<p>I advertise on the craigslist to sell my used stove top. As soon as I put it up, I received an inquiry about it. It was a very short message such as “Is it available?”. So I replied “yes” with my phone number. Shortly thereafter, I received an email like this:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No response after answering this email. </p>
<p>The problems I have are:</p>
<ol>
<li>I got several similar emails, although I only answered one with my address.</li>
<li>The original inquiry has a different email address from the request of name and address as shown above.</li>
</ol>
<p>Probably not identify theft as most of that information can be obtained via any google search. It’s more likely a scheme to send you a check, have you cash it, and send them back the “extra” amount.</p>
<p>That is almost, word-for-word, the same reply I’ve received numerous times. I only get it when the item I’ve listed is over $500. All we can do is report it to craigslist, so they ban the e-mail address.</p>
<p>I’m trying to sell things on Craigslist and have received similar emails. These are clearly scams. I don’t give my address until I am certain (well, pretty certain) that the person is legit. And even then I require that my DH be home with me. </p>
<p>So far I’ve had two lovely people come to look at my stuff. The scam artists never come; they just want to bamboozle you with phoney cashier’s checks.</p>
<p>Edited to add: Anyone who wants to give you money before inspecting your item is not kosher in my book.</p>
<p>It’s a scam. Often done with roommate ads as well. The person, usually overseas & usually mentions God or religion or bible study in the initial contact, sends a fake cashier’s check for an excessive amount. Then the sender asks you to deposit the cashier’s check & refund the difference between the purchase price & the amount on the cashier’s check. In two or three weeks your bank informs you that the cashier’s check was fake & you’re now on the hook for the entire sum credited to your account–even the money that you sent to the scammer as a refund.</p>
<p>Craigslist says forged cashiers checks and money orders are common. The bank will cash them and then hold YOU responsible (plus fees) when they bounce several weeks later.</p>
<p>Often sellers are easily duped because the out-of-town buyer wants seller to retain possession of the item until he or she comes to town. This establishes trust quickly because seller keeps the item & receives payment for it. But, oops, the seller accidently purchased a cashier’s check for a larger amount than agreed upon (which is always the full asking price) and wants seller to send back the difference.</p>
<p>Exactly what goug78 said ^^^ One typical version of this scam has you receiving payment by a forged cashier’s check for more than the sales price. You are to forward the excess payment to the buyer’s “shipping company.” One week later when your bank determines the cashier’s check was fake your bank account will be debited for the entire amount of the fake check. People mistakenly believe they are not at risk because their bank accepts the check and credits their account.</p>
<p>The buyer doesn’t want the item at all, and there will be no shipping company. The buyer wants your cash.</p>
<p>I’m going to say again, I do not see why our financial system cannot be changed so banks can instantly validate fund availability as well as authenticity of the payment at the time it is deposited into your account.</p>
<p>If I send an e-mail to a bogus address, I know within seconds that the address wasn’t valid. I do not see why the same cannot happen with checks.</p>
<p>(I see why it does not happen with the system we have today. What I don’t understand is why the system cannot be changed.)</p>
<p>“Large corporations would lose lots of float interest.”
Slight de-rail and then back to craigslist–When we built our house we paid cash/check for many things. Once, the bank held up our check to our contractor (a bank we’d dealt with for YEARS and KNEW that we had the funds claiming that maybe the “signature” wasn’t right on the check, huh?–same as last million checks you got…) so they could float the interest over a long weekend. Fraud/scamming is more than on craigslist!</p>
<p>We’ve gotten that same response to CraigsList posts. The very poor grammar and (my favorite) the mention of a shipping agent are red flags that it’s a scam. Really, do any ‘real, everyday people’ have shipping agents?</p>
<p>This is a very common craigslist scam. I sell a lot on the site and have encountered this many times. The way to spot this scam is that the post never mentions the item and is very short. Most people would ask if the stove top is still available and maybe another follow up question or two. I never reply at all to these scam posts.</p>
<p>We’ve successfully sold several vehicles using Craigslist. I learned after the first one to NOT allow any email responses. If somebody wants it, they can give me a call. Once I’ve talked to a real person I can determine if I want to continue with email correspondence.</p>
<p>And use a Google Voice number in your ad that forwards to your real phone. When the item is sold just turn off the Google Voice forward. No more calls and your real number is not published.</p>