- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee boards
I feel like such an idiot. I am selling my dress, and have been corresponding with a person who wanted to buy it. She has her "fiance" send me a bank check for four times the amount I was selling it for. She then claimed it was an error because he thought I was another vendor. When I offered to void the check, she said no, he is out of town on business and there isn't enough time to send a new check. So could I please deposit the check and money gram back the difference. I deposited the check and waited for it to clear. The bank had a two day hold on it, and when it cleared, I thought it was fine. But things kept getting shadier. Turns out the money gram cost $91 and was to be sent to her "mother", not her fiance, and she wanted to deduct the $91 dollars from the amount to be sent back. Why would she rather do this than have me send a money order? Also, I originally offered for her to send me the money through escrow.com, but she preferred a check. Why wouldn't she want to protect herself in case I never sent the dress?
I was seriously about to send the check and then thank goodness I talked to my co-worker, who figured out it was a scam. I called my bank and they said, yes its most certainly fraud, and this is actually common. Thank goodness I got out of it. Warning to everyone else out there! Be careful!
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/fake_check_scams.html
Just to clarify, if I had wired the money, I would have been out the total amount of the check. Even though the bank cleared it, the customer is still liable if its not valid.
Something similar to this happened on Teen Mom!
I'd think something was up IMMEDIATELY if someone sent a check for way more than it was supposed to be and asked for the difference back. People don't do that on accident.
Don't feel like an idiot! The only reason I would have been suspicious is because I saw that Teen Mom episode.
So glad you didnt follow through! Its easy to get caught up in the transaction even if you "should" know better.
This is like, the #1 most common fraud on Craigslist and other online selling sites. Be cautious ladies!
That is so shady! Wow...Once, my FI sold a ipod Touch through Craigslist and they paid through Paypal and did an in-person exchange of goods. Later that person claims that they never received the goods, and since there was no evidence (since FI gave it to him at a Starbucks) FI had to refund the money! So he was out of $200 and out of an ipod Touch...
That happened to me, and I caught it early. There are so many scammers out there! I finally put it in a consignment store because I was sick of dealing with it!
Good eye!!
This happens all the time on craigslist. We always play around with the person. We take their check and then take pictures of it with us making funny faces and send it back to them and let them know we have reported their email address and took the cash.
@neontl: Wow, I never would have thought of that happening. I guess he had no recourse huh? Was the guy threatening to take him to court over it?
@neontl: Oh my gosh! That's awful!
@Ngolden1: I'm glad you're sharing this with us!
@Miss Tattoo That is too funny. What do you mean took the cash - isn't the check fake? The bank froze that amount in my account and is retreiving the check.
Aww, I'm sorry. Live and learn. At least you didn't go through with the transaction! Several years ago, I was looking for a roommate to share my 2-bedroom apt. A scammer responded to my ad and did the same thing (wanted to pay a full year's rent up front in a money order, but planned to overpay and have me refund the balance). I live in a college town with lots of international students, so her African address and halting English didn't immediately faze me. But every detail just got fishier and fishier until I finally caught on, luckily before any money changed hands.
Good for you! These people are so tricksy these days! When apartment hunting last year I almost got scammed, too...through Craigslist. My motto with regards to this kind of stuff now is "if its too good to be true, then it probably isn't". Its sad that we live in a world of such shady doings, but it is what it is!
That is HORRIBLE. Thank you SO much for sharing and I'm so glad you didn't end up being out any money!!!
@neontl: what were you supposed to do in this case?? not use paypal and make it a cash only deal?
That kind of makes me too afraid to do an online transaction now. :/
I saw something similar to this on WeddingBee a few months ago! Wow! Glad you didn't get scammed, but that's scary.
FI ran into the same scam for renting his Park City timeshare. He caught onto it pretty quickly and like a good citizen called the issuing bank to alert their fraud department (wasn't a money order but a bank check).
Spoke with an employee who was perturbed he was calling, because she said "there are fail-safes to catch it and we have a fraud alert department looking out for stuff like that". Hung up and tried back, got someone who cared and was VERY happy he called because even if the fraud dept was watching, they don't catch everything.
He wanted to screw with the scammer and string them along but wasn't worth the effort.
