Carrick Boston Suspicious Response to Craigslist Ad Internet

This person answered a Craigslist ad that I had posted, saying that he would "love to buy the item you posted on craigslist" and that he "will appreciate if you could email pictures." I was a little confused by this response because I had posted pictures with the ad, so I responded by email that I would be willing to send additional pictures if he told me what specifically he wanted to see. He ignored my question and emailed back that he would be paying with a "Bank Certified Check from local bank," and that his mover ("Economy Movers, Inc and Delivery Service") would come for the pickup after the check had been cashed. He also asked for my full name, home or office address, zip code, and phone number. I wrote back to him that I could only accept cash (something I had clearly specified in my ad), and I never heard back from him.

Later I did some research and discovered that certified check scams are common on Craigslist. Sometimes, fake "buyers" will pay you with a fake check in excess of the requested amount and ask you to wire the extra amount to them. Your banks might cash the fake check and then hold you responsible when the fraud is discovered. Craigslist has more information about these scams here: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.

I don't know for sure if this person was a scammer, but all of the signs point in this direction. He obviously had not read the ad, since he asked me for photos that were already included and ignored my "cash only" requirement. Also, he did not mention the name of the item I was seeling in either of the emails he sent me, referring to it instead as "the item." This makes me suspect that he just copies the same email to people selling many different items.

As another poster noted, this person's English is very poor, which makes me wonder if he's operating out of another country. (He left a phone number with a Seattle area code, but I didn't try to dial it.) The bottom line is that although I can't prove he was going to scam me, he made me suspicious enough that I would never take the risk of dealing with him.

J
Washington, District of Columbia
U.S.A.