jeffgreef
Silver Member
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2009
- Messages
- 184
- Location
- Plumas County, California
- Tractor
- Farmall, Gibson, Windolph, Simar, Bear Cat, Vaughan, Howard
It's probably been said before, but is worth repeating- beware of tractor scams on Craigslist. Craigslist is a great resource for buying and selling tractors, but unfortunately there are unscrupulous scammers taking advantage of unsuspecting people with false ads.
The scams work like this. You'll see pretty pictures of a nice, newer tractor and the price they are asking is ridiculously low. They want you to respond on their private email address, rather than the email address provided by Craigslist. When you contact them, they tell you the tractor is in some distant location and they will ship it to you free of charge after you pay them thru some 'guaranteed escrow service'. If you send the money, you will see no tractor. There is no tractor- only some poor person in Nigeria sitting at a laptop in an internet cafe, working for someone else, working the scam. The 'guaranteed escrow services' are not guaranteed at all- once you send the money, it's gone.
Though most people already know it, here's what you should know about buying tractors thru any classified listing:
-Always see the unit before you buy it.
-Tractor by Net, TractorHouse, and Craigslist do not have any kind of escrow services that handle your money for them. Go to a bank with the seller/buyer and make the transaction at the tellers window.
-Never accept a check, cashiers check, or money order unless you are at the bank when the note is written, and you see the teller do it. It's too easy to fake these documents with today's computers.
-ALL offers to ship vehicles are scams.
-If it seems too good to be true it probably is.
The scammers must be getting some money because they keep doing it. Let's try to cut the profit out of the business so they stop. I've been keeping a close eye on tractor listings on Craigslist for some months now, and see many of these ads. After the ad is flagged and removed, they just take the same photos and post it again on another Craigslist site with a different email address, fishing for an unsuspecting person tempted by a low price.
JD 790, 300 hrs with loader and backhoe- $5000? I don't think so.
Craigslist is not complicit in these scams at all. All they do is make it possible to post. Caveat emptor- buyer beware.
JG
The scams work like this. You'll see pretty pictures of a nice, newer tractor and the price they are asking is ridiculously low. They want you to respond on their private email address, rather than the email address provided by Craigslist. When you contact them, they tell you the tractor is in some distant location and they will ship it to you free of charge after you pay them thru some 'guaranteed escrow service'. If you send the money, you will see no tractor. There is no tractor- only some poor person in Nigeria sitting at a laptop in an internet cafe, working for someone else, working the scam. The 'guaranteed escrow services' are not guaranteed at all- once you send the money, it's gone.
Though most people already know it, here's what you should know about buying tractors thru any classified listing:
-Always see the unit before you buy it.
-Tractor by Net, TractorHouse, and Craigslist do not have any kind of escrow services that handle your money for them. Go to a bank with the seller/buyer and make the transaction at the tellers window.
-Never accept a check, cashiers check, or money order unless you are at the bank when the note is written, and you see the teller do it. It's too easy to fake these documents with today's computers.
-ALL offers to ship vehicles are scams.
-If it seems too good to be true it probably is.
The scammers must be getting some money because they keep doing it. Let's try to cut the profit out of the business so they stop. I've been keeping a close eye on tractor listings on Craigslist for some months now, and see many of these ads. After the ad is flagged and removed, they just take the same photos and post it again on another Craigslist site with a different email address, fishing for an unsuspecting person tempted by a low price.
JD 790, 300 hrs with loader and backhoe- $5000? I don't think so.
Craigslist is not complicit in these scams at all. All they do is make it possible to post. Caveat emptor- buyer beware.
JG