I’m in the process of selling a motorcycle, and there’s a potential buyer out there who is offering me $7000, and says he’s willing to pay in cash.
My scam prevention senses are tingling. My first thought is to say that I’d prefer a cashier’s check, but I thought I’d run it by the teeming millions:
Which is more likely: that I’d be stuck with counterfeit money? Or a fake cashier’s check?
And if I try to deposit that much cash in my checking account, doesn’t that set off all sorts of anti-money laundering alerts?
Roll of folding money for vehicles is often the accepted mechanism.
I like to joke that these rolls are virtual vehicles. They might never make it to a bank. People buy and sell cars, and the rolls of cash are simply markers for where a car should or will be. Sometimes some notes come off the roll, other-times notes go on the roll. But at any time there are these rolls of notes in circulation acting a tokens for vehicles. Every now and again a roll will vanish into a bank. But sometime later it will pop back into existence again as someone buys a car for cash and goes to the bank for the money.
My brother once bought an airplane with cash … still at the bank, the DEA had him up against the wall, frisked down and about to haul him off to jail before his alibi came through … Cessna 172 in case you’re curious …
There is also a $5,000 threshold for potential suspicious transactions. And that dollar limit can also be triggered if your account activity does not have a history of regular transactions with high dollar values.
If you don’t want to deal with cash, here’s what I’ve done in the past: meet the buyer at the buyer’s bank and go with them up to the counter as they request a cashier’s check in your name and have the teller hand the check to you, then go sign the papers.
Also for some withdrawals. Which isn’t a problem, as long as you’re not doing something illegal to get the money. I’ve drawn larger amounts out of my stock trading account and have to fill out some obligatory paperwork saying what it’s for. “I just want my money” is not good enough, by the way, so I just make up some bullshit reason like “home improvements”, if I don’t have a real reason.
I would prefer cash if it’s an ‘outside’ transaction, though getting a cashiers check from his bank at his bank where they can verify it would be safest all around (he has proof he paid you, you know the check is good). I don’t see anything suspicious about the offer to pay in cash, if I’m buying something from an individual I am always prepared to do cash or check based on their preference.
If you deposit over $10,000 or over $5000 that hits some other criteria, the bank sends off a form to the feds. It doesn’t actually require you to do anything and really isn’t a big deal. OTOH, if you try to structure the transactions in a weird way to get past the reporting (say deposit the cash in two $3500 lumps) you’re likely to trigger an alert for structuring transactions, which is illegal in itself and will bring you under a lot of investigation. Don’t try to be clever with deposits.
Right, Never structure a cash transaction it is a crime in of itself.
If you are worried about the $5000 SAR reporting (doubtful, but by no means impossible), then deposit $4000 and put the other $3000 under your mattress and spend it.
I expect all you would need to do is to put a reasonable length of time between transactions, although I don’t know how long. Or simply use multiple banks. Many of us think it is a good idea to have more than one bank account just for reasons of identity theft (as well as different banks offer different services at different interest rates…)
I echo the “in the bank lobby” consensus. If you don’t have an account at the same bank the buyer uses, you can just open one temporarily by filling out a few forms and depositing a small amount of money. Cashier’s checks, a cash from the teller handover, or transfer done at the bank counter are all solid ways to ensure your safety. Probably cash, counted by the teller, handed to you, and then you hand it back to the teller a few minutes later in a separate step to deposit it is the most secure way to do this.
You can give me 7k in cash any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
I would want to meet at the bank. Or a safe location with security.
My local police urges people making Craigslist transactions to meet in the police parking lot. They have certain days designated that an officer will be there for security.
A single motorcycle sale isn’t considered income? So it doesn’t matter if the bank reports the cash transaction.
No, no no. No. IANAL, but structuring is breaking up transactions to get around reporting issues. If you deposit two separate $3500 deposits, and someone gets suspicious and they call the feds - the feds will pull your full financial history for everywhere you have an account in your SSN, and they will ask where the money came from and why it was deposited like that. If you even hint that you got $7,000 and broke it into two transactions, they may deem that structuring, seize the $7,000, and charge you - because that’s exactly what it looked like.
Do not play games with large sums. Deposit the full amount (minus spending money) and if necessary, explain where you got it. If they investigate further, explaining where he got it is the buyer’s problem.
Oh, and if you lie to the investigators, that’s obstruction of justice.
