Craigslist Scam?

Hey everyone, i sold a phone on Craigslist and a buyer was interested so he sent me an email saying that he would send me a check for $2,500. What i am supposed to do is cash the check, take $200 for my phone, and send him the phone along with the remaining 2,300 Western Union back to him. Well, i put the check in the bank and it cleared, and what I'm wondering now is if i can keep the money? I understand that someone wouldn't be as stupid as to send me a check for $2,500, so I'm bewildered and need advice on how he's trying to scam me. Please include information on how this situation works; if it's not a scamming situation, explain why please.

P.S. The actual email is as attached..

2008-02-26T12:23:32Z

Thanks for your reply, i am happy to hear back from you, i'm okay with the price and
condition.But i'm presently out of the states,i'm presently in England where i work as an Engineer, so i'll like to see the transaction go smoothly without my appearance.

Concerning the shippment.you do not need to worry about it, i have a reputable shipping
company that will handle the shippment.There is this relaible colleague of mine that resides in Alaska,he's oweing me $2,500 so i 'll instruct him to send you a Cashier's check or Money Orders of that $2,500 and as soon as you receive it, you'll have to cash it and you should deduct your own portion of the funds which is $150 from the payment, then you'll have to get the rest money sent via western union money transfer to the shipping company that will be coming for the pick up from your house and other items which they're to ship to my house in the states...

2008-02-26T12:23:57Z

The reason why am sending you that much money is because if I send my shipping company a seperate check it would take about 30 working days to clear the check in uk, London while it takes only 2-3working days for the check to be cleared in the
United States.

I will be compesating you with $50 after the transaction for the stress you may go through,so you will have to deduct the total of $200 from the funds and send the remaining amount to my shipping company.Please note that all transfer charges will be deducted from the excess funds you'll be sending to the shipping company,not with your own personal money.So i hope you'll be able to help me out in doing this.

Meenzer2008-02-26T12:35:03Z

Favorite Answer

That is 100% SCAM, they send all kinds of emails, they did that in Europe a lot of times.

What happens is something like this:

You take the check to the bank and then all the sudden it will bounce back you will will have to pay the whole thing and also lost the phone. These scammers are acutally coming from Africa, and by the way, there was a report about them as Chris Hanson being the investigator on TV last year.

Just ignore it, craigslist acutally has a warning to only deal with local customers only.

A.Mercer2008-02-26T12:30:37Z

Yep, this is a scam.

The person wants you to send the overage back. What will happen is that the check will bounce in a few days. You say it cleared? Guess what? It may have cleared but it is not officially cleared. Banks are required by law to make the money from deposited checks available with a certain number of days. Some checks take longer than that to clear. So, the bank gives you the money but the check is still in clearing limbo. The bank discovers that the check was bad or bogus to begin with and they will want their money back. You will of course have wired off to this person and it is gone. You will be the person stuck on the hook to repay the bank. In fact, it is even possible for you to face charges if you run into an overzealous prosecuting attorney who believes that you have something to do with the scam.

Wait a day and email the person and say that the bank contacted you and said that there was something wrong with the check and that it appears to not be good. See what their response is. Also, go to the bank and talk to a bank manager and explain the situation and see what that person has to tell you about all of this.

Anonymous2008-03-01T09:01:56Z

This is one of the more known scams. What this person is doing is sending you a check with someone else's account information on it. This way it clears your bank, you send the item and the remaining funds to him, then about 2 weeks later you will receive a message from your bank that the check was fraudulently made and reverse that transaction. In this case you would be out your phone and the $2300 that you sent him back.

When you sell online, NEVER accept payment from anyone out of your country who is going to send you more than what you are selling the item for. It is ALWAYS a scam.

If you are unsure, you can always ask before you go through with any transaction.

?2016-04-04T02:01:16Z

It's a scam, they'll draw up a forged or bad cashier's/certified check that will bounce but take some time to clear (and then bounce). In the mean time, you've given them the item and probably given them some of the excess as well (the scam used to involve sending a check for more than the amount of the item and having you return the excess).

Mopar Muscle Gal2008-02-26T12:31:32Z

It is a SCAM
the check will bounce in a few weeks
you will be out of the phone, and money you sent to the other person

also.. craigslist is suppose to be for items sold locally not mailed to the buyer in another country

there is a sucker born every day
dont be one

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