Could you explain this potential (probable?) scam?
July 12, 2021 11:31 AM Subscribe
I posted an item for free on Craigslist and think I got scammed, but I don't understand how or what they're going to do with the information they got from me.
I posted a bedframe for free on my local Craiglist. Someone emailed me and asked me to text them if it was still available. I texted them from my actual number (I've given multiple things away for free recently and have had numerous requests to text, so didn't think anything of it). We arranged a pick-up time for today. I gave them my address. They did not show up and are not responding to my texts (also, yesterday my texts to them were blue/iMessages with read receipts and today my texts are green).
I searched the internet for an explanation and can't really find anything other than an alarmist article stating that my address will be posted online and this will happen to me: Sometimes you will see ads in the free section that advertise a massive house clearance. Basically, the renter or homeowner is moving out the next day (perhaps even leaving the country) and needs everything to be gone. Seems legit, right? But often, this is a scammer who is setting up an innocent victim to be burglarized.
There have been news reports of people returning home to discover that their home is being stripped bare by dozens of people. The scammer is often one of these, who will be helping himself to bigger items and blending in with the crowd. The people who take the stuff, who are usually innocent themselves, can be prosecuted. The victim will rarely be able to get back any of the missing items. And the scammer gets away free and clear.
This seems quite unlikely (also someone is home basically all the time plus my neighbors' houses are in very close proximity to my house and our neighbors are really nosey), so what are they doing with my address and real cell number? And, if you know what they're doing with that info, is there anything I can do to stop it?
I posted a bedframe for free on my local Craiglist. Someone emailed me and asked me to text them if it was still available. I texted them from my actual number (I've given multiple things away for free recently and have had numerous requests to text, so didn't think anything of it). We arranged a pick-up time for today. I gave them my address. They did not show up and are not responding to my texts (also, yesterday my texts to them were blue/iMessages with read receipts and today my texts are green).
I searched the internet for an explanation and can't really find anything other than an alarmist article stating that my address will be posted online and this will happen to me: Sometimes you will see ads in the free section that advertise a massive house clearance. Basically, the renter or homeowner is moving out the next day (perhaps even leaving the country) and needs everything to be gone. Seems legit, right? But often, this is a scammer who is setting up an innocent victim to be burglarized.
There have been news reports of people returning home to discover that their home is being stripped bare by dozens of people. The scammer is often one of these, who will be helping himself to bigger items and blending in with the crowd. The people who take the stuff, who are usually innocent themselves, can be prosecuted. The victim will rarely be able to get back any of the missing items. And the scammer gets away free and clear.
This seems quite unlikely (also someone is home basically all the time plus my neighbors' houses are in very close proximity to my house and our neighbors are really nosey), so what are they doing with my address and real cell number? And, if you know what they're doing with that info, is there anything I can do to stop it?
The most likely scenario is that they just flaked on taking your bed - this is especially common with free things. They do know that you have a bed at that address, so I guess they could try to steal it but it was listed as free, so...
I wouldn't worry.
posted by momus_window at 11:34 AM on July 12, 2021 [10 favorites]
I wouldn't worry.
posted by momus_window at 11:34 AM on July 12, 2021 [10 favorites]
I wouldn't assume it was some sort of crazy scam, I'd assume they were just flaking, because when you offer something for free, you tend to get a lot of flakes.
I've seen it recommended that you offer for even a very small price instead, that tends to week out the people messaging everyone.
And sheesh, this last year and a half, a large portion of people are flaking on ACTUAL JOBS on the starting date, just like this. Means they got multiple offers and took a different one, and didn't bother to let everyone else know. It was driving my old boss crazy, because he'd set up a ton of interviews, have 50-75% be no show to interviews, and then half those who bothered to interview and got a start date just - didn't show up. And most of those who did, didn't come back the second day, or treated it like they could show up just on days they felt like it. It's been nuts.
Edited to add: I love how the two people who posted while I was typing ALSO used the word "flake". Just goes to show how much a THING it is.
posted by stormyteal at 11:37 AM on July 12, 2021 [5 favorites]
I've seen it recommended that you offer for even a very small price instead, that tends to week out the people messaging everyone.
