Dave Cobb of Silverdale sent me a new rouse on an old scam.
His son had placed his car for sale on MySpace.com. Soon, an e-mail came from a supposedly interested buyer named “David” and that offered to send the family $12,000, if they’d send $4,000 back to the buyer.
After selling the car locally, Dave’s son received this check (pictured) in the mail. Dave wondered: who did his son know in Italy, where the check’s envelop was postmarked?
No one, actually.
A variation on the “Nigerian
Scam” — which Dave recognized immediately — the family knew to
not even attempt to cash the check. It was more worthless than the
paper it was written on.
He took it to the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office and e-mailed MySpace.
Anyone else have new stories to tell on these old tricks?
These are actually semi-popular in chat rooms as well. People in Yahoo chat will try to convince you that they just can’t cash a check wherever they are (I think one tried to tell me she was a model – I told her I was forwarding the entire conversation to Yahoo’s abuse form) and want you to do so for them. The fact people still fall for these, that they EVER have, absolutely baffles me. Who gets that much free money for nothing?
This is a common scam on internet sales sites like e-bay, myspace and craig’s list (to name a few). I can guarantee you that the check he was sent is a fake, a good fake, so good in fact that the bank would cash it and not find out until a few weeks go by that it was a bad check.
The idea behind the scam is you are conned into cashing the check at your bank for more than what your product is being sold for. Many times the scammer will say that a third party will pick up your item for sale and you are to give a portion of the overage to the pickup person and keep the rest yourself “for your troubles” (wow an extra couple grand for doing nothing but cashing a check). What most people do not realize is that your troubles are huge, not only are you giving away your sale item, but in about three weeks you will get a letter from your bank telling you that you owe them, in this case $12000. OUCH!! WHY? Because the cashiers check was not real and now you have to give all that money back, plus penalties and potential legal hassles for cashing a fake check. The person who sent you the fake check has your car, furniture or whatever item you were selling and a couple thousand dollars in cash. Good for him, real bad for you.
Best rule of thumb for selling on the internet is use EFT, like paypal, or only deal in cash. Never accept a personal or cashiers check from anyone you do not know personally, the scammers are too good at making the fakes.
Other rule to live by: If it sounds too good to be true, IT IS!!
yep the same guy “david” is doing the same thing… telling me that he will buy my car but send extra money to get it sent over seas to where he is in Britain.. a complete scam for sure.