i posted an ad to sell my old ps3 and some dude sent me a check for $2801 (which obviously i wouldn’t ask for a early gen ps3). he then asked me to deposit this check and take the money for the console and the shipping and send the rest to his “mover” whose address is in FL but will pickup the package in WA. this is ridiculous to me and plainly seems to be some sort of scam. my question is what do i do with the check? seems like it couldn’t do any harm to deposit it and wait for the funds to arrive. especially if i don’t touch the funds. and if it does turn out to be a scam i’d have some evidence against them if the bank could verify where the check came from.
The check will bounce. Guaranteed.
If you deposit the check, it’ll bounce and you’ll be out some bank fees.
And there is a fee for depositing a bad check as well as writing one.
No way to come out ahead on this one.
thanks for the advice
I suppose you could call the FBI and/or the Florida attorney general see if they want it.
Wow, they sent you a check without even contacting you yet? I mean, why not I guess, but it seems like that would tend to top people off faster that it’s some kind of scam.
This scam has been around for years now. Where have you been not to see it?
The check is not valid. Yes, you can take it to the bank and the bank may well honor it. Then they will come back and debit you account when the check finally bounces. Banks routinely advance funds based on the expectation that a check will fully clear. This is a courtesy to clients. Read your bank rules. They maintain the right to come back to you. Scammers operate in this “float” area and steal your money.
That’s the dumbest scam I’ve ever heard of. Who the fuck falls for this?
Greedy people? :rolleyes:
The easiest marks are the ones who think they’re too smart to fall for a scam.
At least, that’s what every con artist I’ve read about says.
My stepson received a “cashiers’ check” in the mail for a room he was trying to rent out. The check was from a foreigner and was for several thousand dollars, much larger than the first months’ rent and deposit. My stepson was going to try to deposit it, but contacted me first. I sent him this link:
He took the check to the local police department instead. He never heard from the scammer again.
The brainiacs who star on Teen Mom, for one…
She fell for the same scam, although hers involved a car. Anyone who has ever owned a Neon knows that a used 2000 Neon is NOT worth $5000, plus shipping…
You could always try to sell it on Craigslist. 
The check is a forgery. The check will initially clear (so you think you’re good). Three weeks later, when the check is discovered to be a forgery, you will have to repay the bucks. Meanwhile, everybody else has long since vaporized.
yeah, scammers are a downside to craigslist. i put my old car up there, and almost immediately got a response via e-mail. the e-mail had a link to a craigslist page, so I (dumbly) clicked it, and got taken to a craigslist account login page. thinking “that’s not supposed to happen,” I went back to the email and moused over the link, and the actual link target was to some “clever-cashing” site.
nice try, fucker. good thing for me that I wasn’t totally on autopilot there.