Craigslist Fraud

Craigslist scam with happy ending:  I live a little north of Fort Lauderdale. One day, I saw some B&W 803's (One missing tweeter) with an opening bid of $400 requested.  I was certain it was a scam, but it was close enough to go there to pick up the speakers.  I won the auction for that price, and tried to make an appointment to go get the speakers.  After repeated emails were always answered with, "Just send the damned money, and I will ship them", I gave up.  IA few weeks later, they were on ebay, again, but from a different seller.  I called and discovered he had bought them off of Craigslist for the same price, from a guy moving to CA.  Two other people sent the guy money, maybe more.  Now the good part of the story.  The buyer felt sorry for me, did not like the holes drilled to hang the speakers (Sacreledge), and had already ordered a pair of tweeters for $300 from a pal in the business.  I took all of it, and had an extra tweeter.  Next, I bought a single 805, with a tweeter, and a few months later, found one sans tweeter.  I sold these for $740 and now have some of the the best free speakers I have ever heard.  They even worked with my subs, and still do.  .

Ok, so what the deal/harm when you get a response asking “is the item still available?”
this, after you clearly state in the ad “ do not ask it it’s still available “.

I've made  some damn good friends for life from CL, buying and selling anything in your hobby you'll meet plenty of nice folks.  Have yet to meet a crook or a killer. Remember the CL killer! 

I have made a number of successful transactions on CL for all sorts of stuff and met some very nice people. In my ads I state that I am hip to all of the scams so it isn’t worth wasting time for either of us. Of course some people try but I ridicule them and move on.

I am sure that there are scamming on all different sites, some sites more prone that others, but they are all out there prying on people. This is the reason I always sell or buy where there will be face to face contact and a cash transaction or a known bank check is used. This then means that most of my sales or purchases will be fairly local, within an easy days ride both back and forth. I do this because I am a worrier and this removes most of it for me. Others are better at rooting out the scams and are comfortable buying or selling long distance. I could never do this. Maybe you should rethink how you buy or sell. I just used Craig's list to sell two high end bikes with no problems. I did have a few scammers approach me. All the scammers wanted to transfer through shipping arrangements and not willing to come and meet face to face. Those emails were just deleted by me.

I too had a brush with a Craigslist scammer. I had just posted a listing for a Pioneer Spec-1 & Spec-4 combo. A day later a reply came that said something to the effect I should reply to a separate E-mail address, outside of Craigslist which tipped me off immediately, but I did just for curiosity. I was told the buyer had no problems with my price & he was definitely interested, then the next day he stated he unfortunately had to work & couldn’t pay & pick the items up himself (which were listed as pickup only) but he could send me a cashier’s check, swore it was good, I could even go cash it first & receive the money, along with a 50 additional bucks for doing so, he would arrange for a 3rd party to come pickup the items after I had my money. Now I’m clearly aware of these fraudulent cashier’s checks, your bank will gladly cash them for you & then in a wk. or 2 when they bounce, your bank will hold you responsible for repayment, I stated that the only way we would do business is that he would have to come to me with cash & make the exchange in person, I never heard another word.

I've sold a few things on Craigslist, always local, never very expensive.  As I think about offering up some nicer gear soon, I have thought about listing on Craigslist, but I'm nervous about asking someone to bring $3000 cash to the Starbucks parking lot.  Has anyone used Venmo or PayPal to close those deals?  Any thoughts?

one time I won an eBay item worth about $6k-8k, for $2k.
the guy slowed it down and never mailed the item, kept delaying and so on. in the end 'his wife packaged it and sent it' as he said would finally happen.
Turned out it really was a desperation sale to help cover costs....he really was in the hospital and basically dying from diabetes complications and his wife had to package it and send it, late.
Way to feel bad.....
the odd time it really is legit. but only the very odd time.

I never had a problem with Craigs list, I go and see the product and listen to it. If  i like , I buy, I found a good deal on my girlfriend there with Mods.

I did not even know it was possible to mod a girlfriend. And not for lack of trying!

millercarbon"I did not even know it was possible to mod a girlfriend. And not for lack of trying!"
I feel very sad and sorry for you.