Terry Melvin Yes. They always come up with excuses of being out of town to make you do 3rd party transaction for them, which isn't your responsibility.
Worse yet, these scammers use stollen USPS and UPS accounts to send out the fake checks, or pay with stolen credit cards. So while the reporter's efforts did waste some of the scammers time, it likely contributed to the loss incurred by another victim.
The first reply to any new CL “for sale” ad is a Scammer. They all try the same scam. Even when you say CASH ONLY., in the ad. Now please tell me what the difference is between Failing and backfiring in her case? Why is this clickbait? Because you didn’t like the content?
michaeldavis2585 no the scammers need to have much worse done to them than prison. You ever see the movie Inglorious Bastards? Brad Pitt's character would carve a swastika into captured Nazis heads so after the war and out of uniform everyone would know they were a Nazi. Something along those lines is what these scammers need!
I had something similar happen. Didn't get screwed, I suspected the check was fake, but when I tried to get my bank at the time, Bank of America, to validate it the teller told me he couldn't and I'd have to just deposit it and wait to see if it clears. BOA ended up screwing me for a returned check fee and tried to get me on a $165 research fee. Needless to say they lost me as a customer.
Bank of America are ripoff artists themselves. Had an account years ago. You wouldn't believe what I had to go through just to get it closed. Greediest bastards in the banking industry.
I used to work in a forensic field, I'd like to see if I can get one of these guys to send me a phony check so I can dust it for prints and take it to the FBI to run it across their records.
A couple of years ago my grandson wanted to sell his motor scooter. I listed it on Craigslist, and this guy sent a personal check even though the ad said cash only. it was for $1000 more than the ad price, he waned it shipped across the country. I knew it was a scam and told my grandson to call the number on the check and tell the guy to send a certified bank check. He waited 2 weeks no response. He deposited the check into his account. He waited 6 months but heard nothing, so he took out the cash. So we don't know if his bank screwed up or the guy's bank did, I told him to wait a year or so and keep the money in a new bank's account, just in case his bank came back on him. He tried to contact the guy by phone no.again on the check but was not a good no. So he wound up with almost $3K and still had the scooter.
It sounds like your bank must of screwed up somewhere and it was a really goosd counterfit also was it a state bank or non federal credit union that u deposited the,check to?
A variation to this scam I encountered. I was told to view the washer and dryer at a vacated house, and if I liked the units, leave cash in a drawer in the utility room and remove the appliances. A realtor lock box was on the front door. I told the scammer i would only handle the transaction if we hwas there and we planned to meet at a given time. He never showed. The house was for sale and I called the realtor from the info on the sign in the front yard. The realtor explained that thousands of dollars of lighting and appliances had been stolen from the house. Apparently, the scammer was a contractor who had access to the lock box. He would have the buyer steal the appliances and fixtures and he would pick up the money from a designated drawer. By chance, the scammer made a mistake of replying to one of the CL emails with his personal hotmail address. The address had a name in it and it was tracked to a guy who lived about 10 miles away. The realtor was appreciative and followed up with the local police.
This makes my heart happy. I had the same thing happen so many times from home rentals to services offered. I cannot stand it I have even had someone say they wanted me to give the extra money to the mover when they came for the item. I so wanted to see who would have the balls to show up at my door to pull off the scam but I have never been able to allow them to get that far before getting so angry with the total disregard for the damage they are causing. We all think we are so smart that it wont happen to us. No it can happen to anyone they are constantly changing the scam the checks look so real and alot of people are hurting for money and take peoples word. So now i just report spam and let the scammer know what i feel about what they are doing, my craigslist account has been hacked to list fake car listings and i just do not have the energy to deal with the scammers its more than 50% of responses. Thank you for sharing this and calling that person out.
I have sold and still sell many things on Craigslist the range in value. I have noticed more and more that items less than $100 these scammers leave you alone. The higher the price the more of those scammer emails show up in your inbox. What I do now is I only give a land line number that is unlisted and make it very clear I only except phone calls. NO EMAILS OR TEXT! This cuts out a ton of the scammers.
Unlisted is nice so they cant trace an address but then you still have strangers who dont even contact you knowing the phone number. At least get one email first. CL remailer works for 6mos so you never have to give out your real email.
When I bought my last car, I called and left a voicemail to show the seller that I was a serious buyer. He had the exact model, color, and year I wanted and a fair price, so I wasn't going to chance him not returning a text or email because another serious buyer called him and/or he got buried with dozens of other texts and emails from low-ballers and scammers. He got back to me, and long story short, that car was mine at the end of the day.
That's what I noticed too - the guy kept referring to the furniture I was selling as "the item" and I knew right away that he had no idea what I was selling. It might be fun to ask which color he prefers, or does he want the larger one or the smaller one, etc. because he wouldn't have a clue what I was talking about.
the first tip to know if you are getting scammed or not is to look at the check. if the person sent you 3 or 4 times the money then what the item is selling for then you are getting scammed. it NEVER takes that much to ship any item in the world. a friend of mine who is in the air force went to Germany for 3 years and wanted his car shipped there. it cost $500 to ship it.
