Support NeoGAF

[mrklaw]

...for a pram


Now my daughter is a year old, we put her pushchair and car seat up for sale on a local website for £60. Not much money, and its a very local website.

Got a reply from a guy in London looking to buy it. Something about his tone was odd, but I thought nothing of it.

Says 'can I ship it to Wales?'. Well, no.

'no problem' he says, he'll send someone to pick it up.

A small alarm bell rings when he says he'll get his client to send a cheque. Odd, but what the heck.

A week passes, and no cheque arrives. Just got an email from him:

The payment is now finally on its way to your location, which you will definately receive in the next 1-2days, as I have just been contacted by my client regarding the payment which is already en-routed to your location.
They have made me to understand that the funds they owe me is in excess of the equivalent of the £60.00 you stated for the system, and been a refund, they cannot issue a double cheque, as the payment is from a single transaction which requires a single payment.
So i have however told them to make out the whole amount to you, which i am willing and ready to entrust you with the excess funds on the cheque,which you will have to hand-over to my shipper when they come over to your location for the pick-up, shipping and delivery. Also be advised that the bank charges for cashing the cheque should be deducted from the balance and have the rest made out to my shipper.

DING DING DING. Alarm bells.

WTF? I'm being scammed for £60? I thought they only did this for big stuff?

So, suggestions as to what to do now? Just tell him to fuck off? report him to trading standards? (he has my address for posting the cheque)

 

[Musashi Wins!]

Tell him no. The amounts are small, but when you do a lot of them at once...

 

[mrklaw]

I've been carried along with it so far. Do I politely refuse, or confront him and say I'm not interested?

 

[snacknuts]

Tell him to piss off and contact some sort of authority about it.

 

[Papi]

Tell the duder that you'll deliver it to him and get his address. Go there. Light your legs on fire and flykick him to the throat. Use his burning throat to light your cigar.

 

[Hitman]

Tell the duder that you'll deliver it to him and get his address. Go there. Light your legs on fire and flykick him to the throat. Use his burning throat to light your cigar.

I'm going to have to agree with Papi on this one. I mean is there any other way?

 

[Musashi Wins!]

I've been carried along with it so far. Do I politely refuse, or confront him and say I'm not interested?

politey refuse.

 

[Fragamemnon]

I dunno if you're getting scammed or not-one one side, it certainly looks shady. On the other end, well, parents of newborn kids are *notorious* for not having their shit together in even the most basic of transactions.

I'd say punt on this transaction if you can, but as for whether or not you're being scammed, I dunno.

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

I don't understand the scam. He wants to write you a check for twice the amount and have you hand cash back over to him?

 

[snacknuts]

I don't understand the scam. He wants to write you a check for twice the amount and have you hand cash back over to him?

Yep. The way the scam works is that his check won't clear, but his goal is to get the overage back before the guy he gives the bad check to finds that. A friend of a friend of mine got raped on this sort of thing when trying to sell a car on eBay. The guy said he was sending extra cash to pay for freight charges or some crap. My friend's friend sent the guy back the overage, and then found out from his bank a few days later that the check was no good. It has COMPLETELY fucked up his finances because it was a decent amount of money that he got bilked out of. Lots of checks he had written bounced when the bank wouldn't give him the funds and it has messed up his credit. The bank let him hang out to dry and the FTC authorities he has spoken with have told him that they are looking at this almost as economic terrorism (which I think is stupid, but whatever). This has been 6-8 months ago and it's still screwing the guy over.

Run, don't walk, away from this.

 

[sc0la]

Tell him you would be glad to pay him the overages, after the check clears.

You will a) not hear from him again, or b) not receive the check anyway

I doesn't seem unreasonabl to wait for the money to clear, but this does sound completely fishy.

 

[xXCHAOSXx]

Tell the duder that you'll deliver it to him and get his address. Go there. Light your legs on fire and flykick him to the throat. Use his burning throat to light your cigar.

Best Suggestion Ever :lol

 

[SKluck]

I don't understand how this gets people. Why would you EVER NOT wait for a check to clear from a STRANGER?

With that said, you have no choice but to tell him to fuck off. The check is going to bounce anyway so it'll be your own money.

 

[mrklaw]

Just received the cheque - for £1500! For a £60 sale. So he's expecting me to fork over £1440 (minus reasonable expenses of course)....



Of course you wait for the cheque to clear, thats what makes this a great scam. The cheque is either foreign, or in my case, a bad photocopy of a company cheque. It will actually clear in 3 days, so the punter goes 'ok, heres the money'. But then the cheque finally gets sent back to the company/issuing bank a week or so later, and its rejected.

You get raped for the money, not the bank.

 

[Fragamemnon]

Yeah, that's scamtasitc right there. The guy is an idiot, though-he should have just tried to bilk you for a reasonable overage (say, a 100 pound check) instead of 1440, that's just insane.

Call the authorities on this joker.

 

[ChrisReid]

Yeah, seriously, call the police right now. They should have an anti-fraud department that recognizes this instantly and works with you to arrest this guy.

 

[Ignatz Mouse]

Are you saying that the bank will clear the check, and then later when they determine it's bogun take the money back?

That sucks.

 

[=W=]

:lol :lol That guy is an idiot

Seriously, call the police. Try to get this guy in jail.

 

[Jeffahn]

Tell him that the 1550 squid cheque cleared and that you're keeping the money and the pram, and that he's being skrewed over. He'll be completely mystified.

...

 

[fart]

Tell him that the 1550 squid cheque cleared and that you're keeping the money and the pram, and that he's being skrewed over. He'll be completely mystified.

...

GOLD

 

[keeblerdrow]

Write him a bad check for the difference. Then call the police.

 

[TheOMan]

Tell him that the 1550 squid cheque cleared and that you're keeping the money and the pram, and that he's being skrewed over. He'll be completely mystified.

...

Jeffahn = Brilliant

When you have done this, please report back here for entertainment purposes.

Then contact the authorities to burn this joker.

 

[Loki]

Tell the duder that you'll deliver it to him and get his address. Go there. Light your legs on fire and flykick him to the throat. Use his burning throat to light your cigar.

:lol

 

[Luscious LeftFoot]

Probably shouldn't even bother depositing it, if it's like my bank and they know the cheque is fraudulant they end of restricting the account and all transactions until they can talk to you about the fraud and to determine if you're involved in the scam, sometimes they'll even goes as far as having you file a police report before they'll remove the restrictions.