ParanoiaFilter

June 21, 2005 10:05 AM

I am pretty sure I'm just being paranoid, but I would like to check with the savvy crowd here first. I have listed a range/stove for sale on Craigslist and I got a response from someone who's interested. He has asked for my name and address to send me the payment. All of that is relatively normal.

What has made me a little paranoid is that he's in the UK (it seems) and I am in Montreal. It stretches the imagination to think he would purchase a stove here from that far away. So - is there some sort of scam that I don't know that JUST requires name and address to perpetrate?

Obviously I won't release the object before payment is made, but is there something else I am missing here? Even though my information is easily available on the web, my spider senses are tingling a little bit on this one.

posted by mikel to Work & Money (10 answers total)

There's a good summary of payment scams on craigslist, scroll down for details on all the ways you can get ripped off.
posted by cali at 10:11 AM on June 21, 2005

Run away! No sane person would purchase a stove from across the Atlantic. The shipping costs alone would make the transaction pointless. Sounds fishy to me, too.
I would just politely email him to say that someone else has claimed the stove, and they are going to come by and pick it up, which is far less hassle for you.
posted by Dr. Wu at 10:12 AM on June 21, 2005

The standard scam is that he sends you a fake cashier's check for more than the purchase price, and he asks you to send him the change. You cash the check, and because your bank accepts it you think everything is fine and you send the scamster his change. Two weeks later when your bank finally realizes the check was a fake, the money you've shelled out is long gone.

Loss of appliances is not required.
posted by alms at 10:18 AM on June 21, 2005

For the record it's nearly impossible to post anything to CL that DOESN'T get such a response. Just ignore it. Don't even write the person back as they will mail you ever month asking what else you have for sale. (Trust me on that one.)
posted by dobbs at 10:18 AM on June 21, 2005

I have an anonymous email address I can use to correspond so I'm simply going to ask for more information. But I'm pretty sure he'll disappear. And I'm not going to give up the information until I get a much better story.

Thanks for the reality check.
posted by mikel at 10:19 AM on June 21, 2005

What do you mean "It seems" he's in the UK? Does he say so specifically, because maybe he was from the UK and recently moved to Montreal or somewhere else close by.

Perhaps you should just say you don't want the hassle of packing and shipping such a large appliance overseas. Then see what he says. No harm, no foul.
posted by Blue Buddha at 10:19 AM on June 21, 2005

It does sound fishy. But, I have had landlords who have lived in different countries before. So he could be trying to replace an appliance in one of his units in Montreal.

Although, it probably is one of those cashier cheque scams. If it sounds fishy, it usually is.
posted by helvetica at 1:31 PM on June 21, 2005

I agree with the "ignore this" responses. I had the same responses on a sofabed; reality check says, "c'mon, why would someone in the US buy a £50 sofabed?" If you want it, and you have the friend to collect it, have the friend bring cash; sort your friend out. No, never mind...just ignore.
posted by sagwalla at 2:21 PM on June 21, 2005

I got one of those too, recently, on some crappy old truck I was trying to sell. Ignore it.

I mean c'mon, ship an appliance overseas?
posted by Elvis at 2:59 PM on June 21, 2005

I'm with Blue Buddha on the "it seems he is from the UK" bit. Are you just going by his email address or something? Because people are not often in the same country as their email addresses.
posted by librarina at 3:38 PM on June 21, 2005