CRAIGSLIST SCAM! Be Careful guys !!!!
 

Had my 2010 Darrin Shapiro Slaysh for sale on Craigslist. (now still for sale) Had a guy buy it. Great. He said he had a check in the mail however his assistant did it and sent me a check for a much larger amount that should have went to another person. Instead she messed up and put my name on it. He told me to cash it. Easy enough. (started to think scam but...hoped) So did.... and then he said to just sent money back to the person it was supposed to go Western Union. Well being lazy finally paid off. I just didn't want to do that. So just didn't for a while, went to lake and just didn't worry about it. He emailed a few times asking about it, and I told him I just hadn't done it. He asked that I would. Seemed fair. I then thought, "ya know I better make sure it cleared first" So went to the bank. It did clear. I was told that by my bank. Well I was about to Western Union the money and asked my bank if they did that. Luckily they don't. So again laziness set it. I said I will do it tomorrow. Now I get the mail today and I see that the check DID NOT clear. Ha....laziness pays off. I think he was totally scamming me. Great scam really. OVERPAY me...and have me send basically cash back to someone. Looking back it was scam whole way. Never got his phone number yet asked 3 times. Check was typed out yet my name was on it not the correct party? He never cared about picking up the board, only about that I sent the money back. Ugggg

This pisses me off....so...who do I contact? I had it on CRAIGSLIST but lord knows they won't do crap. I have his email but it is a yahoo account...I have where I was supposed to send the Western Union but that is just a name and city and state.

Bill Caleb is this guys name
Billcaleb90@yahoo.com

I was supposed to send the money to
David Coby
NE Covington, GA 30014


What should I do guys?

This is a very common scam, with anything you can imagine. I would doubt very little could be done here, especially since you didn't lose anything

Except maybe be glad that you procrastinated for some time to find out the check was bogus

Just wish somehow I could get this to the right people to stop them.....thats all. Gotta be someone somewhere who can get them or at least scare the crap out of them.

^I think there are just too many doing this crap. You catch one, and then he's replaced by ten other scammers. I don't even really mess around with CL anymore unless it's a face-to-face transaction, cash in hand.

welcome to 2005... this is a pretty old scam scenario.

Seriously Shawn? You are gonna call me out and tell me welcome to 2005? Whatever man, I was posting this so it might save someone a headache down the road. Guess we aren't ALL as perfect as you at spotting scams. I tend to trust people and thought this was the perfect place to vent some frustration and maybe help someone. Even if it is an OLD SCENARIO doesn't mean everyone has heard or seen it. Thoughts like yours sometimes are better left to yourself!

http://orlando.craigslist.org/about/scams

These scams are common knowledge for anyone who's sold on CL.

i don't blame shawn too much, really. i'm surprised people still fall for that kind of stuff.

Seriously? They call that one out specifically on just about every CL page...

Yes it still happens a lot. As a UPS driver, We get several of these bad checks going through our air service. No Return address on letter or a fraudulent shipping account. Easy to spot in our system cause the letters feel empty. We take them to security who checks them out and finds each one with a single check, typed name doesn't match label and its for a couple G's. We cant even do much at stopping the scammers. So like everyone says. Know the facts and don't be a victim to this.

No doubt. I think I first encountered this back in like 04. See that scam warning at the very top of the add you placed on craigslist Scott. The one in bold color. it is warning you about this very scam. Glad you didn't get ripped off Scott, be careful dealing with anyone who is not local.

Scott dude, don't jump on Shawn man, can't believe for a second you thought that was legit. Trust nobody. One of my skydiving buds who was a cop told me once if you don't believe a damn thing you hear and about half of what you see, you'll be alright.

Another reason I use paypal. I don't ship anything til I receive payment in my Paypal account.

Within hours of posting anything on CL,and I mean anything, this is what you get.I have received one every time I post on CL

'Hello
I really appreciate your response to my email and i am sorry for my
late response. I want you to consider it sold, Pls do withdraw the
advert from CL to avoid disturbances,anyway i should have come down to
come and look at it but I don't have time to come over to take a look
due to my Business transactions that makes me busy but you don't need
to bother yourself with that and also the shipment I'll take care of
that by engaging the services of a mover, so I'll be sending a
certified bank check and it will be delivered to you via United Parcel
Service (UPS), so I'll need you to provide me with me with more
pictures and the following information to facilitate the mailing of
the check ......

