Got Scammed on Craigslist

isoMorphic wrote in post #15335635
Another stupid thing was using USPS for International shipment. If it was UPS as a seller you could have diverted the package back to you with ease. I would still call the USPS again and ask to speek with a supervisor or someone who can help you with mail related fraud.

https://postalinspecto​rs.uspis.gov/contactUs​/phoneus.aspx

And another thing I did not think about, again I almost went with UPS because USPS's website and our shipping system kept refusing the address, but I normally suck at typing in international addresses (for legit customers) so that didn't really occur to me to stop and think. I tried, but everyone kept telling me that if it is international all I can do is try and get the recipient to ship it back to me.
I do feel stupid, I want to kick myself right in the teeth honestly. Luckily we aren't hurting for money but right now it's my pride and common sense that is hurt and that is what bugs me most. I am never making any of those mistakes ever again, but I would really like to grab that person by the throat..... it's my pride that is the most angry, $436 is not like $836 or over a thousand, I can live with knowing I at least made the mistake with that amount rather than something larger. Still angry.

If you use UPS for a legitimate deal be prepared for a very irate buyer. Not only do you pay more to ship the item they charge outrageous brokerage fees on top of the customs fees.

I'm curious, prior to this mishap, did you already know the 2 big red flags? I would stop at the following:

(1) some relative in Nigeria
(2) an offer higher than my asking price

No one bargains for higher price unless it's an auction. I guess it could've been worse. This scammer could've offered you $1000 and told you to keep $500 and transfer the remaining back to him/her and ship the lens.

I thank you for sharing your bad experience. Others who have never heard of this scam would learn from it.

Well you have let us know why these people persist with scams that are so old. There are people that still bite.

This was a blatant scam, but I actually did recently sell a lens through Craigslist and used Paypal. But, I checked him out, it was a city two hours away, and I talked to him on the phone. We even exchanged LinkedIn info. I was actually going to sell my 1D3 to him, but he found a local one, and through discussion the lens I was selling ended up getting sold.

Not wanting to be cruel, but basic common sense would have saved you here.

Sorry to hear of your loss. We all make mistakes now and then, and we should be angry. But the important thing is that you have learned from it, and that will help you in the future. Take a few kick boxing classes locally and let those bags have it...let it all out so that it would not affect those around you.

can you call the police department near the zip code you shipped it to? or maybe the post master at that parcel?

bigcountry wrote in post #15336391
can you call the police department near the zip code you shipped it to? or maybe the post master at that parcel?

I believe he shipped it to Nigeria.

Have been fortunate in my one and only camera sale on our local Craig's List. The buyer turned out to be my dentist!

These things happen, they're well documented in various places on the net

sil40sx wrote in post #15335434
+ 1 on this ^^^

I also always say no local contact number = no response.

Even in today's world of cell phones being people's primary phones? I really don't pay attention to where the phone number is from if the rest of the email sounds legit.

K6AZ wrote in post #15335256
Rules fpr selling on CL:

Do not accept PayPal for anything

Do not ship anything

Local sales only

Cash only

I see in your OP you already know where your mistakes were here so I won't rub them in.

^^^This^^^

I had a CL sale last week (Pocket Wizards), buyer asked very specific questions, knowledgeable about the product and usage. The number was not local, but was in the Southeast US.

We traded emails and texts back and forth for a few hours (during the business day). Finally, the other shoe drops - "BTW, I'll need to pay with PayPal, I hope that's OK." I replied "NP, but I hate the fees, so I'll need to charge an extra $10,000, making your total $10,225."

He agreed! - guess it's easy to overpay when it's not real money!!

OP - sorry to hear about your loss. I would agree with the suggestions above regarding checking with a USPS Supervisor, and contacting the FBI Cyber Crime office in the NY area. Good luck in getting your gear back.

smacatl wrote in post #15337371
^^^This^^^

I had a CL sale last week (Pocket Wizards), buyer asked very specific questions, knowledgeable about the product and usage. The number was not local, but was in the Southeast US.

We traded emails and texts back and forth for a few hours (during the business day). Finally, the other shoe drops - "BTW, I'll need to pay with PayPal, I hope that's OK." I replied "NP, but I hate the fees, so I'll need to charge an extra $10,000, making your total $10,225."

He agreed! - guess it's easy to overpay when it's not real money!!

OP - sorry to hear about your loss. I would agree with the suggestions above regarding checking with a USPS Supervisor, and contacting the FBI Cyber Crime office in the NY area. Good luck in getting your gear back.

I've got to try this one.

I agree that this is pretty much "Internet Scam 101" but I guess it's good to have threads like this pop up every couple of months as a reminder for those that may not be aware of how this type of scam works.

As much as I am aware of the variety of internet scams out there, I still don't get the part where buyer wants to use Paypal. Paypal is a legitimate company. Other than the fact we should deal (exchange item/cash) locally, why does the offer to pay by Paypal trigger a fraud alarm? Anyone care to explain?

morph2_7 wrote in post #15337885
As much as I am aware of the variety of internet scams out there, I still don't get the part where buyer wants to use Paypal. Paypal is a legitimate company. Other than the fact we should deal (exchange item/cash) locally, why does the offer to pay by Paypal trigger a fraud alarm? Anyone care to explain?

Because they never actually use PayPal. They send fake emails that mimic PayPal's in the hope that the buyer doesn't actually bother to log into their actual PayPal account to verify things before shipping.