Does this sound fishy to anyone else?

[Brother Shatterstone]

Actually, one of the biggest things in the scams are using money orders. They look fine, the bank says they are okay when you deposit them, they turn out to be counterfit after it gets sent from your bank to the issuing bank.

I rarely sell anything on eBay, or rarely use them, but on eBay money orders are usually the money orders from the USPS and not much else. (You of course are correct.)

 

[reveal]

I rarely sell anything on eBay, or rarely use them, but on eBay money orders are usually the money orders from the USPS and not much else. (You of course are correct.)

I've sold many things on eBay. My standing policy is that I will take credit cards through PayPal or I will accept a personal check or MO. If I get the latter, I will wait 10 business days after cashing the check or MO before I send the item to verify it clears. I've not been burned yet. *knock on wood*

 

[Aeson]

It sounds like you made the right choice.

I get emails from banks I don't have accounts with ALL the time. I report them. You should report this. If he doesn't dupe you, he will find someone else.

 

[tarchon]

He wanted to pay personal check, not money order.

Well, he could be legit, just stupid.

(Who would think a seller would take a personal check, in excess of $1000, from a buyer they've only talked to via the internet, whom refuses to say where they are located, and allow them to take the merchandise on the strength of said personal check? Either incredibly stupid or a scam.)

"Guess you understand Payment for the vehicle will be made to you in Cheque or money order."

He offered very directly to pay by money order, and I saw nothing subsequent that suggested a _personal_ check, as a money order is in fact a check that is legitmately and commonly referred to as such, which is why people append the "personal" when they mean a personal check specifically.

Really, most of you are not reading what this guy is saying - you're reading what you expect somebody to say if they're running the old cash-back scam, which is why it looks like a scam to you. There simply isn't any evidence whatsoever of anything even slightly illegal or fraudulent here. Could it be a scam? Sure, but there's no point in calling "the authorities" just because there's a chance that it could be some kind of scam somehow even though nobody actually proposed to do anything fraudulent. When and if the guy proposes that you kick him back some cash, then you have something, but that cash kickback is the whole point of the alleged scam, and if it's not there, then that's not what this is.

If you want to be on the Vigiliant Citizens Patrol with Brother Shatterstone, what you should do is go ahead with the deal and insist that you wait to see if the check clears before signing the title over (that's the acid test), but honestly, I don't think that's really the kind of thing you're cut out for. Just let it go - don't call anybody.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

I've sold many things on eBay. My standing policy is that I will take credit cards through PayPal or I will accept a personal check or MO. If I get the latter, I will wait 10 business days after cashing the check or MO before I send the item to verify it clears. I've not been burned yet. *knock on wood*

Ditto. I don't take personal checks as I have to put my acct # on the back and I don't trust someone to NOT take advantage of that... less likely with money orders. I only take those or Paypal.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

If you want to be on the Vigiliant Citizens Patrol with Brother Shatterstone

Thanks for the complement.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

It sounds like you made the right choice.

I get emails from banks I don't have accounts with ALL the time. I report them. You should report this. If he doesn't dupe you, he will find someone else.

I've gotten fake emails from paypal. They get sent to paypal's spoof email addy.

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

He actually mentioned the personal check later, after the posted emails, when I pressed him on details of payment before I would give my home address out. (Note I said "details of payment before I give address" not "payment before I give address".) I'd cut and paste that email, but Outlook is giving me issues.

 

[Darth K'Trava]

He actually mentioned the personal check later, after the posted emails, when I pressed him on details of payment before I would give my home address out. (Note I said "details of payment before I give address" not "payment before I give address".) I'd cut and paste that email, but Outlook is giving me issues.

You might run your antivirus just in case.... Who knows if this dweeb slipped something nasty into his emails....

 

[Goddess FallenAngel]

You might run your antivirus just in case.... Who knows if this dweeb slipped something nasty into his emails....

Nah, this is a reoccuring issue called "Microsoft Sucks". I just need to install Thunderbird to go alongside Firefox.

(There weren't any attachments or links in his emails, so no virus.... although I suppose Norton's scan at 3 am tonight will tell me for sure.)