Question:
Is this a scam,Craigslist?
2012-11-16 06:00:26 UTC
The guy sent me a text at 6 saying "I will kindly offer 350 USD for the tv"
This is more than I listed and no one says USD so am i right assuming this is spam?
Six answers:
?
2012-11-16 12:07:11 UTC
100% scam.



There is no buyer, you are correct. People who work in tourist locations or banks that deal with international transactions do use the term "USD", "GBP", "Euro" or other shorthand to denote which currency is being discussed.



Notice how the scammer doesn't call what you are selling by name? He uses the generic word "item", that is because he sends the same stock copy/paste email to anyone selling everything that he can find and he has no idea what you are selling and doesn't care.



There is only a scammer trying to steal your hard-earned money.



He is not interested in your identity or bank account, only your cash.



The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be the "secretary/assistant/accountant" and will demand you cash a large fake check sent on a stolen UPS/FedEx billing account number and send the money via Western Union or moneygram back to the scammer posing as the "shipping company". When your bank realizes the check is fake and it bounces, you get the real life job of paying back the bank for the bounced check fees and all the bank's money you sent to an overseas criminal.



Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever.



When you refuse to send him your cash he will send increasingly nasty and rude emails trying to convince you to go through with his scam. The scammer could also create another fake name and email address like "FBI@ gmail.com", "police_person @hotmail.com" or "investigator @yahoo.com" and send emails telling you the job is legit and you must cash the fake check and send your money to the scammer or you will face legal action. Just ignore, delete and block those email addresses. Although, reading a scammer's attempt at impersonating a law enforcement officer can be extremely funny.



Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of being the perfect buyer, great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.



You could post up the email address and the emails themselves that the scammer is using, it will help make your post more googlable for other suspicious potential victims to find when looking for information.



Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.



Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.



If you google "fake check buyer scam", "fake Western Union buyer fraud" or something similar and you will find hundreds of posts of victims and near victims of this type of scam.
M
2012-11-16 18:35:50 UTC
OMG KittySue - you are such an area ist.. the Nigerian scammer could just as easily be an Idahoian scammer too.. or worse, from South Dakota...





KS is correct and gets my nod for best answer - Clis good for allot of stuff, but you have to wade through some crap too.

Peas,...
Kittysue
2012-11-16 16:29:52 UTC
SCAM - it's a Nigerian scammer who will either pay with a counterfeit check/money order OR a hacked paypal account. ONLY a scammer offers MORE money - they look for people whose greed is stronger than common sense



When selling on Craigslist it's CASH ONLY and IN PERSON ONLY or you will always be scammed. Anyone wanting to pay with a check, money order or Paypal is scamming you. Anyone asking to send a "shipper" or wants you to ship is a scammer



Write back to say that you have another interested buyer so if they can't meet you at noon tomorrow in the Target (or whatever) parking lot with cash then you are selling to the other buyer.
2012-11-16 14:43:41 UTC
This is definitely a scam. Was the $350 more than what you asked for, or more than what it was worth?



If yes, this is called an 'overpayment' scam. The scammer will normally want to pay immediately, and will send more than what the item is worth (or even more than they say they will send) - will be in the form of paypal, bogus cheque or money order.



Once you've accepted their 'payment', they will say the accidentally 'overpayed' you and that you need to send back the difference (they will get you to send a bit of money back somehow). By the time the cheque/money order/paypal payment 'bounces' - you've sent them the partial refund and lost your money.



Stay away from deals that sound to good to be true - they almost always are!
I Like Stories
2012-11-16 14:02:51 UTC
Probably. Send a message back via craigslist (not with your personal email address) to bring you the cash and the TV is yours. Odds are you will never hear from him again.
Joe
2012-11-16 14:01:41 UTC
Total scam! Next he'll probably offer a money order or check. Ignore him.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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