CL Scam Alert? Hobart Handler 210mpv $450

[Voi]

I search several cities within a half day's drive and have noticed an ad for a Hobart 210 MPV for $450 in most of them. At first they said something like "item ready for shipping" and now they just look like this:

http://chico.craigslist.org/tld/3707080186.html

I googled it and noticed this add is running all over the country and has been flagged in some. I'm guessing this is a scam but haven't attempted to contact the seller myself. Just wanted to give everyone a heads up to be careful on this one.

 

[rsanter]

Craigslist and shipping do not go together
On CL you operate cash and carry for both sides of the deal

Bob

 

[Mohawk Dave]

yea..I CL A LOT! I still don't understand how this con works. But I'm no con man either...those guys should be chess players, always 12 steps ahead like Bobby Fisher.

 

[Kracin]

yea..I CL A LOT! I still don't understand how this con works. But I'm no con man either...those guys should be chess players, always 12 steps ahead like Bobby Fisher.

con works like this.

buyer wants to buy it. seller wants to sell it. advertises in different places too far for pickup. offers to ship because x and x reason (usually sick family member or some other sob story if the question comes up). buyer sends half, the seller assures them that paypal will take care of it. seller sends a box with some phone books in it for weight, when buyer gets the box and opens it. he gets pissed.. opens a claim, and finds out paypal only supports the seller because the buyer now has a box with "something" in it. and there is no way to confirm.



i've seen some of these scamming assholes go on for years pulling **** like this, and it usually takes messing with the wrong person who has very strong ties to a lawyer or some other person in a law firm to get something done, because in most cases the police can't do anything as its across state lines, and they have nothing to go off of, so if they don't let the police in, they won't find anything.

 

[Provincial]

It sounds like the Hells Angels and the Crips need to go into a "legitimate" business of
"arbitrating" claims like this. I doubt that the seller would complain to the police about the process.

 

[Lightfoot]

Craigslist and shipping do not go together
On CL you operate cash and carry for both sides of the deal

i agree totally

 

[Outlawmws]

You don't call the police on those things you call the USPS mail fraud and have them go to the pen...

But I agree, cash and Carry, but I've been surprised how many people have contacted me and agreed to a postal MO to me (Full price + shipping) before I would ship... (Twice I've had people come from 2 states away, (1000 Mile +-) to pick up transmissions...)

I guess my ads just make me look honest?

 

[CaseyR89]

FWIW I have been on both sides of shipping deals on CL and never gotten screwed. I have bought a couple things and sold at least 15 items and they've all gone smoothly. For that matter I've probably done over 1000 transactions between all the forums, ebay, CL etc. and never ever been ripped off a single time.

Perhaps I just have an unusually accurate scam detector but it seems like common sense to me. Talk to people, ask questions, read them, pay attention to how they word things, the questions they ask, and how they describe an item, be a bit sceptical and always remember "If it seems too good to be true..."

I think people that get scammed on craiglist are usually being very naive, yes it happens but it shouldn't deter you from online commerce.

 

[sshuker]

Before seeing this thread, I contacted the seller on my local listing in the Philadelphia area.

They respond with a link to:

http://www.http://www.ondiscounthomedepot.com/product.php?id_product=392

and an offer code:

DISCOUNT

for free delivery and setup.

The site looks legit, so I put the HH 210mpv in my cart, set up a user name and went to checkout.

Here is where things got unsettling.

There are ONLY two payment options:
Green Dot
or
Google Checkout

I looked into both and they will both let you send payment to someone, but neither makes any guarantee about the seller or that you will receive your product.

That is where I lost interest. It just did not pass the smell test.

Edit:

I could not help myself and did some more digging. It looks like as recently as April 2013, the same site was doing business under http://www.overstockclearancecenter.com/ and though I did not read all of the information that my searches on the old site returned, I can tell you that all of the information returned was involving scam and rip-off reporting.