I have been selling a few things on Craigslist recently to prepare to be back in NYC more full-time. Mostly small stuff – a DVD player, a lawnmower – but in the process, received two clearly fraudulent requests. Both indicated that I must take the posting down immediately and their desire to make the purchase immediately. Both were, mysteriously deaf and therefore unable to communicate via telephone. Both wanted to wire money.

What I don’t really get is why the wire would be such a useful scam. Wouldn’t the scammee not just cancel the order before it could be processed once they found out? And why go through the trouble? Or maybe that’s just it – you go through almost no trouble and even if you’re rewarded once, you net serious cash for an hour’s worth of work.

Anyway, I came to a great video after Googling around a bit on it – what makes it great is just the style and tone of it. Good job, FTC.