Should I be worried? (Possible scam, or I'm just paranoid)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

A few weeks ago, I found a gently-used Jumperoo (baby toy) on craigslist for $50 (normally priced around $100). I texted the seller, they texted back, I asked to come by the next day to take a look at it. They sent me their address (a nice apartment complex just a few minutes from me). I gave Mr. Smaje the address and phone number (just in case) and off I go.

I park in the apartment complex and notice a guy hanging out in a truck right near my parking space. We make eye contact; no biggie. I go to the seller’s apartment and check out the Jumperoo. The seller is friendly; from the looks of his apartment, he has a couple of kids and wife, but they aren’t there at the moment. The Jumperoo is in good condition, so I hand the guy $50 cash and leave. He offers to help me to my car, but I say thanks, I’m fine. End of transaction.

I get to my car, put the Jumperoo in the back seat, and start to pull out of the space. Some guy shouts at me to stop – he tells me I have a flat tire. I get out of my car and sure enough, flat front passenger side tire. Boo!

I call AAA for a tow truck – there’s a spare in my trunk, but I need help changing it. While I’m waiting, the guy I had made eye contact earlier drives by in his truck with a few friends and asks if I need any help. I tell him no, thanks, I called a tow truck. He drives off.

The tow truck arrives and the guy changes my tire. He looks carefully at the old tire and mentions how odd it is that he can’t see where the tire was punctured. “Could someone have let out the air?” I ask. He didn’t think so, since the valve cap was on tight.

Just as he’s finishing up, I get a text from the seller. He said that I gave him too much money – he said he posted the Jumperoo for $40 and I gave him $50 (and thinking back, I’m not posititive it *didn’t *say $40 on the ad). So he said to text me his address and he’ll post me the remaining $10. I text him, saying I actually am still in the parking lot, so he can just bring the $10 down right now if he wants. No response, so I text him my mailing address (the address of my apartment complex, but not my apartment # - the post office will still deliver) and tell him to put the money in the mail.

I haven’t received the money in the mail, and now I’m wondering if this was some sort of scam, or an attempt at some sort of scam. Like, someone flattened my tire and then they planned to “help” me by doing something to my car, then they’d come to my home and steal my car? Am I completely paranoid? Anyone have any idea what sort of scam they *could *pull, given the facts and circumstances?

2

You’re WAY paranoid IMO. The two people probably don’t even know each other.

3

The fact that he didn’t come right downstairs with the $10 was suspicious to me.

Did you take the tire to be repaired? Was it punctured? I had an experience in a car wash while obviously on the road traveling alone - a perfectly good tire was suddenly flat and the “kindly” attendant pointed me to the tire shop next door. Unfortunately for them, I pulled across the street and changed my tire myself. I’m pretty sure the “kindly” attendant was a scammer in cahoots with the tire guy.

So, yeah, something could have been going on, and maybe someone was looking to take advantage of a helpless female on her own. Or it was just a series of creepy coincidences…

4

I have yet to get the tire repaired, since I can drive on the spare just fine. When I do get around to getting it repaired, I will definitely ask to see if they can tell why it went flat.

The whole experience pretty much made me realize that I should learn how to change my own tire (and change my own oil, and learn more about cars in general).

5

Well, it won’t do you much good if you are still driving around with a flat spare a few weeks later :wink:

6

True that! Thanks for reminding me of the possibility. :slight_smile: Guess I’ll make the time this weekend to get that all taken care of.

7

Good for you for being suspicious. I would be, too. It sounds really off. Good think you are in an apartment complex. Is your name on the outside?

Can you look up the original ad or your email correspondence to see the original price?

8

:eek:

Well, that seems a little drastic.
I may be paranoid, too, but I think it’s odd. Too many strange things going on at once there. I’m glad you didn’t give him your whole address. I’d keep an extra eye out for a while, though.

9

I was thinking the same thing. Did you pay with some combination of bills that didn’t make it obvious that it was $50? Did he just blindly accept that it was enough money without counting?

-D/a

10

I’m going to go with paranoid. Even if there was a scam involved I can’t figure it out and even if I could, I REALLY can’t figure out how the tire guy would be involved…wait, here it is. You text the person your address, someone robs your house since they know you’re down in the parking lot (most likely, since it an ad for kids stuff) waiting for your husband to come change the tire so now your house is empty.
That’s the only thing I can think of and if that’s the case, you’re already in the clear.
Should be interesting to see if they pull anything out of your tire.

OTOH, if you get a cashiers check for $1000 dollars and a text saying “Sorry, I made out the check for $1000 instead of 10.00, could you cash it and drop off the $990” that would be different.

11

I would say that they were headed out to do your house because they expected you to call your husband to come change the tire. Obviously when you told them that you called for a service to change your tire, that changed their mind. Also not sending them the apartment number was a good idea - they may have driven over to see if they could spot your place, perhaps expecting to find a house, or a duplex and getting a complex instead =)

Only thing that would have been perfect was to have texted a PO box for the reimbursement =)

12

I think it sounds pretty fishy. Perhaps it’s the shaky moral ground upon which I have built my castle, but if someone gave me $50 for a $40 item, I’d probably just keep the $10 as a little windfall. If I were in an honest mood though, and wanted to return the money, and found out you were still in the parking lot when I called you, I’d have just walked out and given you the money, and offered to help change the tire (really, you should learn to do this - it’s easy). I think they wanted to keep you there so they could case your place and see if they could do a quick burgle.
And the Jumperoo was probably stolen anyway.

13

I don’t know what the scam would be, but it does sound really odd. I had a guy try to scam me in Singapore, many years ago. Seemed the nicest guy, but there was no doubt it was a scam, so I declined.

Any way of checking the original ad to see if really was for $40 or $50?

14

Can’t you just drop by a service station and put some air in the tire and see if it holds? Doesn’t take any skill or physical ability to achieve that.

15

Drastic? Anyone owning a car should know how to do these things. Or was that a whoosh?

16

Not sure why that seems drastic…I’m the kind of girl that would definitely call the plumber in case of a leak, and I fret when I break a nail, but even I can change a tire. It really is kind of a survival skill.

17

Check the underside of the Jumperoo. Look for the “made in” stamp. Check if it’s from Nigeria.

18

It was kind of a joke, like, you’re going to learn how to do car repairs, so that you don’t get ripped off by guys selling jumparoos at apartment complexes where other guys in pickup trucks make eye contact with you and other guys tell you that you have a flat tire?

I didn’t say it was a good joke.

19

Hahahhaa! I wasn’t sure what you meant by the comment either, Alice The Goon. I actually just meant that I should learn to fix my own car in case I get a flat tire in the middle of nowhere and can’t call for help (nothing to do with preventing scams or anything). I mentioned this same idea to the guy who was changing my tire, and he agreed that it’s wise for everyone – male or female – to know how to do stuff like change a tire or what to do if the car overheats.

I wasn’t able to find the original craigslist posting for the Jumperoo – I assume the lister took it down after it was sold. I handed the guy two twenties and a ten – fold over but fanned out a bit, so he could see the amount without having to count it, but I’m pretty sure he just pocketed the money without looking at it.

I think the scam I was worried about was that someone would steal a part from under my car (or loosen it) while fixing the tire. I remember hearing a story on NPR (maybe Car Talk) last year about thieves loosening a part under the car, and then going back for the part later. Sound familiar to anyone?

Anyhoo, I’m not going to fret about it too much. Thanks for your wise input, Dopers!

20

My dad wouldn’t teach me to drive until I had shown him I could change a tire and jump a battery!