[kitten_Val]

This question was brought up in one of the threads, so I just want to post email I got today at the local forum...

Just before getting to email... I posted my saddle on CL this summer. I was "attacked" by scammers (not even speaking proper english) that they'd love to buy my saddle(s!) and everything else (including myself may be? :lol: ). So be aware! Go with your local people if you absolutely want to. Pay with Paypal! Etc....

So here is email from the person I know in person and trust:

*************************************************

I have recently had a lot of trouble with scammers on Craigs List. I wanted to share this and feel free to pass this along to your friends. Some of you may frequent this "free" advertising service and if you do - BEWARE.

BTW - this is not some email written by some anonymous somebody and being passed along - this is my own personal experience.

I have used Craig's List over the past few years when looking for things like vacation rentals and concert tickets. But NO MORE. Over the past several months, I've been on Craig's List several times and EVERY single time, I've been approached by scammers. I went as far as actually purchasing some not-so cheap concert tickets from one Craig's List poster - luckily, I had the smarts to insist on using PayPal for payment - because despite my efforts to confirm the legitimacy of the tickets, they never arrived, and when I contacted the previously responsive poster, I never heard another word from him. Luckily I was covered under buyer protection with PayPal and got my money back and was able to get tickets from a legitimate source in time to still see the concert. The original seller had responded to a "wanted" post that I had placed.

More disturbing has been my most recent search for a vacation rental in FL for this coming winter. I contacted 8 different posters requesting more info on the properties, 6 replied, of those 6, five of them were scammers. How do I know you ask? Because the properties that they described were either non-existant in the locations given, or the replies came back vague and asking for deposits without answering a single one of my questions - all with "accents" and poor English in the emails. Now don't get me wrong, I understand that some owners may not be American, but one property advertised as a 6br private home, was in reality, by looking at Google Earth, a commercial storefront. One poster sent me a picture of a happy group of people relaxing in a hottub in a grassy yard - I know the area that this home was supposed to be located and there is NO grass in that area of the island - when I asked about how there could be a large grassy yard at that location - the reply was "it was a sudden development" - WHAT??? - a large grassy yard developed all of the sudden!

It seems to me like Craig's List is becoming a haven for thieves and scammers. There are no safeguards in place on this service and anyone can post listings. Please, Please - if you use this service, be VERY careful, if you are not scammer or computer savvy - stay away all together - you are asking to be taken.

I have sent an email via the Craig's List contact and informed them of the 5 scammers that I ran across. As of today, the postings are still active, even though I flagged them - there is no evidence that the posts were ever flagged either. Craig's List has become a very dangerous place to do business in my opinion and all should be very careful if buying or selling on this service.

I'm sure some of you may have used Craig's List with lots of success, but I'm telling you - BUYER / SELLER BEWARE!!!!! Things are getting bad there and unless they do something soon, I think you will cease to see legitimate transactions on the service all together if my recent vacation rental hunt is any indication.

 

[equestrian]

Craigslist is full of whackjobs.Three times I've emailed about trucks for sale, and three times they email me back saying, "I'm an army Sgt. and I'm stationed in Alaska. The price of this 2004 Toyota Tundra with 50k miles is $3,100 including shipping from Alaska."

Each time I reply with, "How stupid do you think I am? Does this crap actually work on people?"

 

[kitten_Val]

Craigslist is full of whackjobs.Three times I've emailed about trucks for sale, and three times they email me back saying, "I'm an army Sgt. and I'm stationed in Alaska. The price of this 2004 Toyota Tundra with 50k miles is $3,100 including shipping from Alaska."

Each time I reply with, "How stupid do you think I am? Does this crap actually work on people?"

LOL! Whenever I get response to my ad I always really want to scam them back!

 

[ErikaLynn]

With craglist, if it's too good to be true, you're getting scammed.

 

[Speed Racer]

With craglist, if it's too good to be true, you're getting scammed.

Not necessarily. I got 100 bales of hay, delivered and stacked, for $5.00 a bale. If I had gone to get it myself, it would have been $3.00 a bale.

You just need to be smart and careful with CL, exactly like ebay. Both of them are full of scammers, liars, and crazies.

A 4-horse trailer with LQ for $5,000 is obviously a scam, but some things are more subtle. When in doubt, walk away.

If these scams weren't successful, these lowlifes would stop doing them. Some people really ARE that stupid.

 

[wyominggrandma]

I too have used CL to sell a couple of things. I have actually sold hay, etc and bought a saddle with good results. But get lots of scammers also.
You can usually tell: I am interested to buy item, please give final price. They send this message even if it is a horse or something live. Even if the price is listed, etc.
Properties are a crackup, you can look them up on Google earth and see empty lots, etc.
I usually write back and tell them I am sending their address to CL and they don't write back.

 

[Althena]

My ads kept getting "Flaged" I finally realized it was a scammer trying to hack my account (Cause they succeeded). I also realized that they send these dumb emails to "in-disclosed recipients". Now, I watch VERY carefully and if it has gone to more then just me, I delete. I have never had scammers call but I do get tons of emails from time to time.. Sooo stupid. But I have purchased a Black and white Paint stud with papers and a 5 month filly APHA/AQHA off of there and they have great bloodlines... Total cost for both was $700 and they have great temperaments and will be great show/breeding horses

 

[countmystrides]

Everytime i've used craigslist, i've lucked out.. *knock on wood*..
I do believe there are scammers though and i've been smart about it. There was a scammer who requested me on facebook a couple months ago. He told me he worked for playboy and said he'd pay me for a webcam evaluation. His profile picture was rather attractive, but it was his only picture (go figure). When i responded asking if he had a webcam he said no, but if i had one he'd be able to see me. - creepy - .. well my cousin and i decided to have a good laugh and asked just how much he'd be paying me.
"$80,000"..
"PAYPAL?!"
"after the evaluation."
"do you know i'm 17 years old and that's not only inappropriate, but incredibly illegal?"
i don't think his account is up anymore..

