Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Scam Check: Selling iPhone 3GS on Craigslist

E

EatMyApple

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 2, 2008
380
1
Long story short, I posted my iPhone 3GS on Craigslist and received the typical spam emails and people low balling you. I originally posted it for $450 OBO cause I figured dealing would bring the price down anyway.

I received an email from a lady today asking if the iPhone was still available. I replied that it was and that the first offer gets it.

She sent me this reply:

Thanks for your prompt e-mail. I hope the item is in good condition and i will like to purchase it for my daughter in school out-of-state.and i will be very more than happy if you can help me get this item shipped, and am willing to offer $600 to include the shipping fees through the USPS Express mail service, i will be paying you with my PayPal account,If my offer is accepted send me your email with PayPal including your phone # so i can pay in right away..I work on the sea and do not have much time around me. Make sure you get back to me so that i can arrange for the payment

I await your reply

I start reading the email, see she added $150 to the price and the red flag went off. I continued reading and then I hit......USPS Express......and PayPal.......doesn't seem like the typical scam where some skinny wants me to ship my phone to Nigeria while overpaying me and requested the difference back.

I just wanted to double check before I blew this off as to if it could possibly be "real". I know, the too good to be true, and it is.....but, what would they go through the trouble of USPS Express AND PayPal???

Any ideas? I will be sending a follow up email requesting where the phone will be going as I will only be shipping within the US.

Thanks in advance!
 
EatMyApple said:
Long story short, I posted my iPhone 3GS on Craigslist and received the typical spam emails and people low balling you. I originally posted it for $450 OBO cause I figured dealing would bring the price down anyway.

I received an email from a lady today asking if the iPhone was still available. I replied that it was and that the first offer gets it.

She sent me this reply:

Thanks for your prompt e-mail. I hope the item is in good condition and i will like to purchase it for my daughter in school out-of-state.and i will be very more than happy if you can help me get this item shipped, and am willing to offer $600 to include the shipping fees through the USPS Express mail service, i will be paying you with my PayPal account,If my offer is accepted send me your email with PayPal including your phone # so i can pay in right away..I work on the sea and do not have much time around me. Make sure you get back to me so that i can arrange for the payment

I await your reply

I start reading the email, see she added $150 to the price and the red flag went off. I continued reading and then I hit......USPS Express......and PayPal.......doesn't seem like the typical scam where some skinny wants me to ship my phone to Nigeria while overpaying me and requested the difference back.

I just wanted to double check before I blew this off as to if it could possibly be "real". I know, the too good to be true, and it is.....but, what would they go through the trouble of USPS Express AND PayPal???

Any ideas? I will be sending a follow up email requesting where the phone will be going as I will only be shipping within the US.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...


Scam.

Any time someone offers to pay more or wants some kind of convoluted shipping to a third party it is always a scam.

In this case they did both, so don't even give it a second thought. It is not a legitimate offer.
 
marksman said:
Scam.

Any time someone offers to pay more or wants some kind of convoluted shipping to a third party it is always a scam.

In this case they did both, so don't even give it a second thought. It is not a legitimate offer.
Click to expand...

That's what I figured.....I just have never received or seen one wanting to use USPS and PayPal.

Thanks for the info! Much appreciated!
 
EatMyApple said:
Long story short, I posted my iPhone 3GS on Craigslist and received the typical spam emails and people low balling you. I originally posted it for $450 OBO cause I figured dealing would bring the price down anyway.

I received an email from a lady today asking if the iPhone was still available. I replied that it was and that the first offer gets it.

She sent me this reply:

Thanks for your prompt e-mail. I hope the item is in good condition and i will like to purchase it for my daughter in school out-of-state.and i will be very more than happy if you can help me get this item shipped, and am willing to offer $600 to include the shipping fees through the USPS Express mail service, i will be paying you with my PayPal account,If my offer is accepted send me your email with PayPal including your phone # so i can pay in right away..I work on the sea and do not have much time around me. Make sure you get back to me so that i can arrange for the payment

I await your reply

I start reading the email, see she added $150 to the price and the red flag went off. I continued reading and then I hit......USPS Express......and PayPal.......doesn't seem like the typical scam where some skinny wants me to ship my phone to Nigeria while overpaying me and requested the difference back.

I just wanted to double check before I blew this off as to if it could possibly be "real". I know, the too good to be true, and it is.....but, what would they go through the trouble of USPS Express AND PayPal???

Any ideas? I will be sending a follow up email requesting where the phone will be going as I will only be shipping within the US.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

It's very easy to Dispute with PayPal. The best way to guarantee your safety would be if she sent the Payment as a "Gift." That way she could not dispute it later on. PayPal is definitely not as safe as you seem to think.
 
Scam for sure. I also got a weird email in response to my ad on craigslist and the guy wanted me to click on a link (I didn't of course). I don't know what the guy was up to but he clearly has too much time on his hands. It's actually the only response I've gotten to my ad too:mad:. I seem to have bad luck with craigslist so I put mine up on ebay too.
 
If she is willing to buy it for 600 bucks, why can't she buy a new one. Apple will ship it for free to most countries.

If you are even contemplating going ahead with this deal....I have a giant statue in New York at a prime location that I want to sell you! Let me know if you are interested. :D
 
Goldinboy17 said:
It's very easy to Dispute with PayPal. The best way to guarantee your safety would be if she sent the Payment as a "Gift." That way she could not dispute it later on. PayPal is definitely not as safe as you seem to think.
Click to expand...