This almost happened to me too on ebay. The buyer was foreign and sent me a money order for more than the dress. It didn't sit right so when the envelope came, I returned it to sender. I emailed the buyer saying I wanted to cancel and they sent me a fake FBI internet fraud warning (probably just copied the ones they got!) Months later I got the envelope they sent back with a stamp that the reciever didn't accept.
It really is just about being smart when buying or selling things online. Trust your gut, if it doesn't feel right, don't go through with the transaction.
@Ngolden1: Oh we never cash the checks. We just take pictures of them with us making silly faces and tell the person on the other end we took the cash and aren't sending anything to them. One guy even said he was reporting us to the FBI and we wrote back that we sent the FBI the check, email address, and since my SO is a computer nerd, we said we hacked into his system and got his ISP and home address. lol
@pinkshoes: They make them look like real checks with a bank routing number and everything. They even get the paper that fades or has the crazy hologram on it.
My bank has a sign at each teller that says if a check came from Craigslist or Ebay, then you have to let the cashier know. I think they are able to do a remote verification before they deposit it into your account.
@neontl: This is why, when FH has sold something locally (through ebay or whatnot), I go along, take a picture of them exchanging the item, and make them sign the paypal receipt with the date and time of receipt.
Wow, I'm really sorry that happened to you. I work at a customer service counter where we're a Western Union agent, so I'm trained on the red flags of things like that. It happens a LOT more than you think! It's kinda scary that there's so many people out there like that. A lot of times it's trying to scam older people saying they'll get money if you send money, which is never the case. Also, a lot of times they're in another country, or have a made up person in another country to send to, then as soon as it reaches their end you're out the money you sent! So the big things to be aware of.... 1. You will never have to send money to get money. 2. If something seems off and you don't know the person personally that you're in contact with. 3. Since she wanted you to deposit the check into your account, she then could probably have somehow drained your account if she knew how. She'd know the account that it was deposited into. 4. If you have a bad feeling about it.
There are a LOT more things that I can't think of right now, but just be careful and follow your gut! Hope that's a little bit of help to at least someone!
Yikes! I didn't think she could find out my bank account number if I deposited the check (Which I did). I told my bank about it and they froze my account for the amount of the check. I don't think the check is real, so hopefully she can't trace it to my account anyway.
What really tricked me was that the bank cleared the check. It was good enough to not only fool the teller, but also to fool the bank when they examined it during the two day hold. They are going to let me know once they retrieve the check if it is in fact fake. The whole thing really freaked me out. I don't like at all that the scammer has my home address.
I don't understand how these scammers still exist. I could NEVER fall for a scam. I feel like Neo... I can see the code. I feel bad for the people who get taken advantage of, I feel that these people who do get scammed in the end (which no one on this thread has) are mostly people who are shelterd and innocent. ONLY deal in CASH!
My friend Betty and Debbie were moving into an apt together. The owner of the apt wanted to make sure that they had enough money to pay a couple months rent even though they only had to pay one month upfront. So he wanted Betty to transfer to Debbie (who is her friend) $3,600 and just give him the transaction number so he knows that they have enough. Next day money was GONE!
I don't know how he did it. It seemed fishy and would have never fallen for it. And they both are trying to get their money back... which seems impossible.
I'm surprised everyone doesn't already know about this scam, it's been around for a long time and online buying/selling websites like ebay and craigslist have warnings everywhere. I don’t even buy/sell on craigslist and ebay and I’ve been aware of this scam for years. Plus, you should never ship an item, give cash, ect to someone before their check clears in the first place, that's just common sense.
Rule of thumb: if someone is purchasing something from you and gives you a check for more than the selling price, IT IS A SCAM! No exceptions. Why? Because people don't conduct business like that in the real world. Use your heads: would you walk into Macy's and pay for your items with a check for more than the sales price, asking the cashier to give you the difference in cash? Of course not! No one legit would! So why wouldn't you be immediately skeptical of someone trying to do that online?
Sorry for the harshness, I just get frustrated at how gullible the general public can be. That’s why these scammers are thriving right now. A little bit of common sense goes a loooong way in not becoming a victim.
