I almost fell for a scam, but ironically I was saved by another scammer.

[maxwelhse]

Edit: upon further reflection, I wonder if the problem is simply that the fake checks are copying legitimate bank accounts and the fraud is not discovered until the real owner of the account realizes that there was a deduction from their account for a check they didn’t write? I suppose that if I had played along further I would have a better understanding of the details about how these frauds work, but it’s obviously not worth the aggravation.

This is technically the only accurate definition of a "fake" check. I can hand write a check to you on a napkin and as long as its formatted correctly and has the proper account and routing number it's a legitimate check that can be deposited. The security features of modern printed checks are completely optional and mostly just speed up processing. That's why printing your own checks at home is a completely legitimate option.

If you want to hedge your bets at all when dealing with a check, you can call the institution the check is written against and verify that the account has the funds on deposit to cover it and verify that the person on the account is the person writing the check. That's about all you have and I'm sure there are ways around that too.

Personally, I find checks to be completely archaic and I often go many years between writing them and I've only accepted them from friends/family for stuff like group buys to split shipping costs on stuff. I'd never take a check from a stranger, period. If they can't get it together enough to turn their own check into cash before we meet, I don't need to sell them my stuff.

 

[JettaKnight]

FB marketplace became a lot more active for vehicles when CL started charging to list them.

Noticed that. There's a lot of motorcycles miscategorized as "parts" on CL.


I've been flagging the cheapskates; you can afford the measly $5.

 

[Dulla]

I was looking at used campers on CL a week ago and the amount of obvious scams was insane! The posters were so lazy they didn't even alter the pictures they stole from other listings.

Reverse image search can be your best friend on CL, Armslist, etc...

 

[JettaKnight]

I was looking at used campers on CL a week ago and the amount of obvious scams was insane! The posters were so lazy they didn't even alter the pictures they stole from other listings.

Reverse image search can be your best friend on CL, Armslist, etc...

Excessive weird characters, lame descriptions, phone # in the photo.... flag and move on.

 

[rob63]

I guess since this came back up I thought would include an amusing update. The person that is attempting to send me a fake check continues to email me hoping to get me to bite on the scam. She is persistent, if nothing else. The hilarious thing is that she has forgotten what fake name she is using. The first couple of emails she called herself Stacy Pomeroy, but now she has switched to calling herself April Ford. My email groups all of the emails together in one string so it kind of jumps out that there are now two different names being used. I find it very humorous.

 

[drillsgt]

I guess since this came back up I thought would include an amusing update. The person that is attempting to send me a fake check continues to email me hoping to get me to bite on the scam. She is persistent, if nothing else. The hilarious thing is that she has forgotten what fake name she is using. The first couple of emails she called herself Stacy Pomeroy, but now she has switched to calling herself April Ford. My email groups all of the emails together in one string so it kind of jumps out that there are now two different names being used. I find it very humorous.

Scammers on armslist are the same way.

 

[Hoosierkav]

Take a look at the "Blue Bell" car wrap scam. It's the same MO. My daughter fell for it; fortunately, she was all excited and told me. I had to burst her bubble, and when the check came in the mail, I chuckled and shredded it.

It'd been a while since I've reminded her of her naivety. I should remind her.

 

[rob63]

I can provide another update. In spite of me telling them that I wasn't interested they have sent me a check anyway.

The result of that is that I now understand the scam much better. I was thinking way too logically, and probably naively, to understand it before. I was assuming the moving fees would be something reasonable and that they were actually after the furniture.

The check is for an amount in excess of $2800. In other words, they want me to cash the check, keep my amount for the furniture, and then send over $2,000 to the "movers." It's pretty clear now how it works. I have to admit, they are far more imaginative in their schemes than what I am. At least I cost them whatever they spent on Fed-Ex to send the check. I don't know if anything can be done, but I have filed reports.

There is also another somewhat more interesting development with the other scammer. She has sent me messages saying she is sending a check (these people don't seem to understand the word "No"), but the first one ended up in a "dead-letter" office according to the tracking info. She tried a second time with the same result. She is now accusing me of having a "bad" address because she can't manage to successfully send me anything. I am hoping that perhaps the postal inspector already has her under investigation and is gathering evidence. It seems like a really strange coincidence otherwise.

I am going to add that now that I better understand how this works, there was never any chance I would have fell for any of this. I was interested in getting rid of the furniture and willing to be accommodating to a point. However, once a check arrived in this kind of amount with an expectation that I forward large sums I would have balked regardless of whether I realized the scam prior to that.

 

[JettaKnight]

Take a look at the "Blue Bell" car wrap scam. It's the same MO. My daughter fell for it; fortunately, she was all excited and told me. I had to burst her bubble, and when the check came in the mail, I chuckled and shredded it.

It'd been a while since I've reminded her of her naivety. I should remind her.

I wouldn't drive with a Blue Bell ad for any amount of money... but free ice cream, yeah! Their ice cream is the bomb!

 

[Fullmag]

There was a time CL and Armslist was awesome for selling/buying stuff. Can’t think of how many years ago and then the scammers started to mutate. Had scope for sale guy did that pick it up and pay for later deal. No, was the reply and then two weeks later he called and said he had the money. Now years later I wish I had not sold that scope!