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Yes another craigslist scam question!

M

Macvillain

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 15, 2008
28
0
Michigan
Here is the email i received back from the guy

Hi there,

The ibook is still available. You can see its condition on the attached files. I'm in London untill Christmas and since we can't meet I have found a way for us to complete the deal safely and fast, and this way you will receive the ibook in less than 2 days, if you move fast as well. The solution is provided by DHL, and it will handle the payment and delivery of the ibook. It will allow me to receive the payment for ibook only after you will receive it and test it. Price is $300 including shipping. Hopefully we can work something out.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Joseph

PS. Just to remind you, here are the spects:

Processor: PowerPC G4 1.33GHZ
Operating System: Fresh installed OS X Leopard
Screen Size: 14" LCD
Memory: 1GB Memory installed. Max capacity 1.5G
Hard drive: 40G hard drive, capacity for 20,000 pictures or 10,000 MP3 songs
Optical Drive: CDRW DVD Combo Drive Burn CDs Watch DVDs
Sound: Integrated sound with headphone jack
Network and Modem: Built-in fast LAN Networking, ready for high-speed Internet
Built-in 56K Modem, in case you still need dial-up
Built-in Airport Extreme Card, ready for wireless Internet!!!
Built-in bluetooth
Ports: Two USB ports
Firewire (1394) ports for Digital Camcorder and other high speed device
Mini-display output
new battery for Apple iBook 14", would hold about 5 hours

The following programs will come preinstalled on the system (original discks are also included). All programs are fully activated.

Adobe CS3 Design Premium
Microsoft Mac Office 2008
iWork 2008
iLife 2008
Roxio Toast Titanium 8
Adobe CS2 products which includes Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe ImageReady, Adobe In Design, Adobe Bridge, Adobe Digital Edition


Here are some pictures he sent.

http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&i...&th=11d8d8430a0d256e&attid=0.1&disp=inline&zw

http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&i...&th=11d8d8430a0d256e&attid=0.2&disp=inline&zw

http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&i...&th=11d8d8430a0d256e&attid=0.3&disp=inline&zw

http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&i...&th=11d8d8430a0d256e&attid=0.4&disp=inline&zw


The reason why im sceptical because it seems to me that it is a 12" ibook not 14" and it seems to be running tiger not leopard.
 
Macvillain said:
....The reason why im sceptical because it seems to me that it is a 12" ibook not 14" and it seems to be running tiger not leopard.
Click to expand...

the real reasons why you should be skeptical are "I'm out of town and can't meet" and "but you can pay safely (hahaha, sucker) using the old fake DHL scam!"
 
Just email them back and tell them that you will happen to be in London and would love to meet up.

Wow, scammers have hit the bad economy too. Scamming for 300? What happened to days of PPPPPPPowerbooks and Macbook Pros?
 
CL is for local sales only

If anyone on CL tells you they're out of the country, etc, etc (and yeah, it does seem to be the UK now) it's a scam.

If they won't meet you in the parking lot of a burger king while you're carrying one or two k in cash and a loaded pistol in your glovebox, they're not serious.
 
Well since he/she will receive payment after you receive the iBook, why don't you tell them to just cut the middle man, mail you the iBook via Fedex (or its British equivalent), and you'll paypal/mail them a cheque after you receive it?
It'd be funny to see what reply the scammer can come up with.

Btw, another telling sign is the amount of software that this computer is loaded up with. The software itself would've cost 10x the price of the iBook price that he/she set.
 
I don't see how some people get involved in these scams. Not you the OP, sounds like you knew it was a scam. But to read of people who fall for this, kinda makes you wonder where street smarts went.

Latest thing I have heard like this is people renting houses from people who don't own them. No contact with landlord either, the renter checks out the house then mails a deposit and first/last rent to the "landlord". 3 months later, the owners who were gone or walked away from their house due to financial reasons come back and its a mess.

Too good to be true demands cash in hand and the item upfront.
 
alexlovesmacs said:
LOL, DHL dosen't even ship to the US anymore.
Click to expand...

That is not true.

DHL, the world's number one international logistics and express service provider, today announced a repositioning of its loss-making U.S. Express business. DHL's U.S. Express business will focus entirely on its international offering and will discontinue domestic-only air and ground products on January 30, 2009, but leaving behind a strong international presence and capability in the U.S.
Click to expand...
 
Yes, Craigslist is turning into one gigantic source for scams. I was trying to sell my Macbook Pro a couple of weeks ago and had at least 5 offers to buy it and pay by wire transfer or Paypal. I actually sold it three times to people trying to scam me. I figure if they're going to waste my time, I'll waste theirs. The funnist thing was when one person asked for my phone number for the payment, I gave them the phone number for the local field office of the FBI. When he wanted to know where the package was, I kept trying to get him to call me. :D:D

I would stick with selling on eBay, but between their fees and Paypal's fees, it's a killer.
 
