I am trying to sell a guitar online in Canada. Someone is interested in buying it. I am selling it for $1200. Some guy wants to buy it and said he will be sending a cashier's cheque for $3000. He wants me to take the cheque and cash it. Deduct the $1200 for the guitar and have the remaining money sent to his pick up agent by Western Union in the UK. then the pick up agent will come and pick up the guitar. Is this legit?
2006-09-07 12:28:06 · 21 answers · asked by sdsch53 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Security
It's a scam and one that has been ongoing for sometime. It's known as the Overpayment Scam or the Prepayment Scam.
In some cases it can be part of a money laundering scheme so you could effectively be helping drug dealers, extortionists, terrorists or other criminals to turn 'dirty' money into 'clean' money. In other cases they could simply be robbing you.
The cheque is usually stolen or a forgery - it can be a personal cheque or a cashiers cheque (also called a bankers cheque, bankers draft or counter cheque) or it can be a money order (postal order).
Normally the seller receives a cheque, clears it through their bank account, ships the goods and wires the balance. The balance often being wired via Western Union as this is an almost anonymous service.
What almost no-one realises is that there's a big difference between a CLEARED transaction and a CLOSED transaction.
A typical scenario is that someone goes into their bank and deposits a cheque, a few days later the cheque clears and the funds are available in the customers account. To most people this is the end of the matter but the actual transfer of funds from the issuing bank to the recipients bank can take many weeks.
If the issuing bank realises that the cheque was fraudulent it will reclaim the money and the customer is left out of pocket. Only when the transaction is closed is the money truly safe in the customers account.
More info here... http://www.ammonet.com/ammonet-com/ammonet-ecommerce-scams-eng.htm and about Western Union's response here... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4338400.stm
For your security you may want to use an Escrow service, this is a third party which receives the funds from the buyer and verifies that the funds are good before contacting the seller to advise that the goods can be shipped.
More about escrow from Wikipedia... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escrow and from eBay which includes links to escrow agents... http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/community/escrow.html
2006-09-07 13:22:54 · answer #1 · answered by Trevor 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
basically the way this works is
1) You cash the check
2) Your bank gives you cash as an advance on the check
3) you happily give the cash to western union and send it to "the guy" or some form of that
4) 3 weeks later your bank tells you the check was bad.
5) they also tell you that you are now overdrawn by 1800$,
6) at this point you realize you also lost your guitar.
7) and a few hours time.
8) and some joker is laughing at you while playing your guiter
Whatever you do, don't cash the check by any "special" means you can think of. It's a bad check and cashing bad checks is usually frowned upon and can land you in financial and criminal legal trouble.
I
As far as me, I'd Accept the offer and call the police in his area and see what they want to do .. or just tell ask him where he is and say something like .. "Oh, hey, what a coincidence.. my cousin lives there - can I mail him the item and get cash from you directly ?"
And don't assume he's from UK .. you might have to convince him to provide the western union data _before_ you cash... call him from the "bank" and say they need it .. or something.
2006-09-07 21:14:23 · answer #2 · answered by yawholigan2 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is a very common scam. You would discover the email address is bogus. The check is bogus and probably was printed on a cheap printer.
They expect you to take the $1800 out of your account and send it to them first. Then you try to deposit the check and get arrested. They are long gone with your money and you get to spend thousands more on lawyers to stay out of prison.
2006-09-07 21:55:54 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I guess you have to ask yourself, WHY would he trust a perfect stranger (you) to have $1800 of his money you neither asked for or need to complete the deal???? hmmmm... write him back and tell him to send you a check for the $1200, and send his friend the money direct. Watch what the reaction is you get.
I'm betting some BS story about friend can't cash one, doesn't have a mailing address, blahblahblah... BS! :)
2006-09-07 19:35:47 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, it is a scam. Do not accept payment by Western Union. It is only for sending money to or from someone you know.
2006-09-07 19:34:01 · answer #5 · answered by wizard8100@sbcglobal.net 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's a scam. The cheque will be a fake.
2006-09-07 19:31:43 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
No this is not a ligit deal sorry. I live in Iowa, US and there was a news article on this. b/c once you get the check and try cashing it, it will be denied. Because there is no such account. Sorry though. Glad you asked before you done it.
RAY
2006-09-07 19:31:00 · answer #7 · answered by Raymond B 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
SCAM....this is used on Ebay, Craigslist and several companies are offering jobs to do the same thing...cash checks for them.
2006-09-07 19:35:05 · answer #8 · answered by XLR8TED 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it is an scam I got am IM in yahoo simular to that today about send and cashiers check dont do it
2006-09-07 20:08:57 · answer #9 · answered by netgirl1961 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
By the book scam! Be careful!
2006-09-07 20:44:47 · answer #10 · answered by lainey lain 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