I'm usually the last to figure things out, but I was almost scammed this weekend.
I have posted an ad for my boyfriend's truck on every online classified and forum I could find. I get an email from a "buyer" the other day that says he is interested in the truck. My ad is asking for $2800, but they wanted to send $6800-$7800. I was to take out the $2800 and wire the remaining balance to a shipper who would then pick up the truck. Something didn't seem right about it because the person wouldn't give out any information about himself, like where he was from, etc. I did a bit of investigating on the net by myself and found several warnings of this as a major scam. These people send a counterfeit cashier's check to the seller who in turn cashes it. The seller then wires the money to the "shipper" who is actually the buyer. Next step, the bank calls and says the check was counterfeit and the seller is responsible for the entire balance. I've changed all the ads to say we will accept cash payments for the amount of the vehicle ONLY.
So if you are as trusting and naive as I am and sell things online, beware.
I have posted an ad for my boyfriend's truck on every online classified and forum I could find. I get an email from a "buyer" the other day that says he is interested in the truck. My ad is asking for $2800, but they wanted to send $6800-$7800. I was to take out the $2800 and wire the remaining balance to a shipper who would then pick up the truck. Something didn't seem right about it because the person wouldn't give out any information about himself, like where he was from, etc. I did a bit of investigating on the net by myself and found several warnings of this as a major scam. These people send a counterfeit cashier's check to the seller who in turn cashes it. The seller then wires the money to the "shipper" who is actually the buyer. Next step, the bank calls and says the check was counterfeit and the seller is responsible for the entire balance. I've changed all the ads to say we will accept cash payments for the amount of the vehicle ONLY.
So if you are as trusting and naive as I am and sell things online, beware.