Craigslist trade scams?

So I've got a bike listed on CL (here too), and I've had three offers for trades now, and all three seem to be scammers. I only know this because the communications were sketchy, and the guys ended up disappearing and cutting off comms. What I can't figure out is what the nature of the scam is.

I get the whole 'I have an agent who will pick up the bike' payment scams, but this isn't that. I am pretty sure these are all different, local people, and yet I have a hard time believing that there are so many bike thieves around Nashville (not a big bike theft city) that there is a subset of thieves that are all finding my bike on CL; the whole thing is weird.

The odd part is that if the guy is going to steal the bike, shouldn't it just be easier to say 'ya I'm interested, let's get together' then find where the bike is, and come back and steal it? Why the trade subterfuge?

Do any of you have experience with this particular flavor of ripoff? I can't figure out what the end game is...how does this end up in them benefiting? It's a mystery to me.

I am talking to a guy about a trade now. We have talked several times on the phone and really have a feel for each other. I will likely go to his house this week. we don't know where the other lives other than a general area. I wouldn't give anyone that info until I have had several conversations. If it still seems a little off or uncomfortable then meet in a public parking lot.

But in just a few minutes of talking to my guy it was obvious we were both bike guys and ended up shooting the shit about other things than the bike. My final thought is, if it doesn't feel right then it probably isn't.

Craigs list....some of those folks are a special kind of special.

Around here there are always a bunch of bikes with no title....

They seem to sell the instant I ask for a notarized bill of sale and a copy of their ID.

When buying or selling its cash and MCO or title, or no deal.

Might not be a scam.
If I am looking for a motorcycle and you are one of four guys with something I like, I'm going to contact all four of you, pick one, and not pick three of you.
If you call me back I'll tell you what happened, but I'm not going to call you to say I bought from someone else unless we were really working toward some arrangement (now cancelled) and I don't want to be rude.

I've traded a supermoto for cash and a gun, and I traded a car for cash and a new macbookpro, all of which was 100% legit and verified. It did take a while to clean all the blood off the gun though....I wonder how it got on there in the first place?

The guy the cash came from was rude, he bled on the gun after being pistol whipped before handing over the cash.

Cash only. No trades. Meet at police station.

Every CL ad that I write includes the following:

Terms: Cash. No checks, no trades, no flakes.

Thus, any communication that I receive with mention of a trade offer is by definition a waste of my time. They are deleted without delay.

If I'm selling something, it's because I want to cash out, not trade out.

So, @dietDrThunder , to address your inquiry here, I'd want to know how well written, or not, your Craigslist ad is in order to know if it would dissuade any scammers.

The hard truth is that many CL ads have room for improvement.

The first text in my ad:

NOTE TO SCAMMERS: Don't bother. All meetings will take place at the local county sheriff's office which is just down the street from me. You won't get me or my bike, and I'm retired, so I don't have anything better to do than spend countless hours hunting you down and getting you busted, just for fun. Really, don't bother.

My ad: https://nashville.craigslist.org/mcy/6258097472.html

Sold dozens of bikes and never been scammed. I think it's a bit like the terrorist threat can happen but pretty unlikely far more likely that he lost interest after finding another bike

Makes me laugh.

Do you think scammers scour craigslist, click ads, and then read "no scammers" and think "well shucks, I had better move on to someone who is welcoming scammers!"

Laugh all you want, but yes that is exactly what I think. Scammers like these prey on the fact that most people are not savvy to the ways of Internet scams. I sold another bike on CL about 18 months ago, and my ad had no such warning, and I had maybe 4 or 5 scam emails a day for a week, until I added one. On this ad, I've had a total of 4 I think, since I put it up, and 0 of the traditional remote buyer scam.

I got scammed on Craigslist once. I was going to buy my Mom a new computer, and somebody had a Mac Mini for a very low price, like $100, but it was missing the power adapter, he said he lost it moving down here for college. So I met him at the Walmart, and paid him a hundred bucks, seemed like a nice enough kid.
I took it home and ordered a power adapter on ebay. When it arrived about a week later I plugged it in and it wouldn't turn on. You gotta be kidding me right? I've worked in IT, since the dawn of IT. I took the computer apart and it was a complete box of goods. It was just a motherboard, with an old 2.5" hard drive and a gear shift knob taped up to give it some weight.
I call the number and of course, no answer.
So I take the hard drive, plug it into my PC, load up some Mac drivers to read it and go to work. I pretty much found out everything I needed to know about the kid, he went to the local Embry Riddle Aeronautical Univiersity, I had his class schedule, teachers names, parents names and address. I knew what kind of porn he looked at. It was his old hard drive and I had him.
So I called him up and left a message telling him if he didn't get hold of me in an hour, I was calling the University Police, and his parents. He called in about 3 minutes.
I met him back at the Walmart and he gave me my money back and apologized profusely. I did hand him his computer back.

So... a week goes by and I am still looking for a Mac for my Mom. And I see a very similar ad, Mac Mini, power supply lost $100. That little Sh!t! I call him up and he swears he is selling a different Mac Mini. I tell him I want to see it, or I am turning him in to the police.
He has me come to his apartment this time, and shows me a brand new Mac Mini. I whip out my newly aquired adapter and plug it in. It boots up, and it is the real deal. Fully loaded i7 with 16gb of Ram and SSD. He was expecting me to give it a nod of approval and move on with my life, but instead, I hand him a C-note and say "thanks, I'll take it."
The look of horror on his face as I walked away with his brand new computer.
Priceless.
My mom really likes it.

^^^^^ HERO STATUS! BRAVO!

Yep! I put something like "If you are from out of town, that's no problem. However, if you come across like a typical scammer with a third-party/shipping agent, fake cashier's checks etc., I will simply ignore you." and it seems to work very well. I still get the odd stupid low-ball offer, which I ignore, but nobody buying for their son in the military, who wants to send me a cashier's check with enough extra to cover shipping, etc., etc.

I've never posted that I'm interested in trading. In fact I usually say I am not interested - but I still usually get one or two offers anyway. Not sure what the typical "trade" scam looks like either, unless it's trading your nice dirt bike for a stolen street bike. Exactly what were these people saying that made you suspicious?

I have never allowed a CLister to my house. We always meet somewhere else (usually the corner convenience store.) About half the time, they never show up anyway.

Nice bike Thunder. I still have my '02 but it's set up for mx.

Do folks really use oilers on woods bikes? I'v e never heard of that.

Also, when I said "you" in that ad, I wasn't talking to you...so THERE!

On a slightly different note, I once sold a Triumph Trophy 1200 to a guy. Actually he traded me some cash, a nice Ruger Mark III .22 pistol with a bunch of ammo, a specialized mountain bike, and a fixie bike. But I am getting off point.
He took the bike and I never heard from him again. Almost a year later I get a call from an insurance company. Evidently, he never took the bike out of my name, and continued riding it on my papers until he had a crash and injured somebody.
I had some explaining to do, more than one time to more than one person. But finally got it sorted out.

There are some people who just enjoy trading stuff: A bike for another bike this weekend; That bike for a gun or a boat next month; The gun for another gun or another bike or a truck, etc., the month after. Trading is the same to me as selling one thing and buying the other - unless it's a smoking deal (and sometimes they are) why would I take something in trade unless it's something I would have wanted to buy if I had the cash in my hand?