One example of a common fraud is the sale of a car at a tremendous bargain.  The claim is that that car belongs to a soldier serving overseas and that the car is being shipped back to the United States, but they need money for expenses immediately and are selling the car.  The potential buyer sends the money and that is the last they hear of it.

Recently a man was arrested for advertising on Craigslist for putting an ad to rent a house he did not own.  However, he was able to collect thousands of dollars before he was apprehended. His many victims were left with no rental and no money. A little bit of background work and checking would have helped those prospective renters to avoid this scam and save their money.

There are also fraudulent employment offers, and extreme caution should be taken with all of them, especially when they are promising the opportunity to work from home. These offers are almost always nothing more than another scam which requires the prospective employee to pay fees up front for the “job”. However, if you are pursuing a job through Craigslist and the point is reached where there will be a telephone conversation, you can use telephone look up services such as tele-search.com to do some background checking on the caller.

Make sure you do your research when buying anything off of Craigslist.  Money should never be sent for anything without a personal review or some type of a legitimate guarantee on the item.  If you’re thinking of answering personal ads, beware.  There are many predators on Craigslist waiting to prey on the lonely.

Unfortunately, many people have sent money to purchase an item and the item never arrives.  They end up losing their money, with no way of getting it back.  It is a good idea to check the location of the item for sale and, if it is nearby, go and pick it up personally.  This allows you to take a look at the merchandise before actually paying for it.

Craigslist is a free service for sellers of goods that has benefited a lot of people.   However, with scammers ready to use any means to commit fraud it has become an easy means to swindle people.   Any use of this program should be approached with the same caution one would use when dealing with any unknown person to avoid being cheated out of their funds.

This site, as with others, caution that if someone wants money wire transferred to a distance location or sent in money order or cashiers check, be concerned.   It is best to buy locally and meet the sellers face-to-face to exchange funds.   Additionally, you should never give out personal information and, most of all, use gut instinct to decline any offers that sound too good to be true.  in a so so country.

I say “free” because they wasted so much of my time and patience that I wish I would have paid from the start. Once I did I took a big deep breath and realized that the person that called was my long lost cousin. Can’t wait to give him a call and get some news.

Anyways lesson learned for the future, out with the old and in with the new kind of phone search. Amen!