Especially when they don’t even mention what the exact item is that they want to buy from you. Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Finally.......a voice of sanity. Understand, I am not saying “there is no way this can be a scam”. Maybe it is. There certainly ARE scammers out there. But all those posters who are absolutely positive that it is offer no explanation or rational basis for insisting it is. Frankly, the level of paranoia reveals a lack of experience in actual deals....objections based on ‘hearsay’ and suspicion are neither proof nor useful in actually identifying a ‘scam’. Ray
You gotta do better than that......explain what YOU see that tips you off to this being a scam. And , I HAVE bought and sold parts and vehicles on the ‘net’. I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. Hnstray, ;look at the cats english. it sucks : Returning my message - maybe I could let that pass. second: currently not in town for now. who says "not in town for now:?? third: due to my work frame. Huh??? fourth. advert?? thats an odd word, but if you stretch it, it might pass. fifth: hold it down for me. really?? I just guess as I read it outloud it says scam to me. Its just an odd answer Thanks for returning my message. I'm currently not in town for now, so i wont be able to meet with you due to my work frame and also we are very busy at this time preparing for our daughter's wedding but 'm okay with the price and condition as shown on the advert. I'll proceed in issuing a cashier check to you and when you receive the payment and it clears your bank, i will make arrangement for the pick up. I will also add an additional $50 to hold it down for me. So get back to me with below details to mail the check out to you asap.......
Yup....A scam. It's a way of getting your phone number and then they use it and make tons of calls. This was even on the news here.
"It's a way of getting your phone number and then they use it and make tons of calls. This was even on the news here." That's a new one to me. I list things on line locally and always give my phone number, often only my phone number in order to weed out the flakes. Why couldn't they just pick my or someone else's phone number out of the phone book to do this?
Nothing so blatant, but this line smells... Pretty rare that someone asks to pay MORE than you're asking for an item, don't you think? It'd be different if he was offering a "I'll send you $50 deposit to hold until I get done with daughter's wedding..." but asking to pay the whole bill AND a bonus $50? Nah. That's as close to a 'tell' as you can get. It might be completely legit, but it's not something I'd pursue... I'd just tell the buyer, "check with me when you're ready to buy." I too am a veteran trader. Check my trader profile here on the HAMB. That's a drop in the bucket to my 26 years on Ebay, and running a national 'for sale' forum on FidoNet decades ago (pre-Internet days). /2 cents
Here's the thing with these scammer's "cashier's checks". Most bank customers have established themselves at their personal bank so the bank will expedite the transaction and transfer the amount of the check into their client's account and it appears to the customer to have cleared. Most of us are used to seeing various personal checks clear in a couple of days but what we are not used to is that cashier's checks are processed differently, often the funds are transferred but the bogus checks are not discovered as counterfeit until many days later and the deposit is reversed and the funds are taken back out of the account. So it's a timing issue that goes as follows. You receive a rubber check, deposit it and in a short time the funds show up in your account. You think you're golden so you release the item and off it goes. Over a week later the funds are taken back and you may even have incurred bank fees to boot or worse, you may have already spent the money. There are not just one but a number of red flags in the buyer's message that are typically used by scammers. If you think you may have a legitimate buyer in spite of the red flags, change the deal to something more secure for you. It's simple to insist on waiting a month after receiving the check before the item can be picked up. It's still not a good deal for you because you are frozen from continuing to find a cash buyer. But at least you will still have the item. It's funny that these buyers can find someone to pick up the item but they can't find someone to hand you the cash.
Don’t do it! Scam, I’ve had a couple of responses like that some long b.s. story and they always offer additional $50 to hold it.
Hnstray, if you don't readily see right through that email scam, you're their intended audience. It's a classic 'over payment' scam which is VERY prevalent on Craigslist. List something for sale on Craigslist and within minutes you'll have at least several replies that have all the red flags; quick reply, poor grammar and punctuation, pitiful urgency, a wild ass story of why they can't meet up in person, and some unorthodox method of payment. Maybe not as old as ponzi schemes, 3 card monte, multi level marketing, the scam has been around for many many years, but there's always someone that will bite on the bait and get hooked-an individual who somehow hasn't heard of the scam, can't "see" the scam, have their guard down, "want to believe", etc. The scammers send out thousands of these, then "work" the few that take the bait and scam them. The "suckers" are what keep these guys rolling in an income from their couch and never having to work a real job. Here's a consumer bulletin from the FTC from 2004. That's 15 years ago; https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/pre...warns-consumers-about-check-overpayment-scams
HAHAHAHAHA....I don't need to be charming. I'm a straight forward smart ass most of the time. And most of the time I'm so straight forward that people take it as rude when it isn't intended to be.
