Five Money Scams to Watch Out for on Craigslist Buffalo
These days, you can’t seem to get away from scams, no matter how careful you try to be. People have a habit of taking things that are designed to make life easier and turning them into something that no one can trust. Look at what has happened to Craigslist. It was designed to get help people find the things they need, to bring people together in a more dynamic fashion. It’s a great concept. The only problem is that other individuals figured out it was also a great place to scam people out of their money. These days, there are so many scams on there that you never know what you’re going to get if you place an ad or respond to one.
While every city seems to have its own list of Craigslist scams, there are also plenty of them that seem to strike in every place. In Buffalo, New York, there are a number of scams that are currently making the rounds. Below are five of the ones you need to be on the lookout for.
1. Are the Tickets Real?
This is one of the scams that happens in Buffalo and nearly every other city in the United States. It’s also been widely discussed as a problem in other cities, but it’s worth repeating because it just keeps happening. Buffalo has been hit especially hard. People place an ad on Craigslist, claiming that they have tickets to some coveted event. They make sure it’s something that’s sold out and they offer their “tickets” at a huge discount. Anyone trying to get access to the event in question thinks they’ve found a real bargain. They send the money for the tickets and then they’re in for a surprise. There were no tickets to begin with. Some people even go to the trouble fo creating fake tickets that look real, but can’t be scanned at the entrance.
2. There’s Always a Housing Scam
It seems like everywhere you look, people are conning other people out of money when it comes to finding that perfect place to live. In this case, ads show up on Craigslist claiming to have a house that’s either for sale or rent. Either way, they say the property is available for next to nothing. There’s usually a story attached to it that claims they’ve suffered some type of hardship. People who are interested wire the money for the property and the next thing they know, they think they’re moving into a new house. It’s not until everyone else that’s been promised the same property starts showing up that anyone realized there’s a problem.
3. Be Careful Who You Hire
This involves the same moving scam that’s been circulating practically everywhere else. If you’re going to hire someone to come and pack up your stuff, you might want to think twice before you hire someone off of Craigslist. The popular scam will get you someone who packs your stuff up for you for a big discount. However, you won’t really see your stuff again after that. They aren’t going to bring it to you, they’re going to keep it and sell it all to pocket the money.
4. Yet Another Housing Scam
The housing scams just never seem to end. Some people are actually bold enough to place an ad, stating that a house is for sale, only someone else owns the house. Even better, they don’t know anything about the ad on Craigslist. It’s not until people start showing up at their property or calling them that they realize they’re on the receiving end of a scam, at least in a sense. The idea from the scammers point of view is to place the ad, use a local address, and then have the money wired directly to them. They split long before anyone figures out what’s really going on and they keep all the money.
5. The Job Scam
There are job ads on the site, too. It used to be easy to spot a scam, but these people are quite good at what they do. They hire people to work at home, even providing them work to be completed. They tell them they need their bank account information so they can set up a direct deposit for their paycheck. A few weeks go by and nothing really happens. The next thing you know, all the money in your bank account is drained and your out the money because no one can find the people that took it.
