Monday, June 23, 2008

Ripped off on Craigslist

I guess this is obvious, but I wanted to post this cause I see tons of these ads on Craigslist, and I know someone that got ripped off with this.

People are selling Westjet credits on Craigslist. Westjet credits are transferable. My friend found an ad for a Westjet credit of $700, and he was selling for $600. She contacted him, and she offered $500. With no hesitation, the guy agreed. So he asked her to meet him at Metrotown Mall in front of Yogen Fruz. She waited for the guy and he never showed. He called her from a "private" number and then told her his son had some trouble in school, but his friend would meet her at Lougheed skytrain station. So she drove over there, and some guy met up with her, he called Westjet from his cell and transferred the credit to her name, and then she called Westjet to confirm the credits were in fact in her name, and WJ confirmed the credits were now in her name. She paid him, and about an hour later, Westjet called her to tell her the ticket was purchased that same morning with a STOLEN credit card, and they just found about it, so the credits she had would not work. Although my friend did in fact make a mistake, I just want to point out, why the heck does WestJet sell a ticket that day, and when someone calls back the SAME day to cancel the ticket, and DOES NOT want a refund (if the purchase is within a 24 hour period, they are entitled to a refund) and insists on a credit, THIS SHOULD RAISE RED FLAGS!! Apparently a year ago, some con artist ripped off 50 people with this scam, and Westjet said they would put more controls into their system to stop this from happening.. Obviously they are doing nothing.

Anyhow, my friend called Westjet and complained, and she was told it is her fault, however, they were willing to help her out a bit.. anyways, lesson here is, be very cautious about buying credits and gift cards and that sort of thing from Craigslist.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't even bother using Craigslist anymore. They have made it very difficult many times as they add new and more restrictive rules. I have actually found it easier to post on places like GoGinzo.com, Kijiji.com, and Backpage.com because they are a little more liberal with their rules. Just my .02!

CL Scam Buster said...

Thank you for posting this. I run a blog devoted to catching and reporting scam artists than do business on Craigslist. I would like to put your story on there.

http://www.clscambuster.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

Tommy Ryan ripped me off for baseball tickets to the cubs
don't use "lets talk tickets" for anything. his phone # is 773-595-8228

hardcoreknitter1 said...

that yarn i made it with was old, but i usually get my yarn at Michael's.