Potential scam through Craigslist
 

Potential scam :

I paid Alex Julian of Chillicothe Ohio for these two cards yesterday and have not had consistent communication with him since payment was sent. I met this individual through Craigslist, somehow my ad in Brooklyn NY was found by them in western PA/Ohio.

I'll update this thread if any developments arise. Has anyone else seen or dealt with this individual?

He also claims to have a 1953 Topps set, 1957 Topps set and 1961 Topps set

You sent money to a complete stranger on craigslist hmmm

Do you have anything constructive to add or are you just going to take another goofy picture of a card in front of your face?

Sir,

Octavio is not the problem. You sent money to a stranger on Craigslist. That is a hard and true fact.

Butch

Hopefully you paid using a method where you have some recourse if he flakes out. Like maybe Paypal Goods & Services.

Never heard of him, but if he's a scammer, then he's one of many who seek to separate us from our money in exchange for sweet, sweet cardboard. These days, it's hard to trust anyone who you don't know.

I wish you the best of luck here. Maybe he's just slow to respond, and you'll get your purchased items soon enough. Hopefully it's nothing more nefarious.

Thanks for the nice reply i hope it works out for you ,,im sure you will receive both cards ,maybe if the person that sold you the cards had his picture up ,,you would feel better.anyway good luck octavio

I think it's a good sign that the pics show somebody holding the card and both have the same background. The majority of stolen card images I've seen were lifted from auctions and they wouldn't use pics like that. I do hope it wasn't paypal gift though. Best of luck!

I sure hope the money hasn't already been spent on drugs. Poor Chillicothe. I would have loved to have seen it a long time ago. The remaining bones of the town make me think it was an interesting place way back when. It's interesting now, but for all the wrong reasons.

My experience
 

I’ve had mostly scammers when I deal on Craigslist…. and especially ( like 100%) when they respond to an ad to buy. Not to be pessimistic but I think there’s a good chance the person you sent the funds to is NOT Alex Julian and does not live in Ohio. What method of payment did you use? And how good a deal did you get? Scammers tend to offer big discounts with a good story to go along with it. Just for my education, I would like to hear more details about this…. I’m sorry you are having problems and hope it turns out well for you. Rocky

"Alex" has either disconnected his number or blocked me so this is confirmed a scam.

The cards were apparently his grandfather's who passed away recently, he and his dad were going through his estate in Clarion PA. The deal was certainly too good to be true but I spoke to this person for a fair amount of time (at least I thought) for me to judge his character.

He went to the Clarion post office yesterday afternoon to ship the cards and sent me this tracking number:

RA252573870US

USPS has not scanned this package yet, and after speaking to a representative at the Clarion post office he confirmed that any package dropped off yesterday has been scanned. This package was expected to be sent priority express. When I sent the picture that Alex sent to me of him standing in the line at the post office their representative said that lobby is not what it looks like in their post office.

I'm in touch with my business insurance company and have begun to file a claim. Waiting for their advice on where/when to file a police report.

Numbers at USPS that start with R are registered mail. If it was accepted at USPS like he said and it didn't have activity on the postal intranet heads would roll. You're right about a scam.

Ugh... so sorry to hear this. Hope you get resolution with your claim.

How did you pay? You didn't send it PayPal F&F or similar, right? It is easy to get your money back if you used G&S or a similar sensible service for sending lots of money to a complete stranger.

My general approach
 

1) If it's on Craig's list - assume it's a scam until proven otherwise.
2) If I am doing business with someone I don't know or who isn't well vouched for by people I do know (and trust) I use a protected method of payment including being willing to pay the extra 3-4% fees so the seller nets their ask and I am protected.

I am sorry the above doesn't help with your current situation.

Another thing that would have made my warning sirens sound with your transaction is it appears the pictures you shared are photoshopped - as they appear 100% identical except the card has changed.

Good luck with the situation.

Good advice. But the two pictures are not the same. Look at the space between the index and the middle finger. Much bigger in the Mantle pic.

Not identical, look at the gap between the index and middle fingers

Does anyone go so far as to look at the metadata on card photos?

This can be looked at and is another evaluation point to provide information about the picture.

