Comments on: How To Stay Safe And Avoid Getting Ripped Off On Craigslist

By: JulioxD961

JulioxD961 — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 18:57:00 +0000

aww i feel sorry for your frend… well i was looking to buy a iphone 4 (because ive been wanting one for the longest time) and a man on craigslist for 230$… do u think this mght be to good to be true?

By: JulioxD961

JulioxD961 — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 18:57:00 +0000

By: JulioxD961

JulioxD961 — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 18:52:00 +0000

hey please reply to this… ive been wanting a iphone 4 for the longest time and a man on craislist is sellig it for 230$… do u think he might be a scammer?

By: Andrea

Andrea — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 09:18:22 +0000

Please read this so this wont happen to anyone else !!!
I have a friend who had a horrible experience on craigslist with a scammer that said he was in England because his dad was in bad health and was dieing and he also said he was going through a divorce and wanted to sell a 2009 4 wheeler for 1800 dollars which was worth about 5,000.00 to 6,000.00 dollars and he told my friend where to send the money through western union and said to send it to a lady whom he gave my friend the name of this lady and he said she was taking care of the transaction and payment for him while he was in England with his father. He said she was his assistant . He said he lived in another state here in the US I think Michigan and his parents lived in England and he said was selling the 4 wheeler so cheap because he was going through this awful divorce and wanted to sell it before his ex wife to be sold it and got the money from it and therefore since he had plenty of money and didnt really need the money he really didnt care what he got for it and he just wanted to sell it before his wife did. We sent him the money for the 4 wheeler and we thought the transaction was complete then he emails my friend and says he would ship the 4 wheeler as soon as he recieved the money and then my friend gets another email from him saying that he will ship the 4 wheeler as soon as my friend sends him another 800.00 for insurance and that my friend would get a refund on the 800.00 insurance money as soon as the we let him know that the 4 wheeler arrived safely in the US at my friends home and he told my friend if he didnt pay the insurance he would not be able to ship the 4 wheeler. We tried to call this guy and tried to email him to ask why we werent told about the insurance before the transaction was completed, that is when we figured out that it was a scam because we tried to call him over and over a hundred times and he would not answer the phone and would not answer our emails either. By then it was too late to do anything and my friends money was gone but thank the lord he didnt send the other 800.00 for insurance. What I would like to know is there a tax credit for such a loss to a senior citizen? My friend had a 4 wheeler and his grand son wrecked it and so my friend was getting this other 4 wheeler off of craiglist to be able to get around outside on his little farm as he has a muscle disease and arthritis along with diabetes and polymyalgia rheumatica and he had raised a few head of cattle to get this 4 wheeler and he sold the cattle and got scammed and feels really dumb about all of this. I feel so badly for him as his 18 yr old grandson didnt try to replace the 4 wheeler he wrecked and now this guy scams him for the other one he was trying to buy to replace the one his grandson wrecked and he had to raise these cattle for almost 2 yrs and sell them to pay for the 4 wheeler that he got scammed on. I dont know how people can get away with stuff like this and then dissapear into thin air and still have a concience. I do know that this guy is gonna have to answer to the man above when judgement day comes, thats for sure !!!! This person literally stold my friends $1,800.00 dollars. Sorry this was so long and Thank You everyone who read it but we just dont want this to happen to anyone else as this is a heart breaking and hard way to learn a lesson. If you type in 4 wheeler scam in your search box it was on the internet but I dont know if it is still there or not. several people got scammed.

By: Kim

Kim — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:17:06 +0000

I moved across the country and sold just about everything we owned on Craigslist. Overall it was a very good experience, however, if you are selling on craigslist just make sure to keep valuables hidden if you have people come to your home. Also, keep your eye on them! No matter how nice they appear, the buyer is still a stranger to you. I had a necklace that was worth around $300 stolen from a buyer that was in our house and my husband turned his back on them for just a minute.

By: Best of Personal Finance Roundup: I’ve Got One of the Recalled Toyotas. Now What?- Financial Eyes & Ears

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:33:02 +0000

[...] How to Stay Safe and Avoid Getting Ripped Off on Craigslist — With all the talk of Craigslist psychos and deals gone bad, it can be intimidating to get out there and grab a great bargain. Don’t let it be. This article has lots of common sense for anyone wanting to play the Craigslist field safely. Money Crashers [...]

