HELP me with an ad for an iMac I see on Craiglist

[robalan88]

i came across a craiglist listing for an iMac 21" 2010 model w/ 4GB RAM, 1 TB HDD, i3 CPU.

no other info given other than that he says he has the box and shows it w/ box in a pic on the ad.

He is asking $610 for it. Seems too good to be true. What should I ask in an email and look for if I visit him and sit in front of it. Any diagnostics I can run if he lets me sit at it?

 

[Tomorrow]

...a craiglist listing...

<snip>

no other info given other than that he says he has the box and shows it w/ box in a pic on the ad.

<snip>

He is asking $610 for it. Seems too good to be true.

 

[Reticent]

Sorry bud

I'm sorry. I know that you are so excited about this iMac right now (and I'm really, honestly, not trying to be condescending at all about it). But Tomorrow is totally right, RED FLAG. This is absolutely too good to be true, even if it's what it pretends to be there may be some stuff on the HD that you don't want to be tracked down to you, or it may just be an elaborate hoax. Even if it's not a craigslist hoax, there may be stuff leftover on the HD that you don't want to be recoverable and linked to you. Just an observation.

So I'm sorry, but you can't in good conscious, go for this machine.

 

[Naimfan]

Total scam.

 

[Apple OC]

What should I ask in an email and look for if I visit him and sit in front of it. Any diagnostics I can run if he lets me sit at it?

if you do email him back ... tell him that it seems like a scam

 

[Reticent]

if you do email him back ... tell him that it seems like a scam

This is definitely a good idea if you choose to go forward with this. But I still have to advise caution. From what I understand, even a 35-zero erase on an HD still cannot hide things that shouldn't be there. And it would be all too easy, I'm afraid, to alter a system profiler with an updated machine as all you have to do is go up to the apple icon in the left corner, go to the system profiler, and then "save as". Not sure how you'd proceed from there, but if he could import that save as file from another computer and convince you it's the profiler of the machine you're buying (as the files look identical) you'd have bought the wrong machine. You just can't trust this in good conscious. I'm truly very sorry if you got your hopes up on this, but you just shouldn't do this. This has red flags all over it.

 

[MacHamster68]

just ignore the add and forget about it , nobody is that desperate for cash to sell a 2010 iMac for $610 , nobody ...would be that desperate to get rid of his new iMac
having said that maybe some heroin addicts who stole a iMac could be the exception...but those dont have enough brain leftover to do a advert on craiglist

 

[whoda]

I can save you a lot of hassle with this. Just mail me the cash and consider it a lesson learned.