Craigslist Goat Scam
December 3rd, 2015 · 3 Comments · Posted in Blog, farming
I recently advertised some of our young goats for sale on Craigslist here in Upstate New York. Call me crazy, but it never occurred to me that trying to sell a $150 goat would expose me to internet fraud.
I must have gotten a couple of the email responses confused because one of them apologized for getting back to me late but offered to send a check if only I would supply my name and address. This must be what I get for trying to do business on the computer at five o’clock in the morning because it was only when I went back and examined this particular email more closely that I noticed that the author–one Esther Cobbers–never referred to my goats, offering to pay only for “the item.” She also seemed to have some problems with the English language.
More emails from Ms. Cobbers ensued in the days that followed, informing me that I would soon be receiving a check in excess of my asking price because she wanted to be sure I didn’t sell “the item” to someone else. She was also including some “running around money” for my troubles arranging to pay someone to ship “the item.”
I was starting to catch on and replied with some specific questions, like how many goats do you want and when do you plan to pick them up?But the replies from Ms.Cobbers continued to be vague, until the last one containing a UPS tracking number for the check and instructions to take the check immediately to the bank and send any excess funds via Western Union to an address in North Carolina.
Sure enough, the UPS truck pulled up to the house yesterday afternoon with a rather beat up postal express envelope containing only a check in the amount of $2,200 purportedly issued by the City of Pittsburgh.
I swear, I am not making this up. I called police in Pittsburgh and they suggested talking to my local law enforcement. A lawyer friend opined I might call the county sheriff’s office. Some online research revealed that this is a common Craigslist rip-off: you deposit the check and wire the excess money to the perpetrator, then the check bounces and you get stuck with the bank’s bad check fee.
Do people really fall for this?
The FBI also operates an internet fraud service. Or should I just tear up this $2,200 check and laugh it off?
What do you think?
Never laugh off crime. More importantly if people don’t step up – other folks don’t know. Yes, there will be someone who falls for the scam without giving a thought to the possibility that this could be a scam.
This happened to me, just not with goats. Please do not leave, otherwise it will continue to happen to others. It is so unfair. But, please contact the sheriff’s office, like I did, so that it will not happen to more trusting people (like you and I ).
I fell for it once when I was in my 20s, the difference is my bank held the check for 3 days. Then they cleared it. However, the damage had been done. I ended up going to the attorney general of my state and filling a complaint against my own bank. What did they hold checks for if not to verify that they are valid checks? I still sometimes get the checks, but they just go right into the trash.