Real Life Craigslist Horror Stories
Selling things on the Internet isn’t always easy. Even though posting an ad on Craigslist seems like a sure bet, there are plenty of weirdos and criminals lurking online and they’re always waiting for an unsuspecting victim to come by.
It seems like everyone who has used this infamous site has either found the deal of a lifetime or had the worst experience of their life.
Stay Classy, Craigslist
I bought a bike from a man in a grocery store parking lot. His flaccid nether-region was sticking out of his zipper for the entire duration of the transaction.
Looking For Love
About 4 years ago I was trying to sell my Mazda Miata on Craigslist. My friend took some pictures of the car for me and put them online. All of the people who I had talked to on the phone were older men who seemed to have not read the description at all.
Asking me basic questions that were in the ad that I posted. It seemed a little weird because I guess I was expecting someone like myself to be drawn to that car (19-year-old females).
Anyway, the calls started getting creepier and creepier until finally I had a man call who wanted to meet to see it. I was trying to find a public place, but he kept insisting we meet at my house.
He wouldn’t even talk to me about anything related to the car and just kept asking where I lived and what my cross streets were (as if I’d be dumb enough to meet him at my house).
After it got really weird, I hung up on him and he kept calling back asking where I lived. I went online to remove the ad, and realized my friend had taken a picture that had me in it. That explained a lot.
Nigerian Prince
I was trying to sell my old laptop on CL. I was flooded with scam emails saying, “I would like to purchase this item for my brother/uncle/nephew/etc. who is studying/volunteering/doing missionary work in Nigeria.
Please send your bank account number and information so I may wire transfer funds.” Seriously, I got like 100 of these emails all saying some variation of that story.
They were all OBVIOUSLY very fake emails. Anyway, I finally get a legit sounding message saying this guy wants to buy it. We meet at a Starbucks and he checks out the laptop and asks some questions, seems satisfied so he gets out his cash.
As he hands it to me he says, “Thanks so much, my brother is over in Nigeria for his studies and really needed a computer so this will be a great gift!”
I accidentally burst out laughing, and he just looked at me like I was crazy and left.
Sting Operation
So here is a good one: My laptop got stolen out of my truck one night. Filed a police report and everything but they weren’t going to do anything. So being peeved off I thought I would check Craigslist and guess what? The guy who stole was trying to sell it on Craigslist two towns over.
I had him send me some pictures of it to confirm that it was mine.
I contacted the police and we set up a sting operation at the local Starbucks and caught the guy. It turned out to be a minor and he had weapons and other stolen crap in his car. I was pretty proud of myself for that! I never thought I would see that laptop again.
Guy didn’t even wipe the hard drive.