The true tipoff is that the scammer is ASKING THAT YOU SEND PART OF THE PAYMENT SOMEWHERE ELSE. Never mind what the items are, or the actual cost, or if the cheque is real (Most people aren't savvy about these things and it doesn't matter anyway). Instead, people only need to remember one thing: If a deal involves you sending part of the payment to a 3rd party, then it's an obvious scam. So only one simple thing to remember, and it applies to every variation of this type of scam.
I had this happen to me on Craigslist...I was selling set of expensive wheels and tires..The buyer's MO was pretty much like the one here. I could tell right off it was a scam because of all the spelling errors in the texts and emails..I had him mail the check to my office address using my first name and a variation of my last name...Upon receiving the funds the correspondence from him was increasing at the rate of several times daily, asking where his money was,,I told him I had unexpected bills to pay and I spent his funds...It was a joy messing with him because the correspondence started to get nasty and threatening...LMAO!
Checkm8king2 Spelling errors actually increase the likelihood of someone being convinced by a scam - QI had a segment on it a few years ago re: email scamming.
When I was selling a wheelchair on craigslist I got an offer that was obviously bogus. He wanted to send a cheque and have ‘someone’ pick it up . I said no cheque , I deal in cash only and face to face only with the buyer. Never heard from them again!
Same here with an old camera i was selling. "Oh it's for my son at collage, just go into your paypal and i'll send extra." Blah blah bla Same response, cash only, in person. They just move on to the next ad.
I'm studying software programming and I can't wait to come up with some kind of application for Craigslist to prevent these scams.. I'm so sick of this!
It’s crazy, with all these scams out here, there are still genuine people out there. I wanted this really cool Ethan Allen desk for my daughter’s room. I finally found one in Dallas (about 3.5 hours from me). Asked the girl if she could ship because it was too far to drive (long story). She couldn’t but happened to be going to a wedding near me the next week. Problem was I didn’t get paid until the FOLLOWING week. She said that’s fine just pay me when you get paid. My friend that took me to pick up the desk (he has a pickup) was like no way, I’ll give you the money then you don’t have to worry. So she brought the desk, I paid her, got paid, repaid my friend. The whole thing could’ve been a scam but it was just genuine people being genuine. And the desk fit perfectly
what makes me wonder is how the hell do people fall for this kind of crap? I mean people mention that when things sound to good to be true it usually is. Especially with asking for gift cards as payment it just makes me think who believes this?
falcon3268 Looking back I can agree. But my ex and I fell for this because we fell on really hard times. That's prob why it's so common on Craigslist, people desperate to get out of poor financial situations have tried everything else. We were trying to keep a roof over our head.
Once was selling a truck camper on craigslist (Las Vegas, NV). The guy claimed he was in New York on business and would send me a check for the full price plus some money for the 'movers' that would pick it up. I strung him along for a couple days then sold it locally. The ad had also said - cash on pickup only. :)
I put a stove and refrigerator for sale on "CL", skipping many details, I had three "buyers", I could have made 5.000.00 if they had been real. The price they offered would have allowed me to buy 2 more of each of the appliances and still come out ahead. I took the checks to my bank, they found all of them were "unique", one was printed on cheap copier paper, another was printed on good quality resume paper, the other was from a stolen checkbook ( account was closed) I was looking through my book case and found them, tossed them in the trash and have not heard a thing from the "buyers", after I told one I was a brother to a police officer and he hung up.
I had this happen to me once. I took it to my bank, and asked them to just verify it for me. They tried to get me for trying to cash a fake check. Even though I told them to just verify it. Thank god, I had the print out of the conversation!!!
As someone who makes a living buying / reselling items on cl / OfferUp / letgo etc.. I had people attempt this many times lol.. the same reason I don't sell on eBay / use pay pal.
I posted to sell item for $25 on CL and a guy sent email saying that he really want to buy that item for his daughter's birthday and said he is out of country so he'll let his secretary handle the transaction. An hour later, someone claim to be his secretary contacted me and said that the minimum amount she can print the check is $500 so I will have to send her the difference once I receive the check. I told her I just want to do it in person and I prefer cold cash. She then offered I don't need to send all $475, she could cut $75 for me so all I need to do is to send her ONLY $400. I stopped response to their emails.
I got a kick out of the scammers trying to buy my piano off craigslist. Especially when they said Fed ex could pick it up! Every single response to the craigslist ad was a scam so I pulled it down within three days. We gave the piano to a charity.
Some people myself included put fake items on the internet to elicit the fake checks and keep them as a twisted collection. I have about 30K in fake checks that scammers have sent to me. At least it will not end up with a person trying to cash it.
No check cashing place would ever touch one, and there is a 0.00% chance of me depositing one in my bank account. I just save them as trophies. And it makes me feel good knowing that the checks I have will never be used to scam other people.
Munozl360 It will be your responsibility to cover the missing money, possibly be changed with counterfeiting a check. Even depositing and waiting for it to clear will result in Bank fees when it doesn't
When I see scammers coming on Craigslist I play so many games with them that they must know my name and email address by now, because the frequency of scammers I encounter is 10% of what it used to be. And that's with scams greatly on the rise!
