Lara F Johnson
Complaint 349421 Details

Lara responded to my Craigslist post for an appliance set. The initial test message from number 404-594-6875 read: "I am interested in your ad; GE Kitchen appliance. Is your price frim? Kindly reply to my personal email [email protected]. Don't text or call back."

The email I received is almost the exact wording as others have reported: "Thanks for taking time to reply via email. Please understand that I cant come around to inspect or see for myself as I currently serve in the U.S Army as a HRO 42H (Senior Human Resources Officer) (AG) currently on active duty and we've been quite busy in the field these days with lots of restrictions, strictly no calls for security reasons. We only have secure access to the internet as our major means of communication for now. I am trying to buy this for someone who needs it and I am OK with your asking price, just wanted to be sure its not going higher. If you don't mind, I can only pay through PayPal at the moment because its a very secure way to make or receive payment online making it my preferred payment method. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries. Getting one is fast and free at paypal. com. Kindly answer these few questions.

Whats your reason for selling? Are you the original owner? If so, how long have you owned it? Any other thing you think I should know? Do you mind sharing a few close up pictures with me?

I hope you consider my offer and if you do you can stop negotiations with any other person as I am ready to buy now to make it a quick sale. We can schedule pick up after you have confirmed and received payment via paypal. Thanks for understanding, hope to read from you soon."

I did send photos but when she asked me to send a Pay Pal invoice, sirens went off. I use a nonsense email address for all my Craigslist activity. My Pay Pal is not linked to that address. Potential damages were $900.