And sheesh, this last year and a half, a large portion of people are flaking on ACTUAL JOBS on the starting date, just like this. Means they got multiple offers and took a different one, and didn't bother to let everyone else know. It was driving my old boss crazy, because he'd set up a ton of interviews, have 50-75% be no show to interviews, and then half those who bothered to interview and got a start date just - didn't show up. And most of those who did, didn't come back the second day, or treated it like they could show up just on days they felt like it. It's been nuts.
Edited to add: I love how the two people who posted while I was typing ALSO used the word "flake". Just goes to show how much a THING it is.
posted by stormyteal at 11:37 AM on July 12, 2021 [5 favorites]
In my own personal experience, it sounds more like you were ghosted, not scammed. It is unfortunately incredibly common for people on Craigslist to waste your time by setting up pickup times, promising to pick it up and then ghosting. Ask me about the time that I held a FREE item for 3 days -- 3 days! -- because the person kept texting me that "something came up, they'll be there in 2 hours" only to disappear forever. I will never hold an item for a rando on CL again!
Because I'm NOT a CraigsList flake, I don't know exactly what they are thinking, but I suspect they could be bored, or are "reserving" a bunch of different items and only picking up the "best" item, or maybe they don't have a car and weren't able to line up transportation (common with larger items).
posted by rogerroger at 11:37 AM on July 12, 2021 [4 favorites]
Because I'm NOT a CraigsList flake, I don't know exactly what they are thinking, but I suspect they could be bored, or are "reserving" a bunch of different items and only picking up the "best" item, or maybe they don't have a car and weren't able to line up transportation (common with larger items).
posted by rogerroger at 11:37 AM on July 12, 2021 [4 favorites]
Response by poster: OK, great! I am glad the consensus is: flake. My sister is laughing that I posted this question at all. I appreciate all of you quickly reassuring me (I should have known better than to google "Craiglist person has phone and address")!
posted by vakker at 11:39 AM on July 12, 2021 [8 favorites]
posted by vakker at 11:39 AM on July 12, 2021 [8 favorites]
Yes; I've had many Craigslist free noshows. (I've moved to giving things away via a local Facebook free group; it's not perfect, but so far it seems to result in more reliable pickups.)
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 11:40 AM on July 12, 2021
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 11:40 AM on July 12, 2021
It can be difficult to give stuff away. In this case, somebody forgets to pickup, feels embarrassed, ghosts.
posted by theora55 at 11:41 AM on July 12, 2021
posted by theora55 at 11:41 AM on July 12, 2021
Oh and to chime in after Mr.Know-it-some, I've also had better luck giving stuff away on NextDoor, since someone's name is attached and there is some sort of geographic proximity.
posted by rogerroger at 11:43 AM on July 12, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by rogerroger at 11:43 AM on July 12, 2021 [4 favorites]
Not enough to tell, could be just a flake. I wouldn't worry about it.
posted by kschang at 11:45 AM on July 12, 2021
posted by kschang at 11:45 AM on July 12, 2021
This isn't a scam, they're just a flake. Free stuff can be surprisingly hard to get people to show up for, since they don't have any skin in the game and will frequently just not show up.
posted by Slinga at 12:08 PM on July 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Slinga at 12:08 PM on July 12, 2021 [1 favorite]
By the way, the combination of name, phone number and address is not very hard to find. In the olden days, it was listed in the white pages of the phone directory for every family in town. Yes, now they also know you are selling a bed frame but I can see why you were having a hard time figuring out how it could be used in a scam!
posted by metahawk at 12:13 PM on July 12, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by metahawk at 12:13 PM on July 12, 2021 [4 favorites]
For free stuff, I just put it by the curb and list my address, and take down the post when it is gone. That way people can pick it up on their own time and you don't have to put your phone number or deal with no-shows.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:21 PM on July 12, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:21 PM on July 12, 2021 [5 favorites]
This is super mega ultra common with free Craigslist stuff. If you want to give stuff away more effectively, I recommend either donating to a charity shop or using a more local network like Nextdoor or Buy Nothing Your Neighborhood (people are less flaky about pickups when they live only like five blocks from your house).
posted by hungrytiger at 1:06 PM on July 12, 2021
posted by hungrytiger at 1:06 PM on July 12, 2021
There does seem to be a strange heightened paranoia these days about "someone has my address", which yes it is possible could be used maliciously, but you know who also has your address? Literally every possible public database. Also maps. People walking by. Someone could literally walk past your house and hate the color of your paint and put some weird ad online, but mostly they don't. It's not that big a risk. They don't need your phone number in order to do that, either.
