Cragslist dangers? Specifically money orders?

[Cabe]

I have a guy (not with SSHQ) who is doing the usual Craigslist,
"I have a money order for you, can't talk now out of town, need your info to send"

what is the deal/danger with money orders on craigslist?

[hworth18]

I have a guy (not with SSHQ) who is doing the usual Craigslist,
"I have a money order for you, can't talk now out of town, need your info to send"

what is the deal/danger with money orders on craigslist?

I wouldn't accept anything but a USPS postal money order, but that's just how I roll.

[Cabe]

i don't accept anything from folks on craigslist that cannot met me in person (i mean.. it is local?) I have had a few of these guy s do the form letter with a Certified check or money order as payment. This guy today use a short email, didn't respond for 2 days then just tonight

Hi Cabe Booth,
Thanks for the response. I am willing to pay you the $300..Let me know if you will accept payment with Money order as it's the only way i can pay you at the moment. I would have loved to come take a look but i am presently out of town on an assignment and I am willing to add $20 so that you can keep it in my favor. Please reply with your full name, cell phone number, and address where payment should be sent. I will let you know how I intend to go about the pick-up. Please take the posting off Craig list today and consider it sold to me.
Expecting to hear from you soon.
Dave.

it is a scam and i know it. I am in desperate financial hell due to non-payment from some folks who were to get with me this week about possible work (meaning i expected work and deposit, got neither or they didn't have time to meet. Not scammed, just dissapointed) and someone screwed with my bank account over last weekend (overdraft $650) that's the second time this has happened using a receipt that the idiot bar register had set to print out full card number and other info on both recipts instead of the usual first 4 numbers then XXXXXXX
BOTH over a super bowl weekend, odd huh?

but back to this guy. He kept it short and sweet to avoid sounding foreign. But it still stink. And i will not accept anything from him or anyone else when it comes to MO or CC payments.
I just wanted to get everyone's take on it. I mean, sometimes folks with bad English do honestly live in Dallas wanting to buy stuff...just that this guy, as usual, is scamming me on craigslist

[CENT-ONE]

I'd avoid it. Anyone too busy to talk and trying to rush anything is almost always a scam. If they're that busy where'd they find the time to get a money order printed out and mailed?

If you do take it, I'll echo hworth18 and say that the only money order you should ever accept is an official USPS money order (and cash it at the post office before you ship anything)

[hworth18]

Honestly, I don't deal with or on Craigslist, I just don't trust it.

[Razor17019]

Cabe,
I understand you are in financial straights at the moment, but don't make it worse by getting scammed by people on craigslist. I recently posted a laptop on craigslist. Within hours, I got 4 or 5 responses all claiming to have some sort of reason not to be able to meet me in person (cause they are somewhere else- not local). I responded to all of them that I can not ship the item - only meet locally. None of the people responded after that. Craigslist is not Ebay. It is suppose to be local people selling/buying from local people.
Is there any place local to you that you could go to ask for work?
Any art studios, art schools, gallery?
Local hobby shops that may want a display done?
You have real talent and if I had the extra money I would contract you to paint something for me...
Stick to your guns on Craigslist and let them know that you only meet locally.

[vmf214]

If you do take a money order, including USPS, set on the merch until it clears, my bank treats m/o's like personal checks nowadays with all the m/o fraud going on, and USPS m/o's are gaining to the top of the fraud list.

[Cabe]

Oh no. believe me, last thing i want right now is to worsen the situation by getting scammed. I just wanted a clarification on how the scam works. I didn't even (and don't plan to) respond to him. I have had many scammers contact me in the past. The first thing I ever posted on Craigslist (some rock rails my mom wanted sold off her FJ cruiser) got at least 4 of those form letter scams within the first 10 hours. Having never posted on craigsL before I started to correspond with the 1st one (without giving out any info) mainly asking him when to meet and trying to figure out what a certified check was, I was suspicious because he never used my name or even mentioned the product i was selling, horrible grammer and spelling. Not to mention the platitudes and unnecessary amount of dialogue. it sounded like he was one of those guys writing a letter to home in the civil war. But in all the words he used, he didn't have time to call, expound on his situation, pick them up himself or answer any of my questions I asked. It was like a one sided conversation with a robotic butler set on "gracious"
When I got the 2nd of 4 scammers write me. The letters were almost identical. Then the 3rd and 4th I was just laughing at how awfully obvious they were. They basically were ruining there own scams by stepping on each others toes wit identical letter and at least word choices. Making what smelled funny turn into huge pile of crap.

[Rowsdower]

I don't do money orders PERIOD. I also don't mess with Craigslist.

[Cabe]

actually I have BOUGHT many a great thing on craigslist, but that's because I am meeting them with cash and if the place ever looked sketchy I would bail.