Something Does Not Feel Right

[Aven]

I have a situation that I would like to get the collective's take on, because I trust y'all.

We put an older Singer 66 up on OfferUp for $125.00.  We were contacted by someone who said they'd buy it, send us an cashier's check and have some one come get it.  Okay, we're good with that.  This drags on for a few days and rolls into she will pay us and have movers come get it.  Um, okay, more hassle than the sewing machine is worth in my opinion, but what do I know about the worth of the machine really?  Today a cashier's check via FedEx from Chicago, we live outside of Seattle.  The check was for $2,855.00 and there were no instructions for the movers included in the envelope.  Supposedly we are to cash the check and pay the movers with  the remainder of $2650.  We are supposed to get an extra $80 for our troubles.

Oh, the name of the check isn't the name of the person my wife has been dealing with.

I got to say I am uncomfortable with all this.  I feel like this is a scam, but I'm not sure how it works.  Anyone have an insight to this?  Thanks in advance.

Edited August 7, 2020 by Aven

[fredk]

Its a most unusual one indeed.

Is a 'cashier's' cheque like a ready cash payment? I mean, can you go into a bank and instantly get it cashed or does it need to go thru your bank account and the bank system before you get the money?

I'd guess it ain't gonna cost $2650 to crate and send a sewing machine half-way across the country.

Is it possible the buyer mis-understood the price? eg thought it was $1250, then plus $80 = $1330 ~ but that still leaves $1525, still too much

I know of two deals that were just a little bit the same, both became mysteries

[Aven]

Fred, a cashier's check is supposed to be like instant payment.  The bank issues it and guarantees that it won't bounce.  And I'm pretty sure that it won't cost anything near $2650 to crate it and move it.  The moving company quoted us about $6,000 to move our household goods (three bedrooms and a shop) about the same distance.

I'm sure it was a scam, I just can't figure out how they were going to get their money, unless the moving company was in on it.  If I'm correct, the check is a fake, a good fake, but a fake none the less.  If I cash it, since it's a cashier's check, it shows up immediately in my account, even though it hasn't cleared the issuing bank.  That could take weeks before they decide it's a bad check.  At which time they take the check amount back out of my account plus and fees for a bounced check.  So I'm out the amount of the check and they have a sewing machine.  This is a whole lot of trouble for something that isn't going to net them much.  Something expensive I can see, like a car, but not a machine that's not worth more than maybe a few hundred dollars.

The moving company has to be in on it.

My wife had the buyer call me because she's at work.  As soon as it rang I knew it was a scam.  The check in a different name came from Chicago.  The call came from the Twin Cities in Minnesota. They are about 650 miles apart.  The fact the guy told me he had to talk for his wife Leah, who was deaf and dumb, cinched it for me.  Told him I was tearing up the check, he didn't hesitate, he just hung up.

Edited August 7, 2020 by Aven
I can't spell

[fredk]

I think you were wise. You were on to them.

If I may I'll relate a story which came up in my area about 6 years ago.

A woman puts a diamond ring on ebay. A person buys it. Arranges to send a 'bank draft' from a UK bank (like your cashiers check). Buyer pays extra because he wants the ring sent to Nigeria by special delivery. Woman banks cheque, doesn't wait and sends ring. Cheque bounces. Also police contact woman for money laundering. She's cleared of that but has lost the ring. Value of ring? over £15,000. Ebay says not our problem, insurance and police say the same.

That was a big amount. Very often these scammers get people on the smaller amounts, like yours. But usually they have some clever story to go with it and carry it along

[Aven]

Some people are just scum.  I'm sorry she got taken.

Thanks for listening.  Stuck in an empty house is rough for a verbal processor.  The cat couldn't care less about what I'm talking about.

[cardinal leather]

I ran into this scam on Craigslist, seems its been around for a while. i told the guy when u show up with cash we will deal.  never heard from then again.

[Aven]

From now on we will be doing PayPal or cash only.  No checks, cashier's checks, money orders or the like.

[fredk]

ah, you can't beat an honest green-back, unless it a $4 bill. Just don't take any wood nickels 

[garypl]

Every few months I get requests from some 3rd world country to buy my products,  They want me to use their shipper, have me pay for shipping and will pay me by credit card.  Of course they will dispute all charges and split money I would have paid to the shipping company.

Unless I am dealing with a previous customer, I only ship product after I receive funds in my account via wire transfer.  Once the funds hit my account there is nothing they can do to reverse it.

If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is!

Gary

[Northmount]

The scam that has been running for quite some time is to over-pay with a forged cheque/document.  Then ask you to pay the shipper, or wire the excess money back to them.  When you do that, and then cash your cheque, it will bounce and you will be out the whole amount.  Only accept cheques/documents for the actual amount.  Cash it before you ship.  Don't pay their shipper, etc.  After about 2 weeks, when you are sure your document has properly cleared, then ship the object.

