I almost got scammed bad!!!

I was just a victim of a scam from a scum bag trying to buy a tv I posted on Craigslist.

I posted a TV for sale for 1200 bucks on craigslist. I had a person contact me through yahoo email saying he wanted to buy the tv. The add sounded great and the pictures he said were good enough for him. He was unable to come by and look at it but was going to mail me a check. Told me to go ahead and wait till it cleared.

Sure enough the check came but at 5000 dollars. Remember I was only selling the tv for 1200 dollars.

He emailed back and said his secretary sent the wrong amount. He told me (through emails) to go ahead and deposit the check and let him know when it clears.

So I did. It did clear and the money was in my account. I emailed him and told him the check cleared. He told me he was having UPS pick up the TV by the end of the week.
He was very eager for me too send him the remaining balance of 3800 bucks back to him.

He wanted me to go to Longs Drugs and use money gram to wire him the money. Huge flag went up in my mind there! (Should have been earlier flags I know)

Luckily my work sent me out of town for 2 days. I told him and he got irate but said to wire the money to him ASAP.

I get home and my wife tells me the bank has taken the money back out of our account. All 5000 dollars of it.

I called the bank and they told me the check was in fact a fake and the funds were taken from my account by them.

If I had wired this man the 3800 dollars, I would have been scammed bad. Thank god for my work …


I contacted the police and there was absolutely nothing they could do. I would have been out 3800 dollars…. And possibly my TV.

I feel stupid it happen to me but it did so all beware. Never wire money and deal face to face if possible.

Luckely I didnt loose anything but I was very close to sending the money to him.

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Originally Posted by [AK]FiGHT*CLuB

I contacted the police and there was absolutely nothing they could do. I would have been out 3800 dollars…. And possibly my TV.

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Seen this numerous times at the Credit Union through EBAY auctions. We even had a member receive a counterfeit check that was written on a VALID Allstate Corporate account. LOL The check cleared and it wasn't until Allstate Corporate reconciled and saw a check way out of a sequence that it even realized it had happened.

Damn FC that sucks. But thanks for sharing this. I do stuff on Craigslist all the time. A friend of mine was looking for cars and was browsing around on Craiglist. The best scam was so stupid: "Mercedes E-class is sitting on the dock in Germany waiting to come to the U.S. but I'm having so many problems with customs. You mail me $3800 and then you can just pick up the car in NY." hahahahaha

When did a check clearing stop being a check clearing anyway? I thought that was the whole point - they waited a time to make sure there are sufficent funds to transfer, then it "clears". I'm confused.

But yes, thanks for the headsup.

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Originally Posted by [AK]Clay

When did a check clearing stop being a check clearing anyway? I thought that was the whole point - they waited a time to make sure there are sufficent funds to transfer, then it "clears". I'm confused.

But yes, thanks for the headsup.

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A check "clearing" is a bit misleading. A check can clear, meaning there is sufficient funds, but later can determine to be fraudulent in process and the funds removed.

Also, the financial institution might give you credit for the check immediately without it clearing the Fed, or they may but a number of days hold on it, and then giving you credit without it clearing the fed as well. Thus, even though you received credit for it, it doesn't necessarily mean it "cleared" the system yet. It's really an Institutions own policies that dictate the time of hold, although there are regulations on the maximum length they can put a hold on the funds based on the geographic location of the depository institution.

However, fraudulent transactions are an entirely different issue. It doesn't matter if it cleared or not, a fraudulent transaction can and will be reversed in most cases.

Holy crap! My wife was selling baby stuff on Craiglist and just got this e-mail from an interested party just 20 minutes ago:

"Thanks for your concerned, am okay with the pics and the condition,which i
will forward to the shipping company that will pick it from your door to my
own destination.
I will like to pay with money order which i think is okay.do get back to me
with your name and address so that i can mail the payment to you quick"


Boy, does this sound familiar or what????

The first e-mail asked for additional pics (thus, removing the anonymous e-mailer that craigslist offers), and the second e-mail starts the scam.

It is rampid throughout craigslists right now... Im glad I posted about it. Keep us updated how it turns out. Good luck!

Oh, and if you get an email from a deposed prince asking you to assist in the recovery of his father's "locked oil assets", try to resist the urge to help him out.

What, that nice barrister from Nigeria?

What? It's not true? Ah fudge! But I read it on the internets! If it's online, it's true, right?

My favorite 'scam' from Craiglist isn't so much a scam just crappy haggling. I posted a 200 disc CD changer for sale for $120. A guy he would take it and kept procrastinating coming over to pick it up... finally when he did he only "had" $100 on him. And that point I just wanted to get rid of it. He won. Pretty cheap little tactic. Of course I could have said 'no', but I just wanted to get rid of the thing after a month.

My wife sent a response to the buyer stating that in light of the conversation she just had with the FBI's Sacramento Field Office, she would not be accepting payment by mail but the buyer was more than welcome to pay in cash. Surprising no one, the buyer has not responded.

hahaha.

lol, very nice!

I post gigs for stagehands on Craigslist and I get a lot of e-mails from princes wanting me to help them by transfering money to my account. I usually get back with them and tell them if they can't unpack a truck or push a road case I do not care and to buzz off. I usually get some real nasty responses when I do that. I am one of those kids that likes to throw rocks at wasp nests just to tick them off lol.

Same thing happened to my folks, luckily I over heard them discussing it and remembered this post. Thanks for the info.

I'm glad you remembered this post. If the deal sounds fishy, then take the safest route. no matter how bad you want to sell something.

Anyone see the commercials from FakeChecks.org?

Their Greeeaaaaat!

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Originally Posted by Osred

Anyone see the commercials from FakeChecks.org?

Their Greeeaaaaat!

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Yeah, they should have done those years ago. They put it into perspective really well. It's unbelievable how many people we have who fall for those things. Luckily, we are able to catch most of them when they go to actually wire them the "fee".

We are starting to see the lottery scams again.