» Sunday, 20 January A.D. 2008

surviving craiglist scam attempts

I have been following the computers section of my local craigslist for several months now, hoping to pick up a cheap, powerful Mac laptop or similar. Occasionally I have seen fully upgraded 17-inch MacBook Pros for about half of what one would buy a similarly equipped machine direct from Apple. Marvelling at how people could do this, yet not being willing to part with quite that much cash, I never inquired further on such ads.

Recently, however, an ad came up for a 15-inch MacBook Pro that was about a third (or even less) than what Apple would charge. This, I felt, was too good of a deal to pass up and sent off an email with a few questions about the laptop. I should have noticed that despite being posted on the Indianapolis list, there was no local contact information mentioned. Suspicious, but not overly so.

I waited and received no reply within a day or so and therefore considered the cause lost. No matter, I supposed, the laptop was sooo cheap, somebody had probably snatched it up before I did. My disappointment then was punctured by the arrival of an email from the seller. She explained that she had recently moved to the UK and had no need of a computer with US power plugs. She didn't really answer my questions and gave no indication of how the transaction would be conducted. Hmmm.

I wrote her back asking how we would do the exchange, given the large distance between us. I told Tricia that the only thing that would satisfy me would be a “Here, I'll ship it to my friend who lives five miles away from you,” and we could proceed from there. An odd way to conduct the transaction, sure, but some people just don't think ahead.

She wrote back explaining that there was this international shipping company called TNT that would do delivery and provide for escrow services--basically safe harbor for my money while I verified that all was as expected. She provided a link to a website that seemed to confirm her claims, although it seemed a little spartan for an international company. Given that these terms didn't match my requirements, I started Googling around hoping to find out more. (I suppose I could have called her bluff by saying, “You know, I know some people who live close to you, could we arrange a trade?” But that would have been taking advantage of my co-workers.)

At first my searches only turned up information about TNT, confirming that it seemed to be a reputable company. But then I started looking for “TNT scam” or somesuch and was inundated with forum posts and otherwise about people who had be scammed with emails remarkably similar to the ones I had received, right down to the misspellings of words. Basically, while TNT may do international shipping, they provide no escrow services whatsoever, so people would wire the money off, thinking they were secure--and having received (fake) tracking numbers to boot--only to learn in a week or so that they had just lost several hundred dollars.

I sent off an email saying “Please find an honest way to make money.” and included a link to the forum posts I found. I doubt that the scammers will do any such thing, but maybe this post will somehow help somebody else.

So my search for a cheap Mac laptop continues. I will be wary of further craigslist postings since I now know why they offer the things for such ridiculously low prices...

posted by Nate @ 11:34PM