Once again, as typical with most news stories, they don't fully tell the viewer how it all actually works. They come into a story halfway, and don't really explain everything, as if they are in the viewers shoes. They do this with literally HALF the damn stories you see on TV everyday, and then they never have any follow up story on anything either. The Scammer wants you to deposit the check into your account. The Tellers are as dumb as nails at most banks. They run the check through their little machine and the routing numbers look legit. Then they just hand you the deposit receipt and make you think the money is in your account. Then since the check and Scammer paid you MORE than you were asking for the item in the first place, they want you to take out your REAL money and send it to them, or someone else. Then a few days later, you get a notice from the bank telling you that the check that you deposited did not clear the bank, but you are out your REAL money that you took out of your account, and you dont get it back. If they told all this in their stupid news story, less people would fall for the phony cashiers check scam!
Here's a sample of a backfire on a scammer. My cousin was selling a car on Craigslist. Now he was leaving for basic training at the time, so he put his dads number in the add. Was letting them have the money anyway. Well sure enough a scammer tried his thing. Here is where the backfire comes in. My uncle was a FBI agent at the time and worked in that field. So my uncle did his thing. That scammer was busted and sent to jail. That is a story of a backfire on a scammer. Want the example of what my step brother did to a scammer? Let's just say he's a very tech guy and took control of the scammer and knew everything he did and when. Knew when that computer came on and so on. Crashed everything with a chip that scammer used.
Had people try to scam me with the "is your item still for sale?" emails. If you don't know what the "item" is, then why should I even correspond with you?
I told one that I had no car and that I needed cab fare to get to my bank to deposit their payment. Told him to include $25 in cash and I'd deduct it from the proceeds as part of the price of my guitar. Guess what? I never heard a damn word from the guy again. Guess what else, I was going to keep the $25 and buy some beers.
The true mark that it's a scam is when the scammer ASKS YOU TO SEND PART OF THE PAYMENT SOMEWHERE ELSE. It doesn't matter what the items are, or the actual cost, or if the cheque is real (Most people aren't savvy about these things anyway). Instead, people only need to remember one thing: If a deal involves you sending part of the payment to a 3rd party, then it's an obvious scam. That's the only thing you need to remember, and it applies to every variation of this type of scam.
Here's a thought, offer some class where they discuss scams and how they work. I experienced the exact scam attempt years ago. The scammer said "I hope I can trust you with my money" yeah I totally do the same thing once a month, I just send extra money to random people in hopes they send it back to me.
i had this happen to me and the amount i asked for was about 400$ for a GPU and the guy sends me a check for 21,000$ which i thought was very odd ... i then went to the bank listed on the check and one of the 2 routing numbers was illegitimate and i called the guy and he said that i should give him back his check to which i responded with a video of me burning it (only shows the check not my face) ... never heard from him again (also did not mail the gpu as i was waiting for verified payment before shipping)
I live in michigan city. This happened to me as well when I was trying to sell my bike. Guy said he was out of town due to the nature of his job he was an officer in the army based in Massachusetts. Yadayadayada... I was selling it for $1000. Sent an email that looked like a legit PayPal receipt that he send $1480. Would have to send 350 to the company to come pick up the bike and the rest would be taxes and fees. I knew it was a scam right away. But always be alert!
I played a fellow along for months by email, asking him dumb, repetitive questions about what he wanted me to do, and who was I supposed to send the extra money to? I could see he was getting angrier with each email. I finally gave him "my" address, which was actually the FBI's address. Then I called the FBI to tell them a check was on the way. They got a pretty good laugh out of it. Then I blocked my email account.
I had a similar attempt made when selling a truck. They wanted to send me the check to deposit, then I pay their 'agent' when he picks up the truck. I would have been out the money and the truck. Being a thinking, and very suspicious, type (and this was way early in CL and the scams were still new) I was hopeful the guy wanted my truck. I wrote back... "You mail me the cashier check, made out in the name of your agent, and I will meet him at the local branch. He can cash the check, pay me cash, I sign the title and we all win.".... naturally, I never heard from the guy again. In the beginning, it was a pretty tricky scam, I am just glad I have so little faith in my fellow man.... lol
Why do people in USA still use cheques? Even 4 or 5 years ago when this was filmed we don't use cheques here in Australia. Banks in Australia do not give you access to the cheque funds until it clears so this scam would never work here
One time I brought one of those checks to Bank of America....needless to say the banker did not catch it and continued to deposit it into my new bank account.
I sell lots of stuff on craigs and have been doing so for about a decade...You get a few of these...I always give them a phone number for the FBI and tell them it's my cousin, dad, mom, uncle louie works there, I tell them to call them and let them verify the info...You never hear from them again...
The check will bounce and you will be responsible for it. It happened to me. I cashed a check, used the money to go to Las Vegas for a wedding. the check bounced after eleven days and the bank said I was responsible for paying the balance in less than two weeks. i was contacted by local police for fraud but never charged because it was more than a week for check to clear. The bank closed my account and sued me for the amount of the check which was $3000. This was in Maryland.
I buy/sell on craigslist weekly. I've seen all the scam attempts and this is unfortunately very common. I get multiple messages like this daily. I've educated others but there needs to be more education about scam attempts.
I sell Laptops on craigslist and deal with this people everyday. You know right off the bat when they don't know what you are selling, they are interested in my ITEM. I call the number the text comes from and it's not in service or the person has no clue what I'm talking about. This week I let 2 people know their cell number was being used by scammers. If they won't give up I tell them I won't take a money order, but they can wire me the money and the extra $100 for shipping via Western Union. What's really funny to me is getting a text from oput of state and you tell them first thing, yes I have it but I will not ship it. This is local pickup and cash only. They reply, thanks for getting back so quickly, I will include and extra $100 to cover shipping. WTF?
