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Craigslist - scam, kinky or missed sales opportunity?

Started by WV Sawmiller, August 15, 2022, 10:16:41 PM

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WV Sawmiller

   I post a couple of ads on our local area Craigslist. One is for Wood and Wood Products and I list benches, birdhouses, tomato stakes, crates, etc. The other I list for composting toilets. The ads are free and run for 6 weeks then they drop off and I repost. I include pictures and the replies are filtered from the CL system.

 Last night I re-posted my expired ads and almost immediately got 2 e-mail replies with no subject line (which is not typical), with exactly the same verbiage including a gmail address with a man's name. The ads appeared to be from 2 different women and came in at exactly the same time. They said they had money and were close to my area for the next day or two. They look like they were some kind of automated reply. I'm questioning if they are potential legitimate customers or a swingers club. ::)

 CL is not a big business for me but I pick up some occasional sales and some are for decent money. My customers are about an equal mix of men and women but these just don't meet the smell test. I have not replied and will see if further queries come in.

 Does anyone else here use CL and have you ever had inquiries that just didn't give you a warm and fuzzy? I see items for sale all the time that I recognize as highly suspicious based on prices offered for items listed and they typically want a different payment plan than the official terms and I steer clear of them.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

Larry

Scammers are everywhere.  I've used craigslist and like it.  Facebook is were the action is but has lots more of the scammers.

If it has the slightest smell I don't respond.  I know, I probably make some folks mad.
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

21incher

I use craigslist a lot and have had very few problems.  Lately it seems hard to sell on it because  most have switched  to Facebook  Marketplace.  If it looks like a scam, probably is and I just pass on that contact. I think the economy  is on the way down because it can take days to sell items now.
Hudson HFE-21 on a custom trailer, Deere 4100, Kubota BX 2360, Echo CS590 & CS310, home built wood splitter, home built log arch, a logrite cant hook and a bread machine. And a Kubota Sidekick with a Defective Subaru motor.

WV Sawmiller

   Yeah, I know Facebook seems to be the current trend but I am still a dinosaur and have not started using it.

    While not a very big percentage I have made several very decent sales on CL and it has not been a time consuming or difficult process.

    Multiple replies with the same message at the same time just don't ring true IMHO.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

Don P

No doubt that one is a scam. How many seconds from your post to their auto reply?
"You can mine the gold, you can mine the miners or you can mine the investors." Little has changed  :).
I might have missed a sweet one ton dump last week, or maybe not  :D
When it's wide open advertising you have to blow off the chaff. When its word of mouth there is some level of vetting your friends and clients are doing for you.

Southside

Scam, who talks like that?  "I will be near your area", no name, no phone number, no mention of what town they are in.  Next thing they will ask to send a code to your phone to "see if you are real", they want you to send the code back to them at which time they take over your phone and basically demand a payment.  

I have played with these scammers a few times when I am in the reading room or otherwise have available time.  Keep asking about the code, playing dumb, dragging them out, then I have been known to say some mighty awful words, finish my paperwork, and get back at the day.  
Franklin buncher and skidder
JD Processor
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Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
White Oak Meadows

B.C.C. Lapp

The guys are right that's a scammer talking to you.   I use CL to sell firewood and you do need to watch out but like somebody said if it smells fishy it most likely is.    I'm not on face book so my daughter places firewood ads for me on marketplace and relays the customers numbers to me.  She knows what shes doing and can spot the scam a mile away.  
Nether is a perfect system but it is free so I use them.
Listen, or your tongue will make you deaf.

YellowHammer

I use both.  Not only do I advertise lumber but sell lots of equipment  and tools.  They are full of auto scams and even personal scams.  No big deal, they are easy to recognize and the best thing is to use the add to point to my website, to which they have to then use to contact me.  Most of the scams seem to try to get on your good side, make you feel guilty, or ask for special consideration.  Nope.

"I'm a hard working trucker, or otherwise don't work locally much so need to send someone to pick it up" is a very common one I get or "I'll send you a money order now and pick it up later."

So I use my website as a filter.  My add says go to my website and find the contact  page, and then send an email from there.  If they use the CL reply email function I direct them to my website again, except I don't give them the full path, I leave off the.com.  Bots can't do that.  Real people can, but then they get a canned response back from me.  No conversations, basically, the responses from me are "I have something for sale, do you want it or not? No I don't hold, Cash only on pickup, First come first served, If you want to see or inspect it, come during business hours, no after hours appointments."  

Basically, I use the Wal Mart approach, and sell it as if they were selling it.  When in doubt I ask myself "What would Wal Mart do?"  
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

kantuckid

Yes it's a zoo out there. The web is the crooks great land of opportunity in this "modern" age? ;D I'm like several here and use both.  Ebay is still the better choice for hardware and vehicle parts by far!!!
 FB certainly has more live action, & the good, the bad and the ugly. 
There have always been ugly, i.e. crooked or nasty people out there, thankfully most of us are not such people. 
Still, the ugly stuff makes me wonder where they find incentive to bother us with this ugliness. 
Having worked in both prisons and juvy treatment I find it less of a surprise than maybe a few others. 
Howard, you've certainly been "around the block" so I'm sure you've seen the ugly stuff before. 
Lots of basically honest, decent people do seem to hang out on FB like its a lifestyle?  ::) 
 
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

firefighter ontheside

A scam no doubt.  I have had lots of scams reply to my ads.  The first time it happened was probably 10 years ago and I had never heard of these scams and they got me playing along.  The bots are usually easy to spot.  They usually have some broken English or bad translation from some other language.  It's the ones that are actual people that are sometimes hard to spot at first.  They will seem normal at first and then start to seem off.  They will not answer questions about where they are coming from to get the item.  One popular scam is with bogus checks.  They will want to send you a check for more than the item you are selling.  You are supposed to cash the check, keep a little extra for your trouble and then send the rest back to them.  
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WV Sawmiller

