In sports, there are times when the underdog wins the game and you can't help but wonder, "How in the world did they ever win?" In the newspaper world, I sometimes can't help but say that very phrase when it comes to craigslist.
craigslist.com is the absolute leader when it comes to private party classified advertising, items for sale by an individual. Look at any newspaper today at the classifieds section, if they have a section and you'll see a mere fraction of what it use to be. Those tiny classified ads were great revenue for the newspaper industry, but maybe more importantly great readership for the publications.
The free option of craigslist came along, offered immediate publication and often times immediate sales for those items. Not to be hypocritical, I have used this outlet several times with mixed results. I'm not saying it doesn't work, or that there isn't a place for it either. I am still shaking my head that the newspaper lost that segment of business to such an ugly site, filled with scams, escorts and murderers.
Recently, I purchased tickets for Spring Training baseball games in Florida. We had extra tickets, so we decided to sell them at face value online. We used eBay and craigslist to get the word out in the markets that would have interest in those tickets (New York, Detroit and Philadelphia). It took a few days, but we received an offer for one of the sets of tickets via craigslist.
They were sending a money order for the amount requested. All seemed OK until they emailed back, saying they send the wrong amount. They were requesting that I cash the money order and they send them back the difference in another money order. Red flags were flying for me that this was a scam, so I tried to get them to use PayPal. They refused, yet another red flag. This continued on and became apparent to me that this was fraud. The money order arrived, and I took it to the bank asking them to confirm that it was not real. They did, to no ones surprise.
We have since sold the tickets via eBay, and we have a happy ending. But for so many people, craigslist fraud ends with them losing hundreds and thousands of dollars. The internet is filled with stories of people losing money through scammers. The bank I took the check to told me they see people on a regular basis trying to cash bad checks through craigslist deals.
I was dealing with tickets for a baseball game hundreds of miles away. If you're selling locally, you have a much greater chance of not getting taken. Local police agencies, like Boone County Indiana are setting up craigslist Safety Zones to help avoid scams.
Newspapers out priced themselves out of the private party market, showed arrogance thinking that a site like craigslist could come in a take hundreds of millions of revenue away. There are things a local newspaper can do to stay relevant in this part of the business, but it is very very tough.
How in the world did the newspaper industry ever lose to craigslist?
There are things you can do to protect yourself from fraud on craigslist. Check out http://www.infoworld.com/article/2875832/security/how-to-stick-it-to-craigslist-scammers.html for information on how to fight back.
And for the record, avoid transactions with someone calling themselves Matthew Peterson, stigaloom23@gmail.com, phone numbers (609) 447-1278 and (480) 448-8421.