Good tip! Thank you!
 
jbcraigs said:
If she is willing to buy it for 600 bucks, why can't she buy a new one. Apple will ship it for free to most countries.

If you are even contemplating going ahead with this deal....I have a giant statue in New York at a prime location that I want to sell you! Let me know if you are interested. :D
Click to expand...

I thought of that too. Just figured she really, really wanted that 3GS....or hoped!

Do you have any pictures of the statue? :D
 
Goldinboy17 said:
It's very easy to Dispute with PayPal. The best way to guarantee your safety would be if she sent the Payment as a "Gift." That way she could not dispute it later on. PayPal is definitely not as safe as you seem to think.
Click to expand...

Be careful with Gift option. Scammer/claimer can still dispute with credit card company if he/she used CC as the fund.

Also note that Paypal prohibits Gift use for payment for items. Paypal gives absolutely no help if you get paid as gift, and they can turn off/put restrictions on your account if you use gift option w/o following their rule a lot.

That all said, OP's case is definitely a scam. Never ever send anything on craigslist.
 
There is a way for someone to make a claim with Paypal and get there money returned to them, therefore "she" could do this after you've shipped the item.
 
This is definitely a scam. Also, it is not a woman. It is probably a man in Nigeria.

The fact that they don't actually mention the product in their email and don't ask any questions about it is also a giveaway.

My rules for Craigslist:

1. Cash only.

2. Meet in a public place during the day. Absolutely no shipping. Period.

3. Cash only.
 
My first red flag is the broken English. The person seems like he/she doesn't live in America has he/she uses a very strange sentence structure. Probably from India or something.
 
Typical scammer. You can tell they just copy and paste the same response hundreds of times trying to get a person to fall for it. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I only deal with people who will deal locally and is willing to communicate over the phone before meeting.
 
Goldinboy17 said:
It's very easy to Dispute with PayPal. The best way to guarantee your safety would be if she sent the Payment as a "Gift." That way she could not dispute it later on. PayPal is definitely not as safe as you seem to think.
Click to expand...

EatMyApple said:
Good tip! Thank you!
Click to expand...

Not necessarily. That assumes the owner of the account in question is actually the one paying you. If that's the case, then yes, that would work.

If it's a stolen PayPal account, which is likely is if it's being used in a scam, the actual owner is just going to dispute the charge on their card or through their bank. The fact it was marked as a "gift" isn't going to make a bit of difference if the actual owner of the account isn't the one who made the payment.
 
same ole same ole

RaceTripper said:
This is a textbook scam.
Click to expand...

Scammers always send the is it still available email even when the post went out less than an hour ago.

They typically show no concern on condition quality or communication. You will be thrilled how they immediately want your paypal to send you the money or even more money.

They seem to not care a whit to qualify the seller.

They have lovely stories on why it needs to go somewhere else and can't meet with you. Ever.

They will run a scam on your paypal and your paypal will be locked until you cough up the monies stolen from you in the phony transaction.

Their goal is just to get your phone. They don't want anything else to do with you.

You wonder why they don't have any interests in checking YOU and your phone out?

Scam, scam, scam. Sold my iPhone 3GS and got these regularly with every craigslist listing. Every single one. It got to be a regular thing. :p
 
EatMyApple said:
Long story short, I posted my iPhone 3GS on Craigslist and received the typical spam emails and people low balling you. I originally posted it for $450 OBO cause I figured dealing would bring the price down anyway.

I received an email from a lady today asking if the iPhone was still available. I replied that it was and that the first offer gets it.

She sent me this reply:

Thanks for your prompt e-mail. I hope the item is in good condition and i will like to purchase it for my daughter in school out-of-state.and i will be very more than happy if you can help me get this item shipped, and am willing to offer $600 to include the shipping fees through the USPS Express mail service, i will be paying you with my PayPal account,If my offer is accepted send me your email with PayPal including your phone # so i can pay in right away..I work on the sea and do not have much time around me. Make sure you get back to me so that i can arrange for the payment

I await your reply

I start reading the email, see she added $150 to the price and the red flag went off. I continued reading and then I hit......USPS Express......and PayPal.......doesn't seem like the typical scam where some skinny wants me to ship my phone to Nigeria while overpaying me and requested the difference back.

I just wanted to double check before I blew this off as to if it could possibly be "real". I know, the too good to be true, and it is.....but, what would they go through the trouble of USPS Express AND PayPal???

Any ideas? I will be sending a follow up email requesting where the phone will be going as I will only be shipping within the US.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Face to face
Cash only
In public place
else you should notice a BIG RED FLAG
 
Oh....the email...yah that a scam...thought you were talking about trying to sell a 3gs for $450

:p
 
I had several of these when I listed my phone on Craigslist last week. It was kind of funny how obvious they were at being scams (yet sad that idiots fall for it).

Checklist:
-Poor grammar while pretending to be American
-Offering to pay more than I was asking for
-Offering to send a cashier's check or other form of payment that no one has used in 20 years
-Using an email address with one name while the signature says another name
-Invented name using two first names (HELLO SIR I AM GEORGE KEVIN)
-Referring to how they will pay via a US bank (what American says this)
-Apparently doing their shopping on my medium-size midwest city's Craiglist

Are scams Nigeria's main source of revenue yet?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back