Is this some kind of scam? If so, what kind.

In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :

In my experience, just don't bother negotiating over email/text/phone. They will ALWAYS negotiate down when you meet up. Just ignore them.

Run don't walk away. The next step is he will is he will contact you and ask you send the cost of shipping in cash or send it to an account because he needs to pay the shipper up front and can't include it in the price of the car. If you send you will never hear from him again. 
 

I had this happen with a large expensive sailboat. Guy sent me a cashiers check for $12,000 more then cost of boat. Then asked me to send $8000 to him for shipping and I could keep the rest. Sad part is my bank couldn't even tell if the cashier check was real. I didn't bite. Still have the check 4 years later. If it sounds to good to be true it most likely is.

Every CL ad I post gets the following message:

Reasonable, in person, CASH ONLY offers will be considered. Sold as is and as pictured. Buyer is solely responsible for making sure the item fits their needs. Contact me via the CL message system. If the ad is still up it is still available. Thank you

I do not deviate from that.

I price cars and other items at least 10% higher than what I will eventually accept. That way I can easily “give” them the 10% if they ask. Some people don’t even “haggle” in person even though that door has been opened.

I either do not respond to “is it still available” or respond in a way that does not come close to answering that dumb arced question. The same applies to email low ball offers because they very, very rarely are a potential buyer. But, since I’ve started using the above wording I don’t get many stupid emails

I also get nearly zero scammers (I can’t recall the last one – if there was a last one).

I do not play phone tag with people. Their phone may be smart but that doesn’t make them smart.

In reply to L5wolvesf :

This. No point wasting your time with lowballers or scammers. Just delete and move on.

Regarding to the original question: how does the scam work?

Here's another possibility: maybe this is just a bot trying to push up new registrations for the payment app.  I think there's a lot of companies paying "specialists" to drive in new customers, for example, before they do their IPO.  In this case, they might not care about the car or might not know it even >is< a car.  The bot simply spams 10,000,000 craigslist ads hoping to drive some sheep into the cashapp.

This is why the follow-up asking whether you signed up yet for cashapp.

In reply to DWNSHFT :

Cashapp is fairly ubiquitous as a virtual payment app. It doesn't need help getting people to sign up, at least among people my age. 

In process of moving from VA to AL, I had a sportster I bought from my sister, just due to getting a deal. I had it for sale for 3200, implying in the ad I was very negotiable. Couple a calls, but no hassles, A few weeks later dropped price to 2800, then 2600. Last week in town, I wrote in the ad, "moving this week. I'll take 2100, but that is non negotiable, bottom dollar. If it does not bring that, I will take it with me, and transfer title and tags to AL." Guy texts me (no name, introduction nothing) "1500" I reply 1500 what?   "for the sportster. I don't like sportsters, but I'll give you 1500 for my girlfriend." I replied well, since you did not read the ad, I'll tell ya what, I'll take 2300.  he said "well its just a sportster, so 1500 is all its worth." OK, I'll take 2500 then. (he finally noticed) "Your going the wrong way aren't you?" Uh, since you didn't read the ad, you just now noticing I'm being an ass? 'Cause I'm not gonna do business with you at any price. He actually got mad. Figure that!

Brought it with, sold 4 months later for 3000.

DWNSHFT said:

Regarding to the original question: how does the scam work?

Here's another possibility: maybe this is just a bot trying to push up new registrations for the payment app.  I think there's a lot of companies paying "specialists" to drive in new customers, for example, before they do their IPO.  In this case, they might not care about the car or might not know it even >is< a car.  The bot simply spams 10,000,000 craigslist ads hoping to drive some sheep into the cashapp.

This is why the follow-up asking whether you signed up yet for cashapp.

Nope just an azz looking for a sucker. followed up, cause he thought he had one! Glad he didn't

In reply to L5wolvesf :

well worded. I'll borrow that, if I have to do CL again. But I've found that telling the scammers your not gonna be scamed, does not seem to slow them down from trying. Glad you've had better luck than me. They'll only get an offer accepted in person, but they still seem to try.

The last line of a CL ad I posted was "if you read this far, put banana in your reply text." A suprising amount of people on CL actually had reading comprehension. 

I actually bought a car using PayPal- worked a charm- no fee if they are your "friend" or "family". My son got a 1999 4Runner v6 manual (with TRD supercharger!) for $6k. No problems with the transaction.

I actually got called out on a security clearance investigation for all the cash I deposited after selling a few cars for cash. I'd rather not deal in it- pain in the ass and huge security risk.

In reply to Appleseed :

The first night the scammer e-mailed me between 1 and 2 in the morning. Last night I got two more e-mails between one and two in the morning. One left a phone number and said to call me anytime. Wanted me to call him. Sounded like a scam.

I am beginning to believe that these scammers are from a different country or a different continent. I find it hard to believe that so many people are shopping for cars on Craigslist in the middle of the night. I found nothing like this on Cycle Trader.

I am absolutely shocked that the forum has members who haven't learned about the "Extra money for the shipper" scam.  Every. Thing. I. Sell. Gets a bunch of those.  I thought everyone on the planet knew it involved a realistic looking bank transfer followed by you sending a legitimate transfer to the "shipping company".  If they have time before your bank bounces their transaction, their mother will get sick and they need the rest of their money back, which you will send because you are honest.

The low ballers may only have $1350.  They have looked in the couch cushions, through their winter jackets, cashed in their aluminum cans, and that's it.  They want a car, and 1350 is the number.  No skin off their ass if you say no.