I had the exact same thing happen to me, only they sent me a 5,000.00 check to sit their 2 dogs, i later texted them after finding out the check was boggus that i spent it on my gambling depts and then he got ugly. I just simply asked him if there were any candy shops near him. ..he replied yes but what did that have t do with me spending HIS money. I replied well then the next time you wanna pull off a scam, try going there, I am sure you'll find plenty of 'suckers' there....lol never heard from him again.
Its just like on Craigslist when u see a really nice car for sale for very cheap and they respond with ohh the car is n different location and go thru ebay to pay them and when car is shipped u have like 5 days I believe to return csr n get money 😂😂😂
For my own entertainment I go through just the trailer heading on Craigslist everyday. I flag no less then a 100 a week that are out right scams. There's thousands more but just do not have the time to flag them all. If I'm trying to sell something I always in capital letters twice state, DO NOT TEXT!! TEXTS WILL JUST BE DELETED!! As soon as I hit the post button my phone goes off with scammers offering to buy the item.
It a good policy never to do business over the phone, especially when you never met the person. How many time has the police auxiliary ever come to my door asking for a donation. They want your check so they can copy down the information and create duplicate check. Just remember never endorse a check until you know what you are getting, most likely it would be a subtraction from your account.
That's why I don't ever take a check, cash only. I was selling a boat and I told the guy before he came to look at it I only take cash. He showed up and said he wanted the boat and took his check book out I said sorry I don't take check he said it's good all I need to do is take it to the bank and cash it I said you need to take it to the bank and bring back the cash. He left and never came back.
I have found a backdoor to their entire operation. SS7 and they are using a pbx switch that hasnt been updated. They are using the originating and termination carrier Bandwidth.com I have ssh’d into three of there boxes and I have silently chargeback aka returned nearly 53,220
If a check from a stranger miles away is involved, its probably a scam.
That's my rule of thumb to. If they can't pick it up locally or meet you in person with cash on hand, it's a scam.
Mark Schmidt... Exactly
Terry Melvin Yes. They always come up with excuses of being out of town to make you do 3rd party transaction for them, which isn't your responsibility.
people who actually fall for scams like this -- to be so ignorant -- deserve what they get -- nothing!
It didn't "backfire", it just failed. Learn the difference!
Stupid click bait.
No, the scammer paid for overnight delivery.
@@carrollhanks1055 yup lol I t got a scammer twice like that. The same one! I planned on making a yt video of it hahaha 7 days off his time wasted
Worse yet, these scammers use stollen USPS and UPS accounts to send out the fake checks, or pay with stolen credit cards. So while the reporter's efforts did waste some of the scammers time, it likely contributed to the loss incurred by another victim.
The first reply to any new CL “for sale” ad is a Scammer. They all try the same scam. Even when you say CASH ONLY., in the ad.
Now please tell me what the difference is between Failing and backfiring in her case? Why is this clickbait? Because you didn’t like the content?
🤣😂
The scammer should be in prison
michaeldavis2585. The saddest part is the scam punks are in a country that encourages these douche bastards. Not everybody loves us. Surprise.
michaeldavis2585 no the scammers need to have much worse done to them than prison. You ever see the movie Inglorious Bastards? Brad Pitt's character would carve a swastika into captured Nazis heads so after the war and out of uniform everyone would know they were a Nazi. Something along those lines is what these scammers need!
They are usually out of country with. Someone helping them in USA for part of the cash.
@@marklumley619 Mark I would prefer to use a wood burner on the forehead of thieves, rapist, child molesters!
I had something similar happen. Didn't get screwed, I suspected the check was fake, but when I tried to get my bank at the time, Bank of America, to validate it the teller told me he couldn't and I'd have to just deposit it and wait to see if it clears. BOA ended up screwing me for a returned check fee and tried to get me on a $165 research fee. Needless to say they lost me as a customer.
thats why i use a credit union, banks suck, their job is to protect you from fake money and checks
Boa. Just like the snake. Constrictors.
jw11432 wow that's crazy why didn't they do the research to begin with
Bank of America are ripoff artists themselves. Had an account years ago. You wouldn't believe what I had to go through just to get it closed. Greediest bastards in the banking industry.
BOA are the biggest rip offs around. F them forever.
I used to work in a forensic field, I'd like to see if I can get one of these guys to send me a phony check so I can dust it for prints and take it to the FBI to run it across their records.
A couple of years ago my grandson wanted to sell his motor scooter. I listed it on Craigslist, and this guy sent a personal check even though the ad said cash only. it was for $1000 more than the ad price, he waned it shipped across the country. I knew it was a scam and told my grandson to call the number on the check and tell the guy to send a certified bank check. He waited 2 weeks no response. He deposited the check into his account. He waited 6 months but heard nothing, so he took out the cash. So we don't know if his bank screwed up or the guy's bank did, I told him to wait a year or so and keep the money in a new bank's account, just in case his bank came back on him. He tried to contact the guy by phone no.again on the check but was not a good no. So he wound up with almost $3K and still had the scooter.