Tom

 

[Handstitched]

A'h yes, scammers don't just love them? 

NOT!!   I can see this thread filling up quickly with so many stories. 

The latest for me?  Business registration scams . I renew mine every 3 years through the proper channels, but yet , I've had two in the mail  since March and very " official looking " too ,asking to pay 2-3 times the proper fee . 

Always rely on your gut  

I love cash, as in folding money. It doesn't need batteries, or a good  signal or recharging,   and can't be hacked into , and  can still be used even when the power goes off.......AND  it doesn't bounce .

Cheques are being phased out here in Oz . 

HS 

[fredk]

3 minutes ago, Handstitched said:

I love cash, as in folding money. It doesn't need batteries, or a good  signal or recharging,   and can't be hacked into , and  can still be used even when the power goes off.......AND  it doesn't bounce .

ah, but one must be wary of forged bank notes too. Allegedly there are more forged £20 notes in UK circulation than there are real ones. And the same for 10p and £1 coins. My #1 son checks every note he gets in payment. He says he's never found a forged note but he's had a few customers change their minds and took back their cash before he could check it all.

One of the last scams I got was for a speeding ticket. I was caught speeding by a road-side camera in up-State New York. Pay now or be taken to court and then loose my licence. They kindly gave me a link to be able to pay. Very worrying as the last time I was in New York was for a few days about 13 years ago. Enforced lay-over because of flights. I don't remember speeding at all. I don't even remember having a car there.

 

[Handstitched]

3 minutes ago, fredk said:

ah, but one must be wary of forged bank notes too

So true.

 Here in Oz, and no doubt in the EU & UK ,  ' anti- forging technology' is getting better . Here they have even included braille tactile thingies on every note  with holograms and lots of micro micro....stuff  

HS

[fredk]

We use a coin for the £1. A couple of years ago the Royal Mint introduced a new one. Supposed to be un-forgeable. yeah, right, the first forgeries were detected less than a week after the new ones entered circulation. The forgeries use a different metal mix which makes them a fraction of a gram underweight, which is only detected by machines which recognise coins by their weight, but you or me or the shopping trolley can't tell the difference.

Yup, our bank notes have all those hologram thingies on them

[Aven]

1 hour ago, fredk said:

We use a coin for the £1. A couple of years ago the Royal Mint introduced a new one. Supposed to be un-forgeable. yeah, right, the first forgeries were detected less than a week after the new ones entered circulation. The forgeries use a different metal mix which makes them a fraction of a gram underweight, which is only detected by machines which recognise coins by their weight, but you or me or the shopping trolley can't tell the difference.

Yup, our bank notes have all those hologram thingies on them

What? Wait, you have to "rent" your shopping carts?  Wow, now there's a scam.  Do your pensioners get tokens?

[fredk]

24 minutes ago, Aven said:

What? Wait, you have to "rent" your shopping carts?  Wow, now there's a scam.  Do your pensioners get tokens?

Its ok. We use a £1 coin or a token the same size just to release the lock on the shopping trolley. Each trolley has a short chain which locks into another trolley when they are pushed together. We get the £1 or token back when we return the trolley to the trolley parking bay. Some shops use it to stop people stealing the trolleys. Some shops use a special wheel lock which automatically locks one or more of the trolley wheels if you take it too far from the shop.

[Aven]

That makes sense.  Stores have a hard time holding on to them here.  You see carts dumped all the time.  We went into a grocery store a while back and could not find a hand basket.  We said something to the cashier as we were checking out.  The manager happened to be near by and said that they were having more of an issue than usual.  She said they usually lose about 50 a week.  People just walk off with them.  I was stunned.

[fredk]

Our shops used to loose a lot of trolleys. Some were stolen, others, people just used them to take their shopping home and left the trolley laying about. But after the introduction of the lock people are too tight not to want their £1 back, or their cheap plastic trolley token

Sort-of back to the lead topic.

My #1 son had a case where a guy saw a car my son was selling listed on Gumtree. The guy phoned my son and arranged to buy the car. A couple of days later a guy calls and #1's garage. He's not the buyer. He's just delivering an envelope. In the envelope was 3/4 the price of the car, in cash. The verbal message with it is the buyer will call in about a week to pay the rest and collect the car.

The week goes by. No buyer. My son tries the phone number he has on record. Its no longer in use. Months go by. Still no buyer. Son has cash, car papers and a car, but no buyer. The buyer never gave his full name, just first name, never gave an address. My son puts the word out through the car clubs as this car is a specialist car. The buyer can't be traced, no one recognise him from what my son knew of him.