Or, they are trying to get a super deal.  If you don't want to sell it for that price, say no and move on.  There is really no reason to do anything more.  Getting angry is a waste of time.

$1350 dude isn't worth getting angry over, that's actually a legit offer.  Either he's trying to settle at $1400 or he's only got $1358.72 to his name.  Whichever it is, that's an offer you might want to take if the car has no interest at $1500FIRM in a week or two.

Because of the tendency to overprice things on craigslist, and also the tendency for people to have high prices and no willingness to negotiate, I have sent a number of emails over the years along the lines of "I am able to offer $2,xxx for this $3500 car upon seeing it in person, is it worth us talking further or not?"  That has worked out far more often than it hasn't.  No sense in wasting anyone's time if they are firm on the price, or in the case where they jacked up the price 20% for craigslist, now we're both in the price range we want.

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

I find it hard to believe that so many people are shopping for cars on Craigslist in the middle of the night. 

Uuuuhhh...this forum might be the exception here. 

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

Why do you think I'm angry. I already said in this thread that if it doesn't sell for $1,500 after about 4 weeks I will drop the price. I don't see any reason to start dropping the price on the first day ad comes out. I'm not really desperate to sell or in a big hurry to get rid of it. 

I have heard of the money transfer scam before. I just haven't heard of Cashapp or Cashtags. I am surprised people are still running this scam. It's an old one.

Keep in mind that old ads fall to the bottom - sometimes even when renewed - and interest quickly moves on.   
 

i also am not interested in slashing my price on day one but if you have a bottom line, it can help you figure out whether or not to keep talking. 
 

also, a lot of scams just want emails and phone numbers to add to lists that they sell.   

Id probably message back the $1350 guy, let him know his offer is reasonable and he can negotiate a price in person when he is standing in your driveway with cash on the hood.

RedGT said:

$1350 dude isn't worth getting angry over, that's actually a legit offer.  Either he's trying to settle at $1400 or he's only got $1358.72 to his name.  Whichever it is, that's an offer you might want to take if the car has no interest at $1500FIRM in a week or two.

Because of the tendency to overprice things on craigslist, and also the tendency for people to have high prices and no willingness to negotiate, I have sent a number of emails over the years along the lines of "I am able to offer $2,xxx for this $3500 car upon seeing it in person, is it worth us talking further or not?"  That has worked out far more often than it hasn't.  No sense in wasting anyone's time if they are firm on the price, or in the case where they jacked up the price 20% for craigslist, now we're both in the price range we want.

There are proper ways of offering that. A low offer with a discussion before driving several hrs, is different than just being an azz with a lowball price, even if the number is the same. If my ad says "$1500 obo, no text offers accepted, no calls or texts after 10PM" and a text comes in at 11:30PM - "I gots 1350", you are probably not gonna like where it goes.

Streetwiseguy said:

The low ballers may only have $1350.  They have looked in the couch cushions, through their winter jackets, cashed in their aluminum cans, and that's it.  They want a car, and 1350 is the number.  No skin off their ass if you say no.

If my ad says OBO, you are entirely correct. But if it specific states "no lower than $1500," I will assume you did not read the ad, or you have other probles I don't want to do business with.

03Panther said:

Streetwiseguy said:

The low ballers may only have $1350.  They have looked in the couch cushions, through their winter jackets, cashed in their aluminum cans, and that's it.  They want a car, and 1350 is the number.  No skin off their ass if you say no.

If my ad says OBO, you are entirely correct. But if it specific states "no lower than $1500," I will assume you did not read the ad, or you have other probles I don't want to do business with.

And it's completely fine to ignore those offers.  Or to respond with No, $1500. 

Nobody reads anything all the way through anymore...

Cashapp is legit and I've used it for plenty of things from FB Marketplace, but I wouldn't use it for a car.  I don't think they have the kind of protections other things do - I would use PayPal for a car, for example.  

Car selling is weird and annoying.  It's full of scammers and lowballers.  When I sold my challenge Civic recently for I think $1500, I had a guy message me and offer $900.  I told him I was flexible on the price and would accept $1499.  He never responded.  

"Nobody reads anything all the way through anymore..."

Ain't that the truth! I find it really frustrating when someone emails or texts asking a question and I take the time to answer fully only to have them call and realize they didn't take the time to even read it. 

This stuff is everywhere. I put up a Craigslist ad for a 1,500 lb lathe, and 30 minutes later, received this:

I will be buying this from you, so please kindly withdraw the advert from site. My husband will overnight the payment asap but he will be paying with a Certified Check from his Bank and it will deliver to you via FEDEX, so I'll need you to provide me with the following information to facilitate the mailing of the check... And am offering additional $70 with the original price to have this asap.

Name to be on the payment...........
Address to mail the check to.............
City, state and zip code .............
Final Asking price...................
Cell phone # to text you on ................

I will make arrangements for the pick up as soon as you have your check clear, due to my work frame and my Kids, I will not be able to come with the cash and pick it up so my husband will mail the check and have someone pick up the item after the check clear., Reference to your post am completely satisfied with it and the payment will be deliver within 48hours..God Bless

So many levels of, "and one more thing..." I did briefly consider playing along, just to see what they would do with my 1500-lb "this" that they referred to in their message. You'd think they could at least mention what I'm selling, but I guess that's too much work, best to just let their automated reply process work... not.