  Its probably a moot point now as my wife got a call an hour or so back and found she had won 8 million dollars. Then the same guy called back and I answered and found I had also won 25 million dollars. Since neither of us could remember our tax or banking info we need to run meet him at WalMart and buy a gift card there and then he can load the winnings on to it I forgot to ask if we can put it on on the same card or if we have to buy separate cards. Does anyone know if WalMart will go ahead and put 33 million on one card or are we going to have to get two?
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

Andries

Seeing as how you now have $33 million dollars, two cards might not be too spendy. 
Or, your first words were that it's a moot point - that completely, absolutely sums her up. 
LT40G25
Ford 545D loader
Stihl chainsaws

Southside

Man you blew it. You're supposed to get an I Tunes card for the money transfer. So close, maybe next time you win the Congo lottery it will turn out better. 
Franklin buncher and skidder
JD Processor
Woodmizer LT Super 70 and LT35 sawmill, KD250 kiln, BMS 250 sharpener and setter
Riehl Edger
Woodmaster 725 and 4000 planner and moulder
Enough cows to ensure there is no spare time.
White Oak Meadows

terrifictimbersllc

Tell them Walmart wants $5000 deposit first to cover their machine, it can get too hot when loading that much onto a card. 
DJ Hoover, Terrific Timbers LLC,  Mystic CT Woodmizer Million Board Foot Club member. 2019 LT70 Super Wide 55 Yanmar,  LogRite fetching arch, WM BMS250 sharpener/BMT250 setter.  2001 F350 7.3L PSD 6 spd manual ZF 4x4 Crew Cab Long Bed

WV Sawmiller

TT,

   I don't think that will fly. You have to remember this guy is just doing his job and he doesn't get anything out of it. ::)
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

aigheadish

I found, when attempting to buy a backhoe that there were quite a few fake offers out there on CL, I don't quite understand why.

I've only used it once to sell some living room furniture and while I was a bit hesitant I had my couches sold and on a guy's truck within an hour and a half of the posting. The only problem was I told him to bring someone strong to help move these leather, robotic reclining couches, they were heavy. He brought himself and his tiny wife, both in their 70's, and a truck that was very close to too small. I think he gave me an extra hundred bucks or something so I didn't mind helping him move the furniture. All in all, it was a wonderful experience. 

I'll likely try again to sell my motorcycle one of these days. 
New Holland LB75b, Husqvarna 455 Rancher, Husqvarna GTH52XLS, Hammerhead 250, Honda VTX1300 for now and probably for sale (let me know if you are interested!)

WV Sawmiller

   I have sold several composting toilets, a $540 walnut slab and assorted smaller items on there with no problem and this was the first time I ever got a reply that looked suspicious.

   Yes I see the $1500 tractors and skid steers that should sell for $25K or more and they always have some unusual payment or pick up requirement that shows they are a scam.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

terrifictimbersllc

It's been a while but we used to use Craigslist to find a new tenant now and then.  There would always be rather immediate email or texts that if I answered would give an exchange that went nowhere. I then started putting in a phone number and stating that I would not answer email or texts.  That seemed to fix it.  I still got the email or text but ignored them. 
DJ Hoover, Terrific Timbers LLC,  Mystic CT Woodmizer Million Board Foot Club member. 2019 LT70 Super Wide 55 Yanmar,  LogRite fetching arch, WM BMS250 sharpener/BMT250 setter.  2001 F350 7.3L PSD 6 spd manual ZF 4x4 Crew Cab Long Bed

kantuckid

Quote from: WV Sawmiller on August 17, 2022, 12:32:13 PM
  I have sold several composting toilets, a $540 walnut slab and assorted smaller items on there with no problem and this was the first time I ever got a reply that looked suspicious.

  Yes I see the $1500 tractors and skid steers that should sell for $25K or more and they always have some unusual payment or pick up requirement that shows they are a scam.
There a guy this week on WM FB group who has a pic of a slab he'd cut for a "River table"-something I'll admit I've never heard of? It's loaded on a rollback recovery truck and 5" thick by really wide. The sales price he says he doesn't know yet which I found weird. I have a few walnut slabs 10' long x ~24-26" wide. Maybe I can find somebody with $5 benjamins? :D
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

rusticretreater

River Table - you fill in the recesses of the pith with colored epoxy so it looks like a river is running through the center of the table. Doesn't really interest me, but the claim online is that folks pay stoopid money for them. Lots of real benjamins and dead presidents.
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Don P

Well alrighty then, looks like I'll have enough to keep working till retirement. This just came in  8).

Attention E-mail Address Owner

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is compensating $1.8million USD
to all victims scam email and your email address was found in the list
of victim's email This Ora bank Lome Togo you're compensating of
$1.8miilion was deposited here in our bank and you are going to
receive your transfer into your bank account. So all you have to do is
to come on with your bank account below

You're Bank Name.......
You're Account No..........
Your Bank address........
Your Swift Code.............
Your Beneficiary Name............
The copy of the ID card or passport............
Occupation..............
Thanks
Contact bank director for your transfer with this email address
below  (orabank983@yahoo.com)

Mr. John Solomon
Ora Bank director Lome Togo


Tom King

I don't trust anyone that can't get "you're" and "your" straight, so I would be out on that one.

Magicman

I am glad that I have friends in high places.  8)
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