Scam Reporter | Scam Tips Received | ||||||
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Anonymous New London, CT, United States 2015-11-20 18:51:25 Overpayment Scam Craigslist (craiglist.com) | Craigslist Scam
1) Try to rush you. "Need to get this before my wedding anniversary next week" or "Need this before I move into my new apartment in a couple days". 2) Making their offer irresistable. "I'll give you $40 extra for holding this item for me and removing it from Craigslist now". Tempting, right? 3) Paying with a check. Bankers check, personal check, whatever. BANKERS CHECKS AREN'T ALWAYS REAL. Fake banks, fake accounts, lots of details and time put into it, it seems very legit- but it isn't. They'll ask for a lot of personal information for the check, then overnight ship the "check" and say "Cash the Chec, once you have the money in hand...". Don't forget, they need the product ASAP and don't want to wait the 3-5 days for the check to ACTUALLY clear since they know after 3-5 days the check will bounce and you won't have your item anymore. The money CAN show up in your account even with a bad check- if you're a long time customer to your bank, they'll advance you the money with good faith in you that the check is legit. Once your chrck bounces the money will be revoked from your account AND you'll probably be charged a $20 bounced check fee. They will become impatient after a couple days, pressuring you to just finish your transaction with them, before the check bounces. 4) Third Party- Both times they involved a 3Rd party moving co. who would "get in contact with me for pick up". They will, in some cases, send you EXTRA MONEY IN THE CHECK to Western Union to the moving company before they'll come pick up. So you're selliing something for $80, they offer you another $40 to "hold" the product that's $120. They'll send you a check for $500 and say "Cash the check, take your $120 and Western Union the rest to (in my case it was Jeffrey Alfaro in Atlanta Georgia) John Doe... Once they have the money they will arrange the pick up. You deposited Manopoly Money into your bank account that will bounce later, and took out $380 of your real money to Western Union to them. In my cases, the checks they tried to send me were for $1,000+ over what my product was and they both asked me to WU over $900 to the "mover". |