@Miss Tatoo: I think I love you. :D
Oh, and when Farrah was falling for that scam on Teen Mom I was screaming at the TV the whole time "you stupid little girl, how can you possibly fall for one of the oldest scams in the book?!!" I wanted to dive through the tv and smack her. I don't know who I was more pissed at: the scammer or her, for being so ridiculously gullible. I ended up giving her a pass because she is just a teenager.
@Miss Tatoo- I wanna play like that too! I usually just "flag" them and then write them back that they are scum. But my hubby then told me that there is no real person involved to read my scum e-mail. But I really like your idea!
I want to scam a scammer! That should be a movie! The Craigslist Scammer Scammer
@lezlers: Exactly. And it can be summed up nicely in the simple phrase, "If it sounds too good to be true....."
Why would someone give you MORE than the asking price for anything with a big story about sending through money orders and Western Union, waiting for checks to clear, etc. It's very simple. If you are leary about anything, it's a scam. (Even if it's not, just assume it is and move on) I've known about these scams for years. I can tell by the first few words in an email on Craigslist if it's a scammer.
I hope a lot of people learned from this story! There are a zillion scammers out there just waiting for suckers!
Unfortunately this is a really common scam.
Anytime someone gives you way more money than you asked for, you are at risk for this scam--renting an apartment, selling anything, etc. Glad you stopped it before it finished!
(example: people call our restaurant and say they'll wire the money for 150 pastas. no one ever orders for more than 30 or so people)
Glad you were able to realize in time and avoid the scam! I'm selling a dress to a bride in Hong Kong right now and I'm so paranoid that I'm going to somehow get scammed. I'm usinge escrow.com, bu god knows what scenarios and escape clauses might be out there that other people know and I don't.
@Miss Pizzelle: bwhahahaha! The Scammer Scammer. I would see that movie!
I sold my Nikon D90 on Craigslist. The first person I got was a scammer. We played along. Our email back and forth went like this.
"Brian": Hello. I am interested in the camera you are selling. Can you let me know if it's still there and the condition?
Me: It's in excellent condition. It's taken about 1000 shots and has no body damage. The sensor and lens were just cleaned. It's still here.
"Brian": Well great. You can take this listing down because I want to buy this item. Sadly I am out of the country on business and I have to have my shipper pick it up. I'm also getting some other items in the area so what I will do is send you a certified cashiers check for $xxx ($500 OVER my asking price) and you can keep the $xxx plus $xxx for your trouble. Please wire the remaining to my shipper and then he will arrange a time to pick up the camera. I just need your address to overnight the check.
-Me and SO laughing to ourselves-
Me: Sure! That will be great! My address is XXX XXX XXX XXX XXXXX
"Brian" Okay. I will get that out to you with the instructions on where to wire the cash. Thank you. Can't wait to see the camera. Good Day.
Next day we get the cashiers check. Instead of cashing it, we take pictures of the check with us making silly faces in the background. Then we email the person back with the pictures.
Me: "Oooooh! We fooled you! We are going to cash your check and we are going to have an AWESOME date night with lobster and some wine! Yep! Oh and we are going to get a hotel and have hot animal sex. Thanks!
"Brian" You are violating Craigslist Terms of Service and I will be reporting you to the FBI. My shipper was waiting in the agreed place and you have to wire the money to me.
Me: We didn't even agree on a place douche face! By the way, my boyfriend is a hacker so we have your ISP address and we have sent the check to the local authorities along with this email address. Have fun in Nigeria!
Then we never hear back. lol
I STILL don't understand how the check cleared if it was fradulent? I don't understand how this scam works.
You must log in to post.
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| Lyndzo | 26 |
| his chippymunk | 20 |
| Ms. Salamander | 18 |
| LammChop | 17 |
| fivemonthsnotice | 17 |
| beargoose | 16 |
| kat2014 | 15 |
| mypinkshoes | 15 |
| aussiebee | 15 |
| Mrs. Chai | 14 |
| User | Posts Today |
|---|---|
| j_jaye | 4 |
| GeekChic | 4 |
| Lyndzo | 4 |
| HiroshymaTetrastar | 4 |
| JenRoses | 4 |
| KristenGotMarried | 3 |
| beargoose | 3 |
| MissPumpkinPie | 3 |
| les105 | 3 |
| mypinkshoes | 3 |
