Craigslist MacBook Scam

For someone, and I’m referring to myself, who is more or less a web guru, I was nearly swindled by a scammer on Craigslist today. Here’s the story: I’m looking for a MacBook Pro. Just as most, I don’t want to pay (nor can I) the absurd price of the laptop. So, I seek alternate vendor, Craigslist being one of them. [Quick side note: If anyone knows a legitimate vendor I could go to for a discount on a MacBook, please share here] I found an ad for the MBP listed for $680 (I believe) and of course jumped on the opportunity. Yes, I could see how I was being naive NOW, but I had seen another one for $880, so the price didn’t faze me.

Anyway, I got in touch immediately, asking if the laptop was still available. Today (the day after initial contact) I received a response.

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Name Confidential <Name.Confidential25@hotmail.com> to myEmail@gmail.com

1:45pm

Hi,

The MacBook Pro is still available, but I’m currently in London, England. Because of the financial crisis, I lost my job in United States and I had to move at my sister in United Kingdom ( here I found a good job ) .
The laptop is still available, in perfect condition, and I will sell it only in US because here the warranty and the AppleCare are US registered. I am selling the laptop because I don’t use it anymore. I work a lot with Windows XP Pro and this one can’t run this Operating System.
I have attached some pics with the laptop to this e-mail so you can see the condition of the laptop. I bought the laptop 6 months ago and it still has 6 months of Apple transferable warranty remaining ( you can extend the warranty for one year on your name ).
I hope you are still interested and we can make the deal happen right away.
Since I can’t meet you and make the exchange, I would like to use a service that will help us with that:

www.tnt.com/tnt.express.london.depot/third_party_service.html

TNT is a worldwide delivery company (like Fedex, DHL or UPS). You can see from their procedure that you will be able to check the laptop before I receive the payment. If you are in a hurry, I will use 2 day delivery (on my expense).

Let me know what you think.

Best Wishes,
Name Confidential

>>>>

Upon reading this I thought, OK, they’re in the UK, it happens. I checked out the link they sent me and it was dead, but the shipper IS real. I dug around their site for a bit and saw that it was very similar to UPS and that they do have insurance options for sent package (that was my way to assure myself of scam avoidance—HA!) Luckily, I am a Web guru, even if it is self-proclaimed, and I did what I normally do when I encounter new people…I Google them. Let me tell you…loads of website popped up with SCAMMER written all over them. Hundreds of people reporting that Craigslist has “to good to be true” posts on there for a variety of items from a variety of names/emails, all from England, all with similar back stories. Wow.

Well, what kind of writer would I be if I didn’t attempt to follow-up. I thought about all the different ways I could f*** with this individual, but then I thought, “wait a minute, if there are many of these scammer, then this is a company. That means that a firm out there is hiring others who have no other ways to earn income, to scam people out of hundreds sometimes thousands of dollars. Bastards.” My goal at this point became very different. I wanted the scammer to fess up. To lose their commission for the sake of human decency. I could’ve done it slowly, but in the interest of time—and actually wanting to use it to find a MacBook Pro—I responded with a complete story.

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me <myEmail@gmail.com> to Name Confidential <Name.Confidential25@hotmail.com>

2:56pm

I’m so sorry about you loosing your job. I’m glad your sister was willing to help you out. I just lost my job too! I don’t have any body. I decided to try and go to college (which I never went to cause I had a child). It sucks, right? The worse part is that my husband who was a fireman, died at one of the fires and since he was new, no insurance. Thats why I wrote this ad, I can’t believe how life works. I have to have a computer for school and I cant afford to pay full price and the school is for graffic design-so it has to be a mac.

So what do I do now? do I send you a check or paypal or something. Oh, is there like a serial number on the computer? I want to look at the extending warranty thing. Do I just go to the mac website?

Thanks!

-Rena

>>>>>>>>

Less than 15 minutes later, I received a response:

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Name Confidential <Name.Confidential25@hotmail.com> to myEmail@gmail.com

3:08pm

Hi Rena,

I will be honest with you. This deal is not a real one. I believe your story so I can’t get anymoney from you ( this is a scam ). My advice is to find a deal locally and buy a good laptop. All overseas deals are scams….
Hope this will help you in the future…

“Name”…is not my real name.

P.S. I don’t like what I do but this is the life…. I don’t have another opportunity.

>>>>>>

Well, there you have it. Am I angry with this person? No. This is their means for making money…and sometimes, that’s all one can do. I am, however, angry with the creator of this moneymaking scheme and wonder where the authorities are in these situations. Everyone is so jumpy when it comes to music downloading and sharing—the money from which goes into the pockets of over-paid celebrities, but scammers swindle people who are legitimately looking to save some money (the seller above was accurate about one thing…there is a financial crisis) are being screwed left and right without any repercussion or public awareness being made.

argh.

A Time to Change

I’ve recently begun a “tag and category” overhaul on this blog so as to better identify topics, themes, etc. In doing so, I found my original blog entitles “The Connotation of My Creation,” which explains the reason for “Savant Prizant” being the established name. For those of you reading, you may have noticed that this blog is no longer named “Savant Prizant” and is in fact called “Concepts n’ Words.” Why the change, you ask?

Well, through the years, I’ve developed a clearer idea of what this blog should do/say. I’ve molded a tiny virtual opinion out of it and as with any growth, comes change. So change it did. The name Concepts n’ Words came about because I felt that Savant Prizant lacked definition, as clever as it originally was, it was no longer representing the entity you see before you. Were I to have known some years ago about the direction this would go, I may have thought of this name then, though I doubt it. In any case, I now officially cut the ribbon in the inauguration of the new blog name: Concepts n’ Things

The Power of Superstition

There are times in life that cause us to feel assured of ourselves. To feel rested in our confidence. Knowing what we can offer and to what extent. In those times, whom do we tell? Who do we come to with our pride so as not to seem arrogant? Is it arrogance? At what point do we transition from self-assurance to narcissism?

Being that I grew up in a fairly normal family, I was taught to be humble. To abstain from high self-thoughts. To play my own devils advocate. This, in my later years, has brought me to question things like the previous paragraph.

I’ve just spent the past 10 minutes or so discussing my recent undertakings with a co-worker— A man much older than myself and on a dramatically different career path then me. I explained my plans in great detail, answering all his questions and accepting his congratulations. Now that the conversation is over, I feel like complete crap. His examinations of me were that my body language was that of a person sure of their capabilities. Someone who is secure in his or her accomplishments and carries himself thusly. Immediately, I felt a knot in my stomach. Why did I even share? Honestly, I only wanted someone to be happy for me. Is he? I’ll never know the truth. Truth in business is our knock-off Prada bag. We display it as authentic, and hope that we are the only one’s who know the reality. So, here I sit, next to him, with my knot, wondering what eh must think of me.

Another childhood gift I received was that of jinxing my luck by discussing it beforehand. If something position was to be occurring in the future, there was not to be any discussion prior. No one was to know, not a soul was to acknowledge its existence. The walls were to remain barred until post event, when we were to act as though it was out of the blue with great surprise. Humility? Or dramatics? The point is that by sharing my future plans with my co-worker, not only have a created an image of ego n him mind, but I have single-handedly destroyed any chance I have of my events having a positive outcome. I am both a narcissist and a failure— in 10 minutes. Damn. That’s some powerful shit.