Steve Slatin on fri 4 jun 04
It sounds like the cashier's check scam. It's pretty easy to forge a
cashier's check, and if the financial institution on which the forged
check is allegedly drawn is not a part of the U.S. banking system,
your bank will credit the funds to your account and then withdraw
them weeks to months later, when the check turns out to be bogus.
The scam usually begins with someone saying "I want this so
much that I'm sending a check for purchase, shipping, and $xxxx
extra, just to make sure you sell it to me ... I trust you, so after
you've taken your money and shipped it to me, just send the
balance back by wire transfer." Sometimes it comes with some
really interesting hoopla about how the buyer has the check
because of some other international trade deal they've done.
If you fall for it you receive the check, wait a few days for your
bank to 'clear' the check (though it hasn't yet gotten overseas
to the bank it's drawn on), and when the deposit shows up in
your account take the wheel to a shipper and pay to have it
shipped. Then you send the balance of the check's value back
by wire transfer to the scammer. The wire transfer takes real
money from your account; of course the scammer's check
eventually bounces and your bank will take the value of the
bad check from your account. You lose your wheel, you're
out the amount you wire-transferred, the cost of shipping,
and probably you pay a bad-check fee to the bank as well.
There was a web-site I found once of a guy who tagged
scammers for fun -- he'd take their bad check, deposit it,
and then create dozens of excuses for not completing the
transaction until the check bounced. He paid the fees just
for fun, and kept the bogus checks a souvineers. (Everyone's
got to have a hobby, eh?) I couldn't find that one today, but
I did find this one -- http://www.cobracountry.com/cashiers-check-scam.html
which explains some variations on the scam.
Laurie Kneppel wrote:
Hi Sandy,
Did that inquiry come from Nigeria?
I have a feeling that this is probably not an uncommon scam for when
people advertise items for sale online. It's probably a form letter
where they fill in the item and price from wherever they gather the
original information. I notice they only mention the wheel at the very
beginning and why would you need to transfer title? This probably gets
sent to people selling cars, boats and other property online, I
suspect.
-- Steve Slatin -- Entry-level potter, journeyman loafer, master obfuscator
No website, no sales room, no scheduled hours
All talk, no action
Sequim, Washington, USA
48.0937°N, 123.1465°W or thereabouts
---------------------------------
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pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on sat 5 jun 04
Hi Simona, all...
Too, a foreign or other buyer may pay Western Union, where,
immediatly, the payment may be picked up by the payee at any
Western Union Office, with no delay of the Mails being
delivered.
I have had foreign buyers do this ( on their own, as a
method they favored) and, since there is a Western Union
Office a couple blocks from me, it was convenient enough.
Phil
el ve
----- Original Message -----
From: "Simona Drentea"
> << I "believe" the safest way to get foreign
> payment is through incoming wire transfer. I was
concerned that if someone
> could wire money in, they could wire it out. But the bank
assures me that
> can't happen. To be honest I would bet there is some way
it could happen,
> but it is better than a foreign bank check. >>
> Actually, ebay regularly reccomends that people do not
accept payment via
> instant wire transfers, it's supposed to not be very safe,
though I don't recall
> the details. I've found the best way to accept foreign
payments is Western
> Union Auction Payments which is a different division than
the instant wire
> transfer division. I know they're called "auction
payments", but I imagine someone
> could use it to pay for anything. The payor funds the
payment w/their credit
> card & the payee receives a money order issued by Western
Union in the US in
> US funds. I've rec'd payment in about a week. I assume
Western Union
> verifies the source of the funds, so I'm guessing they
might still decline payments
> out of known scam-center countries.
>
> Another thing I've found works well if the amount is not
too high is plain
> old US Cash.
>
> Simona in Colorado
>
>
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Iris Artist on sat 5 jun 04
Ok, for the work I do that has been shipped all over the US and England, I use Paypal. They pay credit to paypal, and paypal will write me a check or I can choose to have it wired to my bank, it takes 4 days for the funds to be transfered and yes they do take a percentage, though small, I just add that into the cost of the product. I never see the credit card number,and they never see my bank route number. I haven't had a problem with it in the three years I have used it.
Simona Drentea wrote:<< I "believe" the safest way to get foreign
payment is through incoming wire transfer. I was concerned that if someone
could wire money in, they could wire it out. But the bank assures me that
can't happen. To be honest I would bet there is some way it could happen,
but it is better than a foreign bank check. >>
Actually, ebay regularly reccomends that people do not accept payment via
instant wire transfers, it's supposed to not be very safe, though I don't recall
the details. I've found the best way to accept foreign payments is Western
Union Auction Payments which is a different division than the instant wire
transfer division. I know they're called "auction payments", but I imagine someone
could use it to pay for anything. The payor funds the payment w/their credit
card & the payee receives a money order issued by Western Union in the US in
US funds. I've rec'd payment in about a week. I assume Western Union
verifies the source of the funds, so I'm guessing they might still decline payments
out of known scam-center countries.
