Hello Steemit community. This is my first blog post and I wanted to share with you all my craigslist experience today.
First a little back story. I have been interested in Bitcoin and crypto for some time now as a lot of you in this community are. I just recently started mining and having decent returns with it. One strategy that I really enjoy is mining burstcoin using hard drive space. I began with an 8tb drive and in the first week found a block that provided me with a nice chunk of coins.
I regularly scan the classified services for hardware deals be it graphics cards, hard drives, or even the rare decent priced purpose built mining machine. Today I found a great deal on two 4tb external drives.
"Finally, a great deal!", I thought. It was on the line of being too good to be true but I thought the listing seemed plausible. Sure they are about 50% cheaper than at the store but I've known plenty of people to get rid of items that they don't really need cheaply to get some cash for things like car repairs. Okay, Ill bite.
I rarely deal with craigslist because as a seller I have had people try to scam me nearly every time I list something. The most common has been the one where they say they are out of state and do not need to see the item in person but they will send someone to pick it up. They say they will just send a little extra cash for me to give to the person who comes to get it to compensate them for their trouble as well. I've seen this displayed as a tactic used on shows like 'American Greed'. I thought I was pretty savvy and could spot a con if it was presented to me.
Initial contact was normal. "Do you still have the drives available?", "Yes.", "Cool.. I'll take both of them." Of course they are far away and it takes me nearly 40min to get there.
They have me meet them outside of the front office of what I assumed was the apartment they live in. This didn't really alarm me as I would probably do the same thing rather than bring a stranger back to my apartment. The seller is a waiting. She is a woman in her mid 50's pushing a stroller with a cute young toddler. I get out and say hi. She hands me the two boxes. Everything looks great I can see they are still sealed as described and I hand her the money. $100.00
Later on in the day after getting back home I open the packages exited to put these two devices to work. I pull the first one out and it all looks good. I go to plug the USB cable in and... Oh No! Maybe somehow the plug is just broken. I quickly open the second one only to find the grim realization. I GOT SCAMMED! I peeled the cases apart only to find inside, a roll of pennies.
After further closer inspection of the packages I notice that the boxes we indeed open and they used clear tape to re-stick the seals.
I have since contacted them and of course they say they had no idea. They say they already spent the money on their power bill and can't refund me until next week. I will also follow up with a police report but I fear it is lost. I believe that they likely do not live in the apartments that we met at, when I google search the phone number, it is linked to dozens of escort sites so it is probably a spoofed number.
I guess the lesson in this is, do not trust sellers. Even if the item is said to be new sealed in the package, inspect the package carefully or let the seller know that they will need to open the box for you.
I guess a sucker is born every minute, and this time that sucker is me.
I should at least count the pennies to make sure they were full rolls.