It sounds like your bank must of screwed up somewhere and it was a really goosd counterfit also was it a state bank or non federal credit union that u deposited the,check to?
I always love it that everytime scammers are scammed, scams backfire... NO!
Scam did not backfire, since no damage to the scammer was done.
Except the postage they paid after the counterfeit postage failed.
Wrong -the scammer paid for overnight delivery.
A variation to this scam I encountered. I was told to view the washer and dryer at a vacated house, and if I liked the units, leave cash in a drawer in the utility room and remove the appliances. A realtor lock box was on the front door. I told the scammer i would only handle the transaction if we hwas there and we planned to meet at a given time. He never showed. The house was for sale and I called the realtor from the info on the sign in the front yard. The realtor explained that thousands of dollars of lighting and appliances had been stolen from the house. Apparently, the scammer was a contractor who had access to the lock box. He would have the buyer steal the appliances and fixtures and he would pick up the money from a designated drawer. By chance, the scammer made a mistake of replying to one of the CL emails with his personal hotmail address. The address had a name in it and it was tracked to a guy who lived about 10 miles away. The realtor was appreciative and followed up with the local police.
That’s when you say, you get the items once the check clears.
Finest Hops your bank may charge you for his check bouncing.
lanesteele240 Mine personally does not. But I wouldn’t put it past some banks.
Finest Hops any way they can fee you is an opportunity for their profit
Often the check clears at first, but bounces a month or so later. Then you are stuck with it.
cheque
This makes my heart happy. I had the same thing happen so many times from home rentals to services offered. I cannot stand it I have even had someone say they wanted me to give the extra money to the mover when they came for the item. I so wanted to see who would have the balls to show up at my door to pull off the scam but I have never been able to allow them to get that far before getting so angry with the total disregard for the damage they are causing. We all think we are so smart that it wont happen to us. No it can happen to anyone they are constantly changing the scam the checks look so real and alot of people are hurting for money and take peoples word. So now i just report spam and let the scammer know what i feel about what they are doing, my craigslist account has been hacked to list fake car listings and i just do not have the energy to deal with the scammers its more than 50% of responses. Thank you for sharing this and calling that person out.
I have sold and still sell many things on Craigslist the range in value. I have noticed more and more that items less than $100 these scammers leave you alone. The higher the price the more of those scammer emails show up in your inbox. What I do now is I only give a land line number that is unlisted and make it very clear I only except phone calls. NO EMAILS OR TEXT! This cuts out a ton of the scammers.
*accept
Unlisted is nice so they cant trace an address but then you still have strangers who dont even contact you knowing the phone number. At least get one email first. CL remailer works for 6mos so you never have to give out your real email.
When I bought my last car, I called and left a voicemail to show the seller that I was a serious buyer. He had the exact model, color, and year I wanted and a fair price, so I wasn't going to chance him not returning a text or email because another serious buyer called him and/or he got buried with dozens of other texts and emails from low-ballers and scammers. He got back to me, and long story short, that car was mine at the end of the day.
That's what I noticed too - the guy kept referring to the furniture I was selling as "the item" and I knew right away that he had no idea what I was selling. It might be fun to ask which color he prefers, or does he want the larger one or the smaller one, etc. because he wouldn't have a clue what I was talking about.
the first tip to know if you are getting scammed or not is to look at the check. if the person sent you 3 or 4 times the money then what the item is selling for then you are getting scammed. it NEVER takes that much to ship any item in the world. a friend of mine who is in the air force went to Germany for 3 years and wanted his car shipped there. it cost $500 to ship it.
Depending on the car, transporter, and season... it costs about a $1,000 to transport a car from NY to LA
that may be true but look at the item(s) she is selling. do you think it cost $2000 for them?
The true tipoff is that the scammer is ASKING THAT YOU SEND PART OF THE PAYMENT SOMEWHERE ELSE. Never mind what the items are, or the actual cost, or if the cheque is real (Most people aren't savvy about these things and it doesn't matter anyway). Instead, people only need to remember one thing: If a deal involves you sending part of the payment to a 3rd party, then it's an obvious scam. So only one simple thing to remember, and it applies to every variation of this type of scam.
You got half way through the scam before you knew what was going on ? I would have known 5 seconds into it.
I had this happen to me on Craigslist...I was selling set of expensive wheels and tires..The buyer's MO was pretty much like the one here. I could tell right off it was a scam because of all the spelling errors in the texts and emails..I had him mail the check to my office address using my first name and a variation of my last name...Upon receiving the funds the correspondence from him was increasing at the rate of several times daily, asking where his money was,,I told him I had unexpected bills to pay and I spent his funds...It was a joy messing with him because the correspondence started to get nasty and threatening...LMAO!
Checkm8king2 Spelling errors actually increase the likelihood of someone being convinced by a scam - QI had a segment on it a few years ago re: email scamming.
I had the same thing happen to me, rims/wheels on craiglist must be what they like lol
Rico... I agree completly.
Checkm8king2 dying laughing
Checkm8king2
When I mess with them, they always say they will kill me. 😳
When I was selling a wheelchair on craigslist I got an offer that was obviously bogus. He wanted to send a cheque and have ‘someone’ pick it up . I said no cheque , I deal in cash only and face to face only with the buyer. Never heard from them again!
my city police department will do craigs list sales for you at the station
I know check or cheque is correct but its still weird..
it's check come on.
carolyn mmitchell Cheque is also correct dumbass
Same here with an old camera i was selling. "Oh it's for my son at collage, just go into your paypal and i'll send extra." Blah blah bla Same response, cash only, in person. They just move on to the next ad.
