~ Ebay Scams ~

[spoon]

<p>Well it seems to buddies of mine just got taken by the same scam, yet one took the hit a little harder bc they used a small town bank versus one of the big banks (eg. PNC).&nbsp; It seems as though this is happening a ton right now and perhaps we should put it out there to protect our pals in the R/F community.&nbsp; </p><p>Here's a quick synopsis on it and perhaps someone else can add to it.&nbsp; The scammer waits to see a moderately priced item (approximately $200-$1000 from what I've seen/heard) about to go off auction without a buyer.&nbsp; Once it goes off, they send an email saying they want the item for whatever reason and ask your address to send you a bank check,&nbsp;cashiers check.&nbsp; They say they need to send you a lot more money then the asking price and say keep ann extra $100 for your troubles and send the rest back to them.&nbsp; The scam is that the money is either drawn from someone else's account illegally, or a conterfeit cashiers check, good enough to fool most if not all banks.&nbsp; Since it takes some time to figure out by the merchant, account holder and anyone else involved, the person who receives the check justly believes all is fine and sends back the money minus the price of the item and the extra money for their trouble.&nbsp; When in reality, they just gave away someone else's money, kept some for themselves and the bank comes after you.&nbsp; Also, the party never picks up the item or gives you a real address to send it bc they don't want to be found and have no real interest in your item.&nbsp; </p><p>The two events&nbsp;each person was&nbsp;sent a check in each form listed above for exactly $3000 bucks.&nbsp; Both kept less then a grand for themselves and sent 2k back.&nbsp; Sure they both thought something was amiss, but when everything went fine, thought they were ok.&nbsp; Both actually filed police reports just to be sure too.&nbsp; However, it seems that bc they cashed these false checks, as per bank bylaws (bc we as consumers aren't protected any more, thanks W and cronies) they are responsible to pay the money back fully.&nbsp; Yet, the larger banks are now insured for these events and have dismissed the mistake via insurance.&nbsp; The other guy who was a member of a smaller, not insured bank so far must pay back the full amount.&nbsp; </p><p>Just thought I'd put this out there to help keep everyone in the loop on this scam.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Any others??&nbsp; Post them here and look out for your fellow R/F peeps!</p>

<span class=post_edited>This message was edited by spoon on 6-13-06 @ 3:56 PM</span>

[Tall_James]

That deposed Nigerian despot is full of shit.&nbsp; Don't send him anything no matter how good his story is.

[Tall_James]

Oh, and you did NOT win a free XBOX 360 for doing nothing.

[PhishHead]

Yes this does suck, i know someone this has happened to as well.&nbsp; One would think it would fall on the banks duty to figure it out before clearing the check, isnt the whole point of the clearing process?? Thats why it takes a few days because they have to verify the information and make sure nothing shady is going on?&nbsp; Its such crap the person with the smaller bank has to pay back the money.&nbsp; Damn banks always want more money.

[Furtherman]

Meeester Gueeestford

[Doctor Manhattan]

<p>The scammer waits to see a moderately priced item (approximately $200-$1000 from what I've seen/heard) about to go off auction without a buyer.&nbsp; Once it goes off, they send an email saying they want the item for whatever reason and ask your address to send you a bank check,&nbsp;cashiers check.&nbsp; They say they need to send you a lot more money then the asking price and say keep ann extra $100 for your troubles and send the rest back to them.</p><p><font color="#ff0000" size="2">I don't understand this &quot;Send the rest back to them&quot; thing. If the scam is they want to buy the item outside of eBay, wouldn't the seller just expect them to send a check for the amount agreed to (The asking price plus whatever) Why would the buyer send a check for more than the agreed amount?</font></p>

[giannidesk]

<p>&nbsp;</p><p>Just about all flavors of this scam involves an international check.</p><p>The problem is that the buyer sends an international &quot;certified check&quot;. Certified check in the US means official funds, the same as cash. When your bank clears the check - you get the funds in a few days, but an international check takes over a month to officially clear. At the end of the month your bank finds out that the check is a phoney - and you are stuck paying the bill....</p>

[JPMNICK]

this scam has been around for at least 2 years now. Whenever I do anything involving money and strangers there is only 1 rule to live by, cover your ass. and that includes not doing any favors even if there is compensation at the end for you. 99% of the time it is a scam.

