What's your best "didn't get scammed" story?

[jrfox92]

I'm currently following a weird post on Facebook where a guy has decided he's going to initiate a sting against a Craigslist scammer after nearly falling for it himself.
So, that made me think that most of us probably have a semi-amusing "I almost got scammed" story, and I don't think I've seen a thread around here where anyone's talked about that.

So,

[$harkToootth]

I paid retail for some things...BOOM!

Actually the closest I came (thus far) was trying to attain an MC 303 on Craigslist. The seller was in NYC and the price was right but I figured for how much I would spend on the toll through the tunnel, I could just pay for shipping and circumnavigate the nightmare that is driving in Manhattan (did it last night though...there are literally no rules...).
I asked the guy if he wouldn't mind shipping and I would PayPal (cause I'm a dumbass) and I would pay an additional $15. He obliged and just asked if shipping was more, he just wanted be reimbursed. I paid right away and I thought I would have a good deal for an MC 303 coming my way...

...weeks went by. I kept checking in, politely. Excuses came (job -> long hours -> post office closed, in my mind, pretty reasonable stuff actually). Three months went by and I was finally like 'Dude you gotta give me money back' (albeit a bit more politely worded, but that was the tone). He asked for one more weekend. Proposed that if he didn't get it out that weekend he would pay me back. I said something to the effect of, "I gave you the courtesy of paying right away, the least you could do is reciprocate that."

Surprisingly he sent back an E-mail agreeing and I was paid back. I said 'Thanks' and wished him well in life. I still think it would be cool to own an MC 303 but alas, it didn't happen.

Take-a-ways from my end (I still think about it)

1. I got lucky. I PayPal'd gifted.
2. Don't pay for shit via PayPal for Craigslist
3. I do sincerely hope nothing horrible was happening in his life but sometimes I think...
4. What a lazy shit head this was literally the easiest transaction and could have been brought to completion with very little effort. You had three months to ship a thing you already had (it's not like a pre-order or something)

I should note in my first exchange, I actually encourage him to sell the MC 303 on Ebay or Reverb because he would have got a lot more money for it (I've seen them go for as high as $250 and I think he was selling it for $80).

Whatever...
Editor's Note:

NSFW: show

If you are reading this and something horrible was going on in your life, I will happily edit this post. If you were just smoking the pot and beating off all day then you got me! Peace, Love, Follow Your Heart, and don't ship your MC 303

EDITOR'S NOTE II: I'm re-reading the E-mail chain. I'm kind of a douche bag when I "blow up" on people. Oh man! It was 2.5 months, not 3.

[Lurker13]

Some years ago someone listed a bunch of expensive pedals on the local CL. One of them was a Hoof fuzz, for about $125, back when they were about $200 new. I contacted the seller, and he said I should meet him at - get this - the train station. I emailed him and told him I would need to test it, either at his place or at my place. He emailed me back, claimed the pedal worked fine, and insisted that I meet him at the train station if I wanted to buy it.

The train station. Right. Sure. Mmhmm.

[Lurker13]

The first time I sold a guitar on CL, I was new to it. I almost fell for the generically worded scam, i.e. "I'm satisfied that the item is in satisfactory condition" etc. But the messages didn't track quite right with what I was saying in my emails, and the generic wording started seeming fishy, so I checked Snopes and discovered it was a scam.

[actual]

Some years ago someone listed a bunch of expensive pedals on the local CL. One of them was a Hoof fuzz, for about $125, back when they were about $200 new. I contacted the seller, and he said I should meet him at - get this - the train station. I emailed him and told him I would need to test it, either at his place or at my place. He emailed me back, claimed the pedal worked fine, and insisted that I meet him at the train station if I wanted to buy it.

The train station. Right. Sure. Mmhmm.

Lol, if I'm too lazy to make my apartment presentable to strangers, I'll get them to meet me somewhere downtown. I've bought pedals like that too.

[Lurker13]

Some years ago someone listed a bunch of expensive pedals on the local CL. One of them was a Hoof fuzz, for about $125, back when they were about $200 new. I contacted the seller, and he said I should meet him at - get this - the train station. I emailed him and told him I would need to test it, either at his place or at my place. He emailed me back, claimed the pedal worked fine, and insisted that I meet him at the train station if I wanted to buy it.