Not sure how it backfired.. saying it "backfired" suggests something bad happen to the scammer, otherwise great story!
I'm studying software programming and I can't wait to come up with some kind of application for Craigslist to prevent these scams.. I'm so sick of this!
I have analyzed this video 5826 times and have not found "backfires". WOuld you LikE me to Try agAin?
the scammer paid for overnight delivery.
It’s crazy, with all these scams out here, there are still genuine people out there. I wanted this really cool Ethan Allen desk for my daughter’s room. I finally found one in Dallas (about 3.5 hours from me). Asked the girl if she could ship because it was too far to drive (long story). She couldn’t but happened to be going to a wedding near me the next week. Problem was I didn’t get paid until the FOLLOWING week. She said that’s fine just pay me when you get paid. My friend that took me to pick up the desk (he has a pickup) was like no way, I’ll give you the money then you don’t have to worry. So she brought the desk, I paid her, got paid, repaid my friend. The whole thing could’ve been a scam but it was just genuine people being genuine. And the desk fit perfectly
what makes me wonder is how the hell do people fall for this kind of crap? I mean people mention that when things sound to good to be true it usually is. Especially with asking for gift cards as payment it just makes me think who believes this?
falcon3268 Looking back I can agree. But my ex and I fell for this because we fell on really hard times. That's prob why it's so common on Craigslist, people desperate to get out of poor financial situations have tried everything else. We were trying to keep a roof over our head.
Once was selling a truck camper on craigslist (Las Vegas, NV). The guy claimed he was in New York on business and would send me a check for the full price plus some money for the 'movers' that would pick it up. I strung him along for a couple days then sold it locally. The ad had also said - cash on pickup only. :)
Just tell the buyer to pay the movers and have the movers give you cash. I did when I sold a friend's boat, and never heard from them again.
so where was the backfire????
🤣😂
I put a stove and refrigerator for sale on "CL", skipping many details, I had three "buyers", I could have made 5.000.00 if they had been real. The price they offered would have allowed me to buy 2 more of each of the appliances and still come out ahead. I took the checks to my bank, they found all of them were "unique", one was printed on cheap copier paper, another was printed on good quality resume paper, the other was from a stolen checkbook ( account was closed) I was looking through my book case and found them, tossed them in the trash and have not heard a thing from the "buyers", after I told one I was a brother to a police officer and he hung up.
I had this happen to me once. I took it to my bank, and asked them to just verify it for me. They tried to get me for trying to cash a fake check. Even though I told them to just verify it. Thank god, I had the print out of the conversation!!!
I got a USPS package, I turned it over to the postmaster in my home town, he thanked me, smiled and sent it off to the fraud division.
As someone who makes a living buying / reselling items on cl / OfferUp / letgo etc.. I had people attempt this many times lol.. the same reason I don't sell on eBay / use pay pal.
More "fails" than "backfires". Backfires would be if the scammer lost money (more than the postage).
True. They couldn't even use his voice on TV so others could know what his Indian accent sounds like :)
Wrong, the scammer paid for overnight delivery.
I posted to sell item for $25 on CL and a guy sent email saying that he really want to buy that item for his daughter's birthday and said he is out of country so he'll let his secretary handle the transaction. An hour later, someone claim to be his secretary contacted me and said that the minimum amount she can print the check is $500 so I will have to send her the difference once I receive the check. I told her I just want to do it in person and I prefer cold cash. She then offered I don't need to send all $475, she could cut $75 for me so all I need to do is to send her ONLY $400. I stopped response to their emails.
Local news stories like these tend to have the tone of your mom or dad forwarding you an email about “shopping safe” on the cyber web.
I got a kick out of the scammers trying to buy my piano off craigslist. Especially when they said Fed ex could pick it up! Every single response to the craigslist ad was a scam so I pulled it down within three days. We gave the piano to a charity.
Some people myself included put fake items on the internet to elicit the fake checks and keep them as a twisted collection. I have about 30K in fake checks that scammers have sent to me. At least it will not end up with a person trying to cash it.
Daniel McGillis have u tried to cash one in
No check cashing place would ever touch one, and there is a 0.00% chance of me depositing one in my bank account. I just save them as trophies. And it makes me feel good knowing that the checks I have will never be used to scam other people.
Daniel McGillis what happens if you try to cash or deposit it?
Munozl360 It will be your responsibility to cover the missing money, possibly be changed with counterfeiting a check. Even depositing and waiting for it to clear will result in Bank fees when it doesn't
Jopo1226 so, in short, dont accept checks. Cash only?
so she can't take 5 minutes and show the tellers not to accept them? they don't care.
even with cash always meet buyer at the bank is what I do. always write "sold as is" on any paperwork
When I see scammers coming on Craigslist I play so many games with them that they must know my name and email address by now, because the frequency of scammers I encounter is 10% of what it used to be. And that's with scams greatly on the rise!
I'm selling blinker fluid and elbow grease, in bulk, if necessary.
