Buyer offering cashiers check on Craigslist $500 item... Scam?

100% scam.

There is no buyer.

Notice how the scammer doesn't call what you are selling by name? He uses the generic word "item", that is because he sends the same stock copy/paste email to anyone selling everything that he can find and he has no idea what you are selling and doesn't care.

He is not interested in your identity or bank account, only your cash. A fake check is easy to print, just buy the check paper, print the words "cashier's check" on it and use a stolen account number.

The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be the "secretary/assistant/accountant" and will demand you cash a large fake check sent on a stolen UPS/FedEx billing account number and send the money via Western Union or moneygram back to the scammer posing as the "shipping company". When your bank realizes the check is fake and it bounces, you get the real life job of paying back the bank for the bounced check fees and all the bank's money you sent to an overseas criminal.

Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever.

When you refuse to send him your cash he will send increasingly nasty and rude emails trying to convince you to go through with his scam. The scammer could also create another fake name and email address like "FBI@ gmail.com", "police_person @hotmail.com" or "investigator @yahoo.com" and send emails telling you the job is legit and you must cash the fake check and send your money to the scammer or you will face legal action. Just ignore, delete and block those email addresses. Although, reading a scammer's attempt at impersonating a law enforcement officer can be extremely funny.

Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of being the perfect buyer, great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.

You could post up the email address and the emails themselves that the scammer is using, it will help make your post more googlable for other suspicious potential victims to find when looking for information.

Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.

Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.

If you google "fake check buyer scam", "fake Western Union buyer fraud" or something similar and you will find hundreds of posts of victims and near victims of this type of scam.

Since that scammer-buyer intends to steal your money, he will not you his real life information. All you have is one of his fake names, one of his free email addresses, one of his fake stories and one of his paid-for-in-cash cell phone numbers. None of information is going to help your local law enforcement agency track down that anonymous scammer sitting in a cyber cafe half way around the world from you.

Cashier checks are quite easily forged.

Many of the common scams here on CL and in other places involve forged cashier's checks.

Scammers are still at it. Got a text from Las Vegas (i m in Florida) offering asking price and that they will send cashier s check wait for it to clear and then have movers come pick up the items. Flat out just said I deal in person, cash only. No response.

As a seller on craigslist, we're not taking anything *other* than cash--it's cash & carry on used items. I realize these posts are old, but I just received a text message trying this scam. They did not call it "item," but by the actual description....I would like to report their phone # as being a scammer, but not sure how to do it....

Heya, to be honest... the best results that i have ever had was with Toms money plan (just google it) ..im tired of all these get rich quick schemes but this one really is a breakthrough

I just received an offer as well, The person offered to pay an extra $1500. This screams SCAM.

I just received an offer on Craigslist to buy my drum set sending a cashier's check and stating that a shipping company would pick it up. The tip off was that he offered to pay an extra $30 for me to hold it while I waited for the check. It all seemed legit until he stated that the check would be in an excess amount so that I would pay the mover. Duh!!!! I really wanted to call him out as a scamming a$$hole but decided better of it, not wanting to incur more reasons for him to mess with me, and just told him that the drum set had already been sold after all. He was definitely trying the scam described in these posts, and I'm glad I read these first to confirm my suspicions.

A cashier's check is a check for guaranteed funds, meaning that the funds have already come from an account so it wouldn't bounce like a personal check. The most prominent scam with these for craigslist is when someone buys something on craigslist and sends a cashiers check to you for an amount that's larger than what they were supposed to send, asking that you take it to your bank and just send back the extra cash when you're done. The checks are usually stolen and they either print them themselves (the managed to get a cashiers check before any institution printed on it) or it is stolen after an institution makes it out to someone. If it's the second, they will usually forge a signature on the back saying that they are signing it over to you and that they just don't want to deal with taking it to the bank themselves. If anything like this were to ever happen the best option is just to take it to the police and report it... This is one reason why banks won't accept 3rd party checks anymore without having the 3rd party present while the check is being negotiated.

All that being said! If someone were to pay you in cashier's checks, it would usually be more secure than a personal check, simply because they can just write you a check that will bounce, and paying in a larger amount of cash can be frustrating or dumb, so I can understand why people do still choose to LEGITIMATELY pay by Cashier's check... IF for any reason you did that, the best thing to do is check their ID and make sure the remitter on the check is actually them, make sure it if the correct amount, and make sure it is made payable to your name exactly, not being signed over. Then I would just document their address and phone number and try keeping a large amount of contact in email form so that you can have record if you try to deposit the check and find any problems.

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Craigslist Cashiers Check

Craigslist Cashiers Check Scam

I just received an offer to buy my bike for asking price - $500. They don't even want to see it in person. They sent four texts saying "I'll mail a check, and once it clears, I'll make arrangements to pick up the bike." I said are you sure you don't want to see it? Answer - "Yeah." I think it's a scam. Am I right?

Hey guys, to be honest... the best money that i have ever had was with Toms money plan (just google it) ..im tired of all these get rich quick schemes but this one really works

In think I,m also being scammed I like stead a trailer for 750.00 ,buyer said he wanted it ,we agreed on price got check for 2500.00 ,He said the extra was for the shipper ,now he wants me to pay the shipper through money Gram ! I told him the bank put a 5 day hold on it ! And when the bank ok,s the check I,d proceed ,so I,m going to hold the cash until the bank knows the check is good

Must be a scam. I posted on CL for specific item valued at $50 and the scammer sorry customer emailed me a day later stating he was sending a check and once check cleared a mover would pick up item....it is now one week later and I received a cashier check in a postal large envelope and the check is for $1550. Scammer...I mean customer emailed me stating he accidently over paid and once check clears send back the difference. I am broke and could use the money but this is a scam that I choose right over wrong. I took envelope to post office to inspect and they stated it was a true mailing that took place. They looked at the check held it up to light and stated check was good. Im trying to call the bank in florida where check was sent from but it wont be open til monday.

Why all the long answers?

1) Have you ever sent a cashiers check to someone for something that there is no guarantee that the seller would send it back to you? Seems like common sense to me. IOW fraud.
2) Cashier s checks are ABSOLUTELY NOT the same as cash. Why do banks NEVER say "sign" a check. They say "endorse"...when you sign the back, you are validating the check for them- hence responsible.
3) I get a cashier s check from my neighbor s account & give to you. It cashes. My neighbor notifies the bank a month later. The bank holds you responsible for the funds because you "endorsed" the check.
4) To report send to FBI, Cyber Crimes division.

PLUR!!

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RE:
Buyer offering cashiers check on Craigslist $500 item... Scam?
I'm not planning on doing anything over Craigslist that requires checks as it's not recommended, but let's say I was dumb and did it. Could someone tell me what a cashiers check is exactly and how someone could fake it without anyone knowing? I'm very curious and want to be...

cashiers check is the same as cash.
If it's made out to you, you can call the place that they purchased it from to confirm that it is legit. As a buyer, I'm not handing you over $500 cash...

Obviously, if they are sending you a cashiers check and they have the scam - I'm in the UK but not agent in Los Angeles will send you a cashiers check.
- or other scammy things.

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