A friend of mine who frequently sells stuff on local boards always assumes she's going to be ghosted and is pleasantly surprised if someone actually shows up.
posted by Lyn Never at 1:36 PM on July 12, 2021 [5 favorites]
A friend of mine who frequently sells stuff on local boards always assumes she's going to be ghosted and is pleasantly surprised if someone actually shows up.
posted by Lyn Never at 1:36 PM on July 12, 2021 [5 favorites]
Probably a flake…but…there is a Craigslist free-stuff scam-lite I personally got inconvenienced by.
Here’s how it worked:
I posted a child’s outgrown bunk bed for free on Craigslist. Scammer guy contacts me and arranges for pick up in the morning. He’s a no-show, no-call, so I contact the next person who had emailed and arrange pick up. Second guy comes and gets the bed right away, no problem.
Then…that evening a woman and her daughter shows up at my house and asks for the bed. I told her sorry it was gone. “But I PAID for the bed,” she said angrily.
I was somewhat taken aback. “No,” I said, “I gave it away free on Craigslist.”
She held up her phone with the picture I’d posted — taken on the porch where we were standing. “This is YOUR house isn’t it?”
I looked at the picture. The bed was now listed on Facebook marketplace for a couple hundred bucks — listed by the scammer! “Yes,” I said, “but I’m not that guy.”
It took her a moment to get that I wasn’t the guy with her money, and when she did she somewhat sheepishly confessed that she’d sent him, a stranger, money online. Amazingly the scammer was a real, local person with a real profile — college student — who must’ve thought himself quite the whiz-kid with his arbitrage. We both messaged him with threats to call the cops and he promptly refunded the woman’s money.
TLDR: A-hole sells the stuff you post for free on Craigslist by taking the buyer’s PayPal money then sending them to your house to pick up.
Anyway, I don’t post free stuff on Craigslist anymore…it’s the curb or goodwill for me.
posted by Toecutter at 8:01 PM on July 13, 2021 [2 favorites]
Here’s how it worked:
I posted a child’s outgrown bunk bed for free on Craigslist. Scammer guy contacts me and arranges for pick up in the morning. He’s a no-show, no-call, so I contact the next person who had emailed and arrange pick up. Second guy comes and gets the bed right away, no problem.
Then…that evening a woman and her daughter shows up at my house and asks for the bed. I told her sorry it was gone. “But I PAID for the bed,” she said angrily.
I was somewhat taken aback. “No,” I said, “I gave it away free on Craigslist.”
She held up her phone with the picture I’d posted — taken on the porch where we were standing. “This is YOUR house isn’t it?”
I looked at the picture. The bed was now listed on Facebook marketplace for a couple hundred bucks — listed by the scammer! “Yes,” I said, “but I’m not that guy.”
It took her a moment to get that I wasn’t the guy with her money, and when she did she somewhat sheepishly confessed that she’d sent him, a stranger, money online. Amazingly the scammer was a real, local person with a real profile — college student — who must’ve thought himself quite the whiz-kid with his arbitrage. We both messaged him with threats to call the cops and he promptly refunded the woman’s money.
TLDR: A-hole sells the stuff you post for free on Craigslist by taking the buyer’s PayPal money then sending them to your house to pick up.
Anyway, I don’t post free stuff on Craigslist anymore…it’s the curb or goodwill for me.
posted by Toecutter at 8:01 PM on July 13, 2021 [2 favorites]
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posted by jabes at 11:33 AM on July 12, 2021 [50 favorites]