How to Avoid Becoming a Victim of a Craigslist Fraud

The many controversies Craigslist has been entangled in over the past few years have highlighted how the free ad site has become a haven for scammers and bad check writers. Of course, the majority of buyers and sellers on Craigslist are still honest and reliable. However, the anonymity afforded by dealing online has created opportunities for many conmen to create scams that prey on the unwary. For example, one of the most frequently-reported scams involves a buyer replying to a seller’s ad. The buyer sends a check as payment for the item, only the amount is more than the asking price. The buyer then contacts the seller, apologizes for the mistake and then asks the seller to wire back the excess. They may even ask them to keep a little extra as compensation for their troubles. Unfortunately, when the check is deposited, it turns out to be a fake and the buyer is liable for the entire amount of the check. The site has even been used by pimps and other dangerous criminals who had used ads on the Adult Services section of the site to prostitute women and children against their will. Of course, increased awareness of these dangers has helped cut down on the number of people victimized by these scams but new victims continue to emerge every day.

Here are a few tips on how to avoid becoming the victim of a fraud.

- Only deal with a local buyer or seller that you can meet in person to complete the transaction. Avoid dealing with replies from overseas, particularly those from African countries.

- Watch out for ads that have poor grammar and spelling, or seem to have been written by people who are not very fluent in English.

- Never deal with people who don’t use reputable payment solutions such as PayPal but ask you to wire funds through wire services such as Western Union.

- Never give financial information such as credit card numbers or account numbers online.

- If you are sent a check, be careful of fake cashier’s checks.

- If you meet with a buyer at your house, make sure that there is someone with you to serve as protection. And check them out carefully before asking them to come to your home.

If you want to avoid being the victim of a scam, you can also register for an account on CraigGuard. CraigGuard is a new online service that seeks to ensure the online safety of Craigslist users by creating a user rating system for Craigslist similar to that already put in place by eBay.

Once you have an account on CraigGuard, you can help improve the Internet safety of Craigslist by reporting any bad experiences you may have had with buyers or sellers on the site. All you have to do is use the online report form to create a descriptive report about them and it goes into a searchable database of buyers and sellers. This database can then be accessed by other Craigslist users who can conduct searches using the name, location and other particulars of the person they are planning to deal with. So why not help make the Internet a safer place for everybody by becoming a member of the CraigGuard community?

Are you looking for more information regarding bad check writers? Visit craigguard.com today!