I only hope that one day no one will fall for these scams
Weird. In England, any piece of paper will do as a check, and it takes 5 days max to clear one.
How did the scam 'backfire'? I was hoping somehow the scammer lost money, but he didn't. For him it was a fail, not a backfire.
After 100 emails back and forth? Why would you email him that much?
This happens on facebook to because it happened to me and my bank told me.
Once again, as typical with most news stories, they don't fully tell the viewer how it all actually works. They come into a story halfway, and don't really explain everything, as if they are in the viewers shoes. They do this with literally HALF the damn stories you see on TV everyday, and then they never have any follow up story on anything either. The Scammer wants you to deposit the check into your account. The Tellers are as dumb as nails at most banks. They run the check through their little machine and the routing numbers look legit. Then they just hand you the deposit receipt and make you think the money is in your account. Then since the check and Scammer paid you MORE than you were asking for the item in the first place, they want you to take out your REAL money and send it to them, or someone else. Then a few days later, you get a notice from the bank telling you that the check that you deposited did not clear the bank, but you are out your REAL money that you took out of your account, and you dont get it back. If they told all this in their stupid news story, less people would fall for the phony cashiers check scam!
0:34 “FCC regulations” that one cracked me up!
How do people still not know this?
Here's a sample of a backfire on a scammer. My cousin was selling a car on Craigslist. Now he was leaving for basic training at the time, so he put his dads number in the add. Was letting them have the money anyway. Well sure enough a scammer tried his thing. Here is where the backfire comes in. My uncle was a FBI agent at the time and worked in that field. So my uncle did his thing. That scammer was busted and sent to jail. That is a story of a backfire on a scammer. Want the example of what my step brother did to a scammer? Let's just say he's a very tech guy and took control of the scammer and knew everything he did and when. Knew when that computer came on and so on. Crashed everything with a chip that scammer used.
What if you deposit it but don’t send the item until check clears?
Had people try to scam me with the "is your item still for sale?" emails. If you don't know what the "item" is, then why should I even correspond with you?
halfway? Lol
I told one that I had no car and that I needed cab fare to get to my bank to deposit their payment. Told him to include $25 in cash and I'd deduct it from the proceeds as part of the price of my guitar. Guess what? I never heard a damn word from the guy again. Guess what else, I was going to keep the $25 and buy some beers.
My nephew bought a motorcycle on Craigslist, lost his money and got no bike.
I've run into this type of scam multiple times on Craigslist.
The true mark that it's a scam is when the scammer ASKS YOU TO SEND PART OF THE PAYMENT SOMEWHERE ELSE. It doesn't matter what the items are, or the actual cost, or if the cheque is real (Most people aren't savvy about these things anyway). Instead, people only need to remember one thing: If a deal involves you sending part of the payment to a 3rd party, then it's an obvious scam. That's the only thing you need to remember, and it applies to every variation of this type of scam.
Here's a thought, offer some class where they discuss scams and how they work. I experienced the exact scam attempt years ago. The scammer said "I hope I can trust you with my money" yeah I totally do the same thing once a month, I just send extra money to random people in hopes they send it back to me.
How exactly did it backfire? Was the scammer caught? I bet not.
i had this happen to me and the amount i asked for was about 400$ for a GPU and the guy sends me a check for 21,000$ which i thought was very odd ... i then went to the bank listed on the check and one of the 2 routing numbers was illegitimate and i called the guy and he said that i should give him back his check to which i responded with a video of me burning it (only shows the check not my face) ... never heard from him again (also did not mail the gpu as i was waiting for verified payment before shipping)
I couldn't even read that screenshot. What did he do to the sellers?
Well he didn't say "NO" about it being a scam. True politician at work here...
How did it backfire? It didn't really
I live in michigan city. This happened to me as well when I was trying to sell my bike. Guy said he was out of town due to the nature of his job he was an officer in the army based in Massachusetts. Yadayadayada... I was selling it for $1000. Sent an email that looked like a legit PayPal receipt that he send $1480. Would have to send 350 to the company to come pick up the bike and the rest would be taxes and fees. I knew it was a scam right away. But always be alert!
I played a fellow along for months by email, asking him dumb, repetitive questions about what he wanted me to do, and who was I supposed to send the extra money to? I could see he was getting angrier with each email. I finally gave him "my" address, which was actually the FBI's address. Then I called the FBI to tell them a check was on the way. They got a pretty good laugh out of it. Then I blocked my email account.
I had this guy hook line and sinker to the point he thought the FBI was following him. Very entertaining.
The one good thing is it's a federal offense they'll go to jail.
It's really almost unbelievable that anybody could fall for something like this. It's not even plausible as being a legitimate transaction.
As if the whole universe knows what the hell is a ‘ daybreaker’. Arrogance personified.
I get scammers trying to contact me all the time on Craigslist. I just like to mess with them and waste their time as much as possible.
I had a similar attempt made when selling a truck. They wanted to send me the check to deposit, then I pay their 'agent' when he picks up the truck. I would have been out the money and the truck. Being a thinking, and very suspicious, type (and this was way early in CL and the scams were still new) I was hopeful the guy wanted my truck. I wrote back... "You mail me the cashier check, made out in the name of your agent, and I will meet him at the local branch. He can cash the check, pay me cash, I sign the title and we all win.".... naturally, I never heard from the guy again. In the beginning, it was a pretty tricky scam, I am just glad I have so little faith in my fellow man.... lol
It's 2018 and you're still mailing checks around?
