We Were Scammed on Craigslist (How to Protect Yourself)

You use Craigslist and are wondering how to identify a Craigslist scammer. Let me share our own Craigslist scam experience, and tips for protecting yourself.

We've dabbled in selling things on Craigslist over the years, and have become really good at how to identify a Craigslist scammer.

Mostly because – people have tried to scam us directly!

I want to share with you a real Craigslist scam we played out (yes – we continued to play along with the scam so that I could write about it to educate people on how it works!), as well as what to do if you've been scammed on Craigslist, and how to avoid getting scammed on Craigslist altogether.

Add this to the Craigslist Scammer List - Our Experience

We’ve been scammed!

Thank goodness we did not send any money.

It started innocently enough: we listed our item on Craigslist (we were trying to sell my beater car – hint, if you're trying to sell a beater car, you should go through Peddle.com) at a starting price of $500. I expected to snag a few interested buyers before zeroing in on the one who would play the negotiation dance to a price we could both agree on.

There was one interested buyer on the first day, but nothing materialized.

And then she came along – the Craigslist Scammer, Mary Hudson.

My first impression was that the name was very platonic and American-sounding…almost contrived. Her first email to me was very cordial and normal. In good textbook grammar and English, she asked if the item was still available.

When I responded that it was, several hours later she wrote again to say she wanted to know its condition. Once I responded, the trouble began.

Her next email to me was not the Mary I had grown to love; it was blemished with a few small but distinct grammatical errors and smelled of secondhand English (this would have been fine, except that her first email was impeccable – by her English becoming worse and worse, it indicated that she had used a form email in our beginning discussions to try to appear to be someone who she is not).

Perhaps it was written in an excited slurry of typing?

Second red flag: why was a shipping company involved? Turns out Mary lives in New Hampshire.

Response Email, 6/14/2011: “Thank you very much for the response. I will be happy to buy it. Note that you will not be responsible for shipping and handling. My shipping company will come to your location for pick up. Kindly provide me your name and full address so i can forward it to the shipping company to calculate the cost of pick up for me. Do get back to me as soon as possible.”

Mary was anxious to get this transaction going, but before continuing with this courtship I wanted to discuss my apprehensions with Paul.

We decided that we would play along a while longer because it could still be a real deal at this point.

We gave her our address, as this is a necessity for the shipping company but also for anyone completing this item as they had to come and pick it up from us.

However, I did not give her my last name.

I also gave her the stipulation that she needed to pay in full, having cleared the bank, before her shipping company was allowed on our property.

Her grammar and English continued to worsen from there.

These terms were satisfactory to her and she reassured me that she would pay through PayPal because it is fast and secure.

Paul and I still wanted to entertain this further, but we both felt something was not right so we took precautions by setting up a brand new PayPal account just for our Mary.

We figured we would never hear from her again because she would hack the account and figure out that our credit cards and bank account were not connected with it.

However, the scam continued in a different way.

The next email we received was from ®service@intl.paypal.com and fundsconfirmedonline@officemail.net. The email stated that we had received a PayPal payment of “$900:00 USD” from Mary Hudson, and that a temporary hold had been placed on the transaction in order to protect both buyer and seller from online fraud (ha!).

The email went on to explain that this was a new PayPal Payment policy. We were advised to go to the nearest Western Union Office and send $400 USD (the cost of the buyer’s shipper’s pick-up fees) to the Transport Agent (a man in Maryland). PayPal would release the funds to our account once they received a scanned copy of the Western Union receipt.

Seriously – I could not make this up if I tried.

Our next email came from “Shipping Agent”, who “specialize in looking after your belongings by securely packing them with our unique export packing system, offering full marine insurance which is underwritten by Royal & Sun Alliance.”

Apparently they had successfully calculated the shipping costs: lo and behold, they came out to $400 USD.

All we need to do is send that money to that man in Maryland, and they would pick up the unit. We also received a plea from “the president of PayPal” to send this money (he referred to himself in the email as Mr. Richard Wright and signed the email as Scott Thompson).

After several hours of us not sending this money, we got one more email from Mary Hudson.

Email from Mary, 6/15/2011: “Hey,what is going on over there i have made payment for the item and i haven’t hear anything back from you concerning the Western Union Money Transfer Please i will like to know what is going on because i am taking the step to contact the Authorities for there investigation on this transaction because i am getting worried,and i hope i have not gotten scam by you i will not accept this and PayPal and the Authority will be aware of this if you fail to get back to me now to know what is going on,i will urge you to go and made the transfer now so the transaction can be completed.waiting for your urgent reply..”

