lots of folks are putting running cars in the “car parts” section now. you have to use the search function and look for a model and it shows you the ones in the car section and the parts sections. or filter it even more by price. always use $1 or even $2 as minimum and it weeds out the $0 ads
Seems to me that CL is just being responsible here. They don’t allow gun sales because they don’t want to be liable for potentially facilitating the next sale of weapons to a criminal. They don’t allow animal sales because of puppy mills and irresponsible backyard breeders that torture animals in the name of profit. And now they’re instituting a listing fee for cars to drive away the scammers that have pretty much taken over the car section of the site.
I don’t have a problem with any of that.
I understand the puppy mill thing. Missouri is or used to be the worst in the country for this. Laws were passed and I don’t know if they helped. Giving away free animals can create problems as well.
I was giving away some kittens after someone dumped a couple pregnant cats at my place. It wasn’t on CL but was basically the same thing. I had some of the most nonsensical calls. Some woman couldn’t afford gas for her car or food so wanted me to bring them to her and provide a big bag of cat food. I told her I would have to have a delivery fee and that put a stop to that.
Then you have the people who seek out free animals to torture them. I have seen numerous stories like this one. https://www.foxnews.com/us/missouri-craigslist-cats-animal-cruelty-torture
I had a neighbor who got every free pitbull available and just let them run in packs. This created a nightmare for everyone within about a mile radius. All the neighbors banded together and started shooting them on sight. This went on and on and dozens of dogs were probably shot. I almost got attacked several times and lost 2 cats and 2 goats to dog attacks. Giving away these dogs for free to people like this just created a mess for the dogs as well as the neighbors. Free to a good home can mean they end up with someone like this.
I almost thing a fee should be required. When I started my business I had free estimates and advertised that fact. I quickly changed to charging a flat fee. Then as I realized certain jobs attracted a riskier client base and I started charging significantly more for those upfront. I don’t offer anything FREE unless some other service has already been paid for these days. FREE did nothing but attract unreasonable people. That being said, I understand the puppy mill concerns.
If CL wants to protect people, blatant sexual services being offered is sure a good way to get people exploited. They didn’t put a stop to this until the feds ordered it and the newspaper/magazine type ads shut down. I found it to be a double standard that the sex stuff was just right out there in the open and nothing was being done about it but animals and guns were not allowed. Sex trafficking is a huge problem and this just encouraged it.
As with charging for animals, I think charging for car ads will solve more problems than it creates. It will run of the scammers as well as the crazies. The big issue I see is that parts cars will no longer be listed but maybe they will be listed under parts instead of cars. Usually your post gets removed if you put something like a good running car with the title in a different category such as parts.
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I’ve recently seen lots of cars listed when I search for “bicycle” or “radio.”
Backpage was raided by the feds for human trafficking because of the escort ads. The whole site was shut down permanently. Craigslist was wise to banish all that.
The only thing that happened was…other sites popped up to do what Craigslist and backpage did. Only now they’re overseas and the feds can’t touch them.
I do agree they should have been shut down…but unfortunately it didn’t help the situation.
Criminals always come up with a workaround. New laws and regulations don’t always solve the problem they were meant to solve and may push it farther underground.
I just looked and it looks like the “parts cars” are now under “parts”. https://stlouis.craigslist.org/pts/d/winchester-2012-traverse/6922046281.html
I think $1000 for a Dodge Stratus is a lot, especially a broken one!
Then there is this one. It seems too cheap and looks nice. I bet it is a scam. https://stlouis.craigslist.org/pts/d/belleville-great-2004-chevrolet-tahoe/6921930295.html
I’d bet that is a scam. They put their email in the description too. I was looking at RVs on there and noticed a few that were scams. The price is just too good to be true. I do an image search and find the same photos in a completely different ad.
It looks just like the ad I was tempted to respond to for that John Deere Gator. It had an e-mail as well. I searched for this using the e-mail as she put it and the correct way but there were no other results. They probably just make a new e-mail when they get reported and banned.
That Tahoe is a scam, no doubt about it. One thing I’ve noticed with CL auto scams is in almost all cases the alleged seller has a female name and gmail address.
A few years ago I was looking for a nice, small pickup. I found listings for the same truck in different cities and different states. In each case, the “seller” (word used loosely) always had a female name and gmail address.
The Gator I mentioned was a female selling it for a relative. It was more obvious than this one but the same basic idea as what you explained. I think it was a Gmail account as well but might have been Yahoo.
I am also wondering if some of the “Interested” and “Is this available?” type responses are just scammers phishing for someone live on the other end. This makes no sense and they never respond once I tell them I only accept calls. Yes, it says I only accept calls in the ad as well. I used to let it go but now I am blocking them. I mean when it says “CALLS ONLY” three times in various parts of the ad including the very beginning and they still message with questions, you probably don’t want to deal with them.
