Selling on Craigslist, are buyers trying to scam me with their request to pay via paypal?

If they are offering more than the selling price, then yes, it’s a scam. Especially, if they are off shore buyers.
That happened to me years ago when I was selling my laptop. We used Pay Pal and the money went through and was confirmed on my account, in which I then sent off the laptop. After it was confirmed that the laptop was mailed, I went to view my account and my history had somehow been wiped clean. There was no trace of the money that was previously transferred. It was bizarre. I have no idea how they did it. Unfortunately, I was young and naive to these types of scams at the time and didn’t do my research, but it was a learning experience.

After that experience, I personally never use Pay Pal anymore. When I want to sell something on Craigslist, I put in the ad, ”cash only; only trade with people in the area” and I ignore any other requests.

Craigslist Scams Here are some of the known scams on Craigslist. Bottom line is trust your gut. If it feels wrong, it probably is.

Frankly, I wouldn’t do anything on Craigslist if it wasn’t cash. Possibly trade. As long as the money isn’t counterfeit then you’re fine.

As long as you are paying through paypal, you will be safe. If you do not receive your item for whatever reason, you can file a claim against, them and paypal will go after the person. This happened to me before- I didn’t receive my order, and paypal shut down their account, credited me for the money, and now they cannot use their paypal until they pay back the money to paypal. Just never ever ever sent money through a wire transfer, or a money order. There is no way to trace it, and nobody to go after the person if that happens. If you have questions that haven’t been answered, you can go to the paypal website and look at the terms and conditions. You will see an area where you can file a claim against the person should that happen. Good luck!!

And one more thing- when you receive emails from paypal, ensure that it is actually paypal contacting you. Sometimes people will make up an email like info@paypal.com- which would actaully make you think it’s legit.

Craigslist differs from EBay in one important way. Most of Ebay payments are not done in person (face to face).

Craigslist has all these local listings for a reason. Take advantage of it. Ignore out of area requests. Period.

And, one other caution. Unless it’s too big to carry, do the transaction in a public place like coffee shop, etc.

You don’t need strangers casing your premises. Yes, the majority of people are honest and well intentioned. But it only takes one crooked person to really ruin your day.

There is no way to tell them apart from the other 99% of honest folks beforehand so better safe than sorry.

Never using CL out of fear is throwing the baby out with the bath water. I’ve only had good experiences with CL so far and met some really nice folks but I just act cautiously.

Only do local deals and don’t let strangers into your home unless it can’t be avoided.

I was selling a Queen sized Futon mattress. Obviously too heavy to carry. But I was planning to be out of that place in a week or so anyhow, so no worries. For everything else, it’s been Starbucks.

I would only do things locally on Craigslist. If I like it, I contact you, meet you in a public place like the parking lot of the supermarket or mall. My cousin was scammed by someone on Craigslist…DO NOT PUT THE MONEY ON PAY PAL…Once he did it, the money was gone!