Does This Sound Right? - Potential Craigslist Sale

jgannon

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
It looks like I have a prospective buyer for my Wharfedale W60's on Craigslist, but the buyer who says she is out of town and wants to pick up the speakers for her son as a birthday gift, won't be back until early October, and will send a certified check, which upon receipt, I will notify her and she will send some movers to pick the speakers up.

I haven't sold too many things on Craigslist. Would you be comfortable with this arrangement? She seems in earnest. I would prefer her to send the money via paypal, but I don't know if she has a paypal account, and I don't know if she would be able to verify my address that way.

Maybe she also send the check certified mail/return receipt.
 
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I wouldn't do this, but I may be just a little on the paranoid side. The beauty of Craigslist is the buyer shows up and puts the cash in your hand, and they leave with the product. If your going to make that type of transaction, you may as well use the auction site, and require PayPal.
 
I wouldn't do this, but I may be just a little on the paranoid side. The beauty of Craigslist is the buyer shows up and puts the cash in your hand, and they leave with the product. If your going to make that type of transaction, you may as well use the auction site, and require PayPal.

Right. She said she'd even be willing to pay me a little more for the speakers if I held them. I told her yesterday, that if she sent the money via paypal, I would hold them, and she didn't have to pay any extra. If she did use paypal, paypal obviously would have a record of both our addresses, right?
 
It sounds real similar to the "oops, I sent a check for too much, deposit it and send me the difference" scam so I'd be concerned. But to be fair, I've purchased things on out of town Craigslist ads and I could have been accused of the same thing. I would proceed, but with caution. If she is legit she should be willing to jump through a few hoops, like setting up a Paypal account. It's really easy and I can't imagine her wanting the speakers that badly, yet not be willing to go that route to purchase them.
 
Right. She said she'd even be willing to pay me a little more for the speakers if I held them. I told her yesterday, that if she sent the money via paypal, I would hold them, and she didn't have to pay any extra. If she did use paypal, paypal obviously would have a record of both our addresses, right?
Yes, and you would have at least a modicum of protection. That is the only way I would do that transaction. If she wants them enough to pay extra, she shouldn't have issue with taking five minutes to set up an account (if she is legit, of course). Be sure that she uses G&S, not F&F.
 
Buying vintage Wharfedales as a birthday gift doesn't sound plausible to me, much less with a certified check. The whole thing sounds scammy. I would tell her that you can't hold the speakers for her, but if they are still available when she gets back, you will accept cash in person.
 
It sounds real similar to the "oops, I sent a check for too much, deposit it and send me the difference" scam so I'd be concerned. But to be fair, I've purchased things on out of town Craigslist ads and I could have been accused of the same thing. I would proceed, but with caution. If she is legit she should be willing to jump through a few hoops, like setting up a Paypal account. It's really easy and I can't imagine her wanting the speakers that badly, yet not be willing to go that route to purchase them.

Yes, and you would have at least a modicum of protection. That is the only way I would do that transaction. If she wants them enough to pay extra, she shouldn't have issue with taking five minutes to set up an account (if she is legit, of course). Be sure that she uses G&S, not F&F.

Yeah, maybe I could just ask her to send the cash via paypal, and then hold the speakers until she gets back. Yesterday, when she offered to pay me more to hold them, I told her she didn't have to do that, and that if she sent me money via paypal, I would just hold the speakers until she got back into town. She then offered to send a certified check. I could see her wanting to make sure she was getting the correct address. But paypal would do that also.
 
Hell no!

The certified check can be and often is counterfeit, and you won't know until days later.

Have the movers show up with cash or tell her she'll have to wait 10 business days for the check to be deposited and verified. And, do not let her send extra in the check that you are to use to pay the movers, which is how this scam started years ago.
 
If the cashiers check or bank check is drawn on a US Bank, your bank should be able to determine if it is real within 10 to 14 days. And I wouldn't allow any "mover" to show up prior to that time. If you accept the cashiers check, simply tell the "mover" you are waiting for formal bank approval. Better yet, find a way to talk to the "mover", because chances are the mover isn't real and is actually the scammer (if it turns out to be a scam).

If the cashiers check is drawn on a foreign bank, your bank will credit you the deposit within a week, since they are required to by law. But it might take them 2 or 3 months to determine it is a scam, and they will take the money back once the scam is uncovered. This is one variation of the old Nigerian scam, since many of the phoney checks were listed as being banks with Nigerian branches. Another is to pay you too much and ask you to give some back to the "mover". Once you give the mover real money the scam unravels, with you either losing cash or losing cash and your gear.

With Paypal, unless the money is sent F&F, never let a third party pick up the item unless you verify it through Paypal. Otherwise the buyer can later claim to have never received the item and will get a full refund at your expense. Emails from the buyer saying it was okay can be claimed as fraudulent and Paypal will side with the buyer. Also, make sure the Paypal account is a US account. If it is a foreign account you can be hit with chargebacks 3 to 6 months after the fact, since each country governs the Paypal purchase rules. Normally Paypal requires a buyer return gear, but if you can't prove delivery you could find yourself screwed by a loophole.

It could be the buyer is completely legit, and personally I would initiate the sale to see what happens. But I would never give up the gear or refund money until I knew the payment was real. Real means that my bank or Paypal says it is, not just because money is posted to my account.
 
Thanks guys! Enough red flags for me!!!

I'll just get back to her and tell her that if she wants them, and they're still available when she returns, she can pick them up cash in hand.

Thanks for your input on this everybody.
 
This is a scam. Please don't fall for it.

Thanks. I already got back to them and told them no.

Thing is, in an earlier message, I gave them my cell phone # to see if they wanted to set up an appointment to listen to them. Is there any danger there?
 
Tell her to send the check to the movers so they can pick them up and pay you cash. Nothing but cash as payment on C.L.I've taken PayPal (friends and family ) as payment but i wait to ship until the money is in my account.
 
SCAM

WHEN THE CHECK ARRIVES IT WILL BE FOR MORE THAN THE AGREED PRICE PLEASE GIVE THE EXTRA TO THE A) MOVERS or B) REFUND TO THE BUYER

If this deal went through to completion you would be out the speakers AND the money you refunded them since their check was no good to start with.
 
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I want to buy these Wharfedale W60's for my son.





said no mother ever


My guess is the email is either "I want to buy your _electronic item_" or "I want to buy your _Vintage Wharfedale W60 Speakers tested and working_" or something along that line. These are usually pretty obvious, especially once you've gotten a few dozen.
 
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