Post #387560 by TikiTres on Tue, Jun 17, 2008 10:57 AM

Typically this "seller" scam involves them sending a check to you for much more than the listed price of the item along with some excuse ("I'm out of the country and need some American cash, cannot get it here so will you please send some" or some such). When you get the check from them you then send them the excess as a wire transfer, and of course there is some extra in the check amount for your troubles. Everyone's happy, right? Needless to say they don't care about whatever the object is they're buying and the "freight company" never shows up to get it. Because our banking system sucks butt, it will be 2 or 3 weeks before the check they sent you bounces and you realize that you've been had.

Another VERY common scam on Craig's List is someone will post a car or motorcycle for sale that they don't actually own for a very good price. They will back it up with legit photos and a VIN number that they have stolen off of eBay auctions, so if you do a title search it will actually come up as clean. When you inquire they will state that they are out of the country and left the vehicle in the states. They will ship it as soon as they receive your payment and they usually offer a 100% money-back guarantee if you don't like it (ha!) They use a fake escrow service to make it appear that you're sending the money to an innocent 3rd party that won't give them your money until the vehicle is received by you, this makes you feel better about the transaction. In fact the escrow is part of the scam too. They usually take a real escrow service and slightly alter the name, so if you search on the 'net it appears the escrow is genuine. For example they'll tell you they're using "Quality Escrow" (I made that up) which you may find a legit web site for, but then they tell you to send the payment to "High Quality Escrow" (payment is usually done as a direct wire transfer). As soon as that money is sent they're never heard from again, and it'll quickly be discovered that the escrow company doesn't exist. It is AMAZING how many people fall for this even though a quick internet search will lead one to literally hundreds of stories about this and related scams. Unfortunately people are greedy and want to believe badly that a deal that is far too good to be true is indeed true. So the scammers continue to rake it in.