[giannidesk]

<strong>Doctor Manhattan</strong> wrote:<br /><p>&nbsp;</p>The scammer waits to see a moderately priced item (approximately $200-$1000 from what I've seen/heard) about to go off auction without a buyer.&nbsp; Once it goes off, they send an email saying they want the item for whatever reason and ask your address to send you a bank check,&nbsp;cashiers check.&nbsp; They say they need to send you a lot more money then the asking price and say keep ann extra $100 for your troubles and send the rest back to them. <p>&nbsp;</p><p><font color="#ff0000" size="2">I don't understand this &quot;Send the rest back to them&quot; thing. If the scam is they want to buy the item outside of eBay, wouldn't the seller just expect them to send a check for the amount agreed to (The asking price plus whatever) Why would the buyer send a check for more than the agreed amount?</font></p><p>What happens is....the buyer sends an e-mail saying &quot;whoops.....I just bought 10 different items from 10 different sellers and accidently sent you the $3,000 instead of the $1,000 payment&quot;</p>

[spoon]

Both of my friends thought the same exact thing and even filed a police report just in case.&nbsp; They were no help really and it sure as hell did nothing to protect them.&nbsp; As it turns out, they play on the sellers desire to sell the items&nbsp;with the added incentive to get something extra.&nbsp; They play it off as though they made mistake or something similar and simply request you send it back and keep extra for your trouble.&nbsp;

[Death Metal Moe]

<p>I don't sell on Ebay but my buddy Grim Sanity does.&nbsp; He was talking to someone in another country about selling one of his Airsoft guns.&nbsp; He was telling the guy no but he persisted.&nbsp; During the time they were E-mailling back and forth some international fraud agency contacted him and told him not to do the deal.</p><p>So there is someone or something trying to stop these, but you know it's gotta be like 1 guy to every 1000 savages in an internet cafe somewhere overseas.</p>

[OGC]

<p><font face="times new roman,times,serif" size="3">I must be missing something here. Whenever I try depositing a check into my account, my back holds the money (makes it unavailable to me) until the check has cleared. Sometimes up to a week. They even do it with bonus checks from my work place.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Are you saying that even after the bank says the check has cleared, They can still refuse to honor&nbsp; it ?</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">It boggles my mind&nbsp;that&nbsp;any sane person getting a check from someone they don't know for, say, $3000, depositing that check, writing a check for $2000 and sending it back to that same someone they don't know.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">If someone sent me a check for the wrong amount, I'd offer to send it back, or offer to tear it up and let them send me a check for the correct amount.</font></p>

[boeman]

I had 7 different people try that with me when I was selling my truck last year. Every one of them I told&nbsp;I wasn't a bank so I was unable to give change so they could go to hell... I wasn't dealing with scammers.&nbsp;I told the last of them I'd be more than happy to sell the truck for $15,000 over the asking price, but I'd need to hold the check for 1 month and I wouldn't sign the title over or release the truck until I was guaranteed that the cashiers check was real and the funds would not be taken from my bank. Unfortunately, he didn't like that idea.

[SatCam]

I must be missing something here. Whenever I try depositing a check into my account, my back holds the money (makes it unavailable to me) until the check has cleared. Sometimes up to a week. They even do it with bonus checks from my work place.

If you got the money in your account that they're asking for, it doesn't matter if the check clears or not. The mistake in this case is not waiting for the check to clear, so you send them the change before you realize that you're not getting the money promised

[PapaBear]

I can't believe people still fall for this crap. You'd be a fool to fall for it in the first place, but with all the warnings in the news about this same kind of scam, people still go for it.

[Death Metal Moe]

Problem is they dangle that carrot out there.&nbsp; We all want to make easy money.&nbsp; I mean it's that person's fault for doing it, but you know why they did it.&nbsp;