Janury 2012 - I Hate Craigs List
I hate Craig's List.
I used to just dislike Craig s List because their business model had decimated the classified sections of many newspapers. But my feelings have moved to hate. I have found that Craig s List may have worked well for a few people, but it is a big playground for the scammers. Scammers are evil people who have no conscience and live off the vulnerability of decent people.
Last April someone took our bank check routing number and account number and went shopping for several weeks. $2,700 later we had to close an account we had for 30 years. We had to update all of the automatic withdrawals with our new account number. It was a real headache, but could ve been a lot worse. Our bank reimbursed us the money and they did all the legwork to get the money back from the retailers. Problem solved. We thought.
Just before Thanksgiving we started to receive calls from all over the country from folks who had received a check with our name and address and our bank s name and address. We talked to people from California, Nevada, Florida and Tennessee who had all applied for jobs on Craig s List. The checks were for $1,000 to $2,800. They were told a line of bull about why they had received these checks. Some were suspicious and others attempted to deposit the checks. Fortunately the routing number and bank account number were wrong so we didn t get anything but aggravation. But these people who were unemployed and desperately hoping to have a job and some money for Christmas were the ones being scammed. Many of them had applied for so many jobs they couldn t remember the one that was the scam. It broke my heart to hear their stories.
Just to cover themselves, Craig s List has a whole webpage devoted to how to avoid being scammed. Maybe soon we will be seeing a webpage devoted to how to avoid being murdered, especially after the Boston Craig s List killer and most recently, the three murders of middle-aged men who responded to an ad to work on a cattle ranch.
I wish the Craig s List Company could just feel some of the pain and despair that the scammers have caused so many people. Often people return to their good ole local weekly newspaper after they have put an ad on Craig s List. And then we hear stories like I sold my snowmobile the first week and didn t get any strange calls from people who wanted me to mail back $500 from the $1000 check they sent me.
I am hoping that we all enjoy a great 2012. Let s raise our glasses to a better economy with a lot less unemployment and a lot more fun!
Happy New Year!
Deborah
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