Thinkpads Forum

Hi, I listed an item on Craigslist:
http://chambana.craigslist.org/sys/133149590.html

And I got this response the sameday:

Hello,

I would like to know if this item is a very good condition and also if it is still available forsale.please get back to me if all my enquiries are possitives.

followed by:

Thanks for your response towards my enquiries,I will like to buy this item for my Son-In-Law,I reside in WI.
I want to buy this item for her because she has been sick for a while now and has just recorver from sickness so i want to present this item to heron her birthday ceremony because i will not have an opportunity to be there.

My mode of payment of $1300 plus proper packaging is by Money Order through United State Postal Service(USPS),So to proceed on this i will need your full contact address including your phone number and name for payment.And also i have a fedex prepaid account which will take care of the shipment once payment is approved by usps.So reply asap,looking forward to doing business with you............Thank you and God Bless.

What do you think? A scam? What should I do? Have him send the money order, see if its fake, if its not, send it?

If your questioning, drop it. Your gut knows.

Sounds like a scam to me.

If they want to use a moey order, fine. Just whatever you do, do NOT release the computer until after you've received and cashed the money order. Take the money order they send you to the nearest post office for verification. They can tell you within a few seconds if it's real or not.

I sell a lot of laptops on Craigslist and get about 5-10 emails a day like this one.
Whenever they call your machine an "item", it's a scam. When they offer more than you are asking for, it's a scam. When they want to ship it with their own carrier, it's a scam. They want to pay via BidPay, Money Order or Escrow - a scam.

Scam.. As Orevin said, for anybody that's been selling stuff on the net, be it EBay, craigslist, or whatever, if they are somewhat high value, you got 4-5 of these a day. I got the same stuff on some equestrian stuff that I sold (saddles)..

Yep, thats a scam alright.

A good key about Craigslist, if it doesnt have the city appended in the title, its a scam.

Yep, thats a scam alright.

A good key about Craigslist, if it doesnt have the city appended in the title, its a scam.

It has all the signs of a scam:
-not in the local area
-paying more than I'm asking
-money order
-screwing up the gender (he consistantly calls his son-in-law a her)
-a sob story
-his own shipping agent

But if I have him send the money order first, and I get it checked, how could it negatively affect me?

.... at least it wasnt Nigeria

It can affect you just by the fact that he will know exactly where you live
and could possibly have a couple of his buddies show up at your door to
"pick" up the computer. (By that I mean taking it by force from you).
Unless you have a PO box, giving this guy any information is not a very good idea.

If he was to send you a fake USPS money order, it would not be a bad thing, the Feds will get involved because it is mail fraud. They probably wouldn't find the guy, but hey, these scammers aren't the brightest bulb in the box, so you never know. One less jerk on the loose wouldn't upset me any.

It all depends how much of a risk you are willing to take. Myself, personally, I wouldn't get involved at all, my family and property are more important to me than playing with morons like this.

I can tell you first hand that there have been a series of Fake Money Orders cashed here in my home town in Wisconsin. They have been scanned in and then printed in color.

I agree that if you are going to attempt this transaction, then I would use a different address (ie. P.O. Box). Once you receive the MO, take it directly to the post office, and see if it is valid.

P.S.
Good luck with the sale, even if it isn't with this person.

No doubt, that's a scam. I received lots of those responses the first time I advertised a laptop on Craigslist. Since then, I have been specifying that I only sell to local buyers and take only cash, and the frequency of these annoying scams has dropped dramatically.

if you get post office money orders you can walk into any US post office and cash it..
if it is a phoney they won't cash it..
good as, well, CASH..

that said, it sounds like a scam ..
remember, US postal money orders.. only..

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I figured it was a scam, but wanted to get some feedback. I did put in the end that its only available for local pickup.

O and another tipoff was that the post office only gives Money Orders up to $1000.

sparta.rising wrote:O and another tipoff was that the post office only gives Money Orders up to $1000.

That is right, but you can buy more MOs at one time (up to $3000 w/o paperwork and I think up to $10000 with filling out some forms).

As a lot of these people use bots to scan the ads and send emails, the notes "local only" or "cash only" do not work.

Well I got another obvious scam email, and I got another that sounded like a scam, but they gave me a phone number, thought that was kind of odd. haven't tried calling yet, but here's the email

hi seller,
am intrested in buying ur stuff and i will be paying u by USPS.
i will like u to provide me ur information so that i can do the payment for
u.
so i will like u to tell me the weight of the stuff, and i will be doing the
pickup myself.
so get back to me as soon as possible so that i can arrange for the payment.
phone number 4064026068 orlando florida

Again they don't make specific reference to what I'm selling, they want to pay by USPS mail order, and to a non-local area. I told them paypal only (for non local people).

Hah, I just looked it up, that's a Montana area code. WTF? Why tell me its Orlando, FL? I guess it could be a cell phone, or a randomly generated phone number.