Craigslist...

[itadakimasu]

Do many of you use it?

I hadn't used it until a co-worker suggested i list my car on there, which sold that weekend. letting me avoid pesky ebay / autotrader listing fees and what not.

anyhow, i've since bought several things i've found off of there (computer components) just wondering if many other people are using it

[Spiegel]

I look on it occasionally for old console systems and old things you cannot find but in peoples personal collections. I like the freebies section, sometimes you can really find some cool stuff.

[Assertn]

got a fridge from there once...

[Mut]

not the only thing you got from there, st33v

[Assertn]

Oh yeah, also hepatitis C

[itadakimasu]

just bought an antec sonata II case w\ true power 380watt psu and a dvdrw for $40...

[itadakimasu]

scammers appear ! lol

i have several computers listed for sale on craigslist and i've had 3 or 4 different emails today all laying out the same scenario that they will pay with a check or a money order and then have their 'moving company' pick up the computers.... not gonna happen. cash or pay pal... cash or paypal

[mage]

thats not a scam.

[itadakimasu]

thats not a scam.

I will find out tomorrow...

I have in front of me a check for $3,000 !

now... seriously... wtf... it looks pretty legit... idk. I told the guy that i wouldn't ship him anything without the check being proven to be genuine. but it is for a dell optiplex computer, one. so, i'm going to my bank tomorrow and see if they can verify the authenticity of the check. if so, i'm depositing it and giving it 3-4 weeks to make sure nothing comes back.

[Assertn]

he's fine with you holding his money for 3-4 weeks before shipping?

[itadakimasu]

So, yes.. i frequent craigslist... Anyhow. last weekend I dropped $1700 on craigslist purchases.

First, i found this ad that had just been posted for some servers and jumped on it... they all have 2003 server COAs and all documentation. $200 each what a steal. I sold one of them earlier for $700 via ebay w\ no hard drives installed because he wantd to upgrade to different drives.

anyhow... the other purchase, This guy had listed 4 unopened boxes of 2003 server R2 standard which retails at $649.99 per box on newegg. I said i'd give him $800, he then replied that he would accept and we met up.

the first box i opened looked fine. except for the COA, part of it had been folded over and you could not read 2 of the letters of the key... i opened another and it looked perfect so i bought them and put them up on ebay that night for $525 / obo and sold 2 @ 485 each.... this is where the story turns.

I repost the remaining 2 sets which are up for a few hours before being removed by ebay citing a message from microsoft asking them to remove them... this is when i find a guide on ebay detailing how the writer had bought a oem box off ebay and it was a very good fake.... and thats exactly what mine was. This bastard sold me $800 worth of well made pirated software. (will post pictures later)

So, from sunday until today i was scouring the internet trying to collect information on this guy. he was not answering his phone or returning emails... i didn't even know if he'd given me his real name. I found his name on a bunch of different web design forums and what not and apparently he contracts and what not with this information i found my way to godaddy and found 3-4 different domains he owns... and so i had a good amount of information.

I found 2 different paypal accounts he had and sent him money requests to each one and told him he had only until friday to give me money.... still no reply to email or phone calls. so this morning i send the last email, subject : police report sent out today.

and i kindly let him know that i've given him time to send me my money and that if he does not send it to me by 4:30 i'm going to go drop off the police report and surely the police can find more information about him than I already had. And then it happens... he calls me... "the money is in your account" he pay pals me the money from some other paypal account other than the 2 i'd been sending messages to.

anyhow.... end of story for now. be careful on craigslist.

[TwisT]

Well this was on a swedish program called "Insider" last night. They where looking closer on the new scams people are using now that it's become so easy to sell things over the internet.

Apparently a person answers on a let's say computer ad. He want to buy it. He then sends a check for the computer (often more then the seller asked for to pay for the shipment and the seller get to keep the extra money). Now i don't know how this works in the US but apparently in europe at least the bank gives you the money for the check and they reserve the right to demand the money back if the check bounce (or whatever it's called). The seller then ship the thing away. Later the seller gets a call from the bank saying they want their money back. So now you don't have your computer and you owe the bank the money.

This was apparently a rising scam in Sweden when it comes to things like computers and cars.

So if i where you i would ask the bank if they can in anyway demand back the money from the check. And i would probably never sell anything if they can't pay me in cash. Is it really that hard to wire-transfer the money from his account to my account? And like you said we now has PayPal. So sending checks should be a thing of the past.

I always thought that when you cashed in a check they actually checked on the spot if the money is there on the other guys account. Not that they first pay out the money and then check for that a few days after.

Well after seeing that i wont trust someone wanting to send me a check.

[itadakimasu]

twist, when i was selling computers alot on craigslist/ebay i gave my address to one of these scammers.

he/she sent me a check for $3,000 for a $300 computer. wanted me to cash the stolen check that was from a car dealership in a state other than where the ups envelope was coming from... and give them the $2,700 change and the computer.