Most people use Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for ordinary reasons.

They need a couch. They need a crib. They need to clear out a garage before moving day.

Most of the time, the exchange lasts less than 10 minutes. A few messages, an address, cash, and both people go home. But these

sites and apps depend on one risky thing. Trust between strangers who know almost nothing about

each other. The four stories in this episode all begin with a simple listing, a generator, a nursery

set, an arcade cabinet, a free sectional, and in each

case the person answering that listing was not interested in a normal sale.

Story 1 The Generator

In September of 2021, Tyler Mercer was 37 and living outside Redding, California. He worked as an

electrician, had a nine-year-old son every other week, and was behind on two payments for the

truck he needed for work. That month, after another fire season filled with smoke and outages,

Tyler decided to sell the backup generator he had bought the year before.

It was a heavy red Honda model that could run refrigerators, lights, and a well pump.

He listed it on Craigslist for $1,400.

By Friday afternoon, he had received 11 messages.

Nine were low offers.

One was obvious spam. The last one was from a man

named Seth Holcomb, who said he would pay the full amount in cash that weekend. He said

his family's walnut orchard south of Cottonwood had lost power twice in a month, and he needed

a generator strong enough to keep the pump running if it happened again.

He asked two questions only.

Did it start on the first pull, and could Tyler prove it would hold a load?

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