Craigslist Fraud


Just thought I'd share my recent experience with attempting to sell some audio equipment on Craigslist.  Attempted to sell a Audio Research Ref 3LE.  I know now that doing so via Craigslist was probably stupid.  Anyway, I had a guy from out of state reach out to me.  Said that he wanted to buy it.  Asked that he send a cashiers check.  A couple days later the FedEx arrives with a check for $12K more than what I was asking...  The alarm bells went off.  Check was from a business in Chicago and the FedEx was from Florida.  They did a very convincing job of making up the check.  Reported it to the police - so I could feel better.  They let me know that the scammers would probably have come back and asked that I send part of the money back to them.. as if.  Rang the company that the check was reported to have come from (The Belt Railway Company of Chicago).  They said that I was the 6th person in the last week that rang them.  Wanted to put this out for y'all and hope that no one goes through this like I did.  Very thankful that it only cost me time, frustration and some dents to my ego.  
128x128thelostdutchman
No matter where you sell, you can get scammers. There is no guarantee that the buyer is legit if he is buying on agon, cl, Usam, ebay, or fb. I’ve had this same thing happen to me, the buyer wrote me a $20k check for a couple hundred $$$ sale. I called the issuing bank and of course it didn’t come from them, but it looked authentic.
There are so many more things to worry about when selling anything online, like:
* receive your gear and then they complain that it doesn’t work and they demand PayPal to reimburse them and they will actually send you their non-working unit. I’ve had this happen to me a few times. I always take a picture of the serial #(s) before shipping, and when I state that, they don’t want a refund.
* claiming that they haven’t received the product and want a full refund. Since I always use signature on delivery, I’ll send them the receipt that they signed for delivery
* shipping overseas can cause issues because if the item goes thru customs, you can’t get signature on delivery so the buyer can receive the product and then claim to PayPal that they never received the product and then you are forced to issue a refund. So when shipping overseas, payment has to be received and deposited and I wait for the check to clear before sending the product

Thats only a few things that you have to worry about when dealing with any buyer from any sales selling app
Oldest trick in the book. Cl is fine to sell if you take cash. I sell tons o stuff on cl. Btw, if you give me your info, there 5m usd in your name from long lost aunt from Uganda country. Please send me 
Sorry this happened to you. I'm a CL regular, and do a lot of out-of-area deals, mostly as a buyer.  It's experiences like this that make a lot of sellers resistant to even considering what I have to offer.  I give my phone number (and urge them to call, since I want to be sure the seller is the real deal), suggest PayPal (easily traceable if there's a problem) or a postal money order (convertible to cash at the post office), and want payment cleared before shipping.  A third party escrow service is always a possibility, but I've never used one. So far, every deal has worked out fine.

Cashier's checks, third party pickup, and an unwillingness to talk on the phone are sure indications of a scam.
Hey, I love CL. Have to be a little careful, but I've bought and sold so many things there. I love meeting people from all walks of life and making an honest deal. No transaction fees, no middle men, no taxes. Never had a problem taking paypal, venmo, or cash. Browse my local audio selection on CL almost daily!

+1, but cash only.