So how does this Craigslist scam work?

kb58

kb58

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A potential "buyer" for my lathe on Craigslist...

Thanks for the prompt response to my mail. I will be buying this from you, so please kindly withdraw the advert from site. My husband will overnight the payment asap but he will be paying with a Certified Check from his Bank and it will deliver to you via FEDEX, so I'll need you to provide me with the following information to facilitate the mailing of the check... And am offering additional $70 with the original price to have this asap.

Name to be on the payment...........
Address to mail the check to.............
City, state and zip code .............
Final Asking price...................
Cell phone # to text you on ................

I will make arrangements for the pick up as soon as you have your check clear, due to my work frame and my Kids, I will not be able to come with the cash and pick it up so my husband will mail the check and have someone pick up the item after the check clear., Reference to your post am completely satisfied with it and the payment will be deliver within 48hours..God Bless

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I assume the check goes bad at some point, but how does that work if it clears?
 
apparently by law the bank has to accept a certified check. so you deposit it the bank shows it cleared. then several weeks later it bounces and you are on the hook for the full amount. I know people it has happened to
 
Why a check. Write themselves the check, cash it and pay you. I wouldn’t mess with it tell them it’s a cash sale and who care who has to work and who’s gonna pick it up? IDC!
My guess is they are getting all the bits of your information and will find the rest from what you provide. Surprised they didn’t throw in “ I’m leaving the country for service and won’t be back for 3 months and my spouse will pick up the goods. It’s a scam of some sort. Wouldn’t even respond to them.
 
Don't worry, I'm not going to respond, just curious how it works. And yes, my ad does say cash only.
 
Yes, bank checks can bounce after many days of delay. I have had a court ordered bank check bounce, nothing I could do. It’s a great scam.
 
ddillman said:
apparently by law the bank has to accept a certified check. so you deposit it the bank shows it cleared. then several weeks later it bounces and you are on the hook for the full amount. I know people it has happened to
Click to expand...
The bank should be able to call the issuing bank, and verify the check. Banks do it all the time.

So what do they get out of this? a lathe? Now its stolen goods, hard to sell, and has a serial number.

Slightly off track, but doesn't a personal check have all the stuff they need? Bank account number, routing number, my name, and address. Is there anything else they need that the check does not have?
 
I sold something on Ebay once and I suppose Craig's list has the same sort of criminals trolling there. On Ebay I sold a machine and sent the guy an internet ebay invoice. He was in England and a week or so later I got a letter in the mail and inside was a cashiers check from a credit union in Wyoming. The sales price was something like $750.00 plus shipping costs. Inside the envelope was a typed note (from the crook) saying " I made the cashier check for 2500.00 , please pay the freight charges and keep an extra $500.00 for your time. Then want ever is left over please send me a cashiers check to my address. Just sounded so phoney. I looked up the credit union in Wyoming on the internet. On the web page they had a check and said These checks were not written by our CU. It is a fake check. I took everything to the US Post office and they said they get 100's of these a week and they were understaffed to do anything. So be careful... I have also heard of people buying something and never receiving it and they keep the money.

You can also do this If your selling ask for a wire transfer. Calling a bank to varifey funds is OK but they may withdrawal the money by the time clears their bank.
 
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What comes to mind for me is they will have your address and they already know you have machine tools, and most likely other things of value.

Unless it's a larger ticket item I usually try to meet craigslist buyers elsewhere. I realize you can't do that with a lathe, but everything about this says it's a scam. I'm probably going to sell my Fadal on CL and I'll just have to listen to the buyer and judge if they have knowledge about CNC's.

The other thing is usually women don't but machine tools. I know Susan here is an exception and has caught the machine tool bug as bad as anyone here. I'm sure many others have also. So no offense to anyone intended. It just seems like a standard scam response they use on everything they are trying to scam people out of.
 
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I played one of these things out once and was contacted by the US Postmaster. They intercepted the phony check and arrested the scammer :encourage:
Just needed some evidence from me which I was happy to provide.
 
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