Am I being scammed?

[Pat Eisenberger]

Help!

I’ve received an email from someone in the UK (I’m in the US) wanting to buy my harp. I don’t know if this is a scam. Further, I don’t know how to go about shipping it, as I don’t have a shipping trunk or box. Here’s their email to me:

[deb-l]

this is absolutely a scam.

[wil-weten]

Indeed, this is a scam.

[deb-l]

their check to you will bounce, then you are out the money you give to them.

[Carm Zephyr]

I had a similar email with a car sale, My instinct was it was a SCAM! Your first reaction was that something didn’t seem quite right and my advice is that your instinct is correct on this one Pat.

[Minnesota Harpist]

Artists (painters) get this same scam letter all the time…

[cc-chiu]

As far as I know, everything that mentions ‘western union money transfer’ is suspicious. (It might be a very common way to deal with payments in the US, I’m not sure? But over here in the Netherlands, it’s one of the ‘warning signs’ that it’s a scam).

Also, the entire arrangement (a client in the US?), the lack of proper punctuation and the lack of questions about the harp itself are things that should cause red flags…
(I know that other people already said that it’s a scam but I thought, let’s explain our reasoning 🙂 Perhaps someone will benefit.)

[Karen Johns]

Please note the fact that it is a CERTIFIED CASHIER’S CHECK. Having just went through a home purchase, I know from experience you cannot get one of these without the funds being in the bank in the first place. Also, it instructs you to CASH it first,THEN send the funds to ship. If the check is a scam, you wouldn’t be able to cash it, period. All you would have to do is take it to the bank it is drawn from to find out if it’s a forgery or not. Basically, a cashier’s check is the same as a money order- you have to buy it with cash.

Do you have full contact information regarding the seller? Perhaps having a chat with him/her would help. Insist on transparency for the sake of establishing a “business-based trust” as stated in the above letter.

[michael-rockowitz]

Karen (and everyone),

Please see the first paragraph of this material from craigslist about fraud, pertaining to “cashier’s checks”:

craigslist material re fraud

The rest of that page has additional useful info.

Still a scam-

Michael

[kreig-kitts]

Yup. Scammers get cashier’s checks by forging them, and sometimes the forgeries are very good, taking a while to catch, especially if they use all the numbers a valid check would use.

[Karen Johns]

All good information Michael. This is why I advised Pat to insist on transparency, and also have the bank verify the validity of the cashier’s check. It’s too bad this couldn’t be played out just enough to catch one of these scammers, eh? If that were possible, it would be for the good of all. Thanks for the heads-up.

Karen

[Ann]

Scam.

Why would you want to be this person’s bank by engaging in a “cash-back” transaction of any kind?

“Deduct the amount due for the purchase, and send the remaining funds …” is your red-light warning. At best it’s becoming a victim of theft; at worst it’s money laundering.

I am an attorney. I’ve seen this type of solicitation

[carl-swanson]

Sop deposit the check and don’t send anything back.

[brenda-lee]

SCAM! Everytime I list something to sell on Craigslist, I get a few scammers with the same approach.

[Author]

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