Totally OT (But Funny) Selling A Car On Craigslist

[DerbyDad03]

I posted a vehicle on Craigslist today and got my first response within a couple of hours. Who knew it would be so easy?

"Nice car. I'm very interested in purchasing it. I'm not in town now, so meeting in person is out of the question because of my work schedule plus m y family is somewhat busy preparing for my first daughter's wedding. I'm okay with the price and condition. The mode of payment will be via my Company? ??s Check and it will be sent by UPS Overnight delivery. When you receive the payment and it clears your bank, I will make arrangement for the pick-up. I will be adding an extra $50 just so I can have an upper hand over other potential buyers as I understand I may not be the only interested buyer. Should you agreed to sell to me; I will need the name you want written on the check, the address you want the payment sent out to, your cell phone will be appreciated too (that you can be reached during the day) and finall y what your overall total (plus the $50) will be; so as to be on the same page. Many thanks."

I forwarded it to my son for his enjoyment. He said I might as well send the guy my SS # now and get it over with. ;-)

[hubops]

Just ask that he send a cashiers cheque, payable to holder, to your post office box. ... :-) or keep him on the line for a few emails for fun - saying that a very similar reply offered $ 75. to hold it .. John T.

[DerbyDad03]

On Thursday, January 3, 2019 at 7:54:31 PM UTC-5, [e-mail] wrot e:

I could tell him that the $75 offer came from a Nigerian Prince. ;-)

[ads]

I had a much better response when I sold my 18 year old truck.

"I'll be by today, with cash. I want to drive it and you go with me."

There are a *few* genuine buyers, to go with the genuine sellers ;-)

[Noons]

Last time I sold a vehicle on one of these online lists, I got a "definite buyer" who wanted to buy it sight unseen. Only problem was she (?) was at the moment inside a boat in the Tasman Sea and would only be able to give me the moolah later. Unless of course I was willing to deposit some bitcoin $$$ in a special Nigerian account she held.

I had to take my hat off to the brave display of stupidity! :)

[Unquestionably Confused]

[snip]

LOL, sure seems like a legit buyer to me!

Had a similar run in with some clown years back when I was selling a riding lawn mower. Kept telling him the "cashier's check" had to go to my PO Box and he actually sent it there - three times - using FEDEX. Unfortunately for him, it was before the USPS started being friendly with UPS and FEDEX and accepting parcels at the box as if it was a physical street address. I actually confirmed that the FEDEX was sent through their site. Must have cost the goof $30-$40. Shame he didn't mail the check. Would have been much cheaper and I would have enjoyed seeing his handiwork.

[Joseph Gwinn]

On Jan 4, 2019, Unquestionably Confused wrote (in article ):

This is a classic pattern - tipoff:

The reason the goof only used FedX was to avoid the possibility of a Federal Mail Fraud charge.

Joe Gwinn

[krw]

*Bingo!* We have a winner!

[Leon]

and the Prince of Nairobi and his fortunes thank you on this gracious day.

[Casper]

I've gotten this same message on several of my Craigslist postings. Seems to be a common occurance. I just delete them.

[Unquestionably Confused]

Same can be said of any number of scams - Craigslist, Ebay or the email variety.

What is telling is that so many of them are just so ludicrous that it's hard to believe that any sane person would bite (or any sane person would send them) on it. Yet, they continue to be sent. It's hard to believe (scary) that there are enough people goofy enough to make it worthwhile, and yet. . .

[DerbyDad03]

Here's a real life example of someone who "bit" on a scam. I don't know the wording of the listing that the couple responded to, but here's how this one turned out...

The background is that my daughter has been a victim of identity theft. Cel l phone, cable TV, credit accounts, etc. have all been opened in her name. It's started years ago and it's happened in various parts of the company. As far as we know th ey caught the original "thief" but her info has apparently been sold far and wide. (We have that under control at this point.)

So, my daughter lives in the North East. Last year she got a call from the Wisconsin State Police. The officer started asking her questions about the $20K check she c ashed for the trailer she sold but never delivered. Turns out that an elderly couple in W isconsin bought (well, *thought* they bought) a trailer on CL from my daughter, who suppose dly lived in Florida. The $20K was supposed to cover the cost of the trailer and shipment to Wisc onsin.

When the check was cashed but no trailer showed up, they called the police, who somehow tracked down my daughter's cell phone number and called her. She (once agai n) had to send out her "documentation package" that contains the previous police reports, fraud resolution docs, etc. to "prove", as best she could, that it wasn't her that cashed the chec k.

All I can say is that I'm not sending a $20K check to anyone on CL unless I 've got everything nailed down, set up, documented, recorded, etc. In the case of my most rece nt incident, if I had any inkling that the offer was somewhat legit but he just really coul dn't "meet in person", I'd ask for a Skype session, which I would record. I'd ask to see ID, I'd ask t hat the session show a background that could be identified, etc., etc.

There sure are some idiots out there, unfortunately on both sides of these scam transactions.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Banks are helping. I bought a house last month. I had to wire about $40k for the deposit last spring when construction started, later had to wire much larger to pay for the house. I had to do it in person, show my ID to the bank and they had some questions about who the money was going to. Had I said if was for the Royal Family in Nigeria it would have been refused.

I had to wire the money since the title company will not take a bank check due to the fraud in recent years.

In any case, seems like a lot of people fall for this stuff or they would not be calling