Members Berkleo Posted March 13, 2007 Members Share Posted March 13, 2007 I posted a guitar for sale on Craigslist yesterday and these are my first two responses. From: Billy Diana Hello seller, I saw your advert while surfing via the internet and am willing and interested to buy it. get back to me via my email if it is still available for sale. Are you the owner??? Send the item's recent pictures and your contact address and your phone if available. What is your last offer???? I look forward to read from you soonest. Best regards........... :freak: From: john Kurd Hi, Am Kurd...Am Interested this Ovation Legend LX guitar and Crate 30w amp - $850....So i would like to know if you still have available ....I would also like to know if i can make payment via check and i hope its in good condition..Would you be able to ship to Tenn after clearing of payment... Have a nice day...Here is my address in Tenn so you can let me know the cost of shipping.... 3027 Highway 31 W.Suite 200 White House, Tenn. 37188 Bye -Kurd Am Disgusted... I plugged that address into Google Earth and it didn't look very residential. Let's hope Kurd never figures out Americans and Europeans use surnames second. What a freakin' scary place the world is sometime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bigby Posted March 13, 2007 Members Share Posted March 13, 2007 yeah, you can expect a few dozen of those from Craigslist..pretty pathetic. Cash and local..only way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members smatel Posted March 13, 2007 Members Share Posted March 13, 2007 OTOH if he sends a check and it clears, does it really matter where you send the merchandise? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bigby Posted March 13, 2007 Members Share Posted March 13, 2007 OTOH if he sends a check and it clears, does it really matter where you send the merchandise? One thing you have to watch is the scam where they'll send a cashier's check or money order; that looks very authentic. Bank will usually deposit it; but within a couple weeks catch their mistake; then you become responsible for reimbursement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cripes Posted March 14, 2007 Members Share Posted March 14, 2007 I always accept, and pay with cashier's checks drawn on the US Post Office. That way I, as well as the seller, can take them to the post office for authentication before depositing and subsequent shipment of the merchandise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members daklander Posted March 14, 2007 Members Share Posted March 14, 2007 Start a dialog via phone or email. Many people have items shipped to a work address. I've done that lots of times because the items aren't left on the front porch begging to be stolen.A personal check is not a problem. It just takes a week & a half or two weeks for the thing to clear. I'd me more leery of a money order or a cashier's check though they can also be checked and verified before shipping. One huge thing to watch for is if the check or money order comes in for more than the sales price and the person on the other end wants you to send the difference. Those will be bogus.The one advantage to Craig's list is the local aspect of it however, that can be done on ebay as well.It all depends on how bad you want to sell the item and how many enquiries you're gettting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bigby Posted March 14, 2007 Members Share Posted March 14, 2007 I always accept, and pay with cashier's checks drawn on the US Post Office. That way I, as well as the seller, can take them to the post office for authentication before depositing and subsequent shipment of the merchandise. This is a good method; but also be sure when selling that if someone pays this way; have it in hand. Case in point. I was selling a guitar a year ago. The guy said he couldn't pick it up and was sending UPS for the delivery. I received a very authentic looking email from the email address email@uspostalservice.com. It was supposedly a US Post Office money order. It had flash graphics, big portion talking about mail fraud and where to report concerns; they really put effort into making it look like it was a money order from the US Postal Service. It stated that once delivery was confirmed, you enter the delivery confirmation number into the web address and that processed the money order. Since this seemed odd, I called the fraud division of the US Postal Service and they confirmed that it was a scam. UPS showed up to pick up the guitar and I refused to give it to them without money in hand. Of course, when I asked the UPS driver where the guitar was being shipped, it was going to Nigeria; the home of scams. The prospective buyer emailed asking if it had been picked up. I replied "actually no. UPS showed up but with a government official saying they'd been tracking your computer's IP address for weeks and they printed off all of your emails. What's up with that?" It was a lie, but I hoped I at least ruined his day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tom A Posted March 14, 2007 Members Share Posted March 14, 2007 I always accept, and pay with cashier's checks drawn on the US Post Office. That way I, as well as the seller, can take them to the post office for authentication before depositing and subsequent shipment of the merchandise. +1 A USPS money order is about as safe as you can get. Unless the scammers are counterfeiting them now, of course.... Each one has a serial number, however, and I think that allows USPS to verify they issued it, as Sweb indicates. If I know I have good money for an item, at that point I'll send it anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members pgcorky Posted March 14, 2007 Members Share Posted March 14, 2007 This is one of my favorite 'scam the scammer' stories. Sometimes it just isn't enough to avoid these jerks. You really want them to suffer just like they make hundreds of unsuspecting suffer.http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cripes Posted March 14, 2007 Members Share Posted March 14, 2007 Nigeria. One could write books about the scams coming from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Terry Allan Hall Posted March 14, 2007 Members Share Posted March 14, 2007 I always accept, and pay with cashier's checks drawn on the US Post Office. That way I, as well as the seller, can take them to the post office for authentication before depositing and subsequent shipment of the merchandise. :thu: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members missedmyexit Posted March 14, 2007 Members Share Posted March 14, 2007 I posted a guitar for sale on Craigslist yesterday and these are my first two responses. From: Billy Diana Hello seller,I saw your advert while surfing via the internet and am willing and interested to buy it. get back to me via my email if it is still available for sale. Are you the owner??? Send the item's recent pictures and your contact address and your phone if available. What is your last offer???? I look forward to read from you soonest. Best regards........... Notice the total lack of questions specific to what you are selling. Who calls a guitar "The item". You could be selling a wash machine from the looks of that reply. I got one of these when I sold my Jazzmaster, I sent them a really colorful reply that I don't think I can post here without risking getting bounced from the forum. Stretched my vocabulary to the limit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Cldplytkmn Posted March 14, 2007 Members Share Posted March 14, 2007 This is one of my favorite 'scam the scammer' stories. Sometimes it just isn't enough to avoid these jerks. You really want them to suffer just like they make hundreds of unsuspecting suffer.http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/ p-p-p-powerbook i found that a while back... hilarious stuff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members smatel Posted March 14, 2007 Members Share Posted March 14, 2007 Nigeria. One could write books about the scams coming from there. Do tell. I'm in the dark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members denvertrakker Posted March 14, 2007 Members Share Posted March 14, 2007 I found this a while ago. This guy should get a writing award: http://j-walk.com/other/conf/ And, relevant to this forum, he also created this: http://www.j-walk.com/other/todd/ebayparody.htm WARNING FOR THE JOCULARLY CHALLENGED:Both of these are parodies. They are not real. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Berkleo Posted March 14, 2007 Author Members Share Posted March 14, 2007 A teller at my bank told me USPS money orders are now the most commonly counterfeited. She strongly cautioned me against accepting them and said the bank would only take them after running checks on the serial numbers. A buddy of mine had his local bank account emptied courtesy of Paypal. What a disaster. His bank, which reimbursed him and is pursuing Paypal seperately, said it could only have been an inside (Paypal) job. I think it's pretty obvious both replies were generated by some sort of trolling software designed to create a cut and paste generic response AND they were created by non-native English speaking persons. Let's hope these guys don't ever get any smarter (or richer). So just a cautionary tale. For me, cash only and in person . I don't need to sell it that badly. I'm only just trying to fund my latest bit of GAS (Larrivee) anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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