I blame Facebook for creating this mess with the automatic replies since it allows lazy and uninterested people to just waste all your time. I also wish you could turn off e-mail replies like you can on CL. I plan to sell some stuff soon and will give CL another try, otherwise I will simply donate, trash, or recycle it depending on what it is.
It has been mentioned here as well as local friends that CL is no longer the bustling place since FB Marketplace came along. Others have mentioned that the quality of people on CL has overall gotten better since the real nuts went to FB.
As for the scams, this is a HUGE problem. I see it everyday in working IT but all industries seem to be flooded with them right now. I recently read that 3.2 trillion dollars or about 7% of the global GDP is being sucked up by scams and fraud.
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Almost every public on-line system - you’ll find scammers. We even see them pop-up hear posting ads. It’s a billion dollar a year business.
Great idea. As said, maybe some of the dealers will drop out. I stopped using CL to search for autos. Search local, Jeep, private and end up with dealers selling every OTHER make except Jeep, from all over the NW. Their ads list every car make known to man, so they pop up in a search.
Hopefully it’s $5 for each region and they sort out that multi-make problem.
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CL is a perfectly safe venue for automotive transactions. The warning signs on scams are there. I long ago ceased having any sympathy for those who got scammed.
Not many months ago on another forum someone came on there asking about whether or not a CL vehicle was a scam or not. The vehicle was a 2004 Tacoma with low miles, clean, and of course free shipping and a money back guarantee. Obviously it’s scam.
This person went on to say that they had just gotten scammed several months before by sending off 2 grand in gift cards for a clean 2006 Accord with free shipping/money back guarantee and did not want to be a victim again.
Everyone on the forum told them this new one was a scam also and did this person accept the advice? Nope. The last thing they said was that the “seller seems very sincere and honest” in their email messages and that they were “probably going to proceed with the transaction”.
They hang themselves not once but twice in spite of being given multiple warnings. I have no idea of the final disposition of that deal but I hope they got soaked for a second time.
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I am with @cwatkin on e-mails through CL. I state no e-mails in my ad and whatever e-mail that comes through is ignored. Almost all are waiting for you to hit reply and to steal your e-mail address.
Now on my recent sale, there was a gal that was actually a legitimate buyer (but not a good reader…) that sent me 2 e-mails before finally texting me as instructed. I ended up not meeting with her anyway since communication kept being poor.
If you just use the mail forwarding through craigslist, they never see your email address. You’d have to type it out for them. I prefer to use the email initially, then I’ll give them my phone number. I never put my number in the ad.
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No, fraud isn’t a billion dollar business! It is a 3.2 TRILLION DOLLAR BUSINESS! https://www.finance-monthly.com/2018/07/fraud-epidemic-costs-3-2-trillion-globally/
It is actually more like 4 trillion USD! I just realized this was a UK article.
Yes, all the online sites are full of scams. On CL you can turn off e-mail replies and you won’t get them at all which is what I do. If they can’t read, I don’t want them even if they aren’t scammers. They are stupid which can be just as bad.
Yes, some people just keep falling for scams. I have one of my computer customers that sounds just like the guy with the car dealing. He has fallen for these scams MANY times and I have lost count. Indians call him and say they are “Microsoft Support” and he lets them have remote access. Then they scam him and infect the computer with so much malware it becomes unusable. I had him as a customer like 4 times in a 2 month period. I finally locked his computer down as much as possible and the rate of scamming dropped dramatically although he is still able to allow them remote access. It just takes him a lot longer and it doesn’t happen as often. I keep telling him that any of the phone calls are just scams so to ignore them. He is like “They sound so honest and seem like good guy.” He says that each time and I finally printed a banner and taped it to the top of his laptop screen “IF ANYONE CALLS IT IS A SCAM!” That seems to have helped a bit as well with his scamming but he still does it.
Then I recently had another. His bank called me. He had let some tech support scammer in and they got him for $1000 in gift cards of course. Then I looked and found another $1000 so called the bank back. The bank then knew what to look for and found another $1700 where he had been scammed.
Some people just can’t be helped and the scammers are aware of this. They sell “sucker lists” of people who fall for scams. The poor guy that has fallen for a dozen of more scams got like 20 scammers calling him while I was there servicing his computer. They know who their soft targets are…
As I mentioned, requiring a phone call used to all but eliminate the scammers but now they know that calls work quite well so don’t hold back. I suspect some have bad English skills and it is easier to do it without a call. I did respond to a couple of the “Is this available” inquiries with “LOL!!! Did you actually read the ad? LOL!!!” Of course you never hear anything back.
A lot of the scammers use bots. Put the number in the ad but make it so a person has to read it.
So, your number is 555-555-5555. Spell out a few digits such as 5five5-555-55five5. That usually confuses the bots but not a real person.