BUYING SCAM IN CLASSIFIEDS "more info."

[Victor Ingram]

This is new to me, and maybe NOT so new to others. I advertised an early washer bottle in the classifieds. I have been contacted via text from a potential buyer, a (James Drawoh) He contacted me and said he was going to send a cashiers check for $2240.00. I was a little perplexed about the $2240.00 I thought he had made a mistake or confused it with another purchase. I was thinking he would figure out his error and send $400.00 only. Something did not seem right, but I am trying to give the benefit of doubt.

In the interim I stayed in contact with James because I had concerns that his check had not arrived. Thinking something is fishy I insisted on an address. Eventually a "cashiers check" arrived for $2240.00, I contacted James and he wanted me to go to the bank with his courier, keep an additional $100.00 for my troubles, give the courier the balance and the part. The courier had other parts to pick up in the area with the balance. Now it really was starting to stink. I text James and told him I would not do this deal. He was obnoxious, insisting we had a deal. I told him "no address, no deal", I also asked what year car he was restoring and what was the vin number. I have not received an answer to either of these questions.

Out of curiosity I asked my wife to take the check to the bank and ask the branch manager about it. The manager believed the check to be a fake. No watermarks, no address on the check, and no signature of a representative of the bank.

So how does this scam work? What would happen if I deposited that check? Sellers Beware.

UPDATE: I found it unusual that there was another address label under the label for my address. Apparently the scammer is "frugal" which makes sense if he is trying to rip people off. Out of curiosity I decided to call the phone number on the envelope.
The return address was a small town in Rifle, Colorado, population 5,000. A very nice retired gentleman bye the name of "Joe" answered the phone. He was not surprised or annoyed about the call. As a matter of fact he has had several calls from around the states.
Joe even expressed his concerns with FeEx to no avail, anyway Joe could not be more pleasant and extended an invite to go hunting or fishing, or just stop by for a beer.
I did tell the scammer via text that I was forwarding his check on to law enforcement and somewhere in the near future they would be knocking at his door.

[Martin Benade]

I have received such a "deal" once. For sure the check is not real, and the bank might credit your account but would surely take it back in a couple of days. Where was it postmarked from? He is probably local and he is his own courier. It is a real routing number. Call the bank at 228-563-7969 to inquire about the account number for fun, but obviously don't deposit it regardless of what they tell you.

[David Pateman]

The scam is that you would give the "courier" the difference of $1740 and the part and in return you get a fake check and costs and a headache.

[Peter Boettcher]

David is spot on. Tell the scammer to take hike and relist your washer bottle.
Have been down this road before and luckily figured it out.
See you at Hershey!

[Spike Jones]

What is Drawoh spelled backwards??? Howard

[Jon Schmid]

What is Drawoh spelled backwards??? Howard

That's exactly what I was thinking. Not very clever.

[Al Zim]

How lucky Zim's was ONCE! We shipped a part years ago. At that time UPS allowed us to require cash or a cashiers check, which we specified. The check was a fake and the bank sent it back. We sued UPS for the amount of the check in small claims court. The court ruled in our favor when I pointed out that the check was printed on a Sunday and the UPS driver should have looked at the check. That was our only lucky break. al zim

[chris romney]

If the check was fake and you gave the courier the water bottle and $1740 you would be out both the water bottle and the $1740. The bank would debit your account back the amount of the check once they had confirmed it was a fake. When dealing unknown parties it's always a good idea to wait until the check clears the bank before releasing funds or shipping parts. These days it's pretty easy to fake even something like a cashier's check.

[Jeffrey Leeds]

Among other clues, think about why would anyone want to be the buyers “bank” and send back or return the overage to a third party. Legitimate buyers would typically pay only the exact selling price.

[Emil Wojcik]

This is one of the most highly talked about type of scam there is, both online and in the news, and has been for a few years. I'm actually quite surprised to hear some are still unaware of it but I guess that's why the scammers keep trying, eventually they must get lucky. Glad you asked about it before losing your part and money.