Selling your stuff online can be scary. I was on a binge of divestiture over the summer and was using a bunch of the online classifieds sites: buyandsell.com, kijiji.com, usedvancouver.com, and Craigslist. Without question, selling everything from a 26 foot sailboat, to a baby seat, to a Tag Heuer watch, Craigslist proffered not one sale but instead a barrage of schemers and con-men/women.

The lousy utility of the application aside, a key flaw seemed to be the ability to scrape the blind email address and spam the seller. As soon as I reposted something, within a day I’d get a ream of spam. And then there were the hard-cores that just wanted my address, or to have me call a l.d. number (why?).

 Here's an example of the garbage coming through. This first email is from "Linda Gilbert" but signed Dan and Karen. Note the phone number:

Linda Gilbert      Aug 19

Good Morning,

 My fiance and I would love to see your boat this weekend if its still for sale.  I live in the US and she lives here in West Vancouver, BC.  Please give me a call at US 1-503-267-8044, I'm currently here in Vancouver, BC this weekend.  We have cash and its no problem.  We look forward to hearing from you and seeing your vessel.  The e-mail address im sending this from is my fiances girlfriend, so please call me , this morning or anytime this weekend when you are available.

 Dan and Karen. 1-503-267-8044

It was almost believable. I was pretty skeptical though of Craigslist by this time, and sure enough the next day another one comes through. Same US phone number, but completely different people and email addresses.

Kari Mercer    Aug 20

Good Evening,

We are very interested in viewing your boat if still available.We are currently located in Vancouver by Granville Island. Please contact us at US # 1-503-267-8044.

Dana

I did send an email back asking them for a local number and some idea of the types of boats they’re looking at so I could qualify my boat’s advantages—never heard from them again.

Here’s another Craigslist, but it’s the classic scam:

Hi Seller,

Do you still have your item you display on craigslist for sale.and is it working perfect.kindly let me know...regards.

Sniffing a rat I responded asking for clarification of what ad, as I’d been listing three items (no, I didn’t say the item “is still available and also in good condition). They obviously were tracking their communication as they identified one of the items I had, and hit me with the con. Note: I’d posted the synth for $350 and they offered $375:

Hi,

Thanks for the response,since you said the item is still available.and also in good condition,i will offer you $375 for the (Korg X3 Synthesizer) and i will be glad by making my payment through U.S Postal Money Order,so all i will just need  from you now in other to proceed with my payment...

 what is your full name and your address...so that i can quickly start the payment processing through U.S Postal Money Order since the (U.S.P.S) office is just a few blocks to my working place.

 and as soon as the payment has been approved with the U.S Postal Money Order,i will send you the Pre-paid shipping documents which you will print out and paste on the package box because am sending the package to my cousin in oversea...because is in need of it.

 so i will also send you my FedEx account number which you will tender at the FedEx Kinko's before droping the package off at the place,so that all the shipping and handling bills will be charge on my account...ok?.

so kindly let me know if there is a FedEx location around you there.Thanks and hope to hear back from you asap...regards.

I have a quite a few of these. It got a bit worrisome so I ended up withdrawing all ads.

What worked? Kijiji.com rocked. I could not believe how fast people responded to the variety of ads I posted. I hadn’t really known about the site and now I spend quite a bit of time browsing the listings.

I’m interested to hear from others’ experiences in online classifieds. Agree or disagree on the horrors of Craigslist? Any experts: can you comment on why that site is more prone to kooks? I look forward to your opinions.