How to identify a possible Craigslist scam

This article gives you a few pointers and red flags to look for when someone replies to your Craigslist ad that you post online.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Craigslist account
• Item You are selling on Craigslist
• Possible buyer that has just sent you a suspicious email

1. So you have something to sell on Craigslist. Great, so you already have an account set up, or you just posted an item without an account.

2. Wait a period of time and an email comes in from some person you probably don't know, asking if your item is still for sale. You start to feel your palms sweating, because you are maybe going to be able to sell your item.

3. Hold on a second. Before you get too excited, make sure you take a step out of the situation, and figure out what you need to do to protect yourself from scams. There seems to be many ways to scam people on Craigslist, and most of them are itemized on the Craigslist site. I just ran into a possible scam today, and wanted to share a how to, to not fall into this trap.

4. In the email where they say they want to purchase your item, look for grammar errors. People from Nigeria or elsewhere that these scammers work out of usually aren't too adept at the English language, so they will make some subtle mistakes that just don't sound right.

5. Another red flag is when they say they will buy your item, sight unseen, and without driving to your house to try the item out, see its condition, or any of that.

6. Another red flag is if they offer to pay you more for your item than what you listed it as, or say they want you to send them your Paypal payment address(email or ID) so they can send you secure payment.
   
   Sounds safe huh, what they probably may be doing is using a stolen credit card to open their paypal account, then you send them the item, then the credit card company finds out it is fraudulent, and you are now without the item, and may have to pay back PayPal or credit card company too. Ouch double whammy.

7. Another red flag is if they want you to ship the item, and they will pay you extra because they want to ship the item as a surprise gift to someone. The only person going to get a surprise is probably you. They use these tactics to entice you to feel they are legitimate buyers and you can feel good about selling your item and pocketing a bit of extra cash.

8. So, watch out for the few red flags, and always deal in CASH. The scammers love money orders, western union, "certified" checks, personal checks, cashier's checks.
   
   If they truly want the item, they can go to their bank and get cash, even if it is an expensive item like $800. If they have money and are legit, they can write a check to Cash, and get good ol' greenbacks. This will help you avoid many scammers trying to do scams remotely. The internet allows them to do all of this from around the world, it is scary.

Tips & Warnings

• Not all people are as honest and nice as you. The internet can be an ugly place for others to scam us honorable hard working people just trying to have an online garage sale item :-)
• Deal in CASH with Craigslist
• Just be careful when selling anything of large value on Craigslist.
• Look for the red flags I defined above, they will give you a better idea if someone is legit or trying to take your money and your item.
• Deal in Cash and locally with Craigslist, and you will be a lot safer. Of course counterfeiters can't be stopped, so if you are worried about that too, then don't sell on the internet, sorry.

Resources

• PayPal scam I almost fell for

[laserbax]

on 6/20/2009 Thanks for the advice, Never thought about it that way before.

[goodselfme]

on 6/20/2009 Thank you for the tips to identify a possible craigslist scam. 5*