Almost a victim of craiglist scam. My daughter posted on craiglist a clarinet for sale (high dollar item) and this fellow from California email her and said that he would like to buy the clarinet for his uncle. He then proceed to get mail address to send the money. A week ago, an express mail came through USPS with a check for an amount one and a half time more that the clarinet is worth. The question is why would someone send more money than need to? Anyway, the instruction is to deposit the check into bank account and when check clears (usually takes 7 to 10 business days) to send the extra money to a 2nd party (shipper) so that they can come and pickup the clarinet for delivery to another address on the Atlantic coast. The check originated from CA but it was sent out from NH and the shipper is in GA. And they will ask you to send the extra money via Western Union to another address. Once you do that your money is gone and you will never see it again. Western Union demands cash up front and not Credit card or check. Anyway, I took the check to the bank and asked them to check it out and the bank manager said that it is probably a fraud but if I want to deposit it then the money will be on hold for 45 days until everything is clear at the CA bank but the chances is that the party will cancell the check and if I will the sent the money out as instructed then I would be out of the money.
An advise to anyone who has or know a scam like this to not give out the money so easily. Hold the money until at least the check issuing bank clears the check and then wait some more. If they need the item that badly you can always ask them to Western Union the money to you and you can ship them the item via Fedex or UPS or even USPS.
I wrote back to that person and inturn asked them to Western Union the money to me as they already have my mailing address and name with the Western Union control number and that was 7 days ago, still no reply. That is how you can catch them at their game. So be very careful or you would loose money.
An advise to anyone who has or know a scam like this to not give out the money so easily. Hold the money until at least the check issuing bank clears the check and then wait some more. If they need the item that badly you can always ask them to Western Union the money to you and you can ship them the item via Fedex or UPS or even USPS.
I wrote back to that person and inturn asked them to Western Union the money to me as they already have my mailing address and name with the Western Union control number and that was 7 days ago, still no reply. That is how you can catch them at their game. So be very careful or you would loose money.