Hello good sir. I am sellling iBook G4 and I live in Swaziland and I send you the iBook and you can check it out just give me your paypal information and your phone number and I will get back to you!
 
Well, I got scammed by the same "Joseph"

I'm stupid. I know it. Here is what he wrote me:

Hi there,

The ibook is still available. You can see its condition on the attached files. I'm in London untill Christmas and since we can't meet I have found a way for us to complete the deal safely and fast, and this way you will receive the ibook in less than 2 days, if you move fast as well. The solution is provided by DHL, and it will handle the payment and delivery of the ibook. It will allow me to receive the payment for ibook only after you will receive it and test it. Price is $300 including shipping. Hopefully we can work something out.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Joseph

PS. Just to remind you, here are the spects:

Processor: PowerPC G4 1.33GHZ
Operating System: Fresh installed OS X Leopard
Screen Size: 14" LCD
Memory: 1GB Memory installed. Max capacity 1.5G
Hard drive: 40G hard drive, capacity for 20,000 pictures or 10,000 MP3 songs
Optical Drive: CDRW DVD Combo Drive Burn CDs Watch DVDs
Sound: Integrated sound with headphone jack
Network and Modem: Built-in fast LAN Networking, ready for high-speed Internet
Built-in 56K Modem, in case you still need dial-up
Built-in Airport Extreme Card, ready for wireless Internet!!!
Built-in bluetooth
Ports: Two USB ports
Firewire (1394) ports for Digital Camcorder and other high speed device
Mini-display output
new battery for Apple iBook 14", would hold about 5 hours

The following programs will come preinstalled on the system (original discks are also included). All programs are fully activated.

Adobe CS3 Design Premium
Microsoft Mac Office 2008
iWork 2008
iLife 2008
Roxio Toast Titanium 8
Adobe CS2 products which includes Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe ImageReady, Adobe In Design, Adobe Bridge, Adobe Digital Edition
 
Too good to be true?? ...it probably is!

Hello

I still have the laptop.
I have attached some pics with the laptop to this e-mail. I am now in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom.
Since I can't meet you and make the exchange, I would like to use a service that will help us with that. Please go here to learn more about it:


TNT is a worldwide delivery company (like Fedex, DHL or UPS). You can see from their procedure that you will be able to check the laptop before I receive the payment. If you are in a hurry, I will use 2 day delivery (shipping is on me).

Let me know what you think.

Thanks,
Susan
 
I would only buy/sell locally, face to face, on Craigslist. That's what it was designed for, anything else is a scam.
 
What these guys play on is people's greed and/or desperation.

Personally, I like CL. True, you don't get the number of buyers/sellers that eBay has, but at least it is safer than eBay. If you live in a large city (Los Angeles for me), then CL is golden. I've used it successfully many times for many items, even including a car (both buying and selling). I bought my mac mini on CL.

However, in order to make it work for you, there are two iron rules: only, only, only do deals in person. Period. No exceptions. And, cash only. Period. No exceptions. Of course, you still must be careful: first, make sure you are in a public place - I usually use the local Starbucks for the meeting. Second, make sure you have a way to check out the item in question, and that you know enough about it, to evaluate the condition etc.

Even so, people try to scam. I had one guy who was supposed to buy my car; he came out, and we struck the deal for $5K. Now comes the time to pay, and he pulls out $300 and a check. Then he tells me that he's sorry but he got too late to the bank to get the cash out from a teller (it was past 6:00 p.m.), so he just pulled out the maximum from a machine which was $300, and the rest is in a $4700 check. So I told him to come back in the morning after he had a chance to go to a bank. Never saw him again. He wasted my time and was going to scam me. But you can see how tempted someone may be here - you've already put in a ton of time, the guy seems honest, he has a good story, it's late, you are tired and just want to go through with this since you already sunk in so much time - so you go for it, and BOOM! You're scammed.

And from the other side, when I was buying: I was buying a car. The price was $6500, a damn good price, a car that usually goes for $8000. Now, I agree, when something is too good to be true, it's usually a scam. However, he said he needed to sell fast, and this being a collector's car, it would take time to sell, and he needed the cash pronto. So I look at the car, examine it carefully etc., I called my wife and gave her the VIN. She checked on it. The car was stolen. When I confronted him about it, he got aggressive and drove away. The scary part is that I was lucky, because often these guys will steal a car from a vacationing family garage, and the family is not back for two weeks, so the car doesn't get reported as stolen. Then you are buying a car that's stolen (they do a burglary on the house and get the title to the car etc.).

So, keep in mind the iron rules, and you'll be fine on CL.
 
Why are you guys still wasting your time talking about this, and why am I wasting my time reading and replying. LOL.
 
Give us the link to the craigslist post and we can all be interested. We can see if he gives the same story to all of us with the same solution. You guys are cracking my a** up at 6am at work...thanks for keeping me awake.
 
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