam responses but it helped. Determining a scam response from that point is pretty easy, if they mention anything other than face to face cash, press delete.
When finalizing the transaction, make sure it is in a public place. A busy local convenience store or mall with lots of people around. There are LOTS of creeps out there, think and be safe!
troutspinner
When finalizing the transaction, make sure it is in a public place. A busy local convenience store or mall with lots of people around. There are LOTS of creeps out there, think and be safe!
troutspinner
Money Orders are bad too
they can make legit looking money orders that will fool the bank until you start spending against it. also usually they way over pay you and say you must send it to my relative, or agent and pay them for me sounds good. they pay me say a $1000 send them the product and say $200 of my money. since the money order hasn't cleared yet. trust me it hasn't then they get the Iphone $200 bucks you get a bad money order and possibly a boat load of Late Fee's and they will try to play you more after that. I only take local cash and real Paypal sent to my Real paypal account! and for fun check out this site. they are scam busters!
www.419eater.com/
they can make legit looking money orders that will fool the bank until you start spending against it. also usually they way over pay you and say you must send it to my relative, or agent and pay them for me sounds good. they pay me say a $1000 send them the product and say $200 of my money. since the money order hasn't cleared yet. trust me it hasn't then they get the Iphone $200 bucks you get a bad money order and possibly a boat load of Late Fee's and they will try to play you more after that. I only take local cash and real Paypal sent to my Real paypal account!
and for fun check out this site. they are scam busters!www.419eater.com/
i have always wondered why scammers do not try and make their emails gramatically correct and what not. they are dead giveaways
i always meet the person in the parking lot next to my local police station. if they won't show up there, then it wasn't going to be a good transaction anyway. never let them come to your home.
Why would anybody EVER sell anything to a guy from another county on Craigslist? I dont even do that on eBay.
I've sold two apple products on craigslist without a hitch. As long as you meet somewhere public and accept ONLY CASH you should be fine.
I posted an aging (but still great) Power Mac G5 Quad on CL a few weeks ago. I got about 10 emails that all seemed very similar. They all said something like "interested in the Mac" or "want to buy the G5" and included a phone number...nothing else...no questions, no requests for more details, photos, etc. Like I'm just gonna call a random phone number? I wrote each one back and told them that I would be happy to arrange to meet up if they wanted to see the computer but that I don't do craigslist transactions by phone. Not a single one of them replied after that.
I finally found a normal human buyer, but I'm convinced shady characters are harvesting phone numbers from craigslist for one nefarious reason or another.
I finally found a normal human buyer, but I'm convinced shady characters are harvesting phone numbers from craigslist for one nefarious reason or another.
This thread is from June of 2009. Did anyone read anything at all before posting? Each new post made here seems to prove that no one has...
This thread is from June of 2009. Did anyone read anything at all before posting? Each new post made here seems to prove that no one has...
LMAO. first thing I thought was damn, who dug this up. This isn't what people meant by "use the search function" lol.
This thread is from June of 2009. Did anyone read anything at all before posting? Each new post made here seems to prove that no one has...
I really don't understand how newbies find these really old threads and then reply to them like they are current?
they just come off as random when too much time passes between comments. I'm not saying that they don't have the right to, its just odd.
I agree, I have sold many things on Craigslist and had success, but it has to be cash and in public and I always take someone with me and have them wait near by (just incase). The only time I ever had the person meet me at my house was when they emailed me their location (I try and be far and at least meet them halfway) and I recognize him as a neighbor who lived a block away (that was a rare coincidence).
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