Hnstray, The English is doesn’t make sense. I’ve never heard of a work frame. Just read post 33 again.
Yes this is a scam and has Red Flags all over it. The message he sent you is a standard type of message that they send out everyday hoping someone fall of it. The real problem is there are many people who do fall for this con and get taken to the cleaners everyday. I get phone calls some times from people telling me they never received their decal order and when I look up their order which they never placed I tell them I have no record of their order. They then tell me how they called and spoke with someone who said it could be a COD order and that's when I start laughing and I tell them I am the only person answering the phones and we have never done COD orders and they hang up. I have a decal just for this type of thing. Jimbo
I know what post 33 says, and I don’t disagree with it or you either. Read my posts again and you will see I never said this isn’t a scam......I allowed that it very well could be. What I was challenging is the reflexive assumptions most replies contained. My point was that the terms in ‘buyer’s proposal’ had no obvious ‘hook’ and allowed the ‘seller’ control of his property. Further, I stated, that the seller could easily protect himself by counter proposing alternative methods of payment, any of which would either produce ‘real money’ or cause the ‘buyer’ to withdraw, most certainly so if he is a scammer. All of the above is clearly stated in my posts, but either overlooked or ignored, by responders who were/are so certain of their opinion that facts don’t matter. I hope they are never called to jury duty....... Ray
I tell them to go the post office and buy a postal money order and send it through the mail. That way they have committed at least 2 felonies before I get the money order. If they send me a forged money order is one and sending it through the mail is two. Then you can go to the post office and check if it is a real money order or a forgery. It will be in the post office computer system if it is real. A little bit of a hassle , but a lot of peace of mind. Get's the fed involved in tracking them down. I am retired from the feds and they take a dim view of mail fraud and forgery. There is no perfect system other than having them meet you at the bank and handing you cash . That way the bank can check the bills to see if they are real. I have even gotten a fake bill in a stack of 5's when getting change for my shop. The bank missed it and my wife caught it.
My son recently listed my truck on facebook market place when I bought a new truck. On our way to work he got a text from a guy offering a hundred bucks below the asking price in cash sight unseen but we had to bring it to him that night. It screamed scam and we dismissed it as we were going to work. The guy texted back asking if we could make the deal the next day. He wanted us to meet him at a hotel and I said forget it but my son talked me into it. We met the guy and his wife the next day who explained to us they were living at the hotel due to a recent house fire. I took him for a ride and he gave me the full asking price in cash without even driving the truck himself. I never would have believed till it was done that this deal would have worked but it did.
Their are people right here on the HAMB who either don't use good English or don't proofread their auto correct. If I was doing business with them I might question if they were trying to scam me.
I think it is a little strange, but if I understand your post you will have his money and still have your parts until he make arrangements to pick them up. I fail to see the risk to you. If you are really concerned ask for a phone number and talk to the interested party. I will not buy or sell to anyone who will not speak by phone.
My late wife was a banker for many years. She was working in a busy commercial bank and some guy comes in with an out-of-the-US bank/cashier's check that he wanted to see if it was good. He was selling a motorcycle to a foreign buyer, similar story but the check was for $300 over the sale price. She went on to tell the guy that a check may initially clear, but that does not make it good when you lose that amount from your account when it comes up as bad in days to come. So she calls me at work and asks what I think, she read me some of the emails the guy printed and brought in with him. My advice was to walk away from the deal, which he took.
Sorry Hnstray but this is an obvious SCAM and my conclusion is not a "reflexive assumption" but a deductive conclusion. Overpayment, seller holding property, cashiers check are all part of the reverse confidence game. It is set up to make one think they (the seller) has the upper hand when in reality they don't. And I just got a letter to appear for jury duty.
Here are some more specific descriptions of these scams: https://cba.ca/overpayment-scam https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/types-of-scams/buying-or-selling/overpayment-scams https://www.nclnet.org/avoiding_online_car_buying_scams
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