Of course if the couple in the story had brought cash they would have lost all $3200.
On car purchases, meet at a bank. Or get a cashier’s check from a local bank and call to verify it. I like that better than large amounts of cash.
The scariest part of private car transactions is the initial meet-up and test drive. I have done it several times and so far so good.
Craigslist never went bad for me.
I had a good transaction with an individual that I planned on working with again. He changed his phone number and when I looked at my archived emails with him, I found Craigslist ‘thinks’ they are protecting me, but in reality C/L left me with no contact email after the posting was pulled down. No way for me to work past this disconnect now.