The train station. Right. Sure. Mmhmm.

Lol, if I'm too lazy to make my apartment presentable to strangers, I'll get them to meet me somewhere downtown. I've bought pedals like that too.

Without testing them? Holy crap, you are FAR more trusting than I am. I had visions of myself in prison stripes for receiving stolen property, or buying a pedal whose insides had been swapped with a cheaper pedal, or some other scam like that with the scammer riding off on a train waving goodbye with that 'Gotcha sucker!' look on his face.

[actual]

Well, a lot of stuff gets sold through facebook groups and such, so I'd know who the person is, should it be a scam. Common sense goes a long way in such situations.

[Dr. Sherman Sticks M.D.]

this was maybe 10 years ago...at the time i was getting pretty desperate to find a job. applied for some on CL (prolly my first mistake).
go to job interview. some shitty job i don't even know. account something.
walking up the stairs in some weird building. something didn't feel right or i was like WTF am i doing?! this job is wack.
i stop to maybe turn around, this girl comes in behind me. starts chatting me.
i'm like distracted/disarmed so i walk up w/ her. she interviews, then i do.
guy asks me a bunch of weird paradigm business questions, like nothing about me or the actual job.
i'm so glad to just have an interview i barely noticed.

i go home, power on my MPC and start making beats. must have been all into it. they call and i didn't notice.
they leave a message. when i check my phone and see. they want me to come in for a second interview!
i'm super excited, like i said, shit was getting grim and i was getting no love out there, i just needed something.
i go to call back. again. something pulled me. thought maybe i should google this before i call back.
tons and tons of things pop up of this dude and a lady scamming ppl on some shitty long hours and stiffing on the pay. blah blah blah.
different states, different names, different companies. i'm like whoa! and then i went back to making beats. fuck that noise.

[Olin]

Some years ago someone listed a bunch of expensive pedals on the local CL. One of them was a Hoof fuzz, for about $125, back when they were about $200 new. I contacted the seller, and he said I should meet him at - get this - the train station. I emailed him and told him I would need to test it, either at his place or at my place. He emailed me back, claimed the pedal worked fine, and insisted that I meet him at the train station if I wanted to buy it.

The train station. Right. Sure. Mmhmm.

Lol, if I'm too lazy to make my apartment presentable to strangers, I'll get them to meet me somewhere downtown. I've bought pedals like that too.

Without testing them? Holy crap, you are FAR more trusting than I am. I had visions of myself in prison stripes for receiving stolen property, or buying a pedal whose insides had been swapped with a cheaper pedal, or some other scam like that with the scammer riding off on a train waving goodbye with that 'Gotcha sucker!' look on his face.

Man I actually kind of hate to test things. I've been to buy a few amps where people have promised they worked and their "proof" has been them shredding away for 15 minutes while I wait to leave. Longest was like two hours in a guys practice space, at one point I asked if I could at least try it myself, he said "Sure, dude" and continued to riff away. I also hate people coming here to test stuff out, I keep a few amps in my apartment and when people want to test things they tend to absolutely crank the volume on things. Just because I have a V4 and a 215 in my shitty one bedroom apartment doesn't mean that's what I play here, that's what the small combo's are for, my neighbours do not appreciate your obnoxious riffing through one of the loudest heads on the planet. Much prefer to just request some extra details for safety. Facebook is great though, no one wants to rip you off when you're able to message their mum with ease.

[Lurker13]

Some years ago someone listed a bunch of expensive pedals on the local CL. One of them was a Hoof fuzz, for about $125, back when they were about $200 new. I contacted the seller, and he said I should meet him at - get this - the train station. I emailed him and told him I would need to test it, either at his place or at my place. He emailed me back, claimed the pedal worked fine, and insisted that I meet him at the train station if I wanted to buy it.

The train station. Right. Sure. Mmhmm.

Lol, if I'm too lazy to make my apartment presentable to strangers, I'll get them to meet me somewhere downtown. I've bought pedals like that too.

Without testing them? Holy crap, you are FAR more trusting than I am. I had visions of myself in prison stripes for receiving stolen property, or buying a pedal whose insides had been swapped with a cheaper pedal, or some other scam like that with the scammer riding off on a train waving goodbye with that 'Gotcha sucker!' look on his face.