Full name on the check.
Full Physical address to post the check
City, State and Zip Code
Home & Cell Phone to contact you.

Note that the payment will be shipped to your address via UPS NEXT DAY
AIR SERVICE and I will like you to know that you will not be
responsible for shipping i will have my mover to come over as soon as
you have cashed the check* N.B UPS does not deliver to a P.O box
addresses.Thanks and hope to hear from you as soon "

Terrible way to live but trust nobody.A world full of lurking predators!!

I got these three responses to a CL ad I placed all in the same day. All of them talk about paying me through PayPal and me then me shipping the item somewhere. Notice that none of them actually mention a specific item for sale.

If it's too good to be true, then it isn't true. At least not on CL.

1.) Hello,
Thanks for the mail,Actually i will like to buy this item for cousin in oversea and i will like it to be delivered to him cos I'm currently out of state .I will be paying you $80 for shipping cost and i will be making payment through PayPal and I want you to send me your PayPal email address so i can make the payment and if you don't have PayPal account you can quickly logging on to www.paypal.com to create a PayPal account cos is the most secure,fastest,reliable to pay online if you truly interested in doing business with me send me your PayPal email so i can proceed with the payment.

2.) Hello,


Thanks for you reply toward my request for your item, i am very happy
to hear that the item is still available,The price you want to get the item sold is OK by me. I am a medical doctor
residing in texas.



i am buying this item as a birthday gift for my son that was currently
transfered to west africa with world health organization.I will pay through paypal and you will be mailling the item to him directly through US
postal service (USPS).



Kindly provide me with your paypal email or send me a money request so that I will make the payment to you asap, i will be adding a shipping fee
of($200) during the payment of your item, once you get back to me with your paypal email.



i need this item as soon as possible so that it can be able to get to
him before his birthday comesup.i travelled to the United Kingdom(UK)
for an emergency,that is why i can't do this locally/pick it up.hope
it is in good condition.kindly get back to me asap so that i will make
the payment hoping to hear from you soon.



Regards.
Dr.williams.



3.) Thanks for your quick respond i will like to buy this item for friend's son in overseas
country as birthday gift. i will offer you $350 for the item $80 for shipping ok.So
kindly get back to me with your paypal email address to proceed with the transaction because paypal is the most secured and fastest means for online transaction.Regards

(1)I want to know condition of the item
(2)why do you want to sell it.

Pidgin English,willing to pay more than what you are asking, sending a moving service to collect anything from a safety pin to the space shuttle...........................
If only these people would put as much effort into doing something legal. As I said,Predators.

sounds like cl doesn't do any phishing filtering AT ALL on the servers! one thing that pisses me off the most is we had posted at least 5 times selling a couple of dresses and they were all FLAGGED :( and they don't giving the seller ANY info as to who,why,what,where,when they were deleted off and no contact info for cl! i will not be using them ever again!!!!!

Wow, guess I was in the dark at how bad this stuff was. Damn. Sorry Shawn didn't realize "I" was the fool here. Oh well, guess I got really lucky. Crazy thing is, I emailed him. Told him to call me directly before I sent money, (this was 2 days ago) and he called. My cell. Anyway, couldn't understand a word hardly. Told him to send me a money order or cashiers check if he wanted it.

Now, after reading this. Should I be worried at all? He knows my name, address and phone number (cell)....Nothing he can really do to me correct?

Good chance he is overseas, so I wouldn't worry.

This scam is the most used craigslist scam. It was even on the news......

LOL, just checked back in on this thread. Didn't mean to sweat you too much Scott... but CL is sorta weird like that. Some people seem to be shocked and offended that scammers are out there. For me it seems like the scammers are always so obvious. I've done MANY CL deals where I buy from someone out of town (use craiglook.com, searchtempest.com, etc) and have had good experiences where I'm the one sending the money to some random dude. Most people out there in the world are legit and want to do the right thing. The ones that aren't just seem to be so obvious about it.

Maybe I've just got a superpower for scam detection.... nah.

Do not accept anything that requires depositing into your bank account. Cashier Checks aren't worth the paper they're printed on. A USPS money order can be cashed at the post office.

Another variation of the scam for the big boys: http://www.abajournal.com/mobile/com...ettlement_che/