i heard about this on the clark howard aqm radio talk show and it is a scam...

ok ...the way it works is someone contacts you about buying something you have for sale it has happened with vehicles. from what i am told...


you are contacted by someone claiming to be a prospective buyer...they get youre info(name and address)tell you they will send a cashiers check for an amount larger than the amount agreed upon for the purchase of the item...they want you to deposit the cashiers check in the bank....and want you to write a check from youre acct,or do a wire transfer to someone else such as the person who is shipping the vehicle or item back to the prospective buyer...and a few days later youre bank finds out that the cashiers check is forged and no good....

it turns out that you are out whatever amoutn of $$ you sent to this scammer,,,and they leave the vehicle or item behind because the only thing the scammer was in it for was the clean and real money


clark howard has a website.... www.clarkhoward.com he helps people find out about scams and helps with a whole bunch of other advice on loans and and other things...i encourage people to go to that website and check the "find youre radio station" link at the top of the page to see if you can catch his radio show ...

 

I have heard of that scam before and am always careful. there are a lot of legit people out there and it's to bad that a few bad ones can cause people to be so weary that they pass up a real deal.

 

I have had numerous people try that on me through ebay. Just say now and accept amount for purchase only. That usally gets them to leave you alone.

 

Clark Howard RULES!!!!!! He is one intelligent guy!

 

It happens all too often, I have had to investigate several of these scams even in our little town, watch out for the ones wanting to have avehicel shipped, some are legit, don't feel a sense of security with a cashiers check, many forged ones out there, look good feel good, but wortheless, clear all cashiers checks through your bank before sending any product or merchandise, cash in hand..... good post and advice....

 

I'm sorry but if you fall for something as stupid as that you deserve your money to be stolen. If someone did that to me..a little red flag would go off in my head and would say...hmm..this is odd, something seems a little fishy with this person.

 

I completely agree. Mainly because this happens with "buyers" from another half of the world, I would at least have checked the lousy (literally) money order to see of the institution in question even exists!!!

Then again I've never claimed to be a nice guy, so I would have waited for the MO to go through as good (not that it happens in this case), kept the surplus and said "tough luck"....

Makes about as much sense as buying computers from alleged sellers in ROMANIA!

 

i've had a few of those types of inquiries on some items i have for sale lately. one guy from africa wanted my snowmobile...??? and a guy in London wanted my case 970 for his church. both sounded similar and claimed they'd have shipping figured out and all. now i can't hardly tell what's real and not anymore

 

yea i almost fell for it though i wouldn't call myself stupid, nor do i feel that i would be deserving of such a crime. yea there were little red flags, but sometimes the desperation of needing to sell something will justify ones motives in your head. yea fishy as hell, the first one u get, the 2nd 3rd and so on, pretty much seals the deal to be a fake.
don't feel bad for almost being taken, be grateful that u weren't. the reason that this scam is so prevalent is because it is working on so many people. how are u supposed to know that something is fake. u get a money order in the mail from a us bank, and it cashes. u have cash in your hand. u find out only after the fact...

 

Tell them to send the money Western Union instead of Cashier's Check, you're ear will burn from the speed of being hung up on. Or, you'll send their money back via cashier's check. Same people run the Nigerian cash transfer shell game.

 

It's not always because people are "stupid", because in my neck of the woods that could happen to someone, mostly because there are alot of friendly people who do what they think is the right thing, we still stop and pick up hitch hikers and fix broke down cars around here.

 

No,it's because they're stupid. No such thing as a free lunch.

 

its happen to me, only for one reason when i suspected something, i contacted my local police department, they said to follow through with it, till i got the money order to see if it was real, well when i recieved it, they found out it wasnt real and actually caught the guy somewhere in new york.

 

ignorance is not the same as being stupid. how is someone supposed to know that there is a scam going on somewhere else in the world. i was a first time seller. first time to the net for that matter. and they tried to get me. now im not stupid by any means, but then again neither are the scammers. don't u think that they covered their bases. in the mind of a "virgin" seller, the practices could be justified. the desire to rid yourself of a burdening vehicle could easily overshadow your defences.
i see youv'e got more than 1000 posts to our fine site here. obviously u spend much more time on the net than i do. and have probably seen and heard of the scam before. so does that make u smarter than me??

i doubt it

 

It has nothing at all to do with what amount of time I spend on the web. Let's not let this degrade into personal attacks, o.k.? I would never get caught in any kind of scam on the net or off. It always amazes me when I hear of these things and I think," Who would fall for that?" Think about it. Some guy is going to send you a money order for three grand for a $20 dollar part? There is clearly something wrong with that. Maybe not smarter, but certainly more skeptical, if not more aware. This may have something to do with locale. Here in L.A. I have picked up hitchhikers but VERY rarely and only if I had a firearm in the truck within my immediate reach. We just don't do things like that here. I think we are naturally much more wary here in Socal.