I'm trying sell a truck, and put it on Craigslist yesterday. Have 2 responses this morning, but both sound sketchy and insist on sending money through PayPal immediately. How does this work for them? If they PayPal me the money, can it be called back somehow? I understand the certified check scam, the trucks gone by the time my bank calls me back to tell me the check is bogus, but how does it work with PayPal? I'm happy to let either of them send me the money, but not if they can then clean out my checking account! Happy Thanksgiving...
Yes, PayPal isn't really much different than receiving a rubber/stolen check. If for whatever reason that account was compromised you will see an automatic withdrawl from your account without so much as a courtesy call from either institution.
We accept a ton of PayPal payments from all over the world and have never had that happen to us. Can not say the same for credit cards...
Speaking from experience............. Yes it can be called back. Scammer will Paypal you the money (using someone else's info they've stolen). As soon as the money is sent they will try and get the item your selling sent to them asap. A few days later after you've sent the product off and transferred the money to your bank account you will receive an email from Paypal stating that there is a hold on your account for X amount of dollars. Once their "investigation" is completed you will likely be out of money (since you will have to payback the funds) and your product. Moral of the story......The safest thing to do is to never ship to anyone without a Confirmed Paypal Address. If the address I'm sending my item to doesn't match what's in Paypal for the buyer then I either ask the buyer a few questions as to why he wants me to ship it somewhere else or I just cancel the transaction.....you can get a good feel as to whether or not they're a scammer pretty easily. If they're buying your truck off of Craigslist and want to Paypal you the money then that is a red flag right there.
They're trying to get your paypal or CL sign-in info. Let me guess...the buyer is going out of town and will have email access, but no phone access or something like that...and they offered to pay the paypal fees...
That's what I was afraid of. Both initial inquiries wanted to know if the truck was still available. I responded and shortly after got a second e-mail from both. They both wanted me to consider the truck sold, and wanted my paypal info. One was on a ship somewhere and didn't have access to his bank, the other guy is on an oil rig. I new they were sketchy, just didn't know how PayPal could call my money back. Thanks guys..
I would never accept any paypal payments for selling vehicles at all, always ask for a Certified bank check and never any personal checks... good thing you asked the questions about being scammed, would hate to have to hear another damn craigslist scam being pulled over on someone... just makes ya sick knowing how many people are out there trying to scam people...
Certified checks are easy to fake. Cash! and the payment is made outside or better yet, inside your bank and the notes will be checked by the bank before you hand over so much as a hello kiss.
Pete, I buy and sell off of Craigslist alot. I have learned to just take emails out of my listings. Seems like the only responses I got from them was scams. Now I put my phone number and tell people to call or text. Texting actually works pretty good. People that are really interested will get in touch with you this way. Works for me.
Always leave the Email out of the listing. I've found that I get the lowballers via text, so I also put NO TEXT!! in my ads. If they are serious, they'll pick up the phone and call.
+1 Emails got old fast. I never had a person call me and try to trade me a cd collection or an xbox +$100 etc etc...only in emails.
Couple of GIANT red flags here. The rule of thumb with Craigslist is cash and in person. Follow it and you will sell your truck easy enough. The "Consider it sold" line is one I have seen a few times myself. :tut: Couple of other things I've learned about Craigslist. 1. Don't expect to "make" any money. Craigslist is more as an easy place to get rid of stuff quickly. 2. People don't BS. the first question they always ask when they call is "What's the lowest price you will go." they don't seem to even have time to haggle. 3. I've had people drive 6 hrs hours for a good deal. Craigslist is great for cleaning out the garage.
