Craigslist bank check scam
 

Oh man. I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. I've been trying to sell a U-line ice maker on Craigslist for a couple of weeks. One of my clients had it left at his house inexplicably. The contractor banged the back end of it up a tad in a rough unloading, ordered and installed a new one, and never came to reclaim the original one, all of this before I began working for him.

My client claims he tried in vain to get the guy to come pick it up. He is eminently trustworthy and is making way too much money to be interested in scamming anyone for a $1600 ice maker. He and his wife are masters weight lifting champs with many deep pocketed clients (personal trainers) in Silicon Valley, some of them famous Hollywood folks. They conduct their business primarily out of their secluded home and don't have any interest in adding extra traffic to their scene by trying to sell this thing. He says I sell it, I get half.

I took it to my shop, was able to straighten out the tiny bit of cosmetic damage on the rear corner, hooked it up to water, power, and a makeshift drain, and it makes ice like a champ. I've installed this model 7 times in houses in the area, IIRC.

I've gotten several nibbles (asking $1,000 -- it still has the protective film coating it, I've got the owner's manual, the thing is literally brand new) recently an offer for $700 came in, sounds solid.

Then one guy who'd answered previously e-mailed back saying he wants it, full price, will send certified check and have his shipper pick it up once the check clears. I mail back "OK."

Today I get this:

Hi , How was your day ?I want you to understand thatthe deal as my secretary as posted the paymentalready, but there was a slight error i guess we canhandle with care, instead of the actually amount $1000for the item ,she made out the check for $4000 sheclaim that was what i requested but she didn't getthat straight.So once you have the check please cash it and deductthe money for your goods plus $100 that for your runaround expenses.The excess fund should please be sent to my mover viawestern union,this fund will be use in offsetting thecost of the shipment he as undertaken for me recently.**Please email at once to let me know that i can trustto have the excess funds sent to my mover**

My first move was to begin an e-mail with various creative profanities finished with instructions for him to first fly out here so that he can kiss my a$$.

I decided not to mail it and instead played the rube, writing:

I suppose that will work. How soon will you be sending the check?

He had said that his secretary posted it already, I wanted to lay on a little "I'm an idiot" flavor.

I'm utterly unworried by this character -- my address is at a UPS store, a private mail box. I know I won't be able to scam this guy for anything, at least I don't think I will be able to, I'm just hoping there's some way I can put the law on the arse of this waste of my time.

I think I'll e-mail the guy who offered $700 and say I'll let it go for eight. :P

Nigerians - we had a rash of them on our website. These people must believe the American media and think that most of us really ARE stupid.

You can end it quickly by telling him the check is bogus once it arrives or if you are sporting email him back and tell him there never was an ice machine and that he got scammed

When you get the check just keep it as a souvenir, it's not worth the paper it's printed on. Get the guys address if you don't have it and tell the guy you will handle shipping and put a cashiers check with the package for the amount difference.

Here's the kicker..... Ship him a refrigerator box of garbage!....... COD! :D

I've seen this work many times. Give it a try!

Here's a fun one. Not exactly like yours, but it's good! http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/

My buddy just got scammed when he was trying to sell is Jeep on eBay. He is not the brightest bulb in the box to begin with so he didn't think twice about what we was doing. The guy mailed him a fake check, he went to cash it and withdraw the difference. Thank god the bank teller caught it and he was only out $100 for a bounced check. He could have been out about $2700. Chalk one up to experience.

If he sends the check, hand it over to the police for check scammin....1600.00 for an ice maker? I have one that cost .89 cents from the Safeway.

Maybe you can sell it for $800 on Ebay...

And get offered a check for $4000.

That's not bad for a start, the sporting one that is.

:D What? That same model costs me $1.49! :mad:

The house I worked on for the doctor I liked so much had 4 of the same model. One in the basement game room one in the wet bar outside his bedroom, and two on the main floor.

We joked amongst ourselves that he never wanted to be more than a few steps away from fresh ice for a drink.

I think I'm dreaming that I'll get $1,000. 7 or 8 hundred may have to do.

Interesting story, I'm going to do a little research, though I'm not sure it would be worth the hours of investment for a slim chance of digging a few hundred real dollars out of the nit-wit.

Can you ship him a box of rocks COD?:D

Not sure what the laws on COD are. What if the guy never showed up to claim the package? Assuming it was mailed to some sort of POB for example? Would I then be liable for all charges?

I think the guy just wants me to forward the extra funds to him and **** the ice-maker.

Not to mention, I don't think I'll ever have a shipping address for him. He said I'm to western union the funds to his shipper who will then come by to get the ice-maker.

I wonder if the FBI cares...

These scams are so old and well known that I'm amazed they still work. Some people must just be dumb.

UPS's rule is that if a COD is NOT accepted, they ship the rejected merchandise back to you and you pay the shipping charges both ways.

That's what they do if you have a UPS account.

And you can't ship to a POB.