A local guy was trying to sell a couple dachshund puppies. A buyer from out of state mailed him payment (cashiers check). The seller saw it was for too much money. Calls the buyer and lets him know.
[SPOILER]"No problem he says. Deposit the cashiers check and just send me back what I overpaid. Keep $50 for your trouble.
Fortunately the seller called the bank and found out the check was no good.
Easy to fall for because it’s a business transaction. They overpay and naturally you want to refund the overpayment.
You gotta watch out for these kinds of scams these days. Even cashiers checks and money orders can be fakes or altered these days.[/SPOILER]
It’s not just a local problem either.
It means a lot to anyone that falls for it. This is different from the typical greed based con. This is just someone overpaying you for an item they are buying. It’s like a merchant giving $75 change from a 100 bill and then learning it’s counterfeit. You don’t expect to get screwed just giving back change from a transaction.
My sister almost fell for it, but she thought enough (was suspicious) to ask me first.
The checks will sometimes actually “clear” the bank (and come back later). Some people see “Cashiers Check” and think it is as good as cash. If they are suspicious and it “clears” they think that is all that matters.
If you’ve never sold stuff on Craigslist - I can see falling for this. I’ve never gotten one on eBay (I think - I would have just ignored it if I had and maybe not remembered). My understanding is virtually everyone gets one that sells something on craigslist.
My sister was amused at the lack of English skills - and how it was almost exactly like one of the examples on the Craigslist help page - she was selling some stuff from my mom’s estate last week. She was quite amused how this Russian woman was “very interested” in this very ordinary couch and wanted to send her “handlers” out to take care of it - after she sent us a bank check with an extra fee added on for us to pay the handlers.
Sis read me the entire email at lunch and then added…
“So I wrote back - CASH ONLY!”
I said “Why would you even bother responding - you know it’s a scam?”
“Well you never know - she might really want it”
But yes, it is an old one - easy to be smug when you already know though.
ETA: not that people care, but on rereading this - I wasn’t clear my sister almost fell for this a year ago (for something else), but she spotted it right away this time (like last week). Want to give her some credit where due.
I actually sincerely believe that instead of the utterly generic “don’t send money to someone you don’t know!” warning poster Western Union locations should warn people NOT to send a refund for a overpaid check. It is much more specific, and could defeat this scam.
Also bank clerks need to STOP STOP STOP telling people a deposited check has cleared or is legit, only for the check to come back as a total forgery weeks to a month down the line. They need to explain to potential victims that while their account has been credited, the check could still turn out to be a forgery. I’ve told people about this only for them to go aha I’ll deposit it and then ask the bank teller if it is real, which they will answer yes.
I’ve seen so many of these experiences, WU and banks changing their script could kill this scam dead.
Agree with this. There are some people you are never going to get through to, but I’m guessing at least 75% could be prevented by something like this.
A somewhat clever variation on this scheme is the person tells them they will wire it to their account. Assuming it is a big bank like BOA or whatever - the scam artist goes in person and deposits the cashier’s check anywhere in the country where the bank has a branch. Person being scammed checks their balance and sees it has increased by $1000 or whatever.
Not sure how well the scam works - as I assume wires show up differently, but I could see someone being scammed by this - as I wouldn’t really expect that to happen. Only heard about it once or twice and I think it is relatively unknown - I wouldn’t be surprised if it took in a decent percentage of people that even knew about Cashier Check scam.
It is easy enough to add anti-counterfeiting features to cashier’s checks - watermarks, holograms, microprinting, etc. Would increase the cost of the cashier’s check by a few cents, but hell - charge the customer for it. Why wouldn’t the banks do it? I am sure they do not relish the mess that results when “cleared” cashier’s check funds have to be taken back.
I believe you can buy totally blank checks with the security features already there. They are designed for people that use quicken and the like. Use your own program to print a bank name - add the words “Cashier’s Check” (or whatever) - and you have a check that could look like the real thing. Most of the big banks I think use fancier printing/embossing, but I think you can get relatively cheap equipment that will do something similar.
There is no standard (that I am aware of). So it is sort of the same problem you have with birth certificates - when you have 500 different versions floating around - it is hard to train people what to look for.
It’s ironic that people pay extra for the security of a money order or cashiers check. I used to buy money orders to pay for Ebay items before I finally relented and got a Pay Pal account. A buck a pop for money orders. Just so that the seller didn’t worry about getting a personal check. Sellers would delay shipping for ten days if I sent them a personal check. They’d usually ship the next day with a money order (this was ten years ago).
So Aceplace57, why the spoiler box? Worried that someone might regard figuring out these scams for themselves as a game they wouldn’t want you to spoil, or what
I just wanted to give people a minute to think about the situation. Put themselves in the seller’s shoes and consider how they’d react. Then click the spoiler box.
Imagine getting a letter you’ve waited several days for. Oh here’s the payment from that guy for the puppy. Oh shit. He overpaid. Now what should I do?
It hasn’t been more than ten or twelve years ago that money orders and cashiers checks were trusted. People that didn’t trust personal checks insisted on payment by money order or cashiers check.
Con men are using that trust against us now because many people don’t know the whole system is unreliable now. We didn’t get the fraud memo.
I’m not sure how payment can be reliably sent anymore. The entire banking system is suspect. Even sending a personal check is dangerous because people can use the account number and routing info to defraud you. That kind of thing never happened until the past ten years.