It may not be enough to determine authenticity, but there is enough information there to aid in garnering an opinion prior to a transaction.

Butch

How does one go about doing this, and what does it mean? Pretty unfamiliar. Any help is greatly appreciated.

What type of insurance would cover something like this?

His hand is casting a shadow, the cards are not.

I can assure you that insurance companies are not in the business of offering "scam" insurance.

Probably the same guy. Here's his '53 set.

https://stlouis.craigslist.org/atq/d...48039217.html#

Craigslist scam
 

The problem isn't paying a complete stranger- most of us on net54 have
done this very thing, on net54 itself. I have yet to be defrauded...

The problem is transacting on Craigslist. I have never, and will never. I
think I remember a comedian saying that, when a person contacts another
person on Craigslist, the two people need to decide who the murderer is first:)

Also, there's no insurance for covering a scam like the one mentioned.

Trent King

It's possible, thanks for posting this.

octavio is a well respected good dude here,,

Always pay PayPal G/S Always..

Hope everything works out for you..

https://pixelpeeper.com/exif-data-viewer

This is an on-line program. I will caveat that you are not going to exclusively rule in or out a particular photo from someone. That being said, take a photo that you have and drop it into this program. You can then see the underlying information associated with the photo.

Things like what sort of camera was used to take the picture.
What date the picture was taken.
In some instances you can even get GPS coordinates and GPS date/time information.
There is also a PhotoShop header. Not sure what would be entered here if something was photoshopped, BUT it is another datapoint for evaluation.

What does all of this mean when gathered together. A level of intent on the part of the seller. Someone legit is not gonna muck with this information if they have nothing to hide.

A red flag for me would be the absence of this metadata. One has to make an effort to remove this data.

Again, not foolproof but just another datapoint to evaluate when you are looking to buy something from someone and they send you photos of what they are selling.

Butch

If you have an iPhone, you can just slide up on a photo and see the metadata.

yes you can.

There are many ways to get metadata. Just showing one way to do that to Zan.

Butch

At the risk of prolonging the time that this thread remains on the front page, and with no disrespect intended to anybody reading, or posting on, this thread, this is a text book case of "live and learn" in regards to purchasing from people unknown to you.

The technicalities of metadata certainly CAN be helpful, but if you distrust a seller enough to be checking the metadata, that's kind a big hint as to whether you should be following thru with you potential deal. The reality of CRAIGSLIST and ease of use for scammers is the real issue. Be unlike Mike, JUST DON'T DO IT!

I collect a very esoteric (to many people) yet easy to find item, and scouring the interwebs looking for them is a daily (hourly?) thing for me, but I have NEVER looked at craigslist, and probably never will.

The OP is looking for items that have multiple listing in multiple safe(r) venues, and we are all better off in those safer venues.

The very title of the this thread is redundant (scam and craigslist) and laughable (with the word "possible").

Zan - I'm sorry this happened to you, but no insurance claim or police report is going to make it right. Move on, take it as a lesson learned.

Wish cancer on Alex Julian of Chillicothe Ohio and his ilk if you care to, but that's the best you can do is wish.

Doug "we all have a similar story" Goodman

Not an RV guy but if I owned one and sold it leaving behind a graded 53 Jackie, I don't think I'd be so generous to tell the purchasers to just keep it. Also, if I didn't collect baseball cards but saw hundreds of old cards from the early 50s, I think I'd do some research before selling lol.

A huge flaw I see in most of these stories is somehow coming into these graded cards from an elderly person's estate or some collector who doesn't have any care for them. Of course it's possible, but based on the circumstances, I don't think you'd find a slabbed card in your grandfather's childhood collection and I doubt an investor who had a graded Jackie, with a ~1 year old SGC slab, would be the type to just forget about it.

The only way to do business on Craigslist is to arrange a meet up, face to face, not by yourself but with company, and no money changing hands until the merchandise is seen and handled. No long distance deals or money sent. I have several glorious antique tube radios purchased in this way.

+1
I have used Craigslist a fair amount, but only locally and in person, and never for sports collectibles. It's a great service especially for big stuff like trailers, furniture, weight sets etc...

Leon in his new trailer and weights...