Yup read lots of threads like this one. There's got to be a dozen or so just in the last year. The fact of the matter is that there are new people coming to this site on a regular basis. If this thread prevents one of those new people from making a big mistake it is worth repeating. Do not accept offers such as this: Happy to purchase at your asking price and do you have a PayPal account,as i will be paying the with PayPal and have pick up done from your location as i am away at the moment,so email communication would do best for now as well.In the meantime,can you send me some pictures? Regards. If you are advertising a vehicle or parts online or your local paper. This is not what you would consider a serious offer. The goal here is to send someone for your car with out the transaction being completed. This senario makes the seller extremely vulnerable. Beware of any variation on this theme, accompanied by various excuses along the way. I cut and paste this right from my email word for word. Don't get drawn in by it! I first learned of this here on the HAMB and it is worth repeating. Be very careful. Doug.
Got another one these offers by someone who claims they can't get to a bank so they want to pay by paypal. Okay.. I will be paying the 2.9% PayPal surcharge from my account. So i will be paying directly into your PayPal account without any delay, and i hope you have a paypal account.If you have one already, just send me the address to send it to, which is the email address you use for it or you can send me a paypal money request, so once i receive the details i will go ahead with the payment through PayPal and then i will contact my shipping company after you get the payment. I will need your home address for the merchandise to be Picked Up by the Shipping Company.. This was my response: Can't do it. Send the money with the shipping company when they pick it up. Although I don't really expect you to contact me again cause you are trying to scam me. It's been tried before. I wish you plenty of unhappiness foryour "honesty". Then they kept trying: I insisted on paypal because i don't have access to my bank account online as i don't have internet banking and i can't go to the bank due to the nature of my job, but i can pay from my paypal account, as i have my bank a/c attached to it, i will need you to give me your paypal email address so i can make the payments asap for the item and pls if you don't have paypal account yet, it is very easy to set up, go to www.paypal.com and get it set up , after you have set it up i will only need the e-mail address you use for registration with paypal so as to put the money through. My final response: Nope you can send a money order and I'll hold the car till it clears. Then you can send your people, but the money comes first. If you are truly interested in the car you will honour my request. If you can't then...... I hope you all are savy to this. Obviously they succeed occasionally, because they keep on trying.
Dude, althou i understand your point, that second duderequest might have been legit. I too have no online banking, mostly cause i always was too lazy to do the activation as it requires few steps that take whole afternoons etc.... Anyway, i too can rarely go to the bank in person, and if i had to do an international transaction i would have to buy dollars, and that alone takes days, etc...etc.... So i always use paypal, and i always offer to pay the fees or at least share them, and im still puzzled at those that dont trust it. Its not pay pals fault,anyone can scam you in anyway. Pay pal is a theft thou, cant argue with that.
Also note if the requests are vague. If they don't mention the year, model etc of your car. They may say something like, "I am interested in your post", " I would like to buy your item"....
I know first hand the pain of paying for something and never recieving it. It makes you suspicious of buying from anyone. The other thing is to be very careful when buying from swap meets.DON'T take the sellers word for it.
I have several parts/cars on craigslist right now and I recieve these emails at least 7 times a day. On top of them, I also get the "I'm going to be straight forward Im not interested in your item but was wanting to ask if you would like to become friends. I just moved here and feeling lonesome, would be excited to meet for some coffee. I'm avilable anytime after 3 pm. I am not a weirdo or a scammer so do not worry! If you are thrilled you can check more of me on my profile where I have all of my naughty pix and most importantly my cell # is there too. Just log in and text me because I love texting! I can't wait, I'll be waiting! " emails, with 2 pics of some scantily clad hot chick. There's always a website accompanying the email. I get those all day as well. I'm at the point where I will no longer use my email, and just have my number posted.
I think everyone may have experienced these scams, I did a couple of times. I listed an old schwinn bike on CL and added a "0" by mistake causing the listing to say $1000 in stead of $100, I received a scam stating they were in Afghanistan and would have the trans action taken care of through pay-pal and was what he always wanted etc...etc...etc. I think they look for over a grand in asking price no matter what and send the scam. No way was that thing what anyone always wanted and for sure not at that price.
Scammers are usually easy to find out as they communicate in broken english and usually make absurd requests as well..... The same suspicion thing holds true for us when we are a buyer...... Some folks dont have Paypal and the they wont use it for their own reasons I am sure,but as a buyer you are just as stupid to send cash with a third party[transporter] unless he is a personal friend or something like that. I for one think a lot of folks dont want to use paypal cause they cant qualify to have an account there. By that I mean they either wont share their info[a way for paypal and us buyers to be sure who we are paying].... OR they dont for what ever reason even have a checking account either! a requirement.... Persoanlly I decided to join the twentieth century and be assured you get the item you are paying for,or I dont want to send my money to somebody who I cant get ahold of after the sale at all or have a means to right the situation if need be.
I had one from craigslist text me, said they were from pittsburg, They said they were in the navy and couldnt pick the car up in person. i googled the number they used, it was from a different state so i texted them back and told them where they actually were and not to disgrace our military with their lying bullshit. I deal in cash in hand , face to face, or through a real shipping company after the payment has cleared. If it doesnt sound right, it probably isnt.
a general rule of thumb is to never take paypal for any amount larger than what you would care to lose to scammers. a personal check is more safe than paypal. also if you put in your Craigslist listing "scammers and thieves need not reply" they seem to stay away. learned this when I was trying to sell my road bike for $1500.00. I had 5 or six of these scam emails within about 15 minutes
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