This particular fraud case does not involve stamps, or
ebay, but it fully applies to both, so I think its prudent to mention here. I've been trying to sell off some of my Mom's belongings, since she has moved out of her house. When
ebay first came out, I bought several hundred items over the first 5 years
ebay was around, but I haven't used it once since. Furthermore, I've never actually tried to sell anything online until this past month.
I listed something of my Mom's on an internet site. Immediately, I got a very accommodating individual who 'was out of town' but wanted to buy the item. He said that he would put a cashier's check in the mail to me right away. He would have a mover come pick up the item and put it in storage for him. Interesting angle. I marked the item as sold.
Two weeks later and no check, and no response to emails by him, I re-listed the item. All of a sudden, I get another email from him, saying he's going to pay me, and he just had a mix up with his 'service', but its corrected now. I politely told him, that I no longer wished to do business with anyone that was not in-person, so I had cancelled the sale.
Another two weeks go by, and I have a lot of interest in the item. This guy emails me again, and says he is sending me a cashier's check by usps express priority mail. I told him the item was sold, but not to him. So, now the guy who I sold it to (for real) comes over, and purchases the item and moves it. Nice guy. Good to have some positive re-inforcement about humanity.
I'm happy. Then I get home, and there is this USPS package with a cashier's check inside of it in my mail. The sale price for my Mom's item was a couple hundred dollars. The amount of the cashier's check is just under Two-Thousand dollars. This guy then texts me to verify that I got the check. I reply that the item is sold. It is interesting, by the way, that he mailed the check on a Wednesday with 2-day delivery so it would get to me late Friday afternoon - i.e. end of business week.
Anyway, I am sure that probably every single one of the online and
ebay sellers here understand exactly what has happened here. I'm well aware of online scams and that you have to be very careful, and trust me, I'm not someone who is easily walked over. I'll be very nice until its time to not be nice. I knew that this guy was scamming me, but being inexperienced with online selling of any type, I didn't fully understand his end-game. I have yet to hear back from him, but I won't be answering any more of his emails, nor will I be attempting to cash his rubber check. I'll simply file everything away as evidence in case I need it.
I did some online research, and apparently this is a very common check fraud scam. The idea is to send a very real looking cashier's check, which the receiver (me) would then deposit. The bank would pay me, but I'd be responsible to refund their money when they discover that its a bad check. In the meantime, he'd ask for a refund of his money, or in some other way, have me wire him money back. I must say, by just looking at this check, it really looks real. Very convincing. They are obviously quite good at this. The only way that I know this is a scam, is because it simply has to be, and, because I find references to essentially exactly this scam at various fraud helper sites.
Anyway, like I said, I'm sure most of you are well dialed into this, but it was new to me, and all of this typing has helped me vent a bit, as it was a difficult day for me due to this. Finally, I would ask (just a favor) if anyone thinks that I should take any action other than what I plan to do --- simply file everything away and ignore him, let me know. The return address on the package appears fake to me - its an apartment but disguised as an attorney's firm (LLC) which has no internet presence.
Posted 09/15/2017 10:19 pm
