Old scam, newer twist?

[Junkman]

When I sold my tractor on e Bay, I got the same type of correspondence. One person went so far as to tell me that they had bought the tractor, sent the money and wanted to know where to pick it up. I e mailed them back and told them that I didn't get the money and they implied that it was at my bank. This was interesting because I never gave them a bank name or address......

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Bob,

What you got were variations on the old 'Nigeria scam', so named because they originated there. Now they can come from anywhere.

The original got your account information under the guise of wiring you money and, instead, emptied your account that way.

Later, the scam morphed to a form wherein the seller was offered full price (and sometimes more) with an official looking "cashier's check" for more than that amount sent. The seller was instructed to deposit the check and then, variously, send the overage to a 'shipping agent' or some other third party who would make arrangements to pick up the equipment.

The seller who does this is in for a suprise when, after he's forwarded the overage in guaranteed funds from his account, he gets a call from his bank telling him the original "cashier's check" has been returned (often two or more weeks later) and he's now overdrawn.

The "buyer" and the "shipper/third party agent" have the sellers money and are long gone.

It really pays to educate yourself about scams and how they work. We're going to continue to see more and more of them and knowledge is your best defense.

 

[dummy]

First noticed the ad was listed under Aviator (avitar?)16 for the same price. What was really strange about it though was the ad would not show up in an Ebay search. Actually, I thought the Buy it now price was going to be a partial payment. Price was too low to be believable. Maybe the real surprise was going to be the airfreight was COD /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif Amazing that people can still make money off of scams. Guess greed gets the better part of good judgment too many times.

 

[art]

I've been watching this and I found some tractors listed in Equipment trader pictures and descriptions listed for the legendary 4995 delivered to the USA. Interesting as they were gone off E-bay within 24 hours, Probably had two on the hook and felt it was time to move on before getting caught.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Art,

Actually, if they're off Ebay that quickly it means someone like me saw it, recognized the signs and reported it to Ebay who removed the listing. If you see one that you even think is a scam, report it here.

 

[art]

I was going to check the info in the morning at my computer at work to verify it, did't take that long for someone to notice as it was gone in the morning.

 

[Currmudgeon]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( in each case they wanted to send me a cashiers check for about DOUBLE the asking price of the tractor, but then wanted me to wire transfer the excess to a 3rd party that would come to get the tractor. )</font>

The cashier's check scam! Here's how it works.

You sit on the cashier's check until your bank clears it and pays you, then you send off the rest of the money. Two weeks later, after the paper wends its way through the morass of international banking, the check bounces, and your bank debits your account. The money you sent on is, of course still gone and unrecoverable.

This scam works because Federal law prohibits your bank from sitting on cashiers checks for more than a few days. That helps in domestic cases, because your bank doesn't get to rip you off, but it opens you up for international fraud.

Any time you're dealing with international funds transfers from people you don't trust in advance, talk with your banker. There's snakes in the tall-grass.

There's a better description of this on http://www.snopes.com the source of information on urban legends and scame.