 

[Althena]

@ countmystrides
Wow!!! That is nuts.. Glad you were able to get a laugh out of it at least... I had a training ad up earlier in the year and boy did I get hundreds of scam emails.. I think I deleted 90 without even opening them.. I ended up with one real person and as a result I have had a horse to train pretty much non stop.. I won't advertise through there again, but I don't think I will need to either
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[Tara]

I have had mixed dealings with craigslist.com. Both as a seller and as a consumer. There are a lot of scammers on that website so it is always a good idea to have your email protection and privacy up to pat before even dealing with the site. The other problem I have encountered quit frequently is that of the "craigslist police", people who seem to appoint themselves the overseers of all things craigslist. They continuously flag honest ads seemingly just for the fun of it. I remember at the beginning of the year posting a wanted ad for a maremma puppy. The dog was to be a birthday gift for my mother who admires the breed very much and who had requested the dog as her only present this year. She wanted one very much. However my ad continued to be flagged repeatably for months destroying my hopes of fulfilling my mothers dream of owning one of those beautiful dogs. Maremmas are somewhat rare apparently in Florida and so I was unable to find any breeders or owners advertising their dogs in need of a good home.

I couldn't believe that a simple ad such as this would continue to be flagged. I wasn't looking to breed them. My mother isn't collecting animals. She is a 59 yr old lady who just wanted some companionship and happened to really like Maremmas. Suffice to say I was not able to find one for her birthday and after several months of deleted ads. We finally gave up and got a sweet Golden Retriever who she is very happy with.

I am still however upset that someone out there, several someones, were so bitter and judging that they tried their best to destroy one lady's dream.

Craigslist, despite its faults (and there are many) continues to be a very popular website and so I have found it a good selling medium overall. I continue to use it but I am very careful to protect my privacy as well as to avoid scammers. There isn't anything really that can be done about the over zealous flaggers but I try to report them as much as a I can however much that helps.

 

[Snookeys]

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if a scammer that posted an ad was emailed by a scammer that wanted to "buy" their things. In the end it would be like "Larry, is that you? It's me, Tom!" "Oh hey buddy! How's your scam goin today!"

*sigh*

 

[Althena]

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if a scammer that posted an ad was emailed by a scammer that wanted to "buy" their things. In the end it would be like "Larry, is that you? It's me, Tom!" "Oh hey buddy! How's your scam goin today!"

*sigh*

Sadly that is true.. However, it is a funny thought.. I chuckled when I read your post.. Several mini senarios went through my head.
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[Tara]

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if a scammer that posted an ad was emailed by a scammer that wanted to "buy" their things. In the end it would be like "Larry, is that you? It's me, Tom!" "Oh hey buddy! How's your scam goin today!"

*sigh*

This scenario made me laugh so hard. I could just see things happening like that.

 

[CheyAut]

^ I agree, too funny

It's definately buyer beware... but isn't many things in life?

I post ads on CL. I get lots of scammer responses, but I just ignore them. Annoying to get a response and hopeful, to be let down when I open it... but oh well.

I have also found several of my horses on CL and am very happy with the results

Best thing to do is be leary, don't fall for the crap, go see horse/dog/item in person, be careful!

 

[Tara]

I also bought several horses off of CL and am very happy with them. I definitely agree that its important to go see any animal or item that you are purchasing before you commit to buy. But I think that its important to do that anyway to be sure of what you are bringing home. With my filly, Nitya, I went to see her and had to argue and haggle with the owner who was about to sell her out from under my nose. I was very happy with the filly when I saw her, she was even better in person than in her pictures. It all turned out well and I got the price I had wanted. More importantly I was sure were my money was going and that the filly was worth every penny of it.

I have never regretted the purchase. Going to the seller's home also brought issues to my attention such as the fact that my filly was still nursing even though the ad had listed her as weaned. After discussing this issue with the owners I ended up bringing home the filly's mother who was pregnant for free. I now have a beautiful colt out of the mare.

Three nice horses for the price of one. Needless to say I am very happy with the arrangement.

 

[Tennessee]

I buy all kinds of junk that I don't need off of Craigslist and Ebay. Out of the dozens of things I've purchased, there have been only a few that ended up badly.

 

[wyominggrandma]

My friend contacted me the other day, her hubby was looking at a horse trailer ad.... She wanted to know my opinion if it was a scam...
The first red flag was " 2008 Equiss 4 horse trailer with living quarters, gooseneck for $4800. The second red flag was this "my husband died in Iraq and I can't stand to look at the trailer anymore". The third flag was" you send me the money, I will have my shipper deliver it to your home"... You can't see it before purchase since it is in storage"
I told her : SCAM SCAM SCAM..... The hubby still beleived it was true and felt sorry for the lady selling the trailer. Thank goodness my friend realized it was a scam and would not let her husband send the money. I mean come on, that was a scam so obvious it was hard to even comprehend he would beleive it.

 

[ErikaLynn]

Usually if they say they are over seas and will ship it, and give a lame sob story, then it's a scam.

 

[Shenandoah]

"my husband died in Iraq and I can't stand to look at the trailer anymore ... You can't see it before purchase since it is in storage"

Unless she's living in her storage, these are contradictory statements :?