deanneellen

I posted a bed for sale recently on craigslist. It's the kind that you plug in and it inflates, has legs, etc. I didn't get any responses except one. His name was Ernie and he wanted to make sure I would sell it to him and what would I take as my final price, I told him my price and he agreed to it and asked me to take the posting down as a sign that it was sold to him. I did so and then I received another e-mail saying he would be sending me a postal money order. OK so then he goes on to say that I will need to send the extra money from the money order to a mover who will be picking up the bed. He also explained in explicit detail how I was to make the money order out when it arrived. The money orders arrived yesterday. There were two money orders of $950 each! I smelled a scam so I called the local police and they said if I had taken the MO's to the bank and cashed them and then sent the rest on to the mover, eventually the mo's would be discovered to be fraudulant and I would have been responsible for paying back all of that money. I only wanted $100 for the bed! The Sergeant I spoke with said that there are many of these scams going on and many on craigslist. You can bet I am going to be extra careful from now on.

JulieR

That's a great reminder. When I'm selling on Craigslist I accept cash or Paypal - and Paypal only if the item is over $50. There are just too many slimeballs in the world.

Good on you for realizing it was a scam and calling the police!!

cathyvv

Thanks. Amazing how many ways people can find to cheat other people out of money or possessions.

sueisallaboutquilts

I hate hearing this. But you are so right. Scams everywhere :(
I once saw some really fancy machine for an unreal low price that a poster told us about in her city.
Guess what???? The SAME ad was in my city!!!

cctx.

Yes there are "rip offs" all over the place.

I was delivered a fake (very authentic looking too) cashier's check by
FED-EX in 2006 for the amount of $3000.00......can you believe this..., no kidding. It was from Sunchase Bank, so I went to see if it would cash at Wells Fargo Bank and WF denied the check, next (knowingly it was not real, but I wanted to see how far it would get) I went to another cashier place and the clerk called Sunchase bank, and there were no funds to back up the check.

When I got home, I personally called Sunchase bank and reported that it was a fraudulent check made out to my name and address, and delivered by FED-EX. I have no idea who sent it, who had my personal information, except that it was a special delivery.

MadQuilter

(2) $950 money orders to pay for (1) $100 item. Riiiiiiight!

It's just sad that some people fall for those scams. Glad you saw through it.

craftybear

thanks for letting us know, we all need to be careful and not give out personal information

quiltmaker

Aren't most of those scammers out of Nigeria...seems to me I read something about them coming from there...it used to happen on Ebay some. We have to watch everything now. The world we once knew no longer exists except in our own communities and families.

Kimkankwilt

I've almost fallen for this same scam in a different kind of situation. Someone tried to pull this exact scam with us at work. Fortunately, my DH was on to him and we didn't get taken..

emerald46

There are scammers in every city you can think. I know for a fact there are phone rooms that monitor Facebook. They hit in out of town Grandparents and Aunts/Uncles. All that personal fun stuff is used against you. Someone calls you think its grandchild...they know, nicknames, pet died last month, GP out playing golf...They've had accident and need $5000+ now to avoid jail. Some believable story to grandma/auntie with gs/gd/neice/nephew in out of town college. It happened to a friend of mine...a young retired computer executive...no dumbie. Her scammer made mistake of calling back a second time for more money and she decided to call kid's Dad...he needed to know what was going on. Well guess who answered the phone...yep grandson that was supposedly in jail. Mean, greedy people, I hate it!!