Winnipesaukee.com Classifieds
 

I have a canoe for sale in the classified section. I received a text from someone stating that he was interested in buying my canoe. I asked him when he would like to take a look at it. He said that he would not be able to stop by because he lives in Las Vegas. He said that he would have a "picker" come by to get it. He wanted to know where he should send the check. I said that I only accept cash or wire transfer through my bank. OF COURSE I NEVER HEARD FROM HIM AGAIN!! Is this something I should report or not???

Clearly a scammer....

Did you have your phone# on the ad or did they reply through the site? You should never put your phone# out there for public viewing.

No doubt about it
 

When they won't come and look at it... it is usually a scam. I agree with codeman671, never give out your phone number. I like to use a non-essential email address that I can disable if I need to.

Some years ago, a friend was selling a very large boat. He received a "cashiers check" from the buyer who claimed to be out of the country. My friend thought the check looked funny so brought it to his bank. They said it was fraudulent. Fortunately, he had not shipped the boat.

A few years later he saw an ad for this same boat for sale by some entity. Since the boat was still sitting in his yard. It was a very rare boat and the picture also had his garage in it... so we know it was the same boat. We knew someone took his boat picture and was trying to sell it in a scam.

Keep vigilant out there.

IG

The same thing happened to me! I was selling a my wooden canoe the guy lived in CA. he sent me a check I waited 5 business days for the check to clear, packaged the canoe ready to ship. On a hunch (I knew it was a scam) checked my account the payment was gone! It didn’t bounce, they got into my account and withdrew the check!

Whoa, what? Please explain...

yes please give details
 

You have to really be careful these days concerning Craigslist scams but I have not heard of hacking a personal checking acct to take back the money... :eek:

Hell, I think what they are talking about is a stop payment on the check. That withdraws it from the account. Otherwise if they really hacked their bank account, I don't think they would stop at the one check, they would clean it out.

Yes, this is a very common scam.

In various forms the seller sends you a check for the amount requested, or an additional fee for shipping, or in some cases and excessive amount where they tell you to send THEM the item AND a check for the leftover amount. In those cases what they are really after is YOUR check, which is of course valid.

You will often find their wording in emails is vague, things like "Is the item still available?" or "I've been looking for one just like this for some time", eg: never actually referring to the specific thing you're selling but instead using generic terms like "item" or "product".

Basic recommendations for selling things like this are to deal locally only, meetup some place public and so forth. If the transaction is going to involve more than about $100 it's not a bad idea to have a second person come with you, that person drives separately and arrives a few minutes early. They can watch from a short distance and if it looks like things are going south they can call the police or step in. It sounds like overall, but I've known people get jacked over craigslist sales of iPhones or laptops (granted, back in Detroit, not here, but still...).

I have a telephone number from the text message.

Why would someone from across the country or even further buy something as cheap as a canoe? Their a dime a dozen anywhere that alone should make you suspect something's not right.

You should see the bs I need to wade through on the Pug and Bulldog ads I'm calling on.

95% of the dog ads are scams. Last Friday I texted 32 people. Two people were legit. I traced one of the numbers to a place that sells "grey area" drugs.

I've done very well on CL. Bought some cars for really cheap, worked on them for a weekend, and sold them for a bit more a few days later. You just have to deal with cash only and call the person instead of texting. But yea, I'd say three quarters of CL is scams now. The dog ads are BRUTAL.

Lets see if I can remember, it was a couple of years ago. The canoe was $1200. and shipping was $4000. and he gave me an extra $1000. to crate it (I’m a cabinet maker, no problem) I was to keep $2200. and give the rest to the transport co. through western union. (I’m thinking ok the scam is on) the check cleared and got the money in cash (I’m thinking what do I half to loose) sent the money through western union and waited for the transport co. to call. About 4 hours later western union called and told me to come back and pick up my money the transfer was a scam. So I did. The next day I checked my bank account and the money was gone! Went to the bank and told them the story, (I already sent the canoe, witch I didn’t) they said the check was a fake and there was nothing they can do about it! So I didn’t loose any money but just a lot of jumping through hoops.

I'm missing something here. How do you "get the money in cash" and then its "gone" from your bank account?:confused:

The bank fronted the money into his account thru the float process. Once the funds appeared in his account, he withdrew the money. When the check actually hit the clearing process it was determined to be fake and the bank then took the money back out of his account.

Not to be mean, but what part of that math made sense? Why would someone pay $5000 for shipping and crating for a $1200 canoe?