please help!!!!! (Craigslist purchase question)

[nostresshere]

... i have been scammed quite a few times and i want to know what my options are, if any. thanks!

Read the line above.

Stop trying to beat the system. Buy from a legitimate source and stop being scammed. If you have been scammed quite a few times, it might be cheaper in the long run.

 

[Fusion79]

Personally, I would never buy a phone from CL. At least with eBay, you as the buyer are protected in the case the seller rips you off. Once you exchange cash with the seller on CL, and the phone ends up not working, you're screwed out of that money.

This. The only time I would consider CL is if the seller would be willing to meet at the carrier store so I can activate it on my account and verify it is not attached to his/her account anymore.

I used to do eBay a lot but lately I use Swappa and I have had no issues on there. Looks for sellers with good reputations and ask questions before buying. When paying with PayPal make sure you use a credit card for payment. NOTE: If you have a bank acct attached to your paypal acct they will always try to default to that. It's called instant transfer and since it is cheaper for paypal they always try to default to that. You have better recourse with a credit card company if things go wrong later.

I have been buying and selling phones for 10 years on ebay and swappa and have had one bad transaction in that time. If you do good due dilligance before the transaction the odds are you will not have a problem. And if a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.

 

[ugcop]

The truth is 95 percent of people are honest. In 2013 I purchased close to 50 phones from Craigslist. These phones were iphone 5, 4s, 4, galaxy s4, galaxy note 1 + 2, htc one x, BB9900, htc vivid, s2. Only one person sold me a phone that had a bad imei. Do your homework and go with your gut. Also never buy at market value. Low ball the seller. This way if you end up with bad phone you can still sell it and break even.

95 percent is being optimistic (based on general population) 95 percent honesty on CL is being naive. Scammers go where they can ply their craft with a minimum of exposure. CL and EBay offer the degree of anonymity they seek.