How I Almost Got Screwed Out of $1300 on Craigslist
Craiglist is one of the largest sites on the internet for buying and selling services. In addition to only writing about Craigslist on the blog , I’ve also only used the site twice, and both of those times were to sell something. The first was to sell some furniture I had after we moved back into our home. That was a great transaction and someone came to the house, picked it up, paid for it and we were all good.
The second time around was not as successful, but it did leave me with this interesting story to tell.
I just recently listed a bunch of gaming systems on Craigslist that I never use anymore. I figured I would grab more interest by throwing a brand new unopened Xbox One into the bundle as well. The listing was for a Playstation 3, Three XBox 360 systems, a New XBox One and a bunch of games. The price was $1300 for it all.
The day after the listing went live, I got an email from an interested party. The girl said the wanted to buy it for her son, but didn’t want all of the systems… just the XBox One and the Playstation 3, but she would still pay the same price. (the first sign this buyer was odd)
She also said she would pay for shipping of the items. I asked where she lived, as most Craigslist buyers are local to the listing as they prefer to pick items up personally than having to pay for shipping. The girl followed up and said he was in Utah and that she would like the packages mailed through USPS Express mail and would send payment through Paypal.
The next day I asked for payment and the address of where to ship the items. This is when it got really weird… her respond was the following.
Once I saw the Nigeria address I knew something was up.
I also hadn’t received payment into my account yet… but then I received the following emails from “Paypal”.
The first email was to show me that payment was sent to Paypal.
The second email was to notify me that the payment was received by Paypal but wouldn’t be released until the shipping confirmation was received. It was also surprising to see the buyer would more than willingly add an additional $250 to cover shipping costs.
If I was your average internet user, this would have come off pretty convincing, and I’m sure people are falling for this every day.
The clear giveaway that this was fraudulent for me was the following:
- Paypal doesn’t send out these types of emails
- Paypal doesn’t hold your money for confirmation of shipment
- No funds or notifications were ever in my Paypal account
- The “from” email in these addresses linked back to payserviceinfo@mail2pal.com
The unfortunate thing is that this scheme is VERY convincing to the unsuspecting internet user. I imagine thousands of these transactions are taking place every day and going after high priced items on Craiglist. Even if just 1 out of every 50 or 100 of these actually go through, they are making money out of it as people would be sending them high priced items for free.
I’m sure this type of activity is even at a higher rate right now with holiday shopping going on. Be careful who you buy and sell products through when using the internet, Craigslist and Paypal.
Spread the word and awareness on scams like this going on across the internet and on Craigslists!
There is unfortunately a lot of scams at this time of year. Whilst it may be obvious to us, this kind of thing will obviously catch some people out.
Definitely, that's why I decided to make a post out of it.
I never ship anything I'm selling in Craigslist. If you can't meet up with me in person, there's no deal, no excuses. These scams happen all the time.
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Agreed, that's what I was originally hoping for. It's bad enough they will usually try to low ball you when they show up to pick up your items as well!
My recent post How I Almost Got Screwed Out of $1300 on Craigslist
I recently did work through eBay and sold my original iPad Mini. Believe it or not, PayPal held my money until they had confirmation of shipment. However, it was legit through PayPal and eBay. Just wanted to let you know that PayPal can hold money for confirmation of shipment. Just have to make sure it says that in your PayPal.
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Interesting. At least you could see the progress through your accounts.
My recent post How I Almost Got Screwed Out of $1300 on Craigslist
Wow, that is quite the advanced scam! Your right, many people could easily fall for it. Sounds like there is a big warehouse somewhere in Nigeria loaded with scammed Craigslist items.
Actually my wife put up some small items a couple weeks and ago, and she received a similar reply, some one wanting to pay through pay pal and ship the items. She realized it was a scam, so she didn't go any further. Still amazes me how detailed they are.
I personally have had good luck with Craigslist. Everything I've put up has sold, every single thing. But I only deal with local people and cash only. And surprisingly, I did not get any of the ones like you did. Maybe because they were bigger items that couldn't really be shipped.
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Crazy. Local and cash is the way to go!
My recent post How I Almost Got Screwed Out of $1300 on Craigslist
Its so unfortunate that there are still many "disgruntled" elements out there going about defrauding unsuspecting online shoppers. This is pathetic and unfortunately "Nigeria" continues to be dragged into the abyss of Online fraud!
Its just too disheartening when a few selfish individuals work against the progress honest people!
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Yea, once you see Nigeria for anything online it's usually a clear giveaway of something gone wrong…
My recent post How I Almost Got Screwed Out of $1300 on Craigslist
What an amazing experience you get. Really I was shocked when reading that people can give money with an open heart of their favorite things. Best of luck in the future to buy and sell from craiglist.
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This is the time when a lot of scams take place. But thanks for sharing your experience with us as after this post a lot of people will stay alarmed in doing transactions online.
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That is terrible! I used to get emails from the scammers in Nigeria. I also saw on 20/20 about how people were scammed out of their savings. I even emailed one person and told them that I knew it was a scam. They stopped emailing me. There are other sites where you can sell stuff and it's easy to do so and you don't have to worry about getting scammed. This one site will even send you a prepaid shipping package. Thanks for the headsup Zac!
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Always pay attention for the original email adress, here is payserviceinfo@mail2pal.com ! Not even paypal.com !
I recently stepped in and stopped my mother from falling for a similar scam via Ebay. When she told me she had sold her item to someone in Nigeria I asked to see the emails and the poor grammar was enough to convince me it was a scam.
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