Another thing I've found works well if the amount is not too high is plain
old US Cash.
Simona in Colorado
______________________________________________________________________________
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at melpots@pclink.com.
---------------------------------
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Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger
Gail Phillips on sat 5 jun 04
Fun with scammers can be found at http://www.saabnet.com/tsn/class/scam/
Hilarious.
- Gail (figglywig)
-------------- Original message from Steve Slatin : --------------
> It sounds like the cashier's check scam.
> There was a web-site I found once of a guy who tagged
> scammers for fun -- he'd take their bad check, deposit it,
> and then create dozens of excuses for not completing the
> transaction until the check bounced.
Cindi Anderson on sat 5 jun 04
The best thing to do for US checks is to call the issuing bank and verify
that they issued the check and that the amount they issued matches what is
printed on your check. We always find the Bank in the Yellow Pages first to
make sure they are a real bank, then call.
Foreign checks are almost impossible to verify. Even big banks like
Citibank can't tell you for sure what banks are real. They do have lists of
legiitimate foreign banks but they warn that even some banks on the list are
not always honest and competent. I "believe" the safest way to get foreign
payment is through incoming wire transfer. I was concerned that if someone
could wire money in, they could wire it out. But the bank assures me that
can't happen. To be honest I would bet there is some way it could happen,
but it is better than a foreign bank check.
Cindi
Simona Drentea on sat 5 jun 04
<< I "believe" the safest way to get foreign
payment is through incoming wire transfer. I was concerned that if someone
could wire money in, they could wire it out. But the bank assures me that
can't happen. To be honest I would bet there is some way it could happen,
but it is better than a foreign bank check. >>
Actually, ebay regularly reccomends that people do not accept payment via
instant wire transfers, it's supposed to not be very safe, though I don't recall
the details. I've found the best way to accept foreign payments is Western
Union Auction Payments which is a different division than the instant wire
transfer division. I know they're called "auction payments", but I imagine someone
could use it to pay for anything. The payor funds the payment w/their credit
card & the payee receives a money order issued by Western Union in the US in
US funds. I've rec'd payment in about a week. I assume Western Union
verifies the source of the funds, so I'm guessing they might still decline payments
out of known scam-center countries.
Another thing I've found works well if the amount is not too high is plain
old US Cash.
Simona in Colorado
Lee Love on sun 6 jun 04
Simona Drentea wrote:
>
>Another thing I've found works well if the amount is not too high is plain
>old US Cash.
>
>
It may be illegal to send cash through the U.S. mail. It is in Japan.
If you don't use PayPal, and if the countries both participate, you
can get an international postal money order.
--
Lee in Mashiko, Japan http://mashiko.org
http://journals.fotki.com/togeika/Mashiko/ Commentary On Pottery
lewis ramage on sun 6 jun 04
I'm quite astounded by all this! As Russel said elsewhere, here in the
UK it is very common to pay bills and transfer money by "wire transfer"
(which simply injects your instructions into the banking system without
the need to process a paper cheque). It is completely safe: but perhaps
that is because our consumer/banking laws protect the consumer not the
bank. Moreover it is completely free, and money moves from one account
to another in three days (and there is constant agitation from consumers
to reduce that to overnight). It does not matter which banks the two
accounts are with, either.
I also use this means (or similar) to send money to the US to my
stepchildren and my wife's $ account: it cost $7 per transfer, I get the
same exchange rate the banks do for billion-dollar transfers and it
takes 5 days. Imagine my astonishment then to find that it would cost
$15 to transfer money from my wife's $ account to her daughters and was
not a commonplace transaction at Gooberbank, Booneyville. Sometimes I'm
glad to be living in backwards 'old' Europe!
I should also add that it is common in the UK for banking to be 'free',
for chequebooks to be free and for small overdrafts (of around $250) to
be free as well, without the need to maintain a large positive balance
in the account. I couldn't believe that Gooberbank, Booneyville
charged for cheques! Nor do they offer online banking (over the
Internet) which is almost universal in the UK - I can't think of a
single bank, large or small, that doesn't offer this service - and, by
the way, the bank indemnifies the customer against any fraudulent use of
their account over the Internet (negligence/fraud excepted of course).
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Clayart [mailto:CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG] On Behalf Of Simona
> Drentea
> Sent: Saturday, June 05, 2004 8:59 PM
> To: CLAYART@LSV.CERAMICS.ORG
> Subject: Re: Scams, was Re:wheel
>
> << I "believe" the safest way to get foreign
> payment is through incoming wire transfer. I was concerned that if
> someone
> could wire money in, they could wire it out. But the bank assures me
that
> can't happen. To be honest I would bet there is some way it could
happen,
> but it is better than a foreign bank check. >>
> Actually, ebay regularly reccomends that people do not accept payment
via
> instant wire transfers, it's supposed to not be very safe, though I
don't
> recall
> the details.
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