CRAIGS.LIST is anti-american

[JCarles]

Myself and millions of americans are trying to survive selling our personal items on ebay or craigs list yet in trying to buy anything on Craigs.list anywhere in the country they have all these bright scary FRAUD signs claimming if any one mentions WESTERN UNION or suggests using PAYPAL or EBAY they are scammers and to sell to no one except CASH to your next door neibor.  I have tried to buy things from people and no one will take my money because CRAIGS.LIST says not to use PAYPAL OR WESTERN UNION two of the safest money transactions we have in america..  I am shocked at all the people who have turned me down to purchase because of this.  I actually have dozens.  These scary signs are on every page and even your emails with CRAIGS.LIST. and CRAIGS.LIST is in every state, county, and now every country telling tens of millions of people to be afraid.  Very anti-american in my opinion. 

[BigKahuna97]

Why not put yourself in the sellers shoes.....

You buy an item off craigslist and pay via PayPal.......

You return home and file a dispute.....

Seller can not prove she handed the item to your and loses money.......

How is that fair or Anti-American?

Think of it like this.....scammers use certain methods to scam craigslisters.  You come along, not knowing, and offer the same method of payment.  People refuse to work with you and you get mad.  That would be like wearing a mask while brandishing a gun in a bank yet getting ticked when people accuse you of being a robber.  Does it make sense now?

[GolfGal]

Used *properly* - Craigslist should be for selling and buying of goods locally only.  This means personal pickup - inspect goods as needed, pay cash.  That's really the intent of their service.

Unfortunately countless scammers use endless amounts of styles of FRAUD to attempt to steal from Craigslist advertisers/buyers.  Those often may involve PP, WU and many other facades to hide behind.

User warnings are only pure common sense, to help advise people who have less of it than others.  No source of funding is absolutely safe until you have the cash in hand - and even if you buy something that is delivered C.O.D. CASH ONLY - there are no guarantees that the box you open won't contain soiled diapers as opposed to that new laptop you just bought!

FWIW - IMHO and experience - PayPal has a very  poor reputation of supporting customers who have been ripped off.  Western Union?  Please - that equates to ALWAYS FRAUD in my book as there is no recourse there whatsoever.  Might as well wire transfer the scammers the money!    American Express has the best reputation for consumer protection - but not everyone can accept that form of payment.