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C-Euro
Mar 20, 2010

:science:
Soiled Meat
My wife and I are moving and trying to sell a couch. Some weird poo poo went down/is going down with a potential buyer, stop me if you've heard this one before...

My wife put our couch up for sale on OfferUp and a guy messaged her asking for more pics, saying that his stepdad might be interested. We get in touch with Stepdad and after a bit of back and forth we say we'll sell it to him for $350. He agrees on the price and claims to be sending a mover over to check the couch's condition and to pick it up when ready, which itself isn't that weird I guess. What is weird however is that he insists on mailing us a cashier's check to pay for it, even after we suggest PayPal or similar services due to the need to finish the transaction quickly (needed to have it gone by last Saturday at the latest). I believe he also asked to notify him when the check cleared, but my wife has most of the correspondence here so I'd have to confirm with her. We give him my name and address for the check as requested, but we get a little suspicious about his insistence on paying by check and he goes quiet for a while, so we give him a deadline to confirm that payment is on the way before we go with another waiting buyer. Stepdad fails to meet the deadline so we sell the couch elsewhere.

After finalizing this other deal (late Th or Fri?), we hear from Stepdad Friday or early Saturday that he has already mailed the check. We apologize and tell him that the couch has been sold and that we will void/shred his check when it arrives. He then tells us to instead cash the check so that he "doesn't lose [his] money", take out $100 for our troubles, and then Western Union or whatever the remainder back to him. The check arrives Saturday afternoon; I check the mailing label and it was sent Thursday before our deadline, but he didn't tell us right away because ???. Now the weirdest part: not only was the check printed by a real estate company in Ohio and mailed by a company in Cali, but I finally opened the envelope tonight and the check itself is written for nearly $2000 (vs. the $350 we asked for) :shepface: At this point we realize something definitely doesn't add up, we haven't heard from the guy since his first request that we cash the check anyway but we're not touching that thing until we do some homework first.

Any idea what the hell might be going on? I find it really weird that he wants us to cash the check despite not selling him the couch, I've never ordered a cashier's check before but I'm guessing you pay up front if you're not doing it through your bank or something? What's more, the fact that he wrote the check for way more than we asked is a huge red flag, unless he meant for us to pay the movers with that money when they came for the couch as well (but why would they show up without being paid first)? I'd like to say I'm a big enough prick to cash the check and keep it all for myself, but I was cursed with a conscience and the guy has my name/address/phone # (which he claimed to need for the check, which matches the couple of times I've had to get money orders for work) so that's maybe a bad idea. But I'd love to know what's going on, as I have the suspicion that doing what he requested (cashing the check, skimming a bit for ourselves, and sending the rest back) can only mean trouble, especially because he was so insistent on paying by check AND it's worth way more than what we asked for. Is this some kind of scam I've never seen before? :psyduck:

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Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe
A real cashier's cheque would clear immediately. The cheque he will send is a forgery. It may or may not clear but either way it will be picked up and the bank will reverse the $350. With this scam he's playing on potential greed by offering $100. From the scammer's perspective he's trying to sucker you into depositing his $1 forgery and sending him $250 irreversibly through Western Union. Now that I've read further I see the forgery is for $2000 to try to blind you with greed. Either you try to rip him off and send $250 or you try to be honest and send him $1900. Either way it's a big win for the scammer and you wouldn't see the money ever again.

In short it's an old scam, throw the fake cheque away.

Elephanthead
Sep 11, 2008


Toilet Rascal
If you have to ask if it is a scam it is a scam. The check is not good. Any money you give this guy you will never get back. It is a very common scam and you should not post things on the internet for sale if you don't know this.

Inept
Jul 8, 2003

Elephanthead posted:

It is a very common scam and you should not post things on the internet for sale if you don't know this.

Yeah this has every telltale sign of a scam that I'm not sure how you could have any doubt. Western Union, check for more than the value of the item, won't show up in person, etc.

C-Euro
Mar 20, 2010

:science:
Soiled Meat
Yeah now that I'm no longer sleep-deprived from moving that all looks even more suspicious.

BarbarianElephant
Feb 12, 2015
The fairy of forgiveness has removed your red text.
If you are selling cheap-ish stuff on Craigslist, cash-only is the way to go. Don't dick about with anything else, even Paypal.

Democratic Pirate
Feb 17, 2010

Send him back a forged cashiers check for $2500

kazmeyer
Jul 26, 2001

'Cause we're the good guys.

Send him a forged couch.

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

kazmeyer posted:

Send him a forged couch.

I recommend sending fake gold bars from aliexpress.

Skeleton Ape
Dec 21, 2008



C-Euro posted:

Is this some kind of scam I've never seen before? :psyduck:

:catstare: If you looked up "scam" in the dictionary it would probably be an abridged version of exactly what you're describing

22 Eargesplitten
Oct 10, 2010



kazmeyer posted:

Send him a forged couch.

P-p-p-powercouch.

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Mourne
Sep 1, 2004

by Athanatos
That thread was one of my all time favorites in my 16 years on SA.

I need to try to find the "I love Danny SO much!" thread someday, too.

22 Eargesplitten posted:

P-p-p-powercouch.

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