My First Craigslist Scam

Hey! How about subscribing to my blog via RSS feed or email? It's quick and easy and you'll never miss a single post. Thanks!

I'm so proud. I was proposed my first Craigslist scam yesterday. If you're a regular reader here, then you know that I'm selling our church's Aviom system. I got an email a couple nights ago from [dr.watt005 [at] gmail [dot] com] asking if the item was still for sale. I said, "Yes," and got this reply back:

Thanks for the mail, I'm seriously interested in buying this for my Son and am okay with your selling price, I'm a Petroleum Engineer and currently offshore, i really want this as a surprise gift for my Son so i won't let him know anything about this until it get delivered to him. You can mail me back with your PayPal email address so i can make the payment to you right now and if you don't have an account with PayPal you can set up an account today as it's secured and reliable visit their website on www.paypal.com will be responsible for the pick up agent payment fees/charges on this transaction. Do not worry about shipping or picking up as my pick up agent will come and pick it up from you once have made the payment to you and i will also need your full Name,address and phone number cos it will be needed for the pickup arrangement I would love to speak with you through the phone but due to my work as a Petroleum Engineer i work mainly offshore, our phone is down on the rig right now due to bad weather, We can still communicate through the email exchange for now. I will be looking forward to read back from you real soon with the PayPal email address and your full address including phone number for the pickup arrangement.

I smelled a scam brewing and figured Dr. Watt wanted my paypal info an full name and phone number so he could somehow change my paypal password and gain access to my bank account info. I replied that I would only deal in-person and in cash. Here was his reply:

I insisted on paypal because i don't have access to my bank account online as i don't have internet banking and i can't go to the bank due to the nature of my job, but i can pay from my paypal account, as i have my bank a/c attached to it,i will need you to give me your paypal email address so i can make the payments asap for the merchandise and please if you don't have paypal account yet, it is very easy to set up, go to www.paypal.com and get it set up ,after you have set it up i will only need the e-mail address you use for registration with paypal so as to put the money through...Looking forward to read back from you asap.

I just wrote him back and told him to paypal his pickup agent whom I would be glad to meet in person to exchange the cash for the item. I don't expect I'll hear back.

I say this just as a warning to deal only with folks you know and trust on Craigslist. Deal in cash. If a buyer seems too good to be true, they probably are.

These scammers go by many email addresses and don't give their names.

I still have the Aviom for sale if you are a legitimate buyer. :)

If you thought this post was helpful, consider sharing it with your social network via the sharing icons below. I would really appreciate it! Thank you.

Tweet