Craigslist precautions
With the birth of the Internet comes different information that can be accessed by people world wide. Then business and marketing became online as well. It became more convenient for people who have an internet connection to do buy, sell, transact, and do business without exerting so much effort. Craislist.org is a sophisticated website when it comes to online marketing. Anybody can use craigslist in order to promote awareness about their services and products that they offer. However, not everybody who posts their merchandise or service is legit. Some would use craigslist to post fraud posts or to scam people. It can’t be helped. Craislist is not the only marketing website where scammers register just to make a living by getting other’s people money by cheating or fooling them. But with the proper information and enough common sense, you can avoid becoming a victim of these scam advertisements.First of all, you must remember that Craigslist is just an online marketing website. It is not, in any way, associated with any company that handles financial transactions between the sellers and the buyers of the site. Therefore, Craigslist does not have the right to protect you and the money you used in paying the service or product under any circumstance. The website is only built to allow people post their advertisement and promote awareness. So if you happen to receive an e-mail claiming that they are part of Craigslist, you should not believe it since it is definitely a hoax e-mail.
If in case you receive an e-mail that seems like it came from Craislist and asking you about personal and financial information, do not give any. Craislist would never ask you about your financial and personal information. Some of the most commonly asked details are the numbers on your bank account, details regarding your ebay or paypal account, information about your credit card especially the verification code, your Social Security number, and more. If you are aware that you should not give out your password to anyone, especially to suspicious e-mails, remember that they can still gain access to your personal accounts through the use of the "password recovery" feature provided by most websites. Therefore, it is also highly recommended that you should not give out your contact information, full name, phone number, and other personal details as well.
There are also e-mails pretending to be an administrator from Craigslist that includes a cashier’s check. According to these fraud e-mails, this cashier’s check can be used when buying a product from a website or for apartments that are for rent. You may turn this cashier’s check in cash. But once the bank discovered that the cashier’s check was a fraud, you will be held liable not the e-mail sender who gave you the fake cashier’s check.
Do not agree if someone is asking you to receive the money through wire transfer. You might be given a confirmation code (which is necessary for most wire transfer service providers) but in the end, you will realize that these codes are incorrect and no transaction really exists. Although there are cases like this reported in Netherlands, Ukraine, Spain, United Kingdom, and Italy, it does not mean that it cannot happen in your local country.
In a different scenario, there are scammers who will be asking you to receive the money using the wire transfer as well. But in this case, they will need personal information from you like you name, address, telephone number, and more. You would only realize that you were not only scammed but involved in a deal worth $100,000 or more without you knowing it. They can use your personal details in doing these transactions and become a victim of identity theft at the same time.
If in case you are the buyer or the person who needs the service, as much as possible, try not to agree on sellers asking for a down or partial payment. They sometimes ask this before they ship to you the merchandise that you would like to buy. Some of these are scams. But it still depends on your instincts whether you should trust the seller or not.
Craigslist also recommends that you should only do business with persons within your locality. This allows you to check with the local business bureau if the company exists or not. Moreover, by dealing with the buyer or seller near your location, you can easily check whether they are really located at the place they say they are. Aside from that, you could also get the chance to meet the buyer or the seller personally. By doing so, you can protect yourself and your money at the same time from being scammed. And if you decided to go personally to the location of your buyer or seller, do not forget to bring along a friend or a family member with you. Also, do not agree to meet in secluded places. Try to meet up at the coffee shop or any place where many people are coming in.
The users of craigslist must not also be involved in transactions with someone who is asking for money in return for money or even gift certificates. This would leave the scam artist with all the money that he can get and the victims nothing. They may offer you a tempting amount or anything that they offer you in exchange of your money but those are all fake. More often than not, even if you ask the bank to track the person who received the money, you can no longer do anything about it. Scam artists would not reveal their identity in any other way. As a result, it would be hard for you to know the real identity of the person whom you gave the money away.
If in case you want to close a deal, make sure that you do not agree to pay it through a middle-man or a third-party company. People should always directly deal with their clients.
The users of Craigslist have the ability to report a possible scam by sending the details to abuse@craigslist.org. They may also report scam incidents to the authorities by logging in at the website of Internet Fraud Complaint Center which is www.ic3.gov. Scam victims may also log on to www.ftc.gov or call the FTC’s toll free number at 877-FTC-HELP.