Thread: Almost got scammed for real (Leo Diaz)

Hi!

I was selling a used, refurbished laptop in craigslist, and some guy wanted to buy it and ship it for a partner overseas. I agreed. He wanted to pay me higher than what I was asking, and wanted to pay me by paypal. I thought this guy must be rich to take that risk and pay me by paypal without getting the product shipped. I told him to wait since I genuinely wanted to deliver the product, and then take his money.

He sends me the shipping address to Nigeria. No lights went off. I mean, maybe the colleague is a missionary there. I told him that the voltage are different. He said its okay as his friend will buy an adapter there. I told him shipping costs $200 through FedEx. He was still okay and wanted me to send him a money request though paypal. This guy is nice as hell trusting me like that.

Anyways, I looked up laptop shipment rates from Canada to Nigeria and bingo!!! Yahoo Answers pops up with a guy asking the same question. Everyone said its a scam. That's when it hit me. Apparently, what they do is they get you to do a money request on paypal, and then tell you that the money is held by Paypal until product is delivered. They send a fake paypal page and then steal laptops. Not only that, the scams are run from the same street, and city in Nigeria and hence that's the location they put. I was about to give a laptop to this guy because I "didn't know any better" as MJ would have said. I thought PayPal was risk free and they give money immediately. Today, I got an education.

I blocked the guy in my email but before that I wrote him my last message saying that next time he should think about it before conning anyone else. I saved $180 worth of money on not shipping my laptop. Moral of the story, when you are selling goods, sell it locally. No need to go that extra step to ship it outside the city. Also, when you see Nigeria, be alert. Not being racist, just careful. There are bad people in Nigeria and good ones like Alexander Amosu who make money through honest and creative means. For inspiration, Mr. Amosu started out composing ringtones of famous and top chart songs so that people could use ringtones of their favorite songs. He makes luxurious suits now and accessorize cell phones with diamonds and gold.

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I ran an ebay business for a little while when I was 19 and almost got scammed like that too, except mine involved someone in singapore.
The question you should ask is if the guy has money to overpay you, why can't he buy brand new ones from a large vendor. If it seems to good to be true, it is.

I get about 5 emails a day like this from CL, one of the bad things about CL. I get them less on ebay.

I was going to buy an Iphone once for 350 bucks, you guessed it, from a guy on craigslist. I was at the meeting place... a Walmart parking lot when the dude gets out of the car (leaves it running) which BTW had no license plates and asks Are you Kyle? I said yes I am, he said let me see the money. I was already suspicous of this guy I said can I look at the phone. The guy said he wanted to count the money in his car first. I told him then then we don't have a deal. He said "bitch give me the mofo money" I opened my jacket to reveal... My sig sauer side arm. LOL I have a CHL and carry the majority of the time. Dude jumps backward and gets in his car and speeds off. hahaha.

I called the cops and they told me that the same thing has happened a few times in the last week or so, this guy was just driving off with peoples money, there probably was no phone. I dont know if they ever caught him.

Craigslist is bad news!

Wow Kak, I did not know you were Tony Soprano. The Suburban would have hinted at it too. Jokes aside, I did not know you could carry a firearm. Even if I had license, I wouldn't carry one with me. Cops could rip you off as well when they take it and don't return. My friend carries a switchblade and that's cool as well. I like the idea, but weapons are somewhat impractical for me. But then again, I am a skinny, brown guy. Most men can take me out.

911Carrera, the funny thing is that he asked what the best deal is and I said $200 is the best I can go, lowering it $10. He said he will pay me $290. I agreed cause I have to ship it as well. Then I said FedEx takes $200 just to ship by weight and he immediately agreed to up it by $120 so it was not like he was overly generous, but more flexible. He then suggested that I use the local post office. I don't know why he would give a damn if he was not going to pay anyways. The reason I called it quits is because his shipping address is not only on Nigeria, but also in the same city, and same street. Also, his tactic was paypal which matched with other scams. His name is Leo Diaz so it did sound pretty high ranking. What interested me is that even though the voltage was different, and it would take time, he was still interested in my laptop without checking it out. The guy is either a saint for being courteous or a prick for pulling the same ol', same ol'.

HAHAHAHA, I tried not to be racist. It's just that statistically speaking... ah I will stop now.

I've been working with Craigslist for years. Any request to ship an item because someone is overseas is a complete scam. Don't ever trust these type of e-mails.

If you put something up on CL for sale, have them come to you, pay you, and pick up the item no matter what. That is what CL is all about, if someone really needed an item shipped to them they should've bought it on Ebay or Amazon.

Please post the address this scammer uses. When other people search for it, this thread will appear and save others from getting scammed.

Hi MJ!

No problem. He goes by the name of Leo Diaz and his email is diaz.leo9@gmail.com.

Just step back for a second and read what you just wrote. Logically, you can tell it's an obvious scam. Even when I was 14, I was selling an iPod and I knew better.

Btw: I'm back. When are we going to go for some coffee?

There is nothing wrong in selling outside your city. It's a larger market out there so why not??

The lesson here is not to "only sell locally" but check your paypal account to make sure the funds are in there before shipping.

Originally Posted by dollarman

There is nothing wrong in selling outside your city. It's a larger market out there so why not??

The lesson here is not to "only sell locally" but check your paypal account to make sure the funds are in there before shipping.

precisely.

Thanks Carrie. It's just that I though PayPal was safe and someone offering to pay beforehand through PayPal meant that I would get the funds before shipping. I did not know that they could scam you using PayPal as an excuse.

So Calgary, it's a date then? I will be busy tomorrow, but after that it should be okay. I think Ryan also wanted to meet up as a threesome.

Originally Posted by TheAstonMartian

So Calgary, it's a date then? I will be busy tomorrow, but after that it should be okay. I think Ryan also wanted to meet up as a threesome.

The three musketeers we will be!

I'm usually free in the evenings after 9 or in the daytime before 2.

Also, to add on to paypal. There are a few key things you have to know.

If you send the money as a gift, they WILL NOT reverse the charges.
In other cases, it will day weeks for them to review it and if you don't have a solid enough argument, they may side with the seller. In which case, you will also be out $$$.

Regarding what the scammer does, he will send you a link from an email address similar to paypal's address and send a VERY VERY similar looking email notification that paypal sends you when you receive funds from an individual.