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:04:17 +0000

Another success story for me, I picked up a seed spreader for $20 today (new: $60), no problems and super easy! Anyway, Craigslist isn’t all a big scary place, there are good stories that come of it :-)

By: Dark Angel

Dark Angel — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:51:45 +0000

I like to bring someone else with me (when meeting up in person). Anything can happen at these meetups, and I find an extra hand helps.

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:41:22 +0000

DG, just curious if you’ve heard any of these bad stories first hand? Personally I still haven’t met anyone that had a bad Craigslist experience. Let me rephrase that, I haven’t met anyone that had a bad experience when they actually met the buyer/seller in person. The “bad craigslist storeis” almost seem like urban legends. Anyway, I’m sure it does happen, but I’d be curious what the actual numbers were, especially compared to people who have been ripped off on ebay.

By: DG

DG — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 04:30:13 +0000

this is great advice! I always sell books on amazon and once i bought off ebay but I don’t trust craiglist. have heard one too many bad tales!

By: Sean

Sean — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:15:24 +0000

I agree with Bucksome, be careful out there, but keep using it. I’ve sold a bunch of stuff on Craigslist and never had any problems, but maybe I’m just lucky. Great advice though, be smart out there and you can find some great deals and make some side money without having to give up any percentage to ebay. For me, this is the best reason to use Craigslist, I can sell things for hundreds of dollars and keep all of it. Nothing goes to paypal or ebay and I can trust the cash in my hand.

By: Bucksome

Bucksome — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:59:06 +0000

We just bought a gently used dryer from a Craigslist ad on Monday so this was almost timely:).

I think the takeaway message is not to stop using Craigslist, but rather to just be smart about it as you would any private transaction (remember the old days when we had want ads in the newspaper).

By: gina

gina — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:13:56 +0000

I always worry about predators when you are using Craigslist (I know, I’m probably paranoid!). I always meet in public, and take my husband with me! You can never be too safe!

By: jeccica simpson

jeccica simpson — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:49:30 +0000

I have no problems to date on Craiglist, but great information to get out there for newcomers!!

By: Audra

Audra — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 20:18:48 +0000

That’s excellent advice about meeting each other in a public place and to never go alone!!! People are just plain nuts now-a-days; you never know what you’re getting into and it’s always better to be as safe as you can about it. I personally know someone who got pulled into a house just trying to deliver a pizza, so bad things do happen. Now that I’ve scared you to death, I have used Craigslist a couple of times and have had good results. Just remember if it sounds too good to be true then it is. :-)

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:38:32 +0000

When I deal on Craigslist, I think about ways to physically stay safe. I always have my husband home when a person stops by. I always have the item ready by the door. If the weather is good, I will even try to be outside doing yardwork or something when they come by. I also always keep the phone handy.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:56:13 +0000

I started to notice that when selling things, you get a bunch of spam email sent to the craigslist email they assign you.

By: Lisa Gregg

Lisa Gregg — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:54:48 +0000

As a woman, when I buy and sell locally on Craig’s list, I make sure I set up the place to meet. I agree that it is better to buy locally. I make sure that the place is public, during the day and an area that I am familiar with. I think safety is also an important issue to address.

By: Mami2jcn

Mami2jcn — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 16:03:49 +0000

Craigslist is very scary. It’s too bad the scammers have ruined it for the rest of us.

I agree that the #1 tip is to deal face-to-face with people locally. It’s very easy to be scammed long-distance.

By: Sushi

Sushi — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:52:53 +0000

What you really have to watch out for is if the scammers come to you. I’ve been having a email conversation with someone who supposedly wants me to tutor his son. It started out innocently enough, but it was obvious that he never read my ad since he didn’t tell me what the kid was struggling in. I waited for a reply, and he replied from a different email with this really strange story in broken English saying he was raised in America but now lives in Jamaica and was sending his son for a vacation in the States. What? To top this off, the email for this domain was from an Indian ISP. No thanks.