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Selling My iMac Over Craigslist

D

dylan

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 9, 2005
368
0
Well I posted my iMac on Cragslist a couple months ago and I got an email a couple days ago:

Thanks for your reply concerning my enquiry. i am intereted in
purchasing this great item i just Wanna buy it because most of my
customer are demmanding for this product so mush.my method of payment
i will send you US Postal Money Order ok? . due to some reasons
Ok?What i am going to need from you is to send your Contact name and
address aLong with phone number so that i can make an arrange for
the payment. ok.............thanks hope to hear from ou soon and nice
doing business with you
N.B
Since the item is still in great condition, i am willing to make an
offer for an amount of $700 including packaging. It would be better
for you to end the auction by taking it off
Craigslist because am serious in buying this item.
Thanks
Click to expand...


For some reason the constant "ok"'s make me feel a little uncomfortable. Also I have never cashed a US Money Order before, would I be able to in Canada? How secure are they?

How should I respond?

I have had little experience selling stuff online. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
 
If you're selling something on a local craigslist and you get an email other than from someone being obviously open and honest (non-scammers will want to meet you, want to see the item before buying it, have the cash, are local, willing to give you a phone number, etc.), it is a scammer nineteen times out of twenty. The one time that someone doesn't meet those criteria and isn't a scammer, it'll be someone who wants to lowball you or something that isn't worth your time anyway.
 
When I tried to sell my eMac on Craigslist I got an email similar to this. They said that they were in Arkansas but wanted me to give it to someone who lived near where I live. I kept asking them where the people lived who I wanted to deliver it to and they just kept saying that they lived in Arkansas and they were buying it for someone. :eek: Scammers aren't very smart.
 
Thanks for the replies.

Is it that obvious? He said he'd send the money order right away. Couldn't I just wait until I cash it to ship?

I agree it does smell a bit fishy though... the references to his customers and the fact that I posted it on the Vancouver Craigslist and he wants to send me a US money order....
 
I just listed an Infocus X2 projector on craigslist and got two emails, neither of them local. One is from a person who at least seems legit (e.g. proper grammer, structure, punctuation, etc. in his emails) and wants to pay with Paypal. His Paypal account is premier verified and 3 years old, with a seller reputation rating of 1. I've heard of people doing credit card chargebacks through Paypal so I'm worried that once he has my projector, he'll do a chargeback, which Paypal almost always allows with no recourse for the seller.

The second email was almost exactly the same as the one mentioned earlier. The person insists on paying with USPS money order. What exactly is the worst that can happen? I don't understand how this could be a scam either, if the person sends me the money order, I cash it, and it clears, then what's the problem?
 
anubis said:
The second email was almost exactly the same as the one mentioned earlier. The person insists on paying with USPS money order. What exactly is the worst that can happen? I don't understand how this could be a scam either, if the person sends me the money order, I cash it, and it clears, then what's the problem?
Click to expand...

Exactly.
 
jsw said:
Some insight. More here. USPS money orders can be faked. Cash them, they then come back bad, and you owe the money.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. So do you think I should go through with it, then check using those sites to see if it is genuine? Or just forget about it all together?
 
dylan said:
Thanks for that. So do you think I should go through with it, then check using those sites to see if it is genuine? Or just forget about it all together?
Click to expand...
Dylan Dylan, listen to your elders.

IT. IS. A. FRAUD.

There is NO QUESTION of whether you should ignore this -- don't reply, don't touch with a 10 foot pole. As soon as you think you can outsmart the scammers you will be burned big time. You're going to leave 7 days for the money order to clear, then ship the goods, right? Then your bank will come back 28 days later and withdraw the money plus penalties from your account for tendering a forged money order.

DO send the emails with the headers to info@phonebusters.com, the joint RCMP/OPP telefraud unit.

DO report it as presumed attempted fraud to yahoo or mail.com or AOL -- because these scammers almost always use untraceable free webmail accounts.

Any time a buyer wants to dictate the terms of payment, especially if they take pains to assure you how safe it is, and any time they want you to ship to a third party address or arrange shipping on their own FexEx account, or want to urgently make the deal, or pay you more than you are asking, or respond to a LOCAL craiglist ad from more than 100 miles away... IT IS A FRAUD.
 
I just wanted to let everyone know that I've decided to sell to the guy who wanted to pay with Paypal. His account is US premier verified and 3 years old, and the ship-to address he specified is also verified. I also talked to him on the phone and he seemed sincere enough. Additionally, the transaction details say that I qualify for Paypal seller protection since the buyer and address are verified. He also has a 3-year-old ebay account and his account has 11 all-positive feedbacks, some of them very recent. I'm also going to insure the package for shipping damage. I hope that after all of these safeguards I won't get ripped off. He's already paid and I'm going to ship on Monday. I'll let everyone know how it went in a week or two.
 
That is absolutely a scam. The money order will go through and you'll send them your computer. And then about 2 weeks later, you'll get a call saying the money order was in fact a forgery and that money will be deducted from your account with possibly a fee to boot.
 
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