SCAM HEADS UP!!!!!!

I've had a vehicle on autotrader for a while and i finally found someone to buy the vehicle. The buyer let me know that they were going to send a check but the only problem they had was that " they had a check made out for a different transaction that they cancelled and their bank policy states that they can't make out another check for a different amount." Which of course is a bunch of BS. They let me know that the check Was going to be made out for $14779 and all i was asking for my vehicle was $7799 so they told me to send them a refund of $7000 back to them... Well the scam is that certain banks do not put holds on large depsited checks so what you do is cash the check and have the money in your account. The scammers tell you to notify them when you receive the check and then as soon as you let them know that they pretend that there is a rush on when they need their money. So you have the funds in your account and you send them their refund of $7000. so by the time the check comes back COUNTERFIT!!! you already sent the money to them and you are liable to repay the bank back that $7000... Just to let you'll know i did not loose any money.... As soon as i heard that they wanted $7000 back i decided to try and get as much info on the people as possible.... So to make a long story short...if you are selling any vehicle or bike watch out so you won't get screwed....

 

sorry about your luck man but good thing you looked into it. good idea on sharing the story so no one else falls for this kind of crap. i would have let them send me the check and taken it straight to the bank and waited on it to clear before i did anything else. then that scammer would be behind bars instead of on the computer scamming others.

 

Thanks for the warning.

 

this is EXACTLY what happened to my sister and brother-in-law. their car was for sale. some guy sent them a check for (holy sh*t the same amount!!) $7000 over the selling price and said the same crap about sending back the difference. they got the check in the mail and brought it to me (i work at a bank) and it looked fishy to me. i said deposit the check into your account but request a 21 day hold on it and see what happens. of course do not ship him the car. well after 21 days the check CLEARED. i was a little surprised because a hold for that long usually covers all bases. i told him i thought something didn't feel right and do not touch the money in your account OR ship him the car. funny thing is during this time period the "buyer" kept bugging him about sending back the difference BUT didn't mention anything about the car. so after another week... his bank contacted him and said we need to talk to you. it turns out the check was BOGUS!!! so beware of scams like these... they are out there!!!

 

Yeah thats what i got... I consider myself a smart guy, so to get a $14799 check in a regular envelope with just my info on it and no return address didn't make any sence. They didn't even try to make it look professional at all. And i did the same thing. I went to the bank and told them that i knew it was a scam and if they could somehow contact the bank where the check supposidely came from. And sure enough the check was fake... i tried to get the scammers real bank info and other info but all i got was 2 names and 2 addresses for me to send the money to via western union, which doesn't really help cause they could just make fake i.d. cards.

 

thats been around for awhile but thanks for the heads up.

 

speaking of scams

money orders are not as safe as you think either
back in the day when i worked in the wholesale industry, out-of-state merchants would buy goods and pay in MOs (since a $1000 MO beats carrying $1000 in cash) and we'd accept them considering them as good as cash based upon goodwill. Occasionally we'd call the issuing bank to verify the MO's authenticity

yet every once in a while, our bank would return a MO saying the MO was valid but the original purchaser had blocked it since it was stolen or misplaced using his original receipt