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Old 12-05-2015, 03:18 AM   #10
goatless
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Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: Mountain View
Posts: 121
Re: Craigslist concerns

I don't believe I'd be too concerned about someone coming by your place (assuming they don't have your address). My guess is that once they realize you're not playing their game, they'll move on to the next CL mark, a belief based on this: http://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/...so-successful/. If I sell something on CL, and I get a response offering to pay by money order, I assume it's a scam, respond cash only, and stop there. That's very efficient for the scammer. He or she has wasted very little time, and can go on to the potential victim.

Beware of the Money Order:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adva...m#Fake_cheques
Quote:
Fake Cheques

Fraudulent cheques and money orders are key elements in many advance-fee scams, such as auction/classified listing overpayment, lottery scams, inheritance scams, etc., and can be used in almost any scam when a "payment" to the victim is required to gain, regain or further solidify the victim's trust and confidence in the validity of the scheme.[33]

The use of cheques in a scam hinges on a US law (and common practice in other countries)[citation needed] concerning cheques: when an account holder presents a cheque for deposit or to cash, the bank must (or in other countries, usually) make the funds available to the account holder within 1–5 business days, regardless of how long it actually takes for the cheque to clear and funds to be transferred from the issuing bank.[34] The cheques clearing process normally takes 7–10 days, and can take up to a month when dealing with foreign banks. The time between the funds appearing as available to the account holder and the cheque clearing is known as the "float", during which time the bank could technically be said to have floated a loan to the account holder to be covered with the funds from the bank clearing the cheque.

The cheque given to the victim is typically counterfeit but drawn on a real account with real funds in it. With a piece of software like QuickBooks or pre-printed blank cheque stock, using the correct banking information, the scammer can easily print a cheque that is absolutely genuine-looking, passes all counterfeit tests, and may even clear the paying account if the account information is accurate and the funds are available. However, whether it clears or not, it eventually becomes apparent either to the bank or the account holder that the cheque is a forgery. This can be as little as three days after the funds are available if the bank supposedly covering the cheque discovers the cheque information is invalid, or it could take months for a business or individual to notice the fraudulent draft on their account. It has been suggested that in some cases the cheque is genuine — however the fraudster has a friend (or bribes an official) at the paying bank to claim it is a fake weeks or even months later when the physical cheque arrives back at the paying bank.

Regardless of the amount of time involved, once the cashing bank is alerted the cheque is fraudulent, the transaction is reversed and the money removed from the victim's account. In many cases, this puts victims in debt to their banks as the victim has usually sent a large portion of the cheque by some non-reversible 'wire transfer' means (typically Western Union) to the scammer and, since more uncollected funds have been sent than funds otherwise present in the victim's account, an overdraft results.
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