Craig's list scam?

[James Baker SD]

OK, we all agree this guy was a scammer. But what was his angle? How did he hope to rip me off? Any ideas?

[John Fabre]

That makes no sense! I never respond to calls I don't get too! LOL

Must be a typo.

Yea, I meant to add "don't respond to the emails".

[John Fabre]

OK, we all agree this guy was a scammer. But what was his angle? How did he hope to rip me off? Any ideas?

He wanted to send you a bad check and back out of the deal before the check cleared. Then wanting you to send a refund and tell you to keep the $50.00 extra for your trouble.

[Dick Strauss]

Another option of how the scam works:

You get a bad check for the tool price + $50 that you deposit to your account. The shipper picks up the item before the bank notifies you several weeks later that the check is bad. You end up with a worthless check and your tool is gone!

[Steve Meliza]

I've heard that simply having the check clear at your bank isn't enough and they can still come back later and yank the money. It's cash only and the first person to hand me the cash in person gets it. Everyone else is just white noise, ignore them and move on. I prefer to communicate initially by email as it doesn't interrupt me like a cell phone call and it is real easy to delete those offers of 50% of your asking price. Once a person has committed to coming out to see it we can switch to phone calls if needed.

[Larry Browning]

I've heard that simply having the check clear at your bank isn't enough and they can still come back later and yank the money. It's cash only and the first person to hand me the cash in person gets it. Everyone else is just white noise, ignore them and move on. I prefer to communicate initially by email as it doesn't interrupt me like a cell phone call and it is real easy to delete those offers of 50% of your asking price. Once a person has committed to coming out to see it we can switch to phone calls if needed.

My experience has been that once a check has actually cleared, that's it, can't be yanked later. Most banks will show the check as deposited, but that does not mean the check has cleared. It will sometimes show as a pending deposit. Your bank can inform you when the check actually clears. It can take a few days, up to a week or so. I would not ship an item until the bank verifies the check had actually cleared. I don't do much of this, but isn't that what paypal is supposed to be in business to do?

[Steve Meliza]

I've had a $300 PayPal payment reversed after I shipped because it was funded using a stolen credit card.

[harry hood]

You should have given them an enemy's address in the interest of science.

[Larry Browning]

I've had a $300 PayPal payment reversed after I shipped because it was funded using a stolen credit card.

I know this is a bit off topic. I have not used paypal very much, so I am pretty ignorant of the concept. I have always assumed that the main reason to use paypal was to establish a 3rd party link between buyer and seller. So that the buyer could send money to paypal knowing that if the seller didn't send the merchandise or there was some sort of problem he would have a way of proving he actually sent the money in good faith. And the seller could also have some protection knowing that the buyer had actually paid for the merchandise.
Is this not how it works? If not, then what exactly is the service paypal offers?

[glenn bradley]

Seriously? Its 2012. Do these scams still work?