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Man defrauds buyers on Craigslist

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#4 ·
I know of two bad encounters locally too:

My FIL (RIP) had a Ford FEL tractor stolen off his property where he was building a retirement house in Western MA (very rural area). The police eventually tracked the thief down, but the tractor had already been sold on CL to someone in CT. The thief was ordered to pay restitution, but the tractor was gone. (I always thought they'd go get the property from the new buyer, return it to the rightful owner, and make the thief pay the snookered buyer.)

The other story involved someone going to Boston to buy an iPhone, got robbed for his money and shot in the arm to boot. This happened to my BIL's employee's adult son.

Hasn't stopped me from buying on CL, but is scary nonetheless.

Mike
 
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#6 ·
People in this country are innocent until proven guilty. It's frustrating when the cases are so obviously clear (caught in the act, on video, etc ). The time and money wasted in such cases makes me crazy.

I think the problem is exacerbated by two things: 1: There isn't enough incentive to plead guilty vs. taking your chances and trying to work out a better deal later. 2: These lowlifes are totally in denial that they'll ever get caught, or even get any real penalty, so they run the system.

Being a judge requires being a lawyer first. I'd get too frustrated watching terrible deals or failed prosecutions along the way to make it that far...

Mike
 
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#7 ·
Guess I will never understand people who send money, hard cash, to a total stranger on the other side of the country, just because they have a picture of something you might want.

Kind of like typing all your financial details, then clicking send, and out into the atmosphere it goes, for anyone from anywhere to reach up and grab.

Call me old fashioned but..........even a dumb old b'uggar like me can see the obvious.:00000060:
 
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#9 ·
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#10 ·
Larry LGT 165 said:
Guess I will never understand people who send money, hard cash, to a total stranger on the other side of the country, just because they have a picture of something you might want.
Click to expand...
Great point. It's never popular to blame the victim, but sometimes a little common sense will save people a whole bunch of aggravation.

Mike
 
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#11 ·
I am often buying stuff like cars, lawn equipment etc off CL. So far no issues, but like many of us....I'm not sending a dime anywhere without driving away with the item. I see CL like newspaper classifieds and those scammer calls. Sure there's a possibility there's a bad person trying to steal from you, these people are everywhere and not just an ad on CL.

Buddy ran a mechanic shop and often people would walk in the door with a bunch of high priced tools looking to sell them for too good of a price with a sob story about needing cash and having to sell their personal tools. If that doesn't scream stolen property most of the time, what does?
 
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#12 ·
No kidding! Losers are everywhere. I try hard not to let it ruin my life, but you need to be careful.

My grandfather was a toolmaker. His expensive tools were at work, engraved with "Stolen from..." and his name.

Ironically, scumbags broke into his garage at home and stole household tools from there...

That was decades before the internet existed (except for Al Gore and his friends, I suppose).

Mike
 
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#14 ·
I buy off of craigslist with no worries I take cash in hand and .357 on my side never has a single problem yet now driving down the road and getting cut of by idiots who then wanna stop me and beat my tail that's happened. Referring back to first part .357 on my side helped with that also that and my cell phone and police
 
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#15 ·
I see similar ads on Craigslist. The first one I saw I sent an email, no more. That one was supposed to be near me in Hickory but they said it was in New Orleans and they would deliver it for free after I sent the money. I'm not buying anything that expensive without seeing it in person.
 
#17 ·
I like the ones selling CUTs for the price of cheap GTs, and out of Queens or Manhattan...

Mike
 
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#18 ·
I would only buy things on CL if it is local, and I need to see the thing before I buy it. CL is where my Ford YT16 came from. That was $400 well spent. The tractor is great. Before buying it, I went to the guy, and he showed it to us. He drove it, then I got to drive it. It was great. When he drove it, he popped a few wheelies, because the thing has a supposed top speed of 45MPH. Honestly, nobody has ever driven it at full throttle in 5th gear, because it seems so scary. My dad did use it on our street, and actually passed a camper that was passing by. Anyway, you could get some good things on CL, but try to keep it local, and request to see the item before buying.
 
#19 ·
I see a lot of ads on Craigslist with what looks to be a $20k+ tractor for the low, low price of only a couple thousand. Most of the scams are pretty obvious. If you're dumb enough to send a deposit to someone on the internet outside of some formal selling platform (ebay, auction site, etc.), you deserve to have your money stolen.

My approach to local Craigslist buying/selling is to meet in a very public place, most of the time being a police station or somewhere that I know has lots of cameras. This would be impossible to do for something like a tractor, but it seems to weed out those that seem to be shady. I don't do deposits; either the item is available when we meet or someone beats me to it.
 
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