Man I actually kind of hate to test things. I've been to buy a few amps where people have promised they worked and their "proof" has been them shredding away for 15 minutes while I wait to leave. Longest was like two hours in a guys practice space, at one point I asked if I could at least try it myself, he said "Sure, dude" and continued to riff away. I also hate people coming here to test stuff out, I keep a few amps in my apartment and when people want to test things they tend to absolutely crank the volume on things. Just because I have a V4 and a 215 in my shitty one bedroom apartment doesn't mean that's what I play here, that's what the small combo's are for, my neighbours do not appreciate your obnoxious riffing through one of the loudest heads on the planet. Much prefer to just request some extra details for safety. Facebook is great though, no one wants to rip you off when you're able to message their mum with ease.

Two hours? You are far more patient than I am, that sounds incredibly painful. But yeah, I see your point about not wanting some wanker pissing off the neighbors.

I used to live at the end of a cul-de-sac in a sparsely populated neighborhood, so I had no qualms about letting someone crank my amp. Now I live in a densely populated neighborhood, I guess if I decide to sell something on CL now I'll have to figure something else out. Food for thought.

[MechaGodzilla]

The train station. Right. Sure. Mmhmm.

My gf went to pick up a bass on her own (I couldn't go with her) and she/we thought a train station was a good idea because it's public, there's people around in the daytime and there's usually CCTV everywhere.

On the other hand, I feel REALLY sketchy about inviting people into my flat (where I have my stuff! Very stealable!) and I don't drive so I rarely go to someone's home to pick up stuff. When I do, I normally street view their address to see if it's an obvious crackden (or crackden adjacent).

OT, we were looking for a place to rent. A place came up on one of the aggregator sites, great location and perfect price for us, so I tried to arrange a viewing. The site made you put your phone number in when you signed up (nbd really, the site was defo legit), but shortly after trying to arrange something with this one listing, I get a text saying something like "THE LISTING FOR [FLAT IN PLACE] IS UNDER INVESTIGATION. DO NOT AGREE ANY RENT TERMS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE". I reckon the place probably didn't even exist and someone was just trying it on to scam people. Renting around here is pretty awful, someone desperate could easily be taken advantage of.

[MrNovember]

The train station. Right. Sure. Mmhmm.

My gf went to pick up a bass on her own (I couldn't go with her) and she/we thought a train station was a good idea because it's public, there's people around in the daytime and there's usually CCTV everywhere.

On the other hand, I feel REALLY sketchy about inviting people into my flat (where I have my stuff! Very stealable!) and I don't drive so I rarely go to someone's home to pick up stuff. When I do, I normally street view their address to see if it's an obvious crackden (or crackden adjacent).

This is usually how I feel about meeting people too. I absolutely won't have people come to my place because I have way too much stuff that I do not want stolen. My girlfriend also isn't comfortable with it. I'm a little sketched out meeting at people's places too because it's hard to know what you're walking into.

I've found that one of the best places to meet up is Starbucks. Just bring some headphones or a little pocket amp and you can generally test anything out. Lots of outlets there and people generally don't care as long as you keep it to a reasonable volume. I found this out when I bought my DX7 recently, the seller recommended we meet at a Starbucks so I could test it.

OT - I think my dad was scammed buying me a mandolin some years ago. The seller reportedly told him that the mandolin was a Washburn from 1969, but I've checked the serial number and it looks like it's one of their modern M1S mandolins in a vintage case. I still haven't told my dad.

[Invisible Man]

Too many long and terrible stories to type out here. After last week's dumbass amp ripoff, I am done with CL forever. That was the last piece to go. Fuck this noise.

Still dealing with this lame-ass kid who wants to return a cab that he now insists 'doesn't work.' Initially he thought a speaker was blown. But when I offered to give him his money back and meet up to get it, he disappeared for almost two weeks BECAUSE HE TOOK THE CAB ON TOUR. But still wanted his money back. It's a $100 cab, dude, figure it the fuck out.

So that was the time I scammed someone, I guess.

[chuckjaywalk]

I didn't Kickstart the Console.

[Invisible Man]

Me, too.

But I offered him his money back and he went silent for three+ weeks. CL return policy is not that long.