- Joined
- May 1, 2002
- Messages
- 866
- Reaction score
- 0
Note to Mods: perhaps you can post this where it will get maximum exposure, even in multiple threads.
I received an offer of $1500 for a domain that I had for sale. That was my asking price and most of the time I have to negotiate, but some people do offer full price if the domain is reasonable. So, my scam alert was not up very high. This week, I received a cashier's check for $6,950 made out to me on a bank from Jackson, Mississippi. What would you do in this situation?
I can tell you that if I deposit the check, the buyer will be asking me to send him cash, Western Union Payment, or some other non-reversible for the overpayment. It will turn out that it is a counterfeit check that I have received. It will take a few weeks to find that out, usually after my bank tells me that the funds are being reversed out of my account. When a similar deal happened to my college-age daughter in an apartment sublet deal, she lost $1700. In that case, I spoke to the Bank of America security people (and the FBI). My daughter had no recourse.
So, here is what made me suspicious:
1. Overpayment (in other variations of the scam, overpayment is not necessary, as I have heard of people "only" losing their car for sale)
2. Check came in an envelope from Ghana (with no return address, by the way). Many of these deals come from Nigeria, and you surely have received emails offering you an opportunity to make a lot of money from someone in Nigeria.
3. Cashier's Check (we are used to think that these are a very safe form of payment, but they are oh so easy to counterfeit). This check says to hold it up to the light to view a watermark, but there is no watermark.
Because it is a copy of a real check, it probably would have taken a few weeks for my bank to figure that out and tell me. If you go to Craig's List, you can read up on all of the scams that take place from ads on that site (which is where my daughter had her ad).
When I spoke with the FBI, I was told that these scams are going on like crazy with huge losses. So, please inform everyone you know, even non domainers. Please feel free to post this on other forums, as well.
I received an offer of $1500 for a domain that I had for sale. That was my asking price and most of the time I have to negotiate, but some people do offer full price if the domain is reasonable. So, my scam alert was not up very high. This week, I received a cashier's check for $6,950 made out to me on a bank from Jackson, Mississippi. What would you do in this situation?
I can tell you that if I deposit the check, the buyer will be asking me to send him cash, Western Union Payment, or some other non-reversible for the overpayment. It will turn out that it is a counterfeit check that I have received. It will take a few weeks to find that out, usually after my bank tells me that the funds are being reversed out of my account. When a similar deal happened to my college-age daughter in an apartment sublet deal, she lost $1700. In that case, I spoke to the Bank of America security people (and the FBI). My daughter had no recourse.
So, here is what made me suspicious:
1. Overpayment (in other variations of the scam, overpayment is not necessary, as I have heard of people "only" losing their car for sale)
2. Check came in an envelope from Ghana (with no return address, by the way). Many of these deals come from Nigeria, and you surely have received emails offering you an opportunity to make a lot of money from someone in Nigeria.
3. Cashier's Check (we are used to think that these are a very safe form of payment, but they are oh so easy to counterfeit). This check says to hold it up to the light to view a watermark, but there is no watermark.
Because it is a copy of a real check, it probably would have taken a few weeks for my bank to figure that out and tell me. If you go to Craig's List, you can read up on all of the scams that take place from ads on that site (which is where my daughter had her ad).
When I spoke with the FBI, I was told that these scams are going on like crazy with huge losses. So, please inform everyone you know, even non domainers. Please feel free to post this on other forums, as well.
Upvote
0