Jump 2 years on. Still no sign of the buyer so my son decides to sell the car again but he makes a note that if the buyer ever turns up he can claim his money back. Due to the nature of this specialist car guys buy it, use it for a while and then my son gets buying it back, fixes it and sells it again. He told me two weeks ago this car is back with him for the 4th time. But no-one has ever turned up and said -'thats my car'

PS. My son does some Church out-reach in our prisons (all two of them) and he's even asked in them if anyone, a newish prisoner, ever bought this car

Where's Sherlock Holmes when you need him?

 

[Handstitched]

12 hours ago, Aven said:

What? Wait, you have to "rent" your shopping carts?

Yep, same here in Oz . Mostly at the  major chain bottle shops ( liquor stores  ) 

@fredk  Thats quite a mystery .  Or, the other possibility , is that the buyer passed away  So without a last name or any other info, it will remain a mystery . 

HS

[chrisash]

In the UK it now seems cash is like offering corvid-19 to the seller, so most sales are by credit/ debit card, easier for most transactions but vast profits for Barclaycard, visa and the rest with their share of every transaction, and the Banks can now say there is no demand for coin's and stop holding them, close down and go all electronic with cash machines

Yet at the same time people in supermarkets paw through packs of food wrapped in film or cardboards to get the best  of the product think cold processed meats in sealed packages and that's safe

Confused

[Handstitched]

To go fully ' cashless' would disadvantage so many people, the elderly for example. Some don't even have a cash or credit card , and still use the ' ways of old' .  

The ' tap & go' or ' paywave'  devices cost  the user extra to use, here in Oz anyway. 

The ol' car boot sales and swat meets , markets etc. would be affected, as most of the transactions are cash . 

For my business, I use ' Square' payment system , eftpos, c/card ,  heaps cheaper than banks,  but I still get quite a lot of cash transactions too.   About 90% of my business  just at the weekend was cash ** go figure? 

 

 

** Western Australia has the lowest covid numbers anywhere in Australia , and almost no restrictions. 

HS

 

[fredk]

5 hours ago, chrisash said:

In the UK it now seems cash is like offering corvid-19 to the seller, so most sales are by credit/ debit card, easier for most transactions but vast profits for Barclaycard, visa and the rest with their share of every transaction,

I'm with Nationwide Building Society. According to them it costs them 2% of the price of whatever I buy using my Nw debit card. Same as when I draw cash out of any hole-in-the wall except their own machines. Their savings interest is pathetic but Nw doesn't charge me for me to use my money. 

Just after Ikea in Belfast re-opened I went in to get an item. Then I stopped at their bistro counter for a hotdog. I totally forgot that Ikea said it was totally cash-less. I placed a £1 coin on the side of the till for the hotdog. The lady serving on it, literally jumped back about 3 feet and screamed, at almost the top of her voice 'No!, no money!, card only! card only! take it away now or I call security!' I took the coin back and as soon as I stepped back the lady sprayed the whole till unit and the surrounding counter with disinfectant, She was not a local person.

Contrast with a local person in a shop t'other day. I paid with a £10 note. As we chatted slightly without demur she dropped the note onto a porcelain dish on the counter and sprayed disinfectant on it. No fuss, no screaming.

I think it was early last year the banks approached the UK Government suggesting that all coins under 50p, ie 1p, 2p. 5p, 10p & 20p coins should be done away with. After about 3 weeks the Gov said no, too many people rely on cash. And the Royal Mint then put out more of each coin.

No.1 son only accepts cash on pick up or bank transfer in payment for car parts or servicing. There are a great number of businesses here like that

[Retswerb]

On 8/8/2020 at 6:09 AM, fredk said:

 Allegedly there are more forged £20 notes in UK circulation than there are real ones. And the same for 10p and £1 coins. 

I can see forging a £20, if that’s your scam of choice. But a 10p coin? How is that possibly worth the effort?

[fredk]

Beats me. But I'd say its a matter of being caught. The authorities will chase a note forger quicker than a small coin forger. A forger can get a lot of coins into circulation quicker than large denom notes

Here's one for the UK readers. Did you hear about the Belfast coin forger? He was making 10p coins. He was cutting the corners off the 50ps

[jcuk]

13 minutes ago, fredk said:

Beats me. But I'd say its a matter of being caught. The authorities will chase a note forger quicker than a small coin forger. A forger can get a lot of coins into circulation quicker than large denom notes

Here's one for the UK readers. Did you hear about the Belfast coin forger? He was making 10p coins. He was cutting the corners off the 50ps

Again a bit off topic yes the expression cut the corners off s 50 pence piece but nowadays people are trying to cut the corners off a 10 pence piece, cutting corners where there are no corners to cut shoddy working practices at times just to get the job done as fast as they can with no care or attention.

 

JCUK