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I have posted For Sell items on Craigslist a number of times with good success. I like Craigslist. However, my last advertisement resulted in three attempted scams. I give some details here with the hope that not only can you be the persuasive wizard but also the wise wizard. Here is the sequel and some guidelines that may help you spot the culprits before you commit an error.
The Posting: My actual posting was not important, but two elements of it were. One, it was a posting to sell camera equipment. Camera equipment is easily identified and valued worldwide. It is a commodity easy to turn and conveniently packaged for transportation. Second, the posted equipment had considerable value, about $4,800 new and selling for $2,500 used.
Quick Response: I observed that all three scam attempts came within as many hours of the posting. This was not totally unexpected as my posted price was a good buy. Also, Christmas is just around the corner and I live in a large city. I have had “immediate” responses on Craigslist before, but those replies were for items I was giving away (literally), not items for which I expected compensation. Be cautious if responses chase your posting.
No Dickering: In all my life, not once have I sold anything for a substantial price that the buyer did not haggle. On all three of these scams, the email came back immediately and said, “I want to buy it. I will pay you the $2,500,” or something similar. Now, anyone who will immediately pay $2,500 for camera equipment based on four pictures posted on Craigslist is to be eyed askance. As a matter of course, I recommend that you refuse to sell to anyone who will neither haggle, complain about the price, nor ask for something more. You need to sell to people who have a life.
Foreign Addresses: In the past, my buyers on Craigslist have been “locals.” One of my scammers claimed to be from Denver. His email address ended in “.com.au” so I asked him how a person who lived in Denver could route his mail through a server in Australia. His reply was that he was an Australian citizen living in Denver. Really? He doesn’t like his bits and bytes going through the good ol’ USA?
One of the scammers wanted me to ship the camera directly to his “cousin” in Nigeria for whom the scammer was buying this as a “special gift.” A 2,500 gift for a cousin? I definitely wanted an 8×10, 12 Mpixel photo of her.
Language: All three scammers wrote faulty English. The punctuation was not exactly right, the phrasing awkward. Now, I realize many responses are sent via hand-held devices and that some use speech recognition, prone to errors. In addition, I know that not everyone was privileged to make an “A+” in Ms. Dalrymple’s 8th grade English class, like I did. Nevertheless, the punctuation was incorrect in odd ways, lots of commas, few periods. The English phrasing was run-on sentences.
Politeness: My wife noticed that the emails were too polite. Lots of “please this” and “please that.” From my firsthand experience, this is characteristic of Indian, Asian, Latino, and Middle Eastern culture. “I like them myself those countries so please, do not be offended, if I then refer to someone, now as being too polite.” See what I mean? Awkward. Plus, Americans are more direct and not nearly so polite, especially if negotiating the departure of their US dollars.
Brevity: The emails were brief. None of the scammers would answer a question directly. They would give an answer to some quasi-related question, but not the question I asked.
Shipping: Interestingly, all three scammers said they would give me $100 (exactly) for shipping. I do not know how they all simultaneously came up with the same dollar figure except it probably was just a round number that sounded generous. In the ad, I never stated how much the equipment weighted nor even spoke of shipping because I expected a local to purchase it, examine it firsthand, and take it home.
Xoom and PayPal: All three scammers claimed that I would receive cash. Now, Craigslist is a legitimate company, but that does not prevent scamming. Xoom may be legitimate, too; I do not know. Xoom has a web page, of course. Legitimate or not, one of my scammers was using it as a third party. The plot was this. I was to receive an email from Xoom telling me that the scammer had put $2,500 + $100 shipping in this Xoom escrow-type account. Once I received an email from Xoom, I was to ship the merchandise to Nigeria and send the receipt to Xoom. Then, supposedly, a Xoom truck would back up to my front door and unload $2,600 in cash. (I wish now I had specified gold Krugerrands.)
Well, I did receive an email from “Xoom” or something posing as Xoom. The email “looked” like a real website with a number of great photos. When I traced back the photos, though, I was able to detect that they had been lifted from other, legitimate web sites and pasted onto this site. Furthermore, the English in this website was still just a little stilted and awkward, repeated words, incorrect punctuation.
Please, don’t think I’m a stickler for grammar. It was supposedly Thomas Jefferson who claimed he had nothing but distain for a person who could think of but one way to spell a word. Punctuation is harder. An editor once told famed William F. Buckley, Jr. that he “had no notion of the proper sense of a comma.” I have no notion either, but I follow Ms. Dalrymple’s 8th Grade Rule #1 Concerning Commas: When In Doubt, Leave It Out.
The other two scammers wanted to use PayPal. PayPal is a legitimate company, of course, and I have used them a number of times. However, Craigslist warns against using this except from people you know. I’m not sure how that scam works but my searches through the internet turned up an interesting case. One seller actually received a real check. She went to cash it and did receive the money – for a short time. Unfortunately, it was a stolen check from yet another company.
Those are my observations. I hope they help you and keep you from being defrauded.
As for me?
Might you be interested in some great camera equipment? It’s priced to sell at $2,500 … please, sir, or ma’am.