Will You Take Cashier's Checks, Money Orders & PayPal

Unless you have never sold anything on Craigslist, you're probably aware of the most prevalent scam on Craigslist involving Cashier's Checks, Money Orders & PayPal.

People still fall victim to these scams. They accept the phony payment and a few days later a moving company shows up to pick up their merchandise. A few days later they realize that the payment was no good and that their merchandise is long gone.

I have a two part question. 1. Has anyone here ever fallen victim to one of the scams and 2. Has anyone ever played along with it long enough to have the movers come out? Surely the movers know what's going on.

I have not fallen to one of these scams. I will accept all forms of payment locally, but I will not ship off of craigslist. If someone wants me to ship from craigslist, the most I will do is post it to ebay and send them the link to the buy it now listing. When I do that, I typically don't hear from them again.

2. Has anyone ever played along with it long enough to have the movers come out? Surely the movers know what's going on.

The mover never comes out, they don't exist. I have played along with the cashier's check end of it by giving them a false address. They then issue me a tracking number and I watch it's progress right up to the point where it gets labeled 'undeliverable'.

Cash only on CL.  To many people trying to rip you off.

The scams are annoying. Everytime I get a text I'm thinking 'Alright! Some business!' Nope...just spam. I have accepted just a regular old check from people off craigslist, and would accept paypal if met before hand in person.

good tips and things to think about. many people think of cashiers checks as safe however with modern computers and printers anyone can print one up. another flaw, most banks will not verify a cashiers check. iv'e called banks and said hey did you issue this check. for "security" reasons or privacy they wont tell you about customer information even though it affects you as to whether the check is good or not. they will say does it look good or does it have security features and if you say yes they'll say then take it but wont actually verify for you.

only way i'd take a cashiers check is if is saw the person buy it and even then they can be cancelled.

as for taking paypal dont take paypal for anything you cant show a tracking number for. ive posted this on this site before but here was an experience i had getting burned allowing localpickkup/delivery through ebay and taking paypal...

rulesforrebels.com/2011/01/dont-get-burned-by-ebays-flawed-policy.html

There is by far to many ways to ge ripped off by people, comtime I don't even know if money is good.

I'm a cash only guy.

I've had people ask if I take one of the above but my answer is always: you need cash to get those so....

They say its a safety thing to which I give them the addy of police station and say we'll meet in lobby.

They say its a safety thing to which I give them the addy of police station and say we'll meet in lobby.

For you too. Someone can show up pretending to have cash and rob you of your merchandise.

I'm a cash only guy.

I've had people ask if I take one of the above but my answer is always: you need cash to get those so....

They say its a safety thing to which I give them the addy of police station and say we'll meet in lobby.

is the police station really okay with you trucking people in there and doing deals in their lobby all the time?

the only method that makes any sense and there's a legit reason to do is paypal. you can pay things on paypal with a credit card so if someone doesn't have cash they can pay you with credit via paypal if you dont have your own merchant processor. that said you'd want to do it as sending cash orpayment for a nontangible good otherwise people can open claim, you wont have tracking since you delivered and they will get their money back

I've got Paypal Here, credit card swipe and a BofA credit card swipe. Got the BofA because they give me a free checking account with it. I use the Paypal as a backup. BofA's rates are better.. I really clean up at the flea market when I say I can take credit or debit cards too!