Questions about selling a snake

[Corey209]

I have a blizzard king snake I brought back to good health and someone wants to buy the snake from an ad I put on craigslist. I have a picture of the message they sent if anyone could read it over and see if there is anything suspicious.

[filly77]

Yeah avoid this person. This message screams scam!!

[Corey209]

Yeah avoid this person. This message screams scam!!

That's what I was thinking this which is why I came here to ask. I'm probably going to give away the snake to a local breeder.

[PitOnTheProwl]

Cash only, anything else is a scam LOL

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

That's one of those Nigerian scams. They will tell you they are sending more than you are asking for. Ask you to cash the bad check, which looks just like a real check, and send the extra back or something like that.

Then it turns out the check is bad and you're out all that money. No one ever actually attempts to claim the merchandise/animal/whatever.. It's just a money scam.

[Corey209]

That's one of those Nigerian scams. They will tell you they are sending more than you are asking for. Ask you to cash the bad check, which looks just like a real check, and send the extra back or something like that.

Then it turns out the check is bad and you're out all that money. No one ever actually attempts to claim the merchandise/animal/whatever.. It's just a money scam.

I don't understand how he's going to try and scam me for an animal though... They're getting creatively stupid.

[Coleslaw007]

That's one of those Nigerian scams. They will tell you they are sending more than you are asking for. Ask you to cash the bad check, which looks just like a real check, and send the extra back or something like that.

Then it turns out the check is bad and you're out all that money. No one ever actually attempts to claim the merchandise/animal/whatever.. It's just a money scam.

What I've always wondered with that scam is how are they benefiting? Is it simply to screw ppl over or am I missing some way that they can get money from this?


Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk 2

[Foschi Exotic Serpents]

Again.. They tell you they have to send more than you are asking for. For whatever reason, I don't know what the many excuses are.. Say you are asking $100 for the animal.. They will send you $350 because that was the lowest amount they were able to get the check written for. Then you have to wire the difference back to them.

If you fall for it of course.. And no, no one gets cheated out of an animal. Like I said. They never actually try to claim the animal or merchandise or whatever they are supposedly buying from you. They couldn't care less about that. They are just using your add as an excuse for their money scam.

Google Nigerian money scams.. You will find info and strategies on more than one type of scam like this and explanations on exactly how they work. They do work on naive people otherwise they wouldn't have been using the same techniques for years.

[jedidiah578]

scam I got the exact same style text for a vehicle i was selling just delete it & dont reply

[hitman3303]

As a general rule, never believe a response from a person who says they're going to have some outside company handle shipping. As someone said, they send you a made up certified check, you cash it, they get the product and you get in trouble with your bank for cashing a fraudulent check. If they want to pay by check so bad, make them get a check from the post office and not a bank. The post office ones are harder to duplicate and easier to confirm as real.