Facebook scammer advice ...
 

I recently dealt with a (potential) Facebook scammer. No way to conclusively prove that, because I wouldn't conclude the deal. He was interested in my group set and asked some perfunctory questions such as "if the brakes were included."

No haggling about price, and no questions. He asked to pay with a cashiers check, which I declined. Then he asked about a money order, which I also declined. I told him PayPal was the only method of payment I'd accept, and that I would knock some money off the price. Never heard back from him. He has what appears to be a legitimate profile, with a few pictures, many friends, and biographical detail.

I'm not an avid Facebook user. I only use it to buy and sell things, in fact. Any way to alert others to this guy? Or should I just let it go?

Certainly has the marks of a scam! Alert whoever the moderator is of the group.


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That doesn't automatically sound like a scam to me, although I might steer clear myself, too.

Plenty of people don't like PayPal, and the proliferation of "mini-groups" that are just shift kits mean that asking whether brakes are included could be a fair question.

Back in the .usenet days, we used to accept personal checks once they cleared...

i think that deal would be OK, if the buyer agreed to dealing on your terms.

if you accepted the cashiers check, and if it was from a major bank, such as chase, wells fargo, etc - and the buyer agreed that you would receive the check, and cash it before mailing the goods, i dont see how you can get burned, as long as the money is in your pocket before the goods leave your possession?

on the other hand, rational people are capable of conversations, if the buyer can not be bothered to at least explain why he/she will not use paypal, than that's a red flag and you are better off not doing business with them and save the potential hassle.

It can take weeks for a fake/bad check to actually bounce, and you will be on the hook for that money AND the bounced check fees.

Although in this scam it is typical for them to send you a check for MORE than what the item is, and then ask for you to send them the difference. Once they knew he wouldn't take a check at all, the jig was up.

a personal check maybe, but not a cashiers check, as the OP mentioned.

i think a major bank should be able to verify the authenticity of a cashiers check almost immediately.

A caveat: I am not the savviest guy in the world when it comes to these sort of things. It didn't sound right to me, though. So I did a little bit of research on accepting checks/money orders, etc... and a whole bunch of info popped up. Basically, the check takes awhile to wind its way through the system, and when it finally does, the bank could declare it null and void and you're out the money. And the goods, which have already shipped.

Here is article on how cashiers checks have become much more sophisticated, and even bank tellers are fooled: https://wallethub.com/edu/cashiers-check-scams/16192/

If the dude can get a cashiers check he can bring cash unless he is thinking you are trying to scam him. You admit you don’t post much on facebook. He might of had a negative opinion of you for no other reason than he doesn’t know you.

Agree with Joosttx. If he looked you up and saw that you had no/few friends and little to nothing on your timeline/ profile then he may be wondering if you're legit.

Well, that just doesn't ring true. Leaving alone the fact I have plenty of photos (they just haven't been updated) and friends, why would he immediately volunteer to send over a check for the full amount. No questions asked. I could still cash it and he'd be out the money right? Am I missing something? I might be off base. But this certainly smells like a scam.

Edit: Not that this is indicative of anything, but I actually have way more photos than the person who contacted me. He has exactly three.

this is a fundamental building block of the cash back scam. You get a cashiers check, bank says it's good, then later find out it's not. I have no idea how that works. This happened to a local dog breeder, $25000 worth of dogs later, they found out the check was no good after checking with the bank before accepting the check.

I'm pretty sure the cash back scam has evolved as more people have become aware of how it works. Now a lot of scammers are just out to steal merchandise because cash back is a giveaway. I'm sure the people that delete spam on this board have seen spammers that want to sell cashiers checks and money orders.

Somebody tried this on one of the grad students. I told him how the scam worked so he called the cops, but they weren't interested in such scams at the time, now they have become enlightened.

Ah, I just thought you meant you set up a FB account mainly for the Marketplace but avoided all the other stuff.
I usually go over seller profiles - even the ones on Kijiji. Especially if they only converse with single word replies.
If I don't see many connections, it makes me wonder if they're just new or scamming.

Not necessarily true about the major bank having the ability to verify the cashiers check. I was a realtor years ago and a situation came up involving a cashiers check payable to the title company / builder. Long story short, it was a scam and legal nightmare that dragged on for over 8 months. The party were long gone before it came to light.

Basically a cashiers check or money order is sent. The bank clears it if you have the funds in your account and then weeks later you find out that the check or money order is no good after the goods are sent. Never take anything other than cash or from a source such as PayPal, Venmo and the like.


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interesting, thank you for the feedback guys.

i guess i had assumed that a cashiers check was guaranteed by the bank, and in today's digital age, the likes of chase and BOA should be able to verify their internal currency immediately, but it sounds like that is not the case.