Dodged a bullet on a convincing Craigslist scam!

[DLagent]

A couple months ago I was selling a blue-face Milgauss. I had posted it on TRF and also on Craigslist (yeah yeah, I know). I wasn't really in a hurry to sell the watch or in dire need of the cash, so I really wanted an easy, stress-free transaction either face-to-face or with a reputable TRF member.

I got a call from a woman in the Dallas area who offered me $7,750, which was more than anyone else had offered. She said she wanted the watch quickly to give it to her husband for his birthday in two days. She claimed that her husband had been screwed on buying a watch online in the past, so she wanted to be ultra careful about it. She insisted on making COD payment arrangements where I would ship it to a FedEx Office location and they would collect a cashier's check from her to be shipped to me before turning over the package. I called FedEx and they told me that was possible, so I went with it.

I brought the watch to FedEx Office intending to grill the employee there about exactly how safe this process would be, but before I could even get into that, they told me that they only insured jewelry up to some low number (can't remember what), so I said never mind and walked out.

I called the woman and apologized but said that I couldn't ship it via FedEx and that I honestly wasn't willing to jump through any more hoops to try to sell her the watch. She texted me later and asked me if I would maybe buy a watch on her behalf on TRF and she'd pay me for it, and I said no way, I wasn't willing to spend any more time on the matter.

....Fast forward to today, I get a call from a detective in the Dallas area from a local PD's fraud and financial crimes division. Apparently someone else fell for the same exact story, sent her a watch, and never got paid. The detective was going through their phone records, found my number, and called me. I told him my story and forwarded him our email correspondence and screenshots of our text correspondence.

I'm usually pretty damn good at assessing people's trustworthiness, and this one didn't set off any alarm bells. Luckily, I avoided a scam that would've cost me over $7,000. Phew!