How to smell a scam

I advertised the whites GMT on craigslist locally a couple days ago. So far I've had two contacts both via my cell phone number. The first was a guy who lived way on the other side of the Phoenix area – about an hour and a half from me – and he wanted to come over right away and look at the detector. When I explained to him how far it was he said he'd think about it and I guess he lost interest. No problem there.

This morning I got a text message from a guy saying "consider it sold, I will include an extra $50 I will send you a check or money order please send me your name and address so I can mail the check or money order". The text was from the area code in Las Vegas and the whole thing sounded a bit too pushy to be on the up and up. I texted the guy back saying the only money order I would except was a US Postal Service money order but that before I agreed to sell it to him I would need to talk to him on the phone. I sent him my cell phone number – which he already had from the ad - and asked him to call me at his convenience.

He sent me another text asking again for my name and address so we could send the order and saying he would arrange for something to pick up the detector. By this time I was pretty suspicious I said "no call no sale" and send another text. He called me and it was immediately obvious that he was from someplace in Africa or the Mideast. Now I don't have a problem with that - I worked in the Mideast for many years. But he started on again about how he already has the money order etc. etc. At that point I said no I'm not selling the detector to you thank you very much don't contact me again. I followed that up with a text saying the same thing. I got a text back that said okay - so I guess we're done.

I've been trying to figure out what the real set up here was supposed to be. One theory is that he would send me some sort of bogus check or money order and have somebody else in their group pick up the detector before I could get around to finding out that it was no good. Another possibility is that - it being a whites GMT - perhaps he represents some people who purchase them used at cheap prices and resell them in Africa at much higher prices. In which case it could be OK, but I wasn't willing to go down that road.

Moral of the story. Unless it's someone local face to face, someone on a forum who has enough credibility from their participation and contributions, and most of all unless you have cash in hand first, never turn loose of your hardware! When I agree to accept a money order, I hold the item a day so they can get the Money Order, then I ask for the money order number in order to hold the item till the money order arrives. I don't ship till I cash it. It's a hard world sometimes, but most folks in this hobby are honest and straightforward. That' s one of the things I really like about it.

Rick Kempf
Gold Canyon AZ



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/15/2014 06:11PM by lytle78.

I've ran across some nuts on craigslist.

Keith

Rick,
As they did not ask (at least not to that point) for any account information at your bank, they are most likely just looking to get enough information to send some email requests. At the institution I work for, we have quite a few instances of customers having their email used to send fraudulent requests for money. The last example was a customer emailing saying he was on vacation in Canada, staying at a friend's house and had a car accident. He included instructions for wiring funds from his account to his "friends" account in Canada. Obviously, when we called the customer at their home in PA, they did not know anything about this. The scammer was relying on a bank teller to just do what they asked instead of checking. If the money had left the account we would have to make our customer whole and not get the funds back either. So just beware.

Yeah something didnt sound right there. I've had people act like that too, it happens ALOT on ebay where people want you to end the auction and do the deal w them w out ebay, which is asking for trouble.

Trust your gut feeling and intuition regarding people, there's more crooks than ever.

Aaron

Usually a telephone call can tell you a lot...Bottom line if you get that gut feeling or a red flag goes up move on....Several years ago a fellow said he bought out a retiring Whites dealer and offered some good bargains. A 5 minute talk on the phone gave me that gut feeling and didn't buy..Understand a few fellows got scammed on that one.
Trust is a must but be careful and dealing with known good guys is a plus,,,,

It is a common scam on craigslist. The buyer sends a bogus money order, you cash it. But it takes about a week before the bank finds out its bogus. In the meantime the buyer has someone pick up your item. In the end YOU LOSE.

Good business sense only accepting a Postal MO. They'll never pay w that, and if you get scammed while paying w a Postal MO, I think it's a Federal offense.


Aaron

Indeed anything to do with the USPS is federal and penalties are more harsh including jail time.

Good thinking Rick, a postal money order is the way to go if you want good assurance. I've had some sales that I made on EBay prior to PayPal and I requested postal money order if it was of any amount (like the time I sold my 6A). You don't want to mess with the postal service!

One thing I ought to point out. eBay is an OK place to sell stuff, so is Craigslist, but Craigslist is a GREAT place to buy stuff.

$1200 Stereo Microscope - top quality mitutoyo - $50 - burned out light bulb
Gold Bug 2 - like new with two coils - $280 - ugly masking tape holding coil cover on - otherwise pretty much brand new
Whites Sierra Madre - $50 (needed a $8 switch)
Whites GMT - $250 - beat up decals - free replacement from whites
Whites Pro XL - $250 - perfect

I could go on.

You have to check about 3 times a day and work hard - or be darned lucky.

Just have to be careful and even then you can get scammed...Dealing with regulars with good reps is a good idea but even that's not a sure thing as even heard of bad deals and getting bad units from established traders. As far as Craigslist if you can see before you buy your chances of getting scammed are little or none...As far as E-bay good sellers market but poor buyers market in many cases....