Too bad for you Mary. It seems the tables have turned and we are turning you into the authorities.

The next day, we reported “Mary” to the PayPal Fraud Department.

How to Identify a Craigslist Scammer?

My naiveté that all people are good coupled with our eagerness to sell this item led me to give out more information than I should have.

Fortunately, we had enough sense to put safeguards into place, as well as to check our PayPal account for ourselves to verify what was going on. Did these people honestly think I would send them $400 by Western Union?

There were several clues that added to my initial gut instinct about this transaction.

• Clue #1: She did not formally capitalize her name
• Clue #2: After I was interested in her as a buyer, she responded almost instantaneously; I type incredibly fast but there is no way I could have responded that quickly without using a form email
• Clue #3: She stated twice that she would use PayPal because it is ‘a secure payment system’ (almost an admission of guilt)
• Clue #4: Her English and grammar worsened with each email she sent (a sign that she was not who she said she was, and that she had been using form emails in the beginning correspondence)
• Clue #5: She involved a shipping company.
• Clue #6: She did not try to negotiate the price and was happy to pay shipping and handling fees on a very heavy item.
• Clue #7: Mention of Western Union and money transfer. Period.
• Clue #8: She sent more money than we asked for. Who would do that?

How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off on Craigslist

Craigslist does not appear to have a fraud department. However, they do offer tips on how to avoid scams on their website, which I’ve summarized below:

• Only deal with people locally (not in New Hampshire, like in my case, when I live in Texas)
• Only deal in cash
• Never wire funds
• Fake cashier checks and Moneygrams are common and if they are discovered weeks later, you will still be held accountable by your bank
• You will not see an email from a Craigslist person so if you do, it is an impersonation
• Never give out financial information
• No transactions are guaranteed (if someone guarantees a transaction, take it as a red flag)
• Avoid transactions that involve shipping and escrow services
• Do not purchase or rent things sight unseen
• Do not submit to credit checks or background checks

Pssst: don't forget you can get scammed by text, too! Here's more information on text spamming and how to report it (how to stop text spam). Also, beware of the Vehicle Car Wrap scam, which can occur on Craigslist, through text, or by email.

Is it Safe to Reply to Craigslist Email?

You might be wondering if it's safe to reply to a Craigslist Email. Well...that depends on whether or not you're talking to an actual person or to a Craigslist scammer.

The good news is that Craigslist has a way to combat scammers and protect both sellers AND buyers (that's you) by encrypting your email address (as long as you fill it out right).

A seller or poster on Craigslist has protection against others seeing their email address by giving them an encrypted email address that is then forwarded to their personal address. That's why you will see all seller addresses look something like this 26d7534400a6a03514c34f9200@sale.craigslist.org.

But what about you – can Craigslist sellers (and possible scammers) see YOUR actual email address?

Not with Craigslist's encrypted solution. HOWEVER, that does not mean that the scammer can't get your information. Let me explain.

How to Reply to Craigslist Email Anonymously

When you reply to a Craigslist posting by copying/pasting the reply email they give you, or by clicking one of the buttons, YOUR email will be encrypted and will look something like this to the seller: 7534400a6a03514c34f9200@reply.craigslist.org.

That's great!

BUT, what if you have an email signature, or what if your email provider automatically populates your name to recipients? Then, you will likely pass on some of your personal information.

Craigslist says,

"The “real name” field (e.g. Jane Doe) in your email program is passed through to the recipient. Any contact information in the body of your message will pass through unaltered."

This means that you'll want to delete your email signature after it automatically populates into your email (if you use an email signature), and you'll want to make sure your "real name" field in your email service provider only has your first name and not your middle or last name.

Another solution to avoid this altogether? If you shop on Craigslist frequently, then you'll want to sign up for a free email account that will automatically hide your email address. Here are several good options plus instructions for how to do this.

How to Report a Craigslist Scammer – I Got Scammed on Craigslist, What are My Options?

What to do after being scammed on Craigslist? It's a great idea to report Craigslist scammers (and any scammers) to help the authorities – whether that's the website they're using, the internet, the police, the government, etc. –try to catch them.

You don't want other's lives devastated because of these people.

Here's how to report a Craigslist scammer to the proper people:

• Report them to Craigslist using this form (for scam emails from contacts that end in reply.craigslist.org, you'll want to click the link at the bottom of the email itself to report the scam).
• File a complaint with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
• File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
• If part of the scam takes place through PayPal, or they want you to use PayPal to do it, then report the fraud to PayPal.
• Here's more information on what to do after being scammed.

Have you ever been a victim of a scam? What happened? Did you lose anything?