Why do people in USA still use cheques? Even 4 or 5 years ago when this was filmed we don't use cheques here in Australia.
Banks in Australia do not give you access to the cheque funds until it clears so this scam would never work here
One time I brought one of those checks to Bank of America....needless to say the banker did not catch it and continued to deposit it into my new bank account.
I sell lots of stuff on craigs and have been doing so for about a decade...You get a few of these...I always give them a phone number for the FBI and tell them it's my cousin, dad, mom, uncle louie works there, I tell them to call them and let them verify the info...You never hear from them again...
Versacheck next time. Real check blanks anyone can buy.
2:50 He should have said, "I swear on the sword of my father, Domingo Montoya, the check will clear."
if you have them send you a priority mail, tell them they need to put another prepaid mailer with return address on it . double charge....
You should have said, "Ok, where do I sent the refund" to get his address.
Can't believe people fall for this stuff.
Anyway, I'm planning on retiring early, working on some deals with people I met online from Nigeria.
So what happens if I cash the check and just keep the money and my items?
The check will bounce and you will be responsible for it. It happened to me. I cashed a check, used the money to go to Las Vegas for a wedding. the check bounced after eleven days and the bank said I was responsible for paying the balance in less than two weeks. i was contacted by local police for fraud but never charged because it was more than a week for check to clear. The bank closed my account and sued me for the amount of the check which was $3000. This was in Maryland.
This happened to me. I used him the name and address of our county DA for him to mail the check to.
She could not tell the difference, she is just saying that.
I buy/sell on craigslist weekly. I've seen all the scam attempts and this is unfortunately very common. I get multiple messages like this daily. I've educated others but there needs to be more education about scam attempts.
Wrong Tittle, Backfire WHERE? Evidently, you don't know the meaning of the term.
Yup, spoken like a true scammer, take my word, I am legit! 🤣🤣
my brother fell for it got charged with fraud
Open a new checking account. Deposit the check. Wait a few days. Withdraw the money from the account. Screw the scammer.
Can everyone please share this with their Grandparents.
But did she sell the washer?
I call BS on the statement, they could not play the audio of phone call. There is no FCC rule I know that says they can't play it.
If they sent a cashier check...red flag.
Craig's list is useless. If you don't want to get scammed or have your information sold don't use it at all.
I sell Laptops on craigslist and deal with this people everyday. You know right off the bat when they don't know what you are selling, they are interested in my ITEM. I call the number the text comes from and it's not in service or the person has no clue what I'm talking about. This week I let 2 people know their cell number was being used by scammers. If they won't give up I tell them I won't take a money order, but they can wire me the money and the extra $100 for shipping via Western Union.
What's really funny to me is getting a text from oput of state and you tell them first thing, yes I have it but I will not ship it. This is local pickup and cash only. They reply, thanks for getting back so quickly, I will include and extra $100 to cover shipping. WTF?
I had the exact same thing happen to me, only they sent me a 5,000.00 check to sit their 2 dogs, i later texted them after finding out the check was boggus that i spent it on my gambling depts and then he got ugly. I just simply asked him if there were any candy shops near him. ..he replied yes but what did that have t do with me spending HIS money. I replied well then the next time you wanna pull off a scam, try going there, I am sure you'll find plenty of 'suckers' there....lol never heard from him again.
Its just like on Craigslist when u see a really nice car for sale for very cheap and they respond with ohh the car is n different location and go thru ebay to pay them and when car is shipped u have like 5 days I believe to return csr n get money 😂😂😂
For my own entertainment I go through just the trailer heading on Craigslist everyday. I flag no less then a 100 a week that are out right scams. There's thousands more but just do not have the time to flag them all. If I'm trying to sell something I always in capital letters twice state, DO NOT TEXT!! TEXTS WILL JUST BE DELETED!! As soon as I hit the post button my phone goes off with scammers offering to buy the item.
I had the same scam done to me. It was all good though, the check was fraudulent so he didn't get his money and I didn't lose anything.
As stupid as the scam sounds thousands of Americans fall for this every month
he pays 2000 for 700 worth of stuff, thats all you need to know, you could buy that stuff new for less
This scam was tried on me
They do this with cars also.
It a good policy never to do business over the phone, especially when you never met the person. How many time has the police auxiliary ever come to my door asking for a donation. They want your check so they can copy down the information and create duplicate check. Just remember never endorse a check until you know what you are getting, most likely it would be a subtraction from your account.
This is not a proper use of the term "backfires". He didn't get the money from one out probably a hundred other people.
Wrong, the scammer paid for overnight delivery.
That's why I don't ever take a check, cash only. I was selling a boat and I told the guy before he came to look at it I only take cash. He showed up and said he wanted the boat and took his check book out I said sorry I don't take check he said it's good all I need to do is take it to the bank and cash it I said you need to take it to the bank and bring back the cash. He left and never came back.
I have found a backdoor to their entire operation. SS7 and they are using a pbx switch that hasnt been updated. They are using the originating and termination carrier Bandwidth.com I have ssh’d into three of there boxes and I have